Vax Steam Fresh Total Home Steam Cleaner Review: Versatile steam cleaning

Verdict

A brilliant steam mop in its own right, the Vax Steam Fresh Total Home Steam Cleaner is capable of quickly cleaning even the toughest stains from sealed hard floors, using a combination of steam and detergent.

In handheld mode, it’s a great tool for cleaning everything from grout to windows and beyond. The inability to collect solids and the need to hold the trigger in all modes may put some off, but for anyone who wants powerful, versatile cleaning, this is a great product.

Introduction

There seems to have been a shift in the market, with multi-purpose steam cleaners not as popular now as they once were. That’s a shame, as the Vax Steam Fresh Total Home Steam Cleaner shows the versatility of steam, able to clean floors, tiles, glass and more.

If you’re after a product that can tackle jobs throughout your home, this is a brilliant value product.

Design and Features

• Lots of accessories
• Optional detergent for floor cleaning
• Floor and handheld options

The Vax Steam Fresh Total Home Steam Cleaner is a standard steam mop and a handheld steam cleaner for tackling spot jobs around the house.

That makes it hugely versatile and it’s the kind of product that I haven’t seen for years, since I reviewed the Hoover Steam Capsule 2in1 back in 2020.

Versatility is key here. Out of the box, the Vax Steam Fresh Total Home Steam Cleaner is assembled as a steam mop, taking microfibre pads at the bottom. The box includes one HD steam cleaning pad, which has a rougher texture for deep cleaning, and two softer steam cleaning pads. Both attach via velcro, so they’re easy to swap mid-clean.

There’s also a built-in scrubbing brush, for agitating very tough stains to remove them faster than you can with steam alone.

Using either cleaning pads, you can also attach the carpet glider, which is a plastic frame that clips over the top. This helps the Vax Steam Fresh Total Home Steam Cleaner slide on carpet, with steam used to refresh the fibres. That’s great for any rugs or carpets that have gone a bit lifeless, but don’t need a full clean with a carpet cleaner.

There’s a 0.26 litre water tank that pulls out of the back of the cleaner. That’s quite small, but as it’s used for steam, it lasts a decent amount of time; and when empty, it’s easy to pull out and refill. I found that one tank full was roughly enough for a room.

To counter hard water areas, there’s a water filter installed and spare in the box. Check the manual to find out how often you should change this filter.

It’s nice to see that there’s a separate detergent tank that takes 0.13 litres of cleaning solution, with a sample 250ml of Citrus Burst Steam Cleaning Solution provided in the box. Replacements cost £9.99 for one litre of solution, with a choice of Citrus Burst, Pet and Spring Fresh.

As well as adding a scent boost into cleaning, the solution is also rated to kill 99.9% of bacteria. That combined with the steam will effectively kill off anything nasty on your floor.

Detergent is controlled via a switch on the side of the cleaner, so you can choose to use it or turn it off.

Using the steam mop is easy. There’s a power button to turn the cleaner on, and a switch that controls the amount of steam that’s produced. Higher levels are best for rugged, dirtier floors; lighter steam for more delicate floors that are less dirty. Vax says that the cleaner is suitable for all sealed hard floors and surfaces. If you have fine wooden floors, something more gentle, such as the Bona Premium Spray Mop may be a better choice.

With the steam level selected, you just need to wait a short while while the machine heats up, the indicator light telling you when you’re ready to go. Then, pull the handle back and press the trigger to start steam delivery.

A trigger is something that you’ll either love or hate. I think it’s a good idea, as I could control the amount of steam used, adding some, and then moving the mop head around to clean, topping up with steam to boost cleaning performance when needed.

However, some people find a permanent trigger tiring and difficult to use. If you fall into that category, a different floor cleaner will be for you.

As well as regular steam, there’s a Steam Boost button that can be operated with a foot. Turn this on, and the Vax Steam Fresh Total Home Steam Cleaner pushes steam out of the nozzle at the front for additional cleaning power.

Weighing 4.63kg, the cleaner is a similar weight to a cordless vacuum cleaner. It’s a touch bulky to carry around, but once on the floor, I found the Vax Steam Fresh Total Home Steam Cleaner easy to push around.

The Vax Steam Fresh Total Home Steam Cleaner isn’t just about cleaning floors, as it’s also a handheld unit that lifts out the floor mop. In this mode, detergent can’t be used just steam, delivered from the same water tank.

