BLACK+DECKER 1600W Multifunction Corded Steam Mop with Detachable Body and STEAMITT Glove and 14 Accesories Included (BHSM1610DSM-GB)

Product Information

While it’s described as a pet steam mop, there’s nothing that makes it a steam cleaner just for pet owners—in fact, we think it’s much more than that. The detachable handheld device is a nice bonus if you do need to clean pet toys, but works equally well for cleaning any bathroom or kitchen items. All of the steam mops on this list have attached cords, so think about your house, the outlet locations, and if you’ll need to constantly plug and unplug the steam mop to adequately and safely move around your home. Also keep in mind that steam mops maintain their heat by being plugged in, so if you need to change plugs, you might need to wait for it to heat up again.

If you only want to steam clean floors, consider a simple machine that doesn’t convert to a handheld. It will be light, easy to manoeuvre and you won’t have to store fiddly tools that you’ve no intention of using. The design of the mop is so top-heavy, that it cannot stand up on its own, and even when leaning against a wall, we found it to be pretty unstable. The included wall mount is helpful for storage, but won’t help if you need to pause mid-clean or put the mop down to change accessories. She’s an engineering graduate, an award-winning journalist and writes regularly in the Evening Standard. She has appeared as a technology expert on TV and done countless radio interviews. Add-on accessories are so useful, just make sure you have a handy place to store them, since there’s no on-unit storage. And speaking of storage–we loved that this steam mop had a big hook to hold the 15.9-foot cord—a feature that gets skipped by many of the other mops on the market. Testing these cleaners simultaneously has allowed her to see which cleaners excel at which task, and to judge them on ease of use and storage, which is crucially important in her very compact space. What is the best steam cleaner in 2023?

Black & Decker Steam Mops

Unlike some other options, the multiple attachments were easy to swap between and we found them quite effective. As an added bonus, the included instructions were simple, easy to follow, and accurate, so we never found ourselves guessing if we were using the right thing. Roll with the prodigious amount of steam however and window cleaning is very good indeed. On tall patio doors, the water runoff was fairly serious even on the lowest steam setting. Carmel used this with the floorhead and carpet glider to clean the tide marks on an old, colourful rug. It worked to great effect and she only needed to switch to the brush a few times. Lightweight and inexpensive, this steam mop is the perfect solution for adults who either have trouble moving around heavy cleaners or don’t have a lot of foot traffic in their house. Adding a steam mop to your arsenal of cleaning tools can be a wise decision, especially if you have a lot of sealed floors in your home. The Bissell Powerfresh Deluxe Steam Mop 1806 is a mid-priced steam mop that our testers found easy to use and quite effective.

Pretty much all convertible steam mops have a handheld that pops out of the middle of the upright cleaner. This, however, is designed more like the best cordless vacuum cleaners. You hold the handheld and then add tubes below to clean floors. As a result, it’s nippy but top-heavy. It won’t stand up by itself then and there’s no carpet glider. Filling the tank under the tap is easy but there is no gauge to say what is ‘full’. It’s very easy to over-fill, at which point the filler cap vent hole spits water when you move it around. The same vent hole also dribbles if you tilt the steamer unit over, such as when steaming at an angle to clean a shower. Kathy Cohoon, Operations Manager of the cleaning service Two Maids says, “Extra product is not usually needed as most steam mops are made to work without product since the heat and steam are the real muscle. Be sure to read the usage instructions for your steam mop model as using products unnecessarily can damage the machinery and/or your floors.” As a steam mop, t feels a little flimsy. There is a lot of flex from the handle downwards, although this is more due to the skeletal design and removable main steam section, rather than any issues with the build quality. Our favorite steam mop of the bunch, this steam cleaner is lightweight, super effective, and has a lot of nice-to-have features without a budget-busting price tag. On the most basic level, we appreciate that this steam mop has an on and off button, so you can turn it off even when plugged in, which we think should be more common after testing this model. While this seems like a small detail, many other steam mops don’t have such intuitive buttons.The larger the steam mop's reservoir, the more water it can hold, which means you can steam for longer without having to refill your mop and wait for it to heat up again. That said, toting around more water can make a steam mop heavier to operate. If you've got a small space or plan to use your steam mop for only certain areas of your home, you can get away with a lightweight mop with a smaller reservoir.

There are no handheld cleaning tools with this cleaner as it’s just for floors. It’s heavy (4.4kg) and perhaps not as versatile as some of the other options on this list, but it does have the value of a vacuum and steam cleaner combined. Our Ecommerce Editor Molly oversees vacuum and cleaning content at Ideal Home. She has tested out a number of these steam cleaners in her two-bedroom London flat, including the Bissell PowerFresh SlimSteam and the Shark Klik n' Flip Automatic Steam Mop. For this story, Maya researched the best steam mop styles, sizes, prices, and features and then compared her findings with testing insights from our steam mop lab test in Des Moines, IA. She also consulted with Kathy Cohoon, Operations Manager, Two Maids, for expert advice on using and shopping for steam mops. More than just a steam mop, this lightweight cleaner comes with eight accessories, including a handheld steamer and multiple brush heads for tile and small areas, making this steam mop a great value, on top of being super lightweight and very easy to use. Our testing found the bristle attachments were extremely effective at cleaning grout, which is part of what makes this model especially great for tile. The steam comes out between the bristles, which you can hear the whole time, and truly did loosen and remove debris.We appreciated that this cleaner was very lightweight and was easily able to maneuver around areas to clean. While lightweight, even when filled with water, it is hard to prop the unit up when not in use—it fell over a few times during testing because of this. Like other Bissell cleaners, this option includes a port for fragrance discs. These aren’t mandatory to use, but households with pet odors may appreciate the option. There’s a lot to like about this Bissell steam mop–in our tests, it worked equally as effectively on tile, grout, concrete, and sealed hardwood floors. Intuitively designed, there’s a removable water tank, which is easy to fill, and three levels of steam.