Eureka Envirosteamer: Anticlimactic Review

Following up on my earlier trials with the Shark Steam Mop ..

I was so stoked to see that the Eureka Envirosteamer was finally back in stock at Amazon.  I had actually ordered it from a company who promised to ship it within the next week .. and after the next week had come and gone, I inquired on the status.  Two days later, I was informed that they actually didn't have any back in stock.  That's it.  They said I should wait.

I politely showed them my middle finger and demanded a refund.

I next ordered it from a company that offered Prime shipping, because why else would I order through Amazon?  Seriously, if you don't use Amazon Prime, you're missing out.  And if the hefty yearly fee is scaring you away .. as it did me for awhile .. know that you can split the cost with up to five other people.  DUDE, I KNOW.

So, my steamer arrived while Bryan was out of town, so I did not get the full benefit of Bryan doing a video test.  Instead, I just plugged it in and went.  Here's what I thought.

Right away,  I could see where the Envirosteamer was at a disadvantage against the Shark.  The cord was noticeably shorter, and the heat-up time was much longer.  However, to its credit, the Envirosteamer gets NOTICEABLY hotter, which is important when half the battle is sanitation.  (Sanitation?  Sanitization?)

The pads for the Envirosteamer were difficult to place well.  They're basically just flat washclothes that you wrap up the sides and tuck into some teeth, but it is cut so close to the base of the unit that it's hard to get the front-to-back to fit.

But you know?  All of that doesn't matter if it does what it's supposed to do, right?

And it did.  I used that bad boy all over my house and the floors were clean enough to eat off of.  They were gorgeous, still warm from the insane heat that the Eureka put out.  I couldn't wait to take it to some clients' houses and see what a difference it made there.

I unloaded my equipment one Friday evening at my biggest house.  4600 square feet; it's a crazy big house and I didn't know people lived that fortunately. (In all honesty, they're the nicest people I know.) But as you can imagine, a large part of that 4600 square feet is hard surface.

I plugged it in.

NOTHING HAPPENED.

I replugged in another outlet, cause .. well, who knows.

NOTHING HAPPENED.

I emptied some of the water out of the well, in case .. well, who knows.

NOTHING HAPPENED.

So I ended up mopping .. like, old school mopping .. the house.  I was so sore the next day and planned to exact my revenge on Eureka.  Except .. I really, really hoped that I'd plug it in and it would magically work.  I pulled it out of my car, brought it in to the house, and crossed my fingers while I plugged it in ..

NOTHING HAPPENED.

There you go.  $73, two weeks, maybe four uses and the unit was dead.  I was devastated.

Now, to note: the box I received was clearly repackaged, so perhaps I got a bad unit that had been "refurbished" but not really.  I'm willing to believe that this model has potential.

But in my house?  NOTHING HAPPENED.