Best Steam Cleaners for the Bathroom & Shower

The bathroom is one of the primary places to keep clean and sanitized, yet it is also the one that gets dirty real fast. Luckily, steam cleaners are fantastic for bathrooms! They get into all the nooks and crannies and sanitize them with heat alone, so there is no need for using any chemicals. Naturally, you can use all of this for many other places, like all floors, carpets, and car cleaning!

On this page, we’ll looking into our top choices and cover various techniques step-by-step. So let’s have a look at the best options this year!

Our Top 6 List

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Preview

Product

Link

1

51QyHz6WgnL. SL160

Dupray Neat Steam Cleaner

No products found.

2

McCulloch MC1385 Deluxe

No products found.

3

41UY9UAUGoL. SL160

McCulloch MC1275 Heavy-Duty

No products found.

4

41bJOTh9YnL. SL160

Wagner Spraytech Wagner Steam Cleaner

No products found.

5

41Ry1GVKy4L. SL160

Vapamore MR-100 Primo Steam Cleaning System

No products found.

6

41q65oKbyyL. SL160

Steamfast SF-370 Canister Cleaner with 15 Accessories

No products found.

Why a steam cleaner in the bathroom?

Over time, the grout lines in tile floors tend to become slimy and stained. As soap scum builds up and gets in porous materials, it slowly solidifies and becomes harder to clean using traditional means. Energetic scouring along with strong detergents may not be enough to do the job right. A steam cleaner may be in order to clean tough grout and tile.

Steam cleaning can require more elbow grease, but it is certainly less costly and more convenient than replacing tile flooring. The technique also works fine on laminate floorboards when steam is judiciously applied via a mop accessory or steam mop like this one. Laminate floorboards can stand the chance spill, although too much moisture will damage the internal layers in the long run.

Be wary of using commercial carpet steamers in anything other than their intended application, particularly with laminate flooring in and near baths and kitchens. The high-pressure streams produced by these units can seep past the edges of the boards and into their internal layers. Steam mops are a safer option in such cases, for the residual amounts of moisture will not affect laminates as readily as the ample amounts generated by industrial designs.

With this method, you get to sanitize problem areas as well. Hot jets of vapor eliminate microbes such as staphylococcus, streptococcus, Hepatitis A, E. Coli, and influenza without toxic chemicals.

Steaming can be very useful elsewhere around the home, it works best on surfaces made of hard and moisture-resistant materials. Moldings, headboards, floorboards, mattresses and their box sets, lounge chairs and other upholstered furniture, seamed or cracked paneling, carpets, and area rugs and so on, these are all prime candidates for the steam wand. Make sure you are aware of items that cannot be steam cleaned as well. Surfaces painted with water-based paint should not be steam cleaned as well as electronics, paper products, thin plastics, and delicate fabrics.

Verdict

Dupray Neat

9.6

Ease of use

9.7/10

Instructions

9.6/10

Performance

9.6/10

Design

9.5/10

Quality

9.7/10

Pros

  • Durable
  • Quick heat-up, high temperature
  • Easy to use
  • 2 year warranty, lifetime on the boiler
  • Added fragrance boost

Cons

  • No place to rest the hose on cleaner

Get rid of nasty bath scum

Builders typically specify tiled floors in wet areas that are likely to see a constant flow of foot traffic. But, damp rooms can still see a lot of unpleasant mold and mildew form if they are not constantly cleaned. Tiles may be individually impermeable to water and other liquids, but the grout between them is nowhere near as sturdy.

With heavy use, gunk that embeds into the pores will eventually harden and become difficult to restore with the usual techniques. Even vigorous scrubbing with bristle brushes and powerful chemical cleaners may prove inadequate. As times goes on, working on such flooring can become quite a chore.

Steam cleaners are great for handling these taxing jobs. New owners will often find themselves using their free time in the first few days to hunt for things that are commonly cleaned with a steam cleaner. Baths or kitchens are usually the first places to get the full treatment, for these are usually the most challenging to keep in shape.

