How to make housework easier, quicker and more enjoyable – Vax S7 steam cleaner review
Have you ever wondered how great it’d be if you could easily get rid of the cooked-on food from the oven, clean your bathroom without having to continually rinse your sponges, and clean the tile grout quicker than by using an (old) toothbrush?
Me too…. and the answer is to get a steam cleaner.
This Vax S7 steam cleaner review is for you!
A steam cleaner makes housework a lot easier, quicker and more enjoyable.
[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””] Find out how to make housework enjoyable[/inlinetweet]
Which features should your steam cleaner have?
The ideal, best value steam cleaner should be:
- good value
- portable and lightweight
- easy to use
- powerful with efficient steam jets
- good-sized water tank
- shoulder strap – I know that sounds like a strange ideal feature but, believe me, it makes steam cleaning a lot easier to manage with less juggling (directing the steam, holding the steam cleaner as well as pressing the steam button at the same time)
- good reviews
Basically, a steam cleaner works by rapidly heating up water to produce a dry steam. The steam gets rid of the dirt, debris and bacteria without using chemicals or detergents.
Before I began my search, I’d never actually used a steam cleaner.
I hoped the steam cleaner would just swoosh the steam at all the nooks and crannies, floor, tiles and windows, without me having to use any elbow grease.
I assumed it would be a good way to cut down cleaning time.
I was right. The steam cleaner’s great – it’s easy to use and doesn’t need much elbow grease! The steam shifts the dirt, ready for you to wipe away.
I’m actually really glad to have bought a steam cleaner as it makes housework more enjoyable. Yes, I do mean “enjoyable”!
I guess it’s being able to use a gadget to clean the house rather than just a sponge and elbow-grease.
Try it. It makes quite a difference, and that’s why I wrote this Vax S7 steam cleaner review.
Before choosing the best value steam cleaner, I compared quite a few others and read many reviews. I chose the Vax S7 as it compared well with more expensive steam cleaners, had good reviews and matched my criteria.
Vax S7-AV review – the best value steam cleaner
What is Vax?
Vax is a UK company established since 1977.
It’s most well-known for its iconic orange tub launched in 1979 which is still being used for some Vax products today.
Vax is now “the UK’s best-selling floorcare brand and the only floorcare specialist to offer a comprehensive range of carpet cleaners, upright and cylinder vacuum cleaners, cordless, steam and hard floor cleaners” [source: http://www.vax.co.uk/about/]
The Vax S7 steam cleaner has great features at a great price
I chose the Vax S7 to be the best value steam cleaner because it has the required features and is amazingly good value.
At the time of writing and for quite a while, it’s been less than a third of the original price at a few outlets such as Argos (product code: 345/9830), Amazon (Vax outlet), and Ebay (Argos outlet) which all sell it for £39.99.
Hopefully those prices will remain low so that you can take advantage of the sale price. Vax currently sells the S7 steam cleaner for £99.99 but quite often has sales, so it’s worth checking its website too.
Don’t mistake the Vax S7 steam cleaner’s several alias product names (Vax S7-AV Upright Steam Mop; Vax S7-AV Steam Mop; Vax Total Home Master 2-in-1; Duet Master S7 Steam Mop; and Vax S7-AV 2-in-1) as referring to different products. As far as I can tell, they all refer to the same best value steam cleaner.
The Vax S7 is a multi-functional upright and hand-held steam cleaner so it’s perfectly suited to cleaning floors and surfaces. The steam is ready for use in about 25 seconds and lasts for a good 15 minutes of continuous use before needing a refill.
There are so many areas in your house that you could use the Vax S7-AV, such as on carpets and hard floors, wall tiles, kitchen and bathroom surfaces, oven and cooker, windows, mirrors, furniture, beds and clothing.
The Vax S7 steam cleaner’s impressive list of tool accessories
Vax has very generously provided duplicates of many of the tool accessories. At first, I thought these had been packaged in error, but the instruction booklet lists them all as being included:
- hose
- detailer tool – for hard to reach areas, eg around taps
- descaling pin
- window squeegee/upholstery tool – for your windows, tiles and mirrors and (covered with the cloth) for upholstery and clothes
- concentration nozzle
- accessories connector
- grout brush x2 – lifts embedded dirt from in between tiles
- small plastic brush x2, large plastic brush x2 and metal brush x2 – for surfaces such as tiles, sinks, toilets and oven tops
- scraper tool – for dried-on residue from ovens, work surfaces and pans
- shoulder strap
- window cloth and microfibre cleaning pad (both machine washable)
- carpet glider/cooling base – to freshen carpets
- measuring jug
- accessories storage bag
I would definitely suggest that you read the instructions before using the Vax S7-AV steam cleaner. You’ll find it easier to set up and to safely recognise what each tool is for and how it can be used.
