3 Signs You Need a New Steamer
You’re halfway through a cleaning job and you discover that your steamer isn’t functioning properly, and doing what it should be. Cleaning gadgets are supposed to make life easier (and our homes cleaner and safer), so when an appliance breaks down, it can feel a bit unfair, to say the least.
Here are 3 signs to look out for if you think you might need to invest in a new steamer.
Your appliance isn’t heating up properly
If you plug in your steam cleaner and it doesn’t heat up within a few seconds, chances are the heating element has developed a fault, or there may be a blockage somewhere. Sometimes they can be easily fixed, but more often than not it means it’s time for an upgrade.
If you’re using the appliance and it feels like it’s getting too hot to handle, then that’s also a sign there’s trouble ahead. Better to be safe than sorry, so unplug and leave to cool down – then empty the tank and leave somewhere safe to dry out. One way of remedying this is investing in a top-quality brand like Laurastar – it means you get reliability built-in as standard and ease of use is guaranteed.
Your machine is leaving wet marks on the flooring and upholstery
Cleaning with your steamer and noticing that there are watermarks everywhere? It might be time to think about a change of appliance. Sometimes less expensive cleaners can leave wet trails and damp marks behind when they’re close to giving up the ghost.
Steam cleaning utilises ‘dry steam’ to get your surfaces and flooring sanitised and disinfected. Once you’ve run the cleaner over these places, it shouldn’t leave any trace of wet behind. If it does, that’s a sign the machine could be leaking, which means it’s potentially unsafe to carry on using.
Your machine is getting older
Ageing catches up with us all eventually – even the best steam cleaners! Whilst it’s good to keep appliances for as long as possible to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfill, sometimes a steam cleaner’s age means it’s just not doing as efficient a job as it was a year or two ago.
The age of an appliance can really have a bearing on how effectively it does the job – and this can show up in any number of ways. We’ve already discussed overheating, or leaving streaks and wet patches, but other signs of age can include things like:
- cracked and damaged plastics and mouldings
- damaged water tanks
- hardened limescale that’s difficult to remove.
Sometimes the water won’t be hot enough to kill bugs and bacteria anymore, this is especially important if you’re using a steam cleaner to deal with allergies and keep your home dust and mite-free.
These days, good-quality brands produce steam cleaners that are built with efficiency and longevity in mind and are often sustainable too, meaning that you can invest in a new cleaner and have peace of mind that it will last you for another twenty years.
