VonHaus Hand Held Steam Cleaner Review

Reviewed by Lindsay Harris

Don’t want to use harsh chemicals when spring cleaning? The VonHaus steam cleaner promises a chemical-free way to help clean your home.

I usually resort to elbow grease and various sprays when cleaning the house, so was intrigued to try this gadget for the first time. I’ll be honest though – I was also slightly nervous about the idea of very hot steam emitting from a piece of equipment I’d never used before. But luckily the instruction booklet is simple and clear, so helped me gain confidence to give it a go.

When you open the box, you’ll find a number of different nozzles and attachments, each one of which is useful for different areas of the house. These include a precision nozzle, round brush, angled nozzle, window & glass attachment, mini mop attachment & cloth, and an extension hose to give the other attachments more reach. I opted for the precision nozzle first of all, which was easy to slot onto the main body.

After unscrewing the safety cap, it’s a simple case of using the supplied funnel and measuring jug to add your water (up to a max of 250ml), re-securing the cap and plugging in the power. It only takes a couple of minutes to heat up to temperature (helpfully shown by an indicator light), then you’re ready to go.

As a safety feature, there’s a two-step button to start the steam. You push the button up and then press and hold down, meaning you shouldn’t be able to accidentally steam yourself. For best results, they also recommend releasing your first burst of steam into the sink – a handy instruction for nervous first-time users, as you get to see the reach and power of the steam.

The precision nozzle made it easier to get to difficult to reach areas around the tap. With a quick wipe of a cloth, the taps were soon sparkling clean, and meanwhile I’d enjoyed the whooshing noise and clouds of steam emitted by the device.

Next I moved onto the shower. I gave the steam cleaner a few minutes to cool down, then swapped the precision nozzle for the round brush attachment, which said it was particularly suitable for tiles, sealed grout and showerheads. Using the attachment lightly on the grout between the tiles resulted in an immediate stream of slightly grey water streaming down the tiles – so I think we can call that a success! (and maybe an indication that I need to clean them more often). The advantage of the brush attachment is that you can use it to scrub at more stubborn patches of dirt, combining the power of friction and steam to loosen them.

The only attachment I found less useful was the mini mop attachment. It’s recommended for upholstery, curtains and ‘other various materials’, but since our curtains are made from velvet (which isn’t recommended for steam cleaning), I decided to try it on one of my shirts. Wrinkles were smoothed, however the cloth covering for the attachment soon became waterlogged and began dripping, leaving wet streaks on my shirt and puddles on the floor. This might be newbie error, but I’ll not be using it on clothes again in a hurry.

In summary, the VonHaus Hand Held Steam Cleaner is a useful device if you’re not a fan of scrubbing the bathroom, and are looking for a way to cut down on harsh cleaning chemicals. You’ll still need to follow your steaming with a wipe of a cloth, but it helps loosen stubborn bits of dirt and the heat will help sanitise without using nasty chemicals.

Rating: 4/5

RRP: £34.99 (editor’s note – currently on sale for £29.99 at the time of putting the review online)

This product can be purchased from Vonhaus here.