After having children and/or pets around the home, you soon realise how messy the place gets, especially kitchen floors. When our little one started ‘feeding herself’ in the kitchen, the bowl contents would often end up all over the floor and it would taken an eternity to clean up. We also have two dogs and the mud and hair just ends up caked all over our floors! You can find a number of steam mop reviews on this website.

What are the best steam mops available to buy in the UK – read our reviews?

At present, there are a good number of products on the market. They are becoming increasingly popular as people are becoming more aware how easy they are to use and most importantly how they save so much time, effort and ensure your surfaces are sanitised. We’ve selected five of the best steam mops which we hope will help you decide which product to buy.

No. 1 Morphy Richards Supersteam 70490 From the products we have reviewed, the Supersteam is the best steam mop out there at the moment. It’s not the most attractive, but the water tank is pretty large (0.85 litres), there are accessories provided to use the cleaner on different surfaces (glass, tiles etc) other than floors and it takes merely 30 seconds to heat up and start working. The steamer will last approximately 25 minutes with the water tank and you can adjust the amount of steam produced.Buy safely from Amazon.co.uk Read our full review

No. 2 Vax S5 The Vax S5 is our next choice. If it wasn’t for the fact that it takes 8 minutes to start steam cleaning, this would have been our first choice. Compact is the word that springs to mind as all the accessories store neatly in the machine itself and you can use on floors as well as a multitude of other surfaces (cookers, carpets, ovens, tiles etc). The generous 1.2 litre water tank will last you around half an hour. It’s a little heavier at just over 3.5kg, but is otherwise a fine Vax machine.Buy safely from Amazon.co.uk Read our full review

No. 3 H2O MOP X5 The H2O Mop X5 is well know fro the TV ads and it’s not hard to see why it’s a best seller. The floor head is shaped very well so you can reach tricky spots, but it also detaches and you can use the H2O as a simple steam cleaner. The accessories give you flexibility to steam clean almost anything in the home, even down to upholstery and clothes, as well as your floors.Buy safely from Amazon.co.uk Read our full review

No. 4 Vax S2S Bare Floor Pro Vax is a reliable brand and the S2S is a fine piece of machinery. It’s one of the best looking steam mops we’ve seen and it’s water tank of 0.5 litres is not bad, although you’ll only get around 10 minutes use. It can be used on all sorts of hard floors, but will also freshen up carpets and rugs. It’s very light and includes a pretty long power cable of 8 metres. Simply wash your cleaning pads and re-use.Buy safely from Amazon.co.uk Read our full review

No. 5 Vax S2 Once again, you can’t go wrong with a Vax machine and this one is a beauty. It only takes a minute to heat up and it’s very light at just 1.3kg in weight. Included is the carpet glider, so you can freshen up those old carpets as well as sanitise the hard floors in your home. You’re looking at just 10 minutes use again, with a 0.5 litre water tank.Buy safely from Amazon.co.uk Read our full review

The benefits of using a steam mop

It’s especially important to keep areas like kitchen floors (or any floor) and sanitised as possible. Now it’s never going to be completely sanitised for long, but using steam mop are addictive, believe me. Because they are so easy to use, I swear by them now. Usually, they take less than a minute to start working and you only need to go over the area a few times before stains have been removed. A big thumbs up for us and we’ve already ditched the wet mop and bucket in favour of our steam mop! Why spend ages with a soaked floor, after a back-breaking 15 minutes trying to get the floor clean with disinfectant? I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve shouted at the kids to ‘mind where you go, the floor is wet’. So what are the benefits?

- no need to use detergents or disinfectants

Some models do enable the use of chemicals, but it really isn’t necessary. They can be used to make your floors and surfaces smell pleasant, but it’s an added expense.

- no need to scrub surfaces

Steam cleaning means less scrubbing. You glide the mop head across the surface and the steam lifts the dirt easily and the cleaning pad catches the dirt.

- no moving bacteria from one place to another

A very common problem for normal mops. The water and disinfectant is never enough to kill bacteria, so as you move the cleaning heads around the floor, the bacteria gets moved around and displaced. The water is never hot enough to kill the germs.

- the process is super fast

Imagine how long it takes to use a mop and bucket. You need to get the hot soapy water ready in the bucket, rinse the mop to expel any dirt from the last session and start scrubbing the floor, often going over the same spots because the grime won’t come off. The process can be exhausting, especially if you are elderly, disabled or live in a large house with hard floors and no carpets! This is why using a steam mop is much easier. The steam, being extremely hot, will remove dirt and grease efficiently and you don’t have to use much physical effort.

- no need to keep replacing your mop

After a while, normal mops become dirty and bacteria ridden. Some just simply fall apart and need replacing every 6 months or so. This is actually costly in the long run. If you use a steam mop, however, the cleaning pads will just need a wash in the washing machine and can be re-used. Of course, after a while the cleaning pads will need to be replaced, but the cost will be much less and most models come with spare pads.

- some steam mops can be used to clean cookers, ovens, hobs, bathrooms, grouting, tiles, upholstery, carpets, rugs etc

Some products not only clean floors, but will also include attachments to clean other surfaces such as tiles and the grouting in between them. This can usually take hours to do with normal manual methods. Other common areas steam cleaning can save time and money are cooker hobs and ovens. These are traditionally difficult areas because the heat when cooking can almost cement grease to the surface so using strong chemicals and elbow grease is usually the solution! Again, with using steam changes all of this. No chemicals are needed and gently passing the cleaner over the surface is all it takes to remove these stubborn areas. Carpets and upholstery can collect dirt and other problems such as dust mites and other bugs. Some steam cleaners come with upholstery or carpet pad attachments, which freshen the surface and get rid of bugs and bacteria. It does mean the area will remain wet for a short while. The H2O X5 is an example of a cleaner that can be used on upholstery and even clothes!

Which manufacturer is best?

Two bestselling steam mops are the Vax S2 and Vax S2S. These are both for use just on floors, but they are beautifully designed and very reliable (well it IS made by Vax!). Vax are a leading brand for all types of floor and carpet cleaning. They also specialise in vacuum cleaning and commercial cleaning machines. Black & Decker and Morphy Richards are also well known brands and produce various house hold products.

Here is a list of the best steam mops reviewed:

We hope you enjoy our steam mop reviews and we encourage you to read through the information provided in order to assimilate everything you need to know before making a purchase.

Jane Davis