Steam Cleaners: are they as effective as the claims?

Does anyone in this group have first-hand experience with steam cleaners? I love the idea of not using chemicals or cleaning products, but the appliances are pretty expensive. Just wondering if they work as well as the manufacturers claim they do.

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Permalink Reply by Salon Verve Organic Salon & Retailer on July 13, 2009 at 3:25pm: We use one for the floors in the salon. We had a lot of trouble finding a "green" cleaning product that would cut through the hairspray on the floors until we bought our steam mop. We LOVE it! I'd say the only down side is that no matter how well we vacuum and sweep before mopping it's impossible to get all those little hair clippings off the floor, so we go through several mop pads to get the hair cutting room floor clean, but they're washable and re-usable, so that's really not a big deal. We have hard wood, tile and laminate floors in the salon and we use it for everything. It's fantastic! It's a ton quicker, it's very quiet (so I can mop one room while there's clients in the next room), its dry almost immediately and there's very little clean up. I have bamboo floors throughout my house and I have one at home too. I love my steam mop! I have the Shark deluxe model, but I'm saving my pennies for the "Haan" so I can do more than floors with it.
Mackenzee
Front desk Coordinator
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Permalink Reply by Jodi Simpson on July 13, 2009 at 4:01pm: Thanks, Mackenzee, So at home you have a steam mop which cleans floors only whereas the Haan model has an arm that you can use to clean other surfaces, too? Like shower stalls, counter tops, etc? Am I understanding this right?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Salon Verve Organic Salon & Retailer on July 27, 2009 at 10:50am: Yes! This is the one I want next: http://www.haanusa.com/products/index.php?fuseAction=item&categ...
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Permalink Reply by Tony Zimmerman on July 13, 2009 at 3:34pm: Hi Jodi,
Overall, steam works well at killing viruses and bacteria when exposed for a prescribed period of time. However, to properly clean you must remove the soil load.I can't say I've personally come across a non-commercial unit that does this adequately. The other consideration is that steam alone is not sufficiant. You will still need a quality micro-fibre towel in order to remove the contaminants. Most commercial manufacturers are now offering units with both high volume steam and rapid recoverry vacuum with micro-filtration. These units usually start at a few thousand dollars. If you have any more questions on green cleaning please feel free to contact me at info@greengamut.com; ▶ Reply to This