What’s it like using the best value Vax S7 steam cleaner?
So far, I’ve used the Vax S7 to steam clean these areas:
- vinyl tiles on kitchen floor
- inside the oven
- around kitchen and bathroom taps
- work surfaces
- wall tiles and grout
- mirrors
- clothes
- carpet
- sofa
I found that:
- it cleaned the floor really well
- with the help of the scraper and brush tools, it cleaned the oven properly and got rid of burned-on food
- it cleaned the taps and work surfaces well
- it cleaned the wall tiles nicely and got lots of dirt from the grout. I’d hoped that it would make my old tile grout look white again. It made it look cleaner, but it didn’t make it look sparkling white, and it probably isn’t meant to. I guess that for older grout, we’ll need to use a grout whitener or cleaner for that job – I’ll write a review of that when I find one that works. However, I reckon that it would keep new tile grout white if the steam cleaner was used on an on-going basis
- mirrors were cleaned well, but it’ll take a bit of practice not to get a few streaky water marks from the steam
- we tried the steam cleaner on a few dresses and blouses using the upholstery tool and cloth. I still need to find the right technique, as quite a few creases remained
- I mistakenly hoped that it would clear the furniture of finger marks etc. It doesn’t and, again, neither is it supposed to. Instead, it’s meant to “freshen up” furniture, carpets and bedding, to clear them of bacteria and dust mites etc, and perhaps minor marks. I’ve not yet tried it on our bed, but freshening the carpet with the cleaning pad and glider worked great. It put some life back into the carpet pile whilst the pad absorbed any dirt.
Remember that the cloths and cleaning pad are all fully washable. I’ve put them in my washing machine a few times now and they’ve come out fine.
You’ll notice how often you rely on the shoulder strap when using the portable Vax S7 steam cleaner. It makes it so much easier to use and carry.
One of the benefits of choosing a Vax product is that it includes a free 2 year guarantee (and if you buy from Vax direct, free delivery).
I know from first-hand experience that Vax honour these guarantees as they quickly replaced a broken vacuum head for our Vax Power 6 Cylinder C89-P6-B last year, without any questions or postage cost – read my Vax Power 6 vacuum cleaner review.
I’m really pleased with how easy the Vax S7 steam cleaner is to set up and use.
In portable mode, with the shoulder strap on, pointing the hose attachment at all areas to be cleaned – the Vax S7 steam cleaner makes housework more enjoyable.
Try it.
You’ll soon find yourself wandering around the house, looking for more areas that need cleaning!
Other steam cleaners
These are some of the other steam cleaners that I came across whilst trying to find the best value steam cleaner. I didn’t choose these because they either didn’t have very good reviews, were too expensive, or weren’t multi-functional upright and portable.
Product | Approximate price | Seller | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Shark Portable Pocket SC660 hand held steamer | £70 | Amazon Dunelm | Handheld only. |
Shark 2 in 1 electronic steam mop S2901 | (originally £130 - £150) sale £100 sale £80 | Lakeland Argos | Upright and handheld. 3 steam settings. 30 second heating time. 15 minutes continuous use. |
Hoover SSN1700 SteamJet Dual Head Steam Mop | £70 | Amazon | Upright only. 30 second heating time. |
Hoover Steam Jet Steam & Sweep SNBA1700 | (originally £130) sale £74 | Argos Very | Upright only. 30 second heating time. 23 minutes continuous use. |
Bissell Steam Shot 2635 | £40 | Very | Handheld only. 22 minutes continuous use. |
Karcher SC5 | £400 | Currys Karcher | Pull along style, not upright. 3 minutes heating time. 2 year guarantee. |
Karcher SC2 | (originally £130) sale £99 | Argos | Pull along style, not upright. 25 minutes continuous use. |
Home-Tek Light n Easy Eco Gem steam mop | (originally £100) sale £40 | Ideal World | Upright only. |
Thane H20 Mop X5 | (originally £100) sale £80 | Thane Robert Dyas | Upright and handheld. No shoulder strap. colours: white, green, red or pink. |
Note: this review is a general resource, not intended to be professional advice.
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we use scrubbing bubbles for spot cleaning the carpet, also. the foaming action lifts dirt from carpet as well.
Amazing tips! I think most of the people did not know about steam-mop cleaning.
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