In handheld mode, the Vax Steam Fresh Total Home Steam Cleaner is desigend to be used with the large array of additional tools, which can be attached to the handheld unit or via the hose that gives extra reach and makes it easy to get into tight areas.

It’s a touch confusing how to attach the tools: regardless of whether you’re attaching directly or via the hose, first there’s a concentration nozzle that has to be connected. The tools then mostly attach to this, but some have to be clipped into the Flat Surface Tool first. It’s fine once you work it out, but I did have to read carefully through the manual to work it all out.

Vax provides two regular cleaning pads and two HD cleaning pads (a rougher surface for tougher stains), for multi purpose jobs. There’s also a detail nozzle for pushing steam into difficult to reach areas, such as tap nozzles. For windows, there’s a squeegee. For tiles, a grout brush. And, there are both a scrubbing brush and deep scrubbing brush, with different bristles, for scrubbing up very dirty areas.

It’s easy to use the Vax Steam Fresh Total Home Steam Cleaner in handheld mode, with the same steam-level controls as in floor mode. There’s a thumb trigger in this mode to activate steam, which is easy enough to hold down, although it does become a little tiring to use over long periods.

There’s really no way around this, as you can’t have automatic steam pumping on a handheld tool like this, as it would prove dangerous if you were to drop the handheld unit.

I do have one word of warning about the thumb trigger. Where it’s placed, it’s easy to trigger by accident while changing directly attached tools. For safety, I turn the steam cleaner off while changing tools.

At the end of clean, the microfibre cloths can all go in the washing machine, and the water tank should be removed and emptied.

The long power cable wraps around the cable tidy at the back and Vax has even thoughtfully provided plug storage, so that the chunky UK plug doesn’t hang loose.

At the back of the steam mop are holes for all of the accessories, although I found it easier just to keep them in the accessory bag that’s in the box.

Performance

• Excellent and fast floor cleaning
• Versatile home cleaning

I started by testing the Vax Steam Fresh Total Home Steam Cleaner as a floor cleaner, using detergent. My first test was the easier coffee stain test. Here, I found that the steam mop easily lifted the dried-on stain with just a quick pass.

Moving on to the dried-on red wine stain, I found that the Vax Steam Fresh Total Home Steam Cleaner was just as quick, removing the mess exceptionally quickly.

Next, I tried my dried-on ketchup test, which is often much harder for a floor cleaner to deal with. I used the steam boost to saturate the stain, and then only needed a couple of swipes to pick up the mess, which is hugely impressive. Steam helps weaken and break down this stain, making it faster to clean up than with a regular floor cleaner that uses a roller.

Next, I tackled my dried-on mud stain. The part of the stain embedded in the floor was easily removed, but as there’s no option to collect solids, as you get with a floor cleaner such as the Dyson WashG1, some solid particles were left behind and needed vacuuming up afterwards.

I tested edge performance by squirting ketchup onto the floor next to the kitchen cupboard. The Vax Steam Fresh Total Home Steam Cleaner cleaned right to the edge. As the images show, the mopping pad did push some ketchup on the edge, but this is because it was a fresh stain; for regular dirty floors, the Vax Steam Fresh Total Home Steam Cleaner will clean right to the edge.

It only struggled slightly with corners, as the shape of the head wouldn’t quite get all the way in. Still, edge performance is a cut above that of most hard floor cleaners.

I then switched to handheld mode to see what this cleaner could do. I started with a window ledge, which was stained to start with, but had had a brass pan scourer left on it, which left behind a dried-on rust stain. Impressively, the rust stain was removed quickly. Although the original stain on the ledge remained, it was reduced, and a quick paint job would touch it up.

I then moved to tiles, using the grout brush. Soon, dirt poured out of the grout, leaving it clean to look at, although because of its age it could still do with a retouch. After tackling all of the tiles in my shower, wall and floor, I was pleased with the results. I did need to give the floors and walls a clean with bathroom cleaner and cloths to pick up the dirty run-off.

I have a walk-in shower, and the shower screen has long had a very dirty section at the bottom that window and bathroom cleaner won’t shift. After using the Vax Steam Fresh Total Home Steam Cleaner, I restored the glass and it cleaned up beautifully.

I tackled a deep burnt-on stain in an oven, too. After quite a bit of manual effort, I had improved the look of the stain, but there was only so far that the steam could go. With regular use, I’d be able to reduce the build-up of mess, but a stain like this would be better tackled with a proper oven cleaner.

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