McCulloch Canister Steam Cleaner MC1375, 90 Minute Runtime, 20 Accessories: Jet Nozzle, Brushes, & More - Built for Home, Tile, Grout, Carpet, Furniture, Car Detailing, & Commercial Deep Cleaning

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 surfacesCons:* 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 & showerBottom 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.

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).

I just received this machine so I may have to amend this review. 1st it performs at 7 (on a scale of 1 to 10 IMHO) but I'm still experimenting. It has no gauge to indicate how much water is it's holding. The steam takes a bit to get used to. Be sure to have a dry towel handy as the first trigger pull will probably produce hot water before it switches to steam. I doubt I'll use half the attachments but who knows? I used this machine to rid our home of fleas, and it has worked remarkably well. It does not seem to have an attachment for steam cleaning area rugs, which is a shame. It produces more hot water than steam when I used it on our laminate floors. I think I'll experiment with the large attachment on our area rug and remove the hot water produced by the steam with my wet/dry shop vac. Be sure to have plenty of time available when you use this product; 15 minutes to heat, 20 min to cool enough to add more water & 20 minutes to re-heat.I cannot recommend this product to a friend at this time, and I doubt I'd but it again, but it did accomplish the task we purchased it for.