I am thinking of buying a steam mop because we have a sizeable amount of vinyl flooring in our house and I am finding that the ordinary sponge mop doesn’t clean properly. D o any of you have a steam mop and is it worth buying one? And if so, what brand would you recommend? I belong t o Consumer but haven’t checked out the reviews yet. I trust the foodlovers community more. Any advice/experiences wo uld be much appreciated.

I had a Bissell one for a while when we lived in a house with a lot of tile flooring. It was ok. I made more pads out of large microfibre cloths because that's all the factory brand ones were and they were super expensive. But because they are literally two thicknesses of a microfibre dish cloth, they have next to no absorbency and you end up very quickly pushing a dirty pad around and it is hard to sort of rub things to get them to move, if you know what I mean. Others may have had a more positive experience, but gave mine to a neighbour when we left that house.

I found the cord very short, and it was a pain to use an extension cord. I ended up going back to a Vildea mop and bucket with near boiling water with a slosh of sugar soap and disinfectant.

I have a Warehouse brand steam mop, a cheapy which I use on my white ceramic tiles. The results seem much the same as I used to get with a sponge mop and hot water but involve a lot less effort.
(I have no idea why anyone would choose white floor tiles for an entrance way, previous owner in our case. I can cope with them in the kitchen just about)

I sympathise Danube. We were renting while we built our retirement home and the kitchen had white tiles. I used to get down on my hands and knees and scrub the floor because the cheapy sponge mob did nothing. When we moved out we got cleaners in and they used a steam mop on the kitchen and bathroom floors. What a difference that made to the appearance of the floor. Thanks for your thoughts and thank you, Jenna. More food for thought because I don't want to waste my money on yet another gadget. I hesitated long enough to get a Karcher window cleaner and would not want to be without it now. I thought it might be the same with a steam mop.

I have a Kmart steam mop which was cheap but I wouldn’t be without it. I find it simple to use and very efficient. It’s all I need to keep my floors looking nice.

Thank you Valralph. I'll check Kmart. They are supposed to open next month in Queenstown although I suspect their range will be limited. It can also wait till I am in Dunedin at some stage. I've grizzled about the cleaning of floors for a while now and my poor husband will just have to put up with it for a bit longer.