Eureka 313A Enviro Hard-Surface Floor Steamer

Comment: I bought this because I wanted to have really clean, chemical free floors for my crawling baby and preschooler. In this respect, it does the job really well. The steam is very hot and it has pulled up amazing amounts of dirt from my apparently clean vinyl floors. It even got dirt out of an old section of vinyl leading to our basement that I thought was permanently discolored. As a test case, I even mopped an area before using it with a mop and bucket, and it still got out a lot of dirt. The floors are very clean feeling under bare feet and not the least bit sticky, which was one of my complaints with the mop and bucket system.
That said, this is not going to completely replace the mop and bucket or good old fashioned scrubbing. It does not get into corners or the areas by the wall or mop boards, so these will have to be wiped down periodically. It will not sanitize the entire floor unless you have a lot of time on your hands. It has to be held in place for 8-15 seconds on a spot to disinfect, per the owner's manual.
The mopping cloths work well, but replacements are very expensive and one of mine frayed in the washing machine the first time I cleaned it. Now, the owner's manual says to rinse it, but the dirt was really ground in and rinsing was never going to get it clean. I did not dry it in the dryer. I'm going to look at a fabric store and try to make some with my sewing machine. Eureka charges $20 for a two pack with minimum $10 shipping and they seem like they would be really easy to sew with the right fabric.
In addition, mine was shipped with a defective handle (would not telescope) and it took four phone calls to Eureka, a trip to a vac store 40 miles away, and a month to get a replacement. Eventually, I did get my replacement and really like it, but wasn't thrilled with the way Eureka handled a defective product.
Overall, I'm glad I bought it though. It will probably take over most of my mopping and seems to do a really good job.

Comment: I love this thing! I hate cleaning over 1000 sq ft of tile and normally use the Spin Brush but for everyday cleaning, this steamer is the best! I have already owned the Shark and the Bissell and bought this one based on another review here on Amazon from a lady who had her friends bring their steam mops over for a face off. This definitely wins over the other ones I've had.
First of all, the steam...this things steams very well. Unlike the Bissell, it has several steam vents so that's a plus.
Second of all the pads. IMPORTANT PLEASE READ! The pads MUST MUST MUST BE WASHED SEVERAL TIMES BEFORE USING THEM TO "SEASON" THEM. When I first used the pads they were horrible. The water just kind of stayed there so I ended up cutting up some old towels to use and decided to keep the pads in the washer to wash them a few more times and that definitely did the trick. I must have thrown them in the wash about 8 times before they got soft enough and absorbent enough not to leave streaks of water everywhere.
Finally Amazon! Buy from Amazon, don't hesitate. After a month of use my steam mop just quit working out of the blue. I contacted Amazon and within a couple of days I had a new one at my doorstep!!! It just can't get better than that!

Comment: We live on a farm with three house dogs and laminate and hard wood floors, the floor steamer gets a real work out. It's easy to use and the cloth washes really well. The cord could be longer, and it still leaves some streaks, but that's preferable to muddy paw prints:)

Comment: Read many reviews and decided to purchase the Eureka 313A Enviro floor Steamer. For those of you that are looking for a quick way to clean floors, this isn't it. It takes time to use one of these things and I am a little disappointed because it is not like running a swiffer over your floor. My floors seemed cleaner and I noticed they stayed cleaner for a longer period of time but I am still not sure if it is worth it. One feature I thought would be handy was the swivel base. It isn't. It was very difficult to manuver and it took both hands for me to lift and turn it so it is horizontal along the wall. It also does not fit beside the toilet so I have to do that by hand. I have laminate but have not tried it on that because I don't want to take the chance of ruining it. If you have the time during the day to clean then this machine will do a decent job, otherwise I'd stick to the swiffer.

Comment: My hardwood floors in the living room and hall need to be refinished. Although I have area rugs, the floors are not in good condition. I also have two dogs who shed. I was using vinegar and water to clean the floors. The Enviro Steamer did a great job in no time at all. I also used the steamer on linoleum in my kitchen and bathroom and the new hardwood in my den. The pads are washable and clean up well. All in all, the steamer did an excellent job and I know my floors are clean. The only problem I had was unscrewing the handle to lengthen it. Other than that, it's great. I like to clean my floors.