Step-by-step steam cleaning

Steaming offers a full and deep clean that not just makes the bath look good and smell fine, it will also give you a bit more confidence in that it has been sanitized as well. We start from top to bottom in a common bathroom, as cleaning in general, works best starting at the top and working your way down.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Let’s get started…

Dirty exhaust fan vent

Use a handheld steamer or canister with extensions on the hose to reach up. Exhaust van vents might commonly slip your mind as something that needs cleaning. These suck up all sorts of things while trying to rid the bathroom of steam while you shower. Lint and pet hair are the major culprits. Combined with moisture during a shower, these will often time stick, and dry to the vent making it tough to clean.

How to Clean:

  • Quickly wipe off any dust or stains along the edges.
  • Spray quickly on the surfaces of the vent casing and fan blades, wiping off any caked grime that gets loosened by the steam.
  • Be careful not to spray directly on any exposed part of the motor’s housing or electrical connections.

Window blinds and glass

These can be steam-cleaned much the same way as any ceiling or wall fixture made of hardy materials. Use a handheld or a canister model with an extension hose attached. If your steam cleaner has a vacuum within the unit, the process is even more effective.

How to Clean:

  • On the glass, wipe off any loose dirt first.
  • Fix the supplied squeegee to the nozzle for smaller windows.
  • Spray on the surfaces as you continue to pick up stains with the squeegee.
  • Wipe off any remaining moisture towards the bottom of the glass with a cloth pad.
  • With blinds, dust off their surfaces first.
  • Sponge off any remaining grime that has been loosened via quick applications of hot steam along the length of the slats.
  • If your steam cleaner has a vacuum you will not need to wipe down the blinds afterward.

Mirrors and light fixtures

These can be steamed in much the same manner as other wall fixtures. A handheld steamer or canister with extensions on the hose is convenient for this job.

How to Clean:

  • On mirrors, use a clean cloth to gently lift off loose dust first.
  • Spray the mirror’s surface as you wipe off discolorations with a clean sponge or cloth.
  • With light fixtures, wipe off any dust first. Then along with quick bursts of steam aimed mostly at the bulbs and their bases, carefully wipe off any grime and other deposits that have been loosened by the quick steaming action.
  • Do check that any lampshades and their mountings are made of metal or plastic or other hard materials and not thick paperboard, which is easily damaged by too much moisture.

Shower curtains

New curtains are good for updating a bathroom look inexpensively, but most will show creases out of the package. A portable steam cleaner will be enough to smooth out every kink, whether the curtain is made of cloth or plastic. I recommend this handheld steamer from Amazon for quick easy tasks such as this.

You can also blast off the soap scum that tends to build upon these quite easily, making the shower curtain look new again.

How to Clean:

  • Hang curtains from shower rods while the steam cleaner warms up. Let these to drape over the tub’s edge, in order for you to treat their entire surfaces.
  • Hold the steam cleaner about 6 or so inches above the surface as you apply steam to any exposed creases.
  • Move the steam cleaner slowly but continuously from the top on down along the length of the curtain.

Glass shower doors and walls

Glass showers are awesome. They add a very high end look to your bathroom. The only downside is that they very easily show just how long it’s been since you last cleaned them. Hard water and soap scum quickly build up and give a hazy effect to your glass. Wiping down your shower after each use would work great but who has time for that? Most glass cleaners are ineffective against soap scum unless you are prepared to scrub, a lot! A steam cleaner shines here. While you are at it, you can steam your shower head and bath fixtures.

How to Clean:

  • For best results, pick the attachment that is for cleaning carpet or furniture. Usually, a corner tool that has a cloth to cover it. You can use the squeegee for light jobs, but it will be ineffective for tough stains.
  • With the highest steam possible, slowly steam the glass while scrubbing.
  • Follow along with a dry microfiber towel.
  • Use angles and lighting to your advantage, certain light will show if you have more cleaning to do. You could also use a black trash bag as a background on the opposite side your steaming to help show areas where soap scum is still present.
  • You may have to go over certain areas several times and applying more scrubbing pressure for seriously difficult stains.

