review Vax S85-SF-R Steam Mop
We have tried the steam cleaner out for a variety of tasks, cleaning the tiles and the grout on the kitchen tiles, cleaning a glass oven door and refreshing the carpets.
On unpacking the box my first reaction was the weight of the 'body', heavier than I expected & too heavy for me to use as 'hand held' for any length of time. (It is probably worth pointing out that I have 'wear and tear' on my neck, so others may feel differently).
We soon got to grip with the instructions – though they could do with more details about the different accessories, a more comprehensive list of what they can/should be used for would be useful.
The water/detergent tank is easy to put in and out of the machine. It is easy to fill with water. It says to store it empty or it could affect its performance – I have found it impossible to get all the unused water out of the tank. This is because there is a sort of 'washer' around the hole to stop it leaking out, so you have to get the water up and over the washer to get it out! Also the instructions say don't keep steaming when you have run out of water, but actually there is no warning buzzer or flashing light to say the tank is empty and it keeps steaming for a while. The tank doesn’t hold much water, so if you are doing a ‘dirty’ job that needs lots of steam, you need to keep refilling.
It also says not to hold the steam button constantly down, which is fine for refreshing the carpets but not for a 'heavy' job like old grout. So as a consequence, water drips down the tiles or oven door, so put an old tea towel or kitchen towels down to catch the dirty water and keep wiping as you go. Don't let this put you off, it did an amazing job of cleaning grout above a cooker where tiles have been on the wall for nearly 30 years.
So the mop is very smart to look at, there is a range of gadgets for various jobs with a very handy drawstring bag to store them in, its easy to use (but a little heavy). It is really useful to have a 'gadget' you stick on the wall which keeps it propped up in a standing position, so much better than having it sliding down or falling over.
Improvements could be a warning that the water tank is almost empty. A way of emptying the water tank so that you can empty it of all the water. We have made a video so you can see & hear it in action. It is loud! Hope you find it useful.
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