Most steamers with at least 1,000 watts of power will produce enough steam to do a good cleaning job. Consider these other factors when selecting the best steam cleaner for your needs.
✔️ Style: Steamers come just as handheld models, canisters that you pull behind you and steam mops that you push to clean floors and disassemble for handheld use. Choose the style that best suits the tasks you plan to tackle, which you find most convenient and comfortable to use and the storage space you have available.
✔️ Steam: Some steamers emit continuous steam. Others do so on-demand when you press a trigger or button. And still others do both and let you decide which to choose. The most powerful, driest steam cleaners boil water in a high-temperature pressurized chamber. If you go this route, just remember that you’ll have to let the steamer cool down before you can safely unscrew the top and refill it.
✔️ Attachments: Most steam cleaners come with a wide assortment of attachments, including squeegees to clean glass, small nylon and brass bristle brushes for scrubbing grime from a variety of surfaces, a nozzle to concentrate the steam and better connect the parts, narrow brushes for cleaning grout lines, wands and a head and several pads if it can tackle floors. Nice extras include smaller heads and cloth covers for steaming fabrics, storage caddies and pads and a bag to corral all the parts so they don’t get lost. Some also offer plastic frames that attach to the floor nozzle to freshen carpets, though we’ve never found these to be particularly effective on the models we’ve tested.
