One job around the house I always dread is cleaning my windows. It seems to take forever to get them spotless and just when I think I’m finished I notice another streak…arrghh! So I was very pleased to find a handy gadget that makes this task much easier.
The gadget in question is a handheld steam cleaner that I recently took home for testing as part of a work project. Steamers are a really versatile type of machine and have dozens of possible cleaning and hygiene applications. As the steam is so hot, they sanitise surfaces without the need for detergent, so they can be used for ridding matresses and sofas of hidden nasties such as dust mites, bacteria and mould spores. Allergy sufferers take note!
This steamer is quite small – almost kettle sized – and so heats up quickly (in about the same time as a kettle) so you’re not kept waiting too long. I like that it’s compact and light enough to not give you wrist ache, even when it’s full of water.
As is often the case when I get a ‘new toy’, I got a wee bit carried away trying it out on different things. I ended up cleaning the tiles and work surfaces in my kitchen and bathroom, de-gunging my range oven, cleaning the cat flap (always a particularly unpleasant job), refreshing my dining chair seats and cleaning my downstairs windows.
For some cleaning jobs, such as tiles and work surfaces, you don’t need to use any detergent at all, as the heat and pressure of the steam jet lifts the dirt away from the surface and then you just wipe or lightly scrub it clean. This leaves you feeling doubly virtuous, as not only are you saving money by not using detergent, you’re earning your green stripes by being kinder to the environment too – bonus!
However, for tougher jobs, such as cleaning the oven, a few squirts of kitchen cleaner are helpful for getting through burnt on grime. Even so, it’s a lot less pain than having to use the strong oven cleaner spray I normally use, which emits noxious fumes and ruins any clothes it drips onto.
This steamer comes with various accessories that clip onto the nozzle and are specialised for different types of job. The detail tool is one of the most useful, as it concentrates the steam into a small, fierce jet that really blasts the dirt off any small, fiddly areas.
There’s also a flexible extension hose, which fits between the steamer nozzle and the other attachments. This is handy if you’re steaming for a while because you can sit the steamer on a surface and hold the hose, as you would on a vacuum cleaner, rather than holding the steamer by the handle like a gun. Although this does increase the distance between the heating element and the nozzle, cooling down the steam slightly, so it’s not as suitable for really tough jobs.
The only real limitation with this model is that it doesn’t have a floor attachment, so if you want a model that cleans floors go for a larger compact steamer.
My favourite accessory by far is the window squeegee. I was quite amazed at how quickly and easily I powered through my windows using this tool, leaving them squeaky clean, dry and almost entirely streak free. The best technique for using the squeegee is to drape a microfibre cloth over it for the first cleaning run, turn down the steam setting to low and use it to wipe over the whole window. Then remove the cloth, turn it up to high and squeegee from the top downwards.
You do get quite a bit of water pooling at the bottom of the window, so make sure you put a towel under any indoor windows before you start. At the end, go round the very edges with a cloth and then buff up any remaining streaks. It’s a lot quicker and much less hassle than using a soapy sponge, and best of all you don’t get any drips of water running down your arm – one of my pet hates of cleaning!
Blimey, seems a high-tec way to clean windows. Does it save time? I always use vinegar and newspaper, which is absorbent, lint free and cheap. My gran taught me to clean windows in this way. Of course in her day the ink used to work as a solvent but that is no longer true with modern kerosene free inks… but it still does the job nicely and costs next to nothing.
I absolutely agree with Reluctant Domestic – vinegar is a god send when it comes to cleaning windows! Before finally taking my mum’s advice, I’d tried every sort of spray a supermarket could offer thinking they’d be quicker and less hassle than more traditional methods. All left them seemingly shiny and clean until the sun shone and you could see nasty smears across every pane meaning I had to go over them all again.
So I turned to trusty vinegar and water and haven’t looked back since. Instead of newspaper though I use a soft white cloth to wash the solution on with and buff off using a damp chamois (or rather my husband’s chamois I “borrowed” from the garage!). The chamois leaves a streak free, smear free super clean finish and is so easy to use. As it is really absorbent it doesn’t leave puddles on the window sill either.
I’ve used vinegar before too, but it always leaves me hankering after some fish and chips!! :D
The squeegee on the steamer definitely saved me time because it scraped all the moisture and gunk off in one go without any scrubbing (the outside of my downstairs windows had gotten quite filthy over winter!)
I’d always looked at window cleaners’s handheld squeegees before and suspected I was missing a trick – they are the experts, after all.
I prefer to get someone in to clean the windows.. Makes life much easier!
I think I may have to try using vinegar, I currently use Mr Muscle Window Cleaner. Which whilst hassle free in terms of it being all ready to use, it does seem to create more streaks than were there before. I have now taken to applying it with one cloth and using another cloth to remove the streaks….and there always still seem to be some!Urgghhh!