More than just a steam mop, this pricey gadget comes with 11 accessories, so it can transform from a steam mop to a grout cleaner, detail brush, steam glove, and much more. At six pounds, it’s easy to use and lightweight, even when full of water. Even so, we recommend taking breaks if you plan on using it in handheld mode for too long, because while it’s lightweight as a steam mop, we can see it getting heavy to hold for long periods of time. You can use each feature independently but the Bissell Vac & Steam is at its best when you use both at once to save time. You can whizz around the house at double speed if dirt isn’t too ingrained. How we test our steam cleaners This premium, cylinder-style steam cleaner is a completely different animal from a normal steam mop. It does an outstanding job of cleaning so much more than floors and it can keep cleaning for hours. It has a 6m cord and a large 1.5 litre water tank and the water is then pumped into a pressurised steam tank. This means you can refill the machine at any time, even when it’s in use, without pausing your cleaning. Kathy Cohoon, Operations Manager of the cleaning service Two Maids says, “Extra product is not usually needed as most steam mops are made to work without product since the heat and steam are the real muscle. Be sure to read the usage instructions for your steam mop model as using products unnecessarily can damage the machinery and/or your floors.” As a steam mop, t feels a little flimsy. There is a lot of flex from the handle downwards, although this is more due to the skeletal design and removable main steam section, rather than any issues with the build quality.

Carmel used this with the floorhead and carpet glider to clean the tide marks on an old, colourful rug. It worked to great effect and she only needed to switch to the brush a few times.The design of the mop is so top-heavy, that it cannot stand up on its own, and even when leaning against a wall, we found it to be pretty unstable. The included wall mount is helpful for storage, but won’t help if you need to pause mid-clean or put the mop down to change accessories. The swivel head is very sturdy and easy to use–it effectively fits into crevices and under or around furniture. This lightweight mop truly made cleaning a breeze, it easily glided over the floor and outperformed the higher-priced competition.

While it’s described as a pet steam mop, there’s nothing that makes it a steam cleaner just for pet owners—in fact, we think it’s much more than that. The detachable handheld device is a nice bonus if you do need to clean pet toys, but works equally well for cleaning any bathroom or kitchen items. As both the cable and the water tank are fixed to the steamer body, and there is no filler jug supplied. you must take the whole ensemble to the sink to fill up. Our Ecommerce Editor Molly oversees vacuum and cleaning content at Ideal Home. She has tested out a number of these steam cleaners in her two-bedroom London flat, including the Bissell PowerFresh SlimSteam and the Shark Klik n' Flip Automatic Steam Mop.This steam cleaner never let us down during testing; in fact, our tester Carmel thought it was so excellent that she found it difficult to step away from it as she envisioned other things in her home she could clean. In our tests, Carmel found that steam took over one minute to heat up and then can stop and start instantly with a press of the trigger. It’s powerful: the lowest setting is similar to the steam offered by most steam mops, the highest setting is much stronger. That’s not an issue when using the hose and details tools of course. The steam unit’s superb output means you really only need the minimum setting for most jobs. Go higher than this and you will be mopping up floods of water run-off. Using the squeegee tool on windows is a prime case so have a cloth handy.

Carmel absolutely loved using the Polti, even if it is a bit on the pricey side. The controls are excellent, the design is practical and it feels weightless in the hand, so much so that you can lift it to clean windows, curtains and more. Use on a tiled wall was particularly easy too, so if you hate cleaning your bathroom, this is a great cleaner to consider. The larger the steam mop's reservoir, the more water it can hold, which means you can steam for longer without having to refill your mop and wait for it to heat up again. That said, toting around more water can make a steam mop heavier to operate. If you've got a small space or plan to use your steam mop for only certain areas of your home, you can get away with a lightweight mop with a smaller reservoir. Caramel Quin has been writing for Ideal Home and other titles at Future for many years and tests a wide range of consumer technology for newspapers, magazines and online. She prides herself in real-world testing and translating geek speak into plain English. Her pet hates are jargon, pointless products and over-complicated instruction manuals. There are no handheld cleaning tools with this cleaner as it’s just for floors. It’s heavy (4.4kg) and perhaps not as versatile as some of the other options on this list, but it does have the value of a vacuum and steam cleaner combined.Pretty much all convertible steam mops have a handheld that pops out of the middle of the upright cleaner. This, however, is designed more like the best cordless vacuum cleaners. You hold the handheld and then add tubes below to clean floors. As a result, it’s nippy but top-heavy. It won’t stand up by itself then and there’s no carpet glider. Filling the tank under the tap is easy but there is no gauge to say what is ‘full’. It’s very easy to over-fill, at which point the filler cap vent hole spits water when you move it around. The same vent hole also dribbles if you tilt the steamer unit over, such as when steaming at an angle to clean a shower. Add-on accessories are so useful, just make sure you have a handy place to store them, since there’s no on-unit storage. And speaking of storage–we loved that this steam mop had a big hook to hold the 15.9-foot cord—a feature that gets skipped by many of the other mops on the market. There’s a lot to like about this Bissell steam mop–in our tests, it worked equally as effectively on tile, grout, concrete, and sealed hardwood floors. Intuitively designed, there’s a removable water tank, which is easy to fill, and three levels of steam. The body boasts variable steam control and an anti-calc collector. It comes with a squeegee with cloth cover for cleaning upholstery, plus concentrator, scraper and two sizes of nylon brush. These are all great for cleaning, but might be a bit much if you're tight on storage space.