There is quite a selection available when it comes to choosing your floor steam cleaner. Just like the vacuum cleaners, you can pick a small steam floor cleaner, such as a steam floor mop, which might or might not work for a long time. Or you may choose a bigger hard floor steam cleaner that will be more sturdy and might last a long time.

With the steam cleaners, there is even more choice. You can get yourself a steam mop, which is more light weight or you can get a canister steam cleaner which usually holds more water. We will explore both types here and consider their advantages and disadvantages.

Steam mops

Steam mops are new, and a lightweight steam floor cleaners for relatively smaller rooms. That is because they will hold a smaller amount of water to be steamed. The advantages of steam mops are their size and weight. They are easy to carry around, and easy to operate.

The disadvantages are their relatively small water capacity, so you will sometimes have to "reload" the water and wait until it gets heated up again before you can continue.

Another disadvantage of steam mops is that it usually comes with very few attachments, which will make it difficult if not impossible to use a steam mop in hard-to-reach places, or in crevices where more focused beam of steam would be needed.

Steam mops also usually steam the water to a lower temperature, about 200 F, just sufficient for steaming.

Frequently, the steam mops will come in a "light" finish too, which will make them vulnerable to breakage, and you will need to replace them often. If you want a more sturdy solution, go with a steamer proper, below.

Steam cleaners proper

Steam cleaners (as opposed to steam mops) will usually come with a bigger cannister that will hold more water, and will also allow the water to heat up to a higher temperature, somewhere around 300 F.

Higher temperature of the steam will have two positive consequences: First, it will be able to remove more dirt from the carpet or the floor, and you will be able to finally remove that grout from the tile floors. Second, the remaining water on the floor or in the carpet will be able to evaporate faster, thereby the drying up of the carpet or the floor will be faster too.

Another advantage of steam cleaners is that they will come with numerous attachments which will enable you to use the steamer on different surfaces and with a different amount of concentrated steam jet. For instance, you might want to use brush attachment on carpets or more resilient stains, or you may want to use a narrow steam nozzle to reach into crevices between the kitchen elements, or into hard-to-reach places around the bathroom.

The disadvantage of the steam cleaners are their higher price, and it is a bit more dangerous to stay near them due to higher temperatures. Many steamers will have security on/off buttons which will not allow the steamer to stay on unless you are depressing the button. This could get a bit annoying.

So what would be the best floor steam cleaner for you? If you are looking for brands such as Bissell or Haan or Shark, you may want to head over to see floor steam cleaner reviews and see steam cleaner shopping advice.

If you require even more power and heat, you may want to consider a commercial steam cleaner instead.