A friend of mine mentioned that she wanted to buy the Shark Euro Steam Mop. I had only ever seen them on infomercials and pretty much wrote it off. However she swore by this mop and said that it was a great buy and that I should get one as I have a home with hardwood floors. After hearing about it from my friend I decided to look into purchasing one.
I had heard that it worked great at steaming the dirt and grime away. The best feature was that it is an environmentally friendly mopping solution. It comes with two white steam mopping pads that can be thrown in the washing machine to be used again and again. The Shark Euro Mop also uses just water, to create the steam, and therefore I wouldn’t have to use any chemicals on my floors and yet at the same time it would be sanitized. Being the mom of three children I want to minimize their contact with cleaning chemicals that could be hazardous to their health.
So I bit the bullet and I went and bought the Shark Euro Steam Mop at my local Fred Meyer. It was being sold for $79.99 and is the standard version. There is another version where you can flip the cleaning pad to use both sides.
So was it worth the price I’ve paid? Well I have found that there are many pros and cons about the Shark Euro Steam Mop. As far as cleaning effectiveness I’d say that my standard mop is just as good, if not a bit better. Why? My mop has a scrubber that lets me get up sticky pieces of food. With the steam mop I have to scrape these off of the floor with my fingernail. You still have to push hard to get up the tough stains. The way the Shark Euro Steam Mop works is that the more you push the more it steams up. On my wood floors I find that it is harder to push than on the tile floors in my bathroom-though not by much. Because of the steam coming out of the bottom of the mop it makes it harder to push when you have gotten it really steamed up.
As far as the water tank goes it seems you have to often stop to fill it back up again. Just mopping my kitchen, dining area, hallway, and entryway takes up nearly an entire tank of water. I wish they had made the tank bigger as the breaks in between mopping to fill the tiny pitcher and then funnel it into the tank can be quite time consuming. Also when you are done using the mop you MUST remove the white cleaning pad otherwise it will mark your floor with a white mark that cannot be removed. I once used the mop in my upstairs bedroom when I recieved a phone call. Not remembering to take the pad off I left it sitting in the corner of my room. When I got back to the mop about half an hour later my floor had been marked permanently. Luckily the spot isn’t very noticeable and I was able to hide it with furniture. They do warn you in the instructions and have printed this on the mop itself but when you come across a situation like mine you could easily forget.
When it comes to the pros of the Shark Euro Steam Mop environmental friendliness is at the top of the list. I love the fact that I have to use no chemicals and that the clothes are washable and reusable. Not only is this good for the environment but it also saves me money by not having to buy chemical floor cleaners.
The steam is powerful and can get up sticky juice stains or similar stains. The cord itself is fairly long so it reaches far without unplugging. However I would still recommend an extension cord if working on a long hallway. The mop is fairly easy to maneuver for curves. With a regular mop you can only go straight forward or backward.
So have I gotten rid of my old mop? Nope. I still use it about twice a month to get up items that the Shark Euro Steam Mop had missed. But for small jobs or daily floor care the Shark Euro Steam Mop is a great mop.
