McCulloch MC-1275 Heavy-Duty Steam Cleaner
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Product Description
Steam clean like a professional! The McCulloch Heavy-Duty Steam Cleaner does it all. Melt away grease and grime from your engine, wheels and chrome accessories. Steam away stains and odors from upholstery, carpeting, floor mats and hard-to-reach places. Steam produced by this cleaner is hot and pressurized. Care must be taken to avoid burns or other injuries. Never point nozzle at people or pets. Please read all instructions prior to using your McCulloch Heavy-Duty Steam Cleaner.
Feature
- Heavy-duty steam cleaner with 1500 watts of steaming power
- Requires no chemicals; 50-ounce water-tank capacity; steam-control switch
- Removes stains, grease, and grime from cars, trucks, motorcycles, and boats
- Storage compartment for 10 included accessories; 12-foot power cord; caster wheels
- Measures 17-1/2 by 11-3/7 by 9-1/4 inches
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CustomerReviews
Excellent with limits, don't throw out all your cleaning products yet!
For months I have been reading reviews trying to figure out if the McCulloch Steam Cleaner was worth it. Some people loved it, while others derided it. I read dozens of reviews looking for balance among them. Finally, I ordered it and hoped for the best. The beauty of Amazon user's reviews is that with enough reviews, positive or not, it is possible to figure out an accurate 'feel' for a product. This one kind of had me stumped. There are plenty of reviews already, but I hope my opinion is helpful in further clarifying the many previous good reviews.
It is well made, seems to be an ABS plastic, so it will withstand some punishment. The brass fittings are a nice touch and just part of the overall good build of the machine. There are several parts for different cleaning applications, such as floors, a squeegee for flat surfaces, and several different small heads, some with nylon bristles, others, metal. The unit is fully assembled, except for one piece, the handle, which takes about 10 seconds to attach with the included screwdriver. I do wish they designed something for cord storage. I just gather in and bind it with a heavy elastic band. I find the unit small and even when full of water, not heavy. The cord and the steam hose are both adequately long for me. Before I started, I took 5 minutes to read the manual. I didn't use distilled water, but I have filtered water and I expect I will have to follow the process removing minerals every so often. There is no sound that I can tell, coming from the base unit, but the escaping steam makes a loud hiss, nothing that bothered me, others or pets. You couldn't watch television with someone using this in the same room, but the sound is what I expected with a machine that sprays steam.
The base control is a button/trigger that also has a lock for continuous steaming. I cleaned all over and this little machine surprised me. I cleaned my bath and shower and overall, I was impressed. The porcelain wall tile, toilet and marble floor came out quite literally, as new. The textured privacy glass, the metal all over was perfect. Using cloths to wipe up following the steam was fast and easy. My 8' x 4' mirror wall cleaned fast and easy with no streaks. The grout in the floor and walls was cleaner, not perfect, but good. A second time might yield better results. Where it didn't work so well was soap residue and mineral deposits. There were some mineral deposits on the granite counter, those actually came out, and with just a little more effort than I had been using. I was surprised, as the soap reside in the shower did come off the walls, but very very slowly but on the tub floor, it really wasn't worth it and would have taken a long time and likely a few refills of water. I am a pretty neat and tidy person to begin with, so these surfaces are not untouched for months and I am expecting the steam cleaner to instantly overcome that. It seems to be a combination of minerals and soap residue that needs to be scrubbed off and the steam cleaner isn't up to the task. Given how hard it is to get that off manually, I'm hardly surprised the steam cleaner can't remove it. The reddish colored iron water stains however, came right off. These are stains that appears reddish in tone in sinks, tubs, shower and toilets.
The pressure of the unit is adequate for cleaning around the home. Thinking of steam cleaning your car engine with this machine? I think that is a stretch. Do not buy this unit thinking that you are getting the power of a pressure washer, you don't. A little more pressure would be nice, but for cleaning around the home, this does a nice job as is. The reservoir holds 48 oz of water and if you need just a quick clean, you add 16 oz, which will give you about 15 minutes of steam, also the less water you add, the faster it heats up. A full tank took several minutes to heat up, I didn't time it, but it was fast enough. The plastic bristle heads seem to melt sooner than I'd thought, but I count those as a disposable part, plus replacement is inexpensive.
In the kitchen, the cleaning continued. My refrigerator is newer and looks clean, but this machine brought out stuff from every crack and crevice. The controls, the door seals and the surface are indistinguishable from new. The same with the dishwasher, range hood and the stove, their previously unreachable crevices that hide dirt are now reachable. They never looked this clean before. Porcelain sinks in the bath and kitchen are items that I don't think a steam cleaner can clean adequately. They might be clean on the surface, but the stains tend to be in the porcelain and beyond the reach of steam cleaning. I used a liquid cleanser on the kitchen sink and finished with the kitchen. It was exceptionally clean. One thing to note is the superb job that steam cleaning does on metal surfaces. The range, the faucets, trim all look out-of-the-box new.
