Your Floors Are Dirtier Than You Think — Here’s How to Really Clean Them

Keeping your house or apartment clean is a chore. No matter whether yours is big, small, or somewhere in between, you know it, too, and no part of it is harder to keep permanently spotless than your floors. It’s a universal problem and vacuuming only gets you so far. Simply put, vacuums suck — and that’s about it. They collect the loose dirt and debris lying on the surface, maybe even the finer particulate you can’t even see, but they do tackle stuck-on stickiness, stains, smudges, or the invisible layer of “ick” lurking throughout your home.

To truly clean your home, you have to use a floor steamer — but not just any floor steamer. You need the Dupray Multipurpose Neat Steam Cleaner, which harnesses the power of super-hot steam (275°F to be exact) to tackle projects both big and small: the grout in your tile floors, your tub and shower, the glass door on your oven, the shelves inside your fridge, your car’s cupholders, or your decade-old carpet — you name it. This do-it-all tool really does do it all, and your home will feel cleaner than ever because of it. Before, dirt and stains were seen as losses to the proverbial home-ownership gods; it’s what comes with truly living in your space, I thought. Dupray changed my mind, though.

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Dupray Multipurpose Neat Steam Cleaner

It Works Everywhere — and Well

The beauty of Dupray’s multipurpose steam cleaner is its versatility. While it’s built like a vacuum cleaner, it isn’t locked into one’s limited functionality. You can remove the flat, floor-cleaning nozzle and swap in the triangle tool (with or without the bonnet), the standalone steam lance, or a nylon or brass brush. Each one has its own specific strengths, giving you a strong bullpen of cleaning tools to choose from. If you need to remove stuck-on grease from your stovetop, one of the firmer brushes will surely do the trick. If you need to clean your tub, try the bonnet atop the triangle nozzle. I, for one, will go through all three pads on my first-level hardwood floors — where my house gets the most foot traffic — in a single session if I haven’t used it in a while. They’re machine-washable, though, so once I’ve thoroughly soiled them, I can toss them in the wash, tackle my window, and return to cleaning my second and third floors once they’ve dried out.

Now, each time I clean, I wonder whether my cleaning could be made easier by this machine — “Will the steamer get this stain up?” I constantly ask myself. If it needs cleaning, this machine can probably do the job, I’ve learned.

It’s Simple to Use and Easy to Understand

The machine has one button that’s both an on and off switch and an LED ring to indicate when it’s heating and when it’s fully at temperature. Orange means it’s warming and green signals it’s ready to go. When you’re done cleaning, just press it again to turn it off. (Or simply unplug it.)

When you’re using the wand, you can lock the trigger in place, too, which means you don’t actively need to press it down to release steam. That’s helpful when making repetitive motions across hard surfaces or batch-cleaning lines of grout or multiple window sills.

It Doesn’t Take Up Much Space

Because of its versatility, I move this machine around quite a bit — and I have no problem doing so despite it being corded. It’s on wheels, and a collapsible handle makes it easy to lift over ledges, up the stairs, or into a different room if you don’t feel like dragging it by its wand.

When I’m done with it, it fits neatly in my linen closet, which, to be transparent, isn’t very big: Its true measurements are 10.5 by 10.5 by 9.5 inches, which makes it a near-perfect square (on wheels, with a long, but collapsible, wand to boot). Plus, if it’s in your way, you can just wheel it in either direction to reach whatever you’re grabbing for behind or beside it.

It Doesn’t Require a Ton of Water

A full tank for the Dupray is just under 7 cups of water. That’s an easy amount to draw straight from your faucet in one or two trips if you have the right vessel. It’s not necessarily the easiest to lift straight onto your counter or beneath an outdoor spigot, and, as many reviewers, myself included, have noted, there’s no indicator for the internal water level, which means you’re guessing how much it needs (and how much you’re actually putting in, too).

That means it’s smarter to slowly fill it with a smaller cup instead of overflowing it with a faucet on full blast. In the grand scheme of things, though, 7 cups is not much at all, and you get a lot of steam from this small amount of water — enough for 50 minutes of cleaning time to be exact. That’s more than enough time to tackle most projects, but if not, there are a few rules to note before refilling: You have to let the machine cool down completely before refilling, which does limit its ability to clean exceedingly large spaces. Opening it while hot could cause a kind of steam explosion, and you’re likely to get burned.

Featured Image Credit: Dupray