Fiberglass shower stalls and bathtubs

Steamers are effective at dissolving soap scum and hard-water stains. The steam action not only works well on tile and porcelain flooring, but it is also good for restoring the shine to faucet fixtures as well as screens and doors.

Scrub brushes work in tandem with forceful jets of steam and allow much stronger cleansing. You will want to use a canister model with hose extensions like this one to reach from the ceiling down to the floor.

How to Clean:

  • With a badly stained tub, try using the nylon scrub brush accessory first to remove most junk, before tackling harder stains and crusts.
  • Slowly pass the nozzle with the maximum flow of steam over stains, encrusted scale, and other trouble spots, as you scrub the worst offenders.
  • Wash down any resulting muck down the drain with a shower hose or a tub of water.

Tiled showers and floors.

Your steamer can be used to restore the grout lines between tiles, restoring their surfaces to spotless condition. With the proper accessory, you can stretch to most parts that are hard to access, such as behind and underneath the toilet or along the sides of a counter’s vanity.

It will be best to deploy a large canister-type steam cleaner here for its greater water capacity. You will be aiming huge loads of concentrated hot vapor at stained grout lines on the floor over an extended period of time.

To assist in dislodging stubborn gunk, you may have to use nylon-bristle and in the worst cases, metal brushes that attach to the head nozzle. To help lessen the effort, you could first power-wash the tiles before vigorously steaming then scrubbing them.

How to Clean:

  • Prior to mounting any attachments, first blast the lines to loosen the hardest gunk.
  • Steam from the top of wall tiles going down.
  • Begin scrubbing with a nylon-bristle brush, as it will not readily harm grout even with strong scouring.
  • Wire-bristle brushes should be used sparingly. As effective as these can be at scrubbing off stuff, the wire readily chips tile as well as grout surfaces.
  • Do hose off clean areas every once in a while, so that any sludge that appears gets drained immediately. If you neglect to do this, the stuff will solidify later and complicate your work some more.
  • With the toughest crusts and stains, the steaming will need to be supplemented by some hard scouring as well, since steam by itself will not resolve every problem.
  • Once an area is done, allow the boiler enough of a pause to form more steam. The majority of consumer units also require cooling-off periods between refills.

Sinks and Countertops

Limescale and other hard-water deposits can also distress sinks and counters to no end, leaving grimy coats on fixtures as well as iffy brown spots surrounding drains. These are ideal places for putting your steamer through its first paces.

A handheld steamer is fine for a small job, but a bigger model will have the water volume to handle the sink areas of larger bathrooms and kitchens in one go.

How to Clean:

  • First, rinse off any visible dirt or gunk with water.
  • Slowly pass jets of steams along the edges and seams and in between fixtures and exposed piping.
  • As slime dissolves and built-up sludge loosens up, immediately washed these off and to a drain with a hose or bucket of water.

Inside and outside toilets.

Lime and calcium scale build-up can lead to urine waste being trapped and crystallized into brownish coats that can be very hard to reduce. A working steamer can assist in rendering these crystalline structures as you restore the toilet to a like-new appearance. With a steamer, you reach every part of a toilet, including the undersides.

How to Clean:

  • Use your steamer’s angle nozzle to blast the insides of the bowl, particularly at the nastiness lurking beneath the inside rim.
  • Spray around the seat’s edges and the hinges under its lid, then use a hose or bucket of water to wash off any loosened debris into the bowl.
  • After you are finished, just flush everything.

Vinyl or linoleum floors

Use the steamer’s cloth mop attachment if any, or else a dedicated steam mop, when steaming vinyl or linoleum flooring. Regular canister-type models will have mop brush attachments that are useful for scrubbing such surfaces. Gentler-acting mop designs rely on steam heads that are shrouded by microfiber pads.

Here’s one of the nasty facts about toilets and floors, specifically when you flush with the lid open:

If you leave the lid up when you flush, germy water particles (and, err, whatever else is in the toilet) can spray across the room — up to six feet away from the toilet. This fact was first discussed in a 1975 study completed by germ expert Dr. Charles Gerba, and has been proven time and again. He and his team found that bacteria can linger in the air long enough to settle in a filthy film all around the room.

