Reasons I purchased: Primary cause- a "house guest" brought bedbugs. While the infestation was small, we have yet to completely eliminate the little sobs, and I refuse to let the enemy win. After heat treating, poisoning, applications of diatomaceous earth, removing furniture and carpet cleaning until the dye came out of the carpet, they would disappear for a few days to a week. Then come back. I will not submit. This enemy will be eliminated at all costs. Secondary cause- I hate cleaning. I am an old, overweight male with better things to do than spend copious amounts of time in physical positions I can barely achieve, scrubbing filth. When I do it, I am completely anal about it. OCD level cleaning is achieved and then I expect to spend the minimum amount of time maintaining that level of cleanliness. Also, my wife insists on owning disgusting little beta dogs that refuse to do things real dogs do, like relieve themselves outside whenever there is a storm within three hundred miles, a snowflake, or morning dew that might dampen their "widdle paws". I like animals. I hate these little hamster half breeds with a passion and only put up them because I love that woman. Moving on. After researching what I wanted and seemed affordable, I purchased this model, Steamfast SF-370WH, and it arrived this morning. Reading the reviews, I expected several things regarded as negative. After using this unit, I found none of those things. 1. "The accessories are cheap and useless after the first use." Nope. You're doing it wrong. ANY bristle brush, nylon or brass, will become destroyed if you put all your weight on it. The steam is providing the power to loosen and flush away the dirt. The bristles are their to provide "GENTLE" agitation, like a sales person in a department store. If it isn't coming off, move a little slower and let the steam work. If that doesn't do it, get a scrubby pad and spend three seconds doing labor. What's wrong with you? 2. "The unit and accessories are low quality and break." *Facepalm. It is a hundred dollar, home use steam cleaner. Are you going to clean a subway with it? No. The unit and parts fit nice and snug and are of reasonable quality provided you don't meat fist things together like a mentally challenged gorilla. The type of person that thinks like this complains if it takes longer than three minutes to get fast food. Don't force things. Refer to point one. I am sure you could get something that would allow for more applications of force, but not for this price. If you take your time and do it right, no damage will occur. 3. "I couldn't get it to clean anything." Ok, that might have actually been a defective unit. OR, maybe you didn't let if get up to temp. Once you start pulling the trigger, you are bleeding off pressure and that will increase the time it takes for the element to create adequate steam. As the internal pressure of a fluid decreases, the internal temperature decreases. Give it ten minutes to reach temp before you use it. So what I found: There is plenty of good hot steam for any application I plan on using this for. I thought I would test it on the stove as it has not been properly cleaned for quite awhile. I started with the nylon brush, I don't know why I just did, alright? It was clearly cleaning and not doing a bad job, but it could have been better. Then I used the brass brush tip. Holy crap. It looks brand new. I used it around the back of the sink where its a pita to get a sponge. Two passes and it looks like I just installed a new faucet. I had filled the tank to just below full and used at least 45 minutes of continuous steam. I used most of that tank of water on the stove, and it still isn't clean. Not because the unit doesn't work, but because the stove is that filthy. I had no Idea how bad it was. I went around cleaning spots all over the kitchen that had just been cleaned with pine stuff and elbow grease, and this thing made it look like these surfaces had never been touched. They look brand new. Now I have to clean the whole friggin' kitchen to match the clean spots. But first, the bugs. One place they have been hiding is in a crack in my desk where the main surface of the desk joins a trim piece. It is about five feet long. I have put a hot air gun in the crack. Sprayed poison in the crack. Vacuumed the crack. Again, gone for awhile and then they come back. I used a flash light and magnifying glass and located 3 of the little monsters in the crack. I blew on them and they wiggled and squatted. Alive. I lined up the nozzle, pulled the trigger and blasted every piece of debris from one end of the crack to the other over about eight seconds, INCLUDING THE THREE BEDBUGS and guess what? DEAD. They are commonly found under the mattress in one bedroom. I flipped the mattress and found two. Again, I just sprayed the box spring with raw steam, and both died instantly. I steamed along the seam of the mattress. I had just vacuumed the seam after spraying poison on it about two nights ago. After steaming them, I inspected under then seam and found 4 more dead bedbugs, all deceased. The bodies have been collected and will be watched for any signs of life, but at this point, I am going to call this a win. Bugs, welcome to Hiroshima. I am using a marker to write "Enola Gay" on the side of this steamer. Things I didn't like so much: There isn't anything built in to hold the accessories. Not a big deal. The fill cap could be bigger, but it really can't. The tank is under high pressure. In order to seal it, it needs to be a high pressure brass fitting. In order to use an adequate fitting without inflating the cost, they used a smaller fitting. Get a funnel. BTW, that is why you need to wait until it is cool before refilling. Steam pressure blowing the cap across the room and taking the whiny teenager's eye out, while funny, could be expensive and actually not that funny. I maybe shouldn't have said that. That's is it. I could tear it apart and say it isn't as good as "X", but it costs much less than ''X" and gives you the same cleaning performance. If you're a picky person about cosmetic appearance and not having to think about what you're doing, this unit isn't for you. If you want something that will give you steam cleaning at a reasonable price and are careful about your operation and assembly, this thing should work just fine. UPDATE: After over 6 months, it still works fine. I am a sevice technician and spend a lot of time in fast food and sit down restaurant kitchens. I have taken this little steamer to places where cleaning us not exactly a priority for the staff. I replaced an o-ring on the tank filler cap. That is it. And riding around in the back of a service van is not an easy evironment. Still working fine and saving me time. Also, the Bedbug thing. In additon to the steamer, use Harris Bedbug killer. Of all the stuff I used, the combination of steam and that spray (can) finally did it. Steam and spray about once a week for about 3 weeks. They won't be back.
