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. A.k.a. 2-in-1 cleaners, these are upright steam mops where the steam generator can pop out from the middle to be used as a smaller, handheld cleaner. They come with various tools for steam cleaning smaller stuff.

As both the cable and the water tank are fixed to the steamer body, and there is no filler jug supplied. you must take the whole ensemble to the sink to fill up.The detachable steaming unit weighs in at a reasonable nicely light 1.6kg with a full tank, and is made even easier to handle with its large top handle. It clips in and out of the mop frame with a little wiggling and can be taken to the sink to fill up. 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.

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. 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. 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.

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. 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? 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. If you have a ton of small spaces or crevices that need mopping, it’ll be harder to maneuver this mop into those small spots.

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. You can use each feature independently but the Bissell Vac & Steam is at its best when you use both at once to save time. You can whizz around the house at double speed if dirt isn’t too ingrained. How we test our steam cleaners 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. This premium, cylinder-style steam cleaner is a completely different animal from a normal steam mop. It does an outstanding job of cleaning so much more than floors and it can keep cleaning for hours. It has a 6m cord and a large 1.5 litre water tank and the water is then pumped into a pressurised steam tank. This means you can refill the machine at any time, even when it’s in use, without pausing your cleaning. This steam cleaner never let us down during testing; in fact, our tester Carmel thought it was so excellent that she found it difficult to step away from it as she envisioned other things in her home she could clean.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. 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.