You should first test the technique on some small and hidden portion of the flooring. If the tiles start curling at their edges, or if unexpected discolorations appear, shift back to your normal methods of cleaning.

How to Clean:

  • First vacuum and wipe off any debris on a surface, before applying the mop’s pad to lift off unnoticed dust.
  • For especially grimy areas, keep the mop head centered on the problem for some eight seconds, so as to allow the hot vapors to release stubborn dirt.
  • Rinse pads after every cleaning to prevent inadvertent transfers of calcium and other deposits.
  • Ensure that the microfibers are clear of scratchy debris before continuing on new areas.

What to look for

Large nozzles. A smaller nozzle will need to be passed across the same area more often, which can lead to you tiring out and eventually skipping areas. A larger business end will ensure this occurs less frequently.

High-pressurized steam. The majority of steamers will not only produce water vapor with a temperature of about 200°F and higher, but their output pressures will also reach 45-58 psi as well. More forceful and hotter jets will allow you to work faster across most surfaces.

Tank volume. Models that feature larger tanks will have greater water capacity and can, therefore, produce more steam for a longer period of time. With more steam on tap, you will be able to spend more of your day actually steaming instead of constantly refilling the tank and waiting for the water to reach boiling temperature.

On-demand control. Some designs incorporate a locking toggle on their wand handle that will enable an uninterrupted jet of steam, without you having to push a trigger constantly.

Conveniences. Extended-length electrical cords and hoses, as well as extension sections, will make you more confident of reaching most parts of any room.

Price. Industrial models are generally more economical to run over the years and typically come with longer manufacturer warranties as well. But, these units can be far more expensive to start with.

Types of Steam Cleaners

The most effective steamers are typically canister-type units that comprise a base unit plus accessories for cleaning various surfaces. Look for packages that include a wide variety, i.e. angled as well as straight nozzles, longer wands, triangular brushes for handling wall corners, nylon-bristle and brass utility brushes, extension hose sections, and mop accessories.

McCulloch MC1385 Deluxe Canister Steam System, Black

A large canister unit like McCulloch’s MC1385 Deluxe Canister ought to be your first choice if you have a large residence to maintain, for these have the capacity to handle every steam cleaning task. Their larger boilers offer greater water capacity that translates to less frequent refilling, which provides for longer steam cleaning sessions.

You might want to select a more compact model for use in a smaller household, such as the Dupray Neat Steam Cleaner. These low-profile units offer mostly the same quality of pressurized steam but with less water capacity. They are also easier to move up and down stairways and landings, which can be an advantage in multi-floor apartments.

Vapamore MR-75 Amico Hand Held Steam Cleaner

Lightweight and portable steamers like Vapamore’s MR-75 Portable Hand Held Steam Cleaner are the easiest to carry around. These small but capable units can deal with most household cleaning jobs that do not involve large sections of flooring and walls. The best ones produce hot pressurized vapors at pressures of up to 45 PSI, which is enough for most tasks.

Handheld steamers like the Vapamore’s MR-75 can generate the initial head of steam much quicker than larger models, even with the boiler full and powered up from scratch. Conversely, the issue with these small designs is their equally small tank volumes, which contain enough water for just 10 minutes or so of steaming action at a time.

When working the largest jobs with consumer-grade units, users will find themselves waiting for the housing to cool off before they can safely refill the tank with water. They will have to pause again as yet another load of water is heated to produce more steam before they can resume the job.

Do note that although most steamers will produce highly-pressurized vapors with temperatures reaching 200°F, not all floor steam cleaners are meant for use on tile floors.

Final words

Steam cleaning a bathroom can be a long yet satisfying task once complete. Bathrooms are commonly some of the dirtiest areas in the home.  While cleaning them is no easy task, we aim to make things easier by outlining how a steam cleaner can really ease the burden and at the same time, provide a cleaner bathroom than if you were to use more traditional methods.

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