Product Review: SteamTek Steam Mop

I'm not sure as to who would admit to watching infomercials, but there does come a time when there is absolutely nothing on the television to view. Sometimes you might be surfing through the channels and an infomercial catches your eye, with their exuberance and excitement over demonstrating a product.

I've never been one to actually call in to purchase any item demonstrated on an infomercial. Although some do look as though they might legitimately be useful, I've just never really found myself "needing" anymore products around my house, other than what I already have.

However, while perusing a store flyer the other day, I happened to notice an item in a local department store, that I had previously seen on one of those saturday afternoon infomercials (when nothing else was on TV). It was the "SteamTek" sanitizing steam mop. What really caught my eye was that the price was much cheaper than what they had advertised on the infomercial. This made the product just a little more interesting to me.

I also noticed that yet another department store was advertising a similar product, although at a higher price. It occurred to me, that with two similar products (that being, another company duplicating the idea, but with a different twist), that it might have some merit in its capabilities. Of course, I might not have given this a second thought had I not seen the other, more expensive model as well.

As with many homes, I have carpet. Unfortunately, carpet isn't always easy to keep clean, especially with children, constant traffic and pets. I reduced the amount of carpet I have in my home for that very reason and exchanged it with laminate flooring, knowing that would be so much easier to keep clean. However, I do still have carpet in my living room.

After seeing this advertisement, and remembering the infomercial, and noticing the drastically reduced price, I thought "why not give it a try!" It would be so much simpler than dragging the heavy, awkward steam cleaner up from the basement (where it is stored) and struggling with the hoses, assembling it together, not to mention the arduous task of emptying the machine periodically during use. This light-weight steam mop would be so much easier to use (if it in fact worked as well as they advertised on the infomercial), and I'll admit, I'm all for "easier" cleaning ideas.

It was decided, I would definitely purchase the "SteamTek" steam mop. The idea of it using "steam" to clean, and not soap and boiling hot water, was also a deciding factor. Once home, I immediately retrieved it from its packaging, put it together (it required some assembly) and quickly tried it out. I was actually quite amazed. It did indeed work quite well. The few traffic stains in my carpet were now gone from sight. Also, being that it is so light-weight, I can choose to either do the entire carpet, or just spot clean on occasion. It's as easy to use as an electric broom.

It definitely has it's advantages:

* it's very lightweight
* it uses very little water (1 to 3 cups of water depending on the area needing cleaning)
* it performs as advertised (although not AS quickly as shown on TV)
* the carpet dries very quickly, which is an added bonus
* there is no soaking of the underlay or flooring as you would have with a conventional steam cleaner
* it requires no soap, therefore no soap residue to worry about
* it takes very little room to store
* there are no heavy buckets of steaming, hot water to carry or empty
* it takes a fraction of the time that a heavy duty steam cleaner would take from start to finish

I would in fact, recommend this product, the "SteamTek" steam mop. It makes keeping a clean and sanitized carpet an almost effortless task.