High Hopes For the Shark Steam Pocket Mop

I really wanted to like the Shark Steam Pocket Mop. Sadly, I tried the product over and over, hoping that it would work better than the last time, yet it never did. I was so excited to have a handy, easy to use, and most importantly, chemical-free way to clean!

The claims: A non-toxic and chemical-free way to clean your floors. It claims to leave your floors sanitzed and clean from the heat of the steam. Included with your mop are multi-purpose cleaning pads,  duster cleaning pads, and a carpet glider.

Pros: The cleaning unit was pretty easy to assemble and very easy to remove and replace the cleaning pads. My bathroom and kitchen floor did feel sanitized and had a feeling of being clean... but before you get too excited, read the cons below. I didn't notice anything miraculous with the carpet glider that claims to deoderize and sanitize the carpet, but I feel like in theory, it seems like extremely hot steam should sanitize the carpet a little right, so i'll go with it!??

Cons: The steam mop did not clean very well. I had to go over both my bathroom floor and pergo wood kitchen floor a few times to remove dirty/sticky spots and had to use a lot of strength to scrub the slightly dirty areas with the machine. I had to pump the handle several times to release more steam and had to move the mop around slowly so the steam could saturate any dirty or sticky areas. I would use this product as a sanitizing method, not necessarily to "clean" the floors. The most annoying part was that my pergo wood kitchen floor was dull and had streaks on it after the floor dried and left a slightly sticky residue. When I walked on the floor with bare feet, it left footprints all over the floor. Even if I did use this to sanitize the floors, I would still have to go back over the kitchen floor to get rid of the streaks and residue. I then sprayed down my floors with Shaklee's Basic H2 and then went back over the floors with the steam mop, which did help pick up the dirt and sticky areas on the floor. It is partly a pro that there are 3 different cleaning heads and several cleaning pads, but it is also a con because there are a lot of parts you have to store with this mop and the mop itself and pretty heavy. The most annoying thing was the electrical cord. All I kept wondering was why this thing wasn't cordless.

Summary:
I was disappointed that this mop did not clean as I expected and with less effort and manual labor on my part. I'm sure I will use this mop occassionally but probably only for the bathroom floors and when I want the kitchen floor sanitized, knowly i'll have to go back over the kitchen floors with another product. I would not recommend spending money to purchase this product unless you are looking for something to mainly sanitize your floors not necessarily clean them. It seems to me like we only have a few other choices: a mop and bucket or other convenient broom-like mops such as Swiffer that are full of harmful chemicals. I am still trying to find an alternative option and will keep you posted. For now, i'll stick to a mop with my Basic H2, which makes the floor clean and shiny, but I just hate using and storing a mop! I'd love to hear how you clean your floors while being time and cost-efficient and of course, chemical-free!