The Gruene Steam Cleaner

I hadn’t heard of such a thing until I got the Gruene Dual 2 in 1 Steam Cleaner. What a terrific invention! And for us, it’s just in time. We are renovating the house, and had gotten rid of the yukky 40-year old vinyl tiles in the kitchen and the yukky 40-year old indoor-outdoor carpeting in the dining room, and are replacing the floors with TrafficMaster Allure flooring. We also have laminate flooring in the living room.

The kind folks at Gruene must have recognized our plight– imagine all that mopping we’d have to do!!– and sent us one of their steam cleaners to review. Thanks, Gruene! We made a video detailing the assembling of the machine, and testing it out for the first time.

I think it’s a great alternative to the mop and bucket system (which, incidentally, I hate). It’s nice to see mops enter the 21st century, finally. I also love the fact that you do not HAVE to buy special cleaning pads for the machine. As a matter of fact, Gruene encourages you to use terry cloth towels or any kind of absorbent pad to attach to the bottom of the cleaner. And it’s very easy to attach a new pad, too. No screws, no complicated clips or buttons, etc.

As we mentioned in the video, the machine is a little top heavy. You have to hold it up, or it will fall down. It’s lightweight and easy to glide across floors. If you have a textured vinyl floor, you may have to push a little harder. But the steam and the absorbent pad pick up a lot more dirt and grime than a mop and bucket, definitely. I was surprised how dirty my laminate floors were.

Overall, it’s a great upgrade for cleaning bare floors. I never liked the mop and bucket, and I never liked how the wet mops saturate the floors and leave them wet for long periods of time. The Gruene Steam Cleaner makes it nice and simple, and the floors dry quickly. Thumbs up for this one!