McCulloch MC-1275 Heavy-Duty Steam Cleaner by McCulloch

Read a lot of reviews when deciding between this and the similar Wagner item. Ultimately got this one because it was available as a Warehouse Deal for under $95. For me it's probably really a 4.5 star item. I'd give it 6 stars if it had a strong vacuum feature built in to pull up the dirty liquid. Many people knock this device for unfair reasons. #1 bad rap is water coming out of the nozzle instead of steam. Come on people, use your brains! Steam is vaporized water. If you run steam through a few feet of cool tubing it's going to condense into water. There are ways to work around this. Use it continuously rather than brief spurts which reduces the water and makes the steam hotter or use a pail, directing the first few seconds into the pail until the water is gone. Also, once the steam hits something cool it will condense into water so be ready to wipe. BTW, that brings up another gripe that people mention. Continuous use will cause the nozzle and trigger parts to get pretty warm. Not really much of an issue. Others gripe that the steam isn't hot enough. It's a matter of opinion, I guess, but there are some realities involved. Your wall outlets will only support about 1800 watts so a machine like this can only heat so much water to turn it into steam. To get it hotter would mean less steam production or you'd have to plug it into a 240v outlet and many people don't have that. Continuous use does a lot for upping the steam temperature. If the steam were much hotter, you'd be reading complaints about melted and deformed plastics. I think this machine strikes the appropriate balance. One legitimate gripe is the flimsy plastic construction. Has plastic gotten so expensive that making the parts 50% thicker would add that much to the cost? I accept the device for what it is. A tool that most people will only be using occasionally. There are better, more sturdy devices for people who'll use this frequently. I've had it a couple of weeks and tried it on various things. Windows: works pretty good but a little messy. I used a chamois to clean up the water drips. Really great with a spray bottle of strong cleaner to clean your vinyl window casings, seals and felt scrapers. Again, chamois with a bucket of clean water gives best results. Walls: works pretty good to clean cooking oils and cigarette smoke film from glossy paints. This pretty much dissolves cigarette smoke film on anything from paint to plastics to metal or glass. Vinyl Mini Blinds: Oh, such a pain to clean with anything. I sprayed them with some strong cleaner, gave it a minuet or two and they came out pretty darn good. I think removal and cleaning in the bathtub might make the job less messy and would make rinsing easier. Microwave: I get mine pretty clean with a scrubber sponge and normal dish soap but finishing off with steam is the icing on the cake. Gets the nooks and crannies, corners and grills. Touchpad looked new and the rest of the oven was darn close. Upholstery: May get certain stains loosened up but this is really no substitute for a suction type upholstery cleaner and soap. I wasn't too impressed. Sink and Countertop: I have very hard water and my issues are more with calcium deposits than grime. This did nothing for water deposits. Leather Jacket: Used steam as a first step in a re-dye. Worked OK but not a big advantage over saddle soap and a brush. Took about 90 minutes to do a really good job. Coffee Maker: Didn't do much better than dishwasher plus soap and a sponge. Deep Fryer: Thought this would do a really good job but it was no better than using a strong degreaser and scrubber sponge with hot water from the sink. Slow and messy. Included scrubber pad clogged quickly and wore fast. Stove and Toaster Oven: Fine for hard to get to edges of the glass top on the stove but don't think this is your ticket for removing burnt-on food. Other random observations- The little brushes suck. they're too stiff when you start and too soft after a few minutes of use. The scrubber was unimpressive too. All these things wore down quickly and you're better off using a scrubber or brush that suits your need and use the steam to assist the scrubbing process. The window squeegee worked fine but sopping up the water is a pain. Much quicker than Windex and paper towels. Zero streaks. Did not use the mop attachment. Having no water gauge is lame. You don't know when your going to need to add water and then you don't know how much to add when it's not empty. The wheels seem mostly useless. I pick it up and move it. Overall I'm very happy with my little steam cleaner and I haven't even used it for the 2 things I bought it for, removing wallpaper and detailing car interiors. Unless you have a specific thing that you need a steam machine for (like wallpaper or bedbugs) you should think of this as another tool in your cleaning arsenal. It probably won't replace anything else you have now, it'll just help you to do a better job. Sometimes it'll save you time. Sometimes it'll save you work. For the most part, it's not going to save you a lot in cleaning chemicals. You'll mostly still use those. I understand these are really great with the hard plastics in a used car. I can see this as a great tool for cleaning a refrigerator. Not sure about the germ cleaning capabilities, I have my doubts about using this, alone, to mop a floor when your goal is killing germs. A bucket of very hot water and mop solution is probably more effective. All said, I definitely would buy it again and recommend it to friends.