I cleaned microfiber upholstery, painted walls, the Litter Robot LRII Automatic Self-Cleaning Litter Box, Beige, windows sills and screens, bath & kitchen cabinets and inside the microwave. With few exceptions, the McCulloch Steam Cleaner has taken everything I have thrown at it. I bet this can steam clothes, but I haven't tried it.
So, for me, I am quite happy that I listened to the positive reviews. As to those that didn't have a positive experience, my only thoughts are that they may have been used to a more powerful (and expensive) unit, they have significant minerals in their water or possibly they expect more of this steam cleaning unit than they should. I can't say, those are guesses. My experience has been almost completely positive.
Pros:
* cleans most surfaces fast and easy with no chemicals
* versatile attachments
* simple operation
* small & lightweight
* impressive cleaning of many surfaces
Cons:
* no organizer for the power cord
* steam pressure is adequate, but a little more would be good
* can't remove heavy soap residue/minerals from bathtub & shower
Bottom Line:
At this price range, this unit is hands down, a great performer. I did look at other units that were 4x and 10x the cost of the McCulloch Steam Cleaner, an amount which is far more than I am willing to spend. For household cleaning, this unit did an impressive job and left most everything noticeably cleaner. Only exceptions are the heavy soap residue and minerals which I still need to use elbow grease and cleaner. With that said, this is a very good value for a good steam cleaner.
Many pros, just a couple of cons
I had a Shark steamer that I thought worked well -- until it broke down a year later. I bought the McCulloch because it seemed better-reviewed than most small commercial units. While it's probably true that its temperature doesn't approach the sanitizing temperatures of some of the super-heavy-duty (and super expensive) models, it's plenty hot enough for cleaning my kitchen counters, wood floors, and shower. I've only had it for a few weeks and haven't used all the attachments, so I can't comment on that, but I find the floor-cleaning brush head to be very useful. I like that this steamer (unlike the Shark and many other models) holds the cleaning pad in place with spring clamps rather than Velcro strips, which wear down over time and with repeated washings. I can use any type of cleaning pad with the McCulloch, making it very easy to switch to a new one with each room or item I'm cleaning.
Heating time could be faster -- it takes about 10 minutes -- but it's still quicker than other units I've used. The "constant steam" button is sometimes hard to push into place or release, but that's a minor irritation. The unit rolls well over my wood floors and doesn't get stuck on its own cord or hose, and the top handle makes it much easier to move than a model like the Shark. It also holds more water (NOTE: use distilled water with any steamer; mineral buildup from tap water will eventually clog hoses) than most units of comparable size, so you can get up to 1.5 hours cleaning time, and you don't have to wait as long for it to cool before adding additional water. Like other reviewers, my biggest complaint is that the unit doesn't have a built-in storage case for attachments.
Overall, for the cost, I think the McCulloch is a good value. It has worked well for me so far, and my complaints are minor. I'm especially happy with the way it cleans my bamboo floors; it removes every little spot or spill easily, dries quickly, and doesn't damage the finish. As with any steamer, just keep it moving (i.e., don't stop in one place for more than a second or two) and it's fine.
Finally a quality steamer
Way better than the previous steamer i had (shark). THis is truly a quality steamer.
Great buy!
I decided to buy this after researching various steam cleaners and reading all the reviews.
I've had it less than a month, but I already love it! It worked great on the tile on my bathroom floor and countertop. It wasn't "instant" - I had to go over an area for a several seconds to loosen everything - but it managed to get the grout sparkling white. Nothing else has worked on that grout as well as this steamer.
Next, I tried it on my stainless steel range with glass top. It melts greasy buildup in seconds, with no chemicals. Cleaning the stove grates is a breeze now.
It also got a weird blue stain off my kitchen floor that cleaning solvents couldn't budge, and worked great on the baseboards (the "quarter-round" is always catching dust.) I plan to see what it can do with miniblinds, windows and upholstery next.
I usually get more than an hour's worth of steam from a full tank. It makes some noise and puts out a big white cloud of steam, but not enough to bother me. It's well made with heavy duty parts. As others have mentioned, it would be nice to have storage for the cord and accessories. I just store them in a canvas tote bag next to the machine.
Again, it doesn't work instantly, but it saves you a lot of "elbow grease" in rubbing and scrubbing. I just hold the wand over the area I'm cleaning and use a gentle circular motion, and any gunk just liquifies so you can easily wipe it away. It's the best cleaning helper I ever found!
Harry Roy Review
Excellent results cleaning my auto engine as well as tile grout, kitchen counter tops, shower walls, etc.
More Info: Buy Now! McCulloch MC-1275 Heavy-Duty Steam Cleaner