Not the Shark®.
The first time I used a Shark® on my own floors, I was borrowing my parents' mop. The floors we had were vinyl and had been very abused by previous tenants. The sealant was gone, and they had clearly rarely been cleaned before. We'd tried everything. Even the industrial cleaner they use in mechanics shops to get the grease out of concrete. That stuff promises to remove anything from any surface. Nope, not my stubborn floors. While the floors never got 100% clean, I can't place blame on the Shark®. It worked very hard and got my floors as clean as they had ever been. It took a few uses, but finally, my floors looked and felt clean.
I recieved my very own Shark® for Christmas this year. I use it nearly daily. We have since moved and now own our home. I have 4 different floors I use the Shark® on. Concrete, tile, hard wood and pebble. The shark works on everything in our house.
I have the purple "fluffy" (as I call it) cover that is used on the hard wood. It is designed to release less water with the same amount of heat and steam to clean. That way, your floors don't get stripped and the wood doesn't warp. It works exactly as it is supposed to. The white microfiber cover is for basically every other floor surface. It works excellent on our tile, concrete and pebble flooring.
It comes with 2 covers per head. One rectangle head and one triangle head for corners, stairs etc. Each cover has two sides.
The results
The good: This is a truly versatile mop. It cleans nearly every surface type with relative ease. A bonus: It sanitizes. The steam actually kills any germs it comes in contact with. I love that I can add essential oils to the water and make any room I mop smell really good. It's quick (takes about ten seconds to fill and ten seconds to change the cover) and I can mop my 2,000+ square foot house with only two water refills.
The bad: Stuck on gunk is a bit harder to remove. It is not impossible, but it takes either several swoops and scrubs with the mop or you have to actually get down and scrape it off.
The ugly: While I love my Shark®, it is not flawless. If you don't use distilled water, it will leave a film on your floors. It makes my floors look like they have a dust layer on them. It's a very strange thing and only happens on tile with a high shine polish to them. Every now and then (when I go a week or more between mopping) I have to go over the floors twice. Once with one cover and once with a completely clean cover to prevent the film and to prevent mess from spreading. If your floors are very dirty, the shark will spread sticky substances around, even though they look clean.
The bottom line: I love my Shark®. It takes me about 10-15 minutes to mop my house once. So a total of less than 30 minutes (the second round is always faster) to mop my entire 4 bedroom, all tile house is a huge plus for me. Even having to go over it twice, and buy distilled water *just for my mop* is completely worth it. It makes my floors shine and it is so easy to use.
The Shark® Steam Mop can be bought just about anywhere. My parents got theirs at Bed Bath and Beyond and paid over $100.00. I bought the newer model from Big Lots and paid less than half the price and mine works just as good. I recommend this mop to any one who is asking.
*Disclaimer: Shark® Steam Mop, their parent & sister companies have not paid, given free product or endorsed me in any way. This review is completely my own.