Really neat steam cleaner BUT as a safety warning be cautious of letting the machine. cool off before adding water/ opening the reservoir. i had it explode and got burnt. as there is no warning indicator regarding pressure on this machine nor is there a pressure release valve from what i recall.. SO SAFETY IS VERY IMPORTANT YA'LL!

This machine electric specifications were not fit for this country it needs 120 volts not supplied in this country. It also needs 1500 wat our supply can't cope so I had to buy a transformer to fit this specification. which was not cheap (mine cost around £70). The delivery delays were appalling they kept shifting the dates and one of the texts said that the order has been lost and whether I should get my money back then it came after 2 days. Any way the machine arrived and it was fantastic in every way. So here are my advice fellow citizens of the UK if you are willing to pay extra for a transformer and wait a long time for delivery, but get a powerful machine then go ahead. i

Este limpiador -junto con mi aspiradora- me permiten limpiar mi departamento en menos de una hora. Es mil veces mejor que un trapeador y facilita mucho el limpiar varias superficies.

After some research and contemplation, I bought this unit to clean and disinfect bathrooms and other household stuff. By in large, most of the observations from the reviews here have been consistent with what I've seen. PROS: 1. Steam lasts a very long time. The manual says it can hold up to 48oz of water from which to generate 2 hrs of steam. This appears to be right if you're holding the nozzle open constantly. In reality, its longer because you have to steam-wipe-steam-wipe repeatedly, letting the machine rest during "wipes". I can get a good 3 hrs of cleaning done on one full tank of water. Also keeping you from holding open the nozzle is that you have to give it time to "recharge" since it appears that it does not generate steam as fast as you use it. 2. It works on what it claims: most "organic" build-ups like soap scum, toothpaste, dirt, etc. Cleans darkened grout nicely. Doesn't damage the finish on fixtures. I was expecting a little too much on the calcium deposits from hard water... steam just wasn't effective. 3. Nice supply of attachments (brushes) although its unclear what types of surfaces these brushes can be safely used on. In particular, I refer to the smaller round brushes. For example, my guess is that the brass brushes are not meant for highly polished finishes. 4. Good enough to clean hard to reach crevices like sliding door tracks (shower doors or patio doors), faucet details, etc. 5. Works well on car wheels. Brake dust is very fine and a pain to clean by hand. Not to mention that the chemicals are often not meant to touch the brake disc surface (I have yet to figure out how splashing water from a hose can be directed only to the wheel and not the brakes within). 6. Steam is the only option for cleaning chemically-prohibited surfaces (I never knew chemical cleaners were not recommended in microwaves!). CONS: 1. Its loud! Not the machine, but the steam as it comes out of the nozzle. I strongly recommend hearing protection while you use it when indoors. My ears were ringing for about an hour after my first session. 2. Steaming takes time. If you're not opposed to using chemicals, often I find that bleach works as good, if not better, than steam. Compared to 5-10 mins steaming a polished chrome bath fixture to get it sparkling, it took 30 secs using your household bath cleaner with bleach. 3. Steam just doesn't work efficiently on mineral build-up. Chemicals are far more time-efficient. Hard water stains and deposits require lots of time and lots of elbow-grease (scrubbing). And even then, I'm not convinced it was cleaner than using chemicals (i.e., judging from the "gleam" off the surface). 4. The steam pressure is not very high. It isn't very low either, but definnitely not high enough to "blow" debris away more than an inch or two from where the steam jet hits. The best approach seems to loosen with steam then wash away with water or wipe away with sponge. Hence, I don't recommend using this for something like cleaning a car engine where neither wash nor wipe are feasible. (I guess you could steam long enough so that the condensed water from the steam was enough to wash away the gunk on its own, but that would take forever.) 5. It needs time to build up steam pressure while you work. The light is supposed to turn off when it is ready. While in use, the light will come on when the pressure reaches some threshold. Continued use beyond that point without letting it rest means you work with less pressure. When the tank is full of "condensed" water, the light comes on more frequently. As the water is depleted and more volume in the tank can accommodate vapor steam, the light comes on less often. 6. The width of the brushes simply do not permit reaching into 90 degree crevices or those really tight spaces. This is minor, however, but a flat or low-profile brush attachment would have been nice. A medium bristle toothbrush is a nice companion in my cleaning adventures... Overall, pretty happy with this unit. To be efficient, I've found using a combined balance of chemicals and steam is best. It definitely reduces the amount of chemicals I need to use. For hard-to-reach or delicate surface areas, steam wins outright (with the mentioned toothbrush).