I've had my mop since Fall '07 and liked it a lot. Last week it stopped producing steam, even though the power was still on. I called and a man told me to refill it 2-3 times slowly and pump the mop, what kind of water was I using, was the pad wet or dry? The trick didn't work. When I called back today another man said I'd have to ship it in for repair, $17+ and $10 for shipping. Or I could have a new mop for $39.95 plus shipping. I told him I haven't even had this 2 years, why would I trust them to fix it or buy a new one? He had no other solutions for me. I paid $100 for a freakin mop, I'm not about to pay more for shipping/repair/replacement!

Personally I would go with the Hoover Floormate Widepath (has to be the widepath model). I have had/tried pretty much everything for my floors hands and knees, shark, scooba (I own 2), swiffers. I always went back to hands and knees because I didn't feel my floors were ever clean enough. That is until I moved and now have over 1400 square feet of hard floors including mainly tile and also wood flooring. My knees and back can't take that anymore. After tons of research and not much hope for finding something that I would truely love after past failures I came across the Hoover Floormate Widepath. And I can honestly say my floors have never been cleaner. I have two small children and messes are the staple around here. The day I brought home my HFW my son had spilled O.J. under his chair which had dried with spilled food and crumbs to go along with it. I figured this would be the true test and I did not hold my breath. Two passes over the mess and it was gone! I mean down to the grout being clean! And as an added bonus the floor was dry almost intantly, seriously within one minute. I went out and bought a steam shark after many rave reviews. All it did for me was push the dirt around (and I mean regular dust and traffic, nothing like the O.J. mess with the Hoover). I was shocked to see the streaks and mess it left behind. Besides the fact that it takes elbow grease to use. The HFW is a vacuum and just as easy to use. As an added bonus it also has a dry vac feature. Now instead of vacuuming or sweeping prior to cleaning/mopping the floor, I can do it all at one time. If while I am mopping I come across one of my kids famous crumb messes, I switch it to dry vac mode, vacuum up the crumbs, then back to wet vac mode to mop/clean the area. And since it dries instantly, it is great on wood floors.

I have rough slate floors...and I mean rough...there are highs and lows and dimples and voids (but they're beautiful.) ;~) Can those of you who use steam cleaners/mops tell me if they will work well on this type of floor? I have dogs, cats, and live in the country and garden...so I really need to CLEAN my floors, LOL. I just got a Hoover Floormate which works "okay" and I think is a better result than hand mopping but it's way to slow to use as often as I really need to mop.

I am actually considering the haan myself which is how I stumbled on this posting. I currently own the shark steam mop and still use it but my husband broke the handle. So when I was looking at prices on getting a new one I stumbled on several other steam mops and thought the haan looked promising. Since I can't help you with a review on the Haan I thought I'd give you a detailed review of the shark steam mop instead. Pros 1)reusable pads Though it is frustrating to have to wash them in coin laundry I loved that I didn't have to buy pads all the time like swiffer mops or similar products that I considered but never used. I had to buy the extra pads just because I don't do laundry often enough to only have the 2 that the mop comes with. 2)no chemicals I have a one and a half year old and a two and a half year old so it's not just about the environment but more about knowing that my kids aren't touching a chemical soaked floor. It also didn't leave the sticky feeling that a mop and bucket or hands and knees chemical cleaning would leave. 3)No longer dread mopping I had an aversion to mopping before buying the shark steam mop. I hated having a dirty floor but it took so long to get it clean with a mop and I'd still have to scrub on my hands and knees. Than I bought this mop and my husband would find me mopping during the kids nap and ask "why don't you just wait until after they are in bed for the night?" and my response for the first time ever was "Because I WANT to mop!" 4) feels clean Now for some people it may take a couple cleanings to get a true clean feeling because of a buildup of chemicals on the floors. For me I still felt so much better about my floors the first time and it felt squeaky clean compared even to when we first moved into our apartment. The next few times I used it, it got to feeling cleaner each time. I walk across other people's floors and my socks are filthy but at home my socks stay clean if I keep it mopped. I really want to get my mom one because her floors turn my socks grey so quick but unfortunately she would take it as an insult even if I could afford to buy her one. LOL 5)lightweight There is nothing heavy about this mop but of course that is because of the chinsey materials used for the construction so it's not a great pro because I'd rather lug something heavy around if it meant it wouldn't break. Cons 1)Flimsy handle I read reviews before I bought the shark and decided to buy it despite claims that it had a flimsy handle that broke when you pushed on it too hard. I had simply figured that because I knew about that I could just be careful and make sure if I felt it flex I would ease up on it. Problem was I didn't tell my husband about that. So one day I came home to a half cleaned kitchen floor and my beloved steam mop with the handle broke in half! He said he was just cleaning and while scrubbing a spot on the floor with it the handle broke. I have used it since only because I refuse to go back to a mop and bucket and it's still easier to use it on my hands and knees than to scrub the floor with a sponge and chemicals. 2)small water tank I only have one small kitchen floor to do and a small square in my entryway to use this on regularly. On occasion I use it on my bathroom floor. I can do one floor with the tank if the floor is not really dirty. But most often my floor is very dirty with all kinds of stuff stuck on it even if I just did it the day before(my kids are really messy) so I have to refill it at least once. 3)no scrubbing aid If you have seen the infomercials for the steam mop you would think based on those that a couple passes of the mop would clean anything off your floor. This is not true by any stretch of the imagination. I have to grab closer to the base of the handle as well as the top(due to the flimsy quality)and scrub like you would have to with a sponge. Don't get me wrong it's a lot easier than a regular mop and hands and knees scrubbing but just don't expect miracles. 4)Price Sure this mop does not cost hundreds of dollars but that doesn't make it cheap. Especially since they used such flimsy materials to make the mop. 5)dripping When you remove the dirty pad from the mop after emptying the tank of any last little bit of water left over, water still tends to drip out the bottom so I usually try to have a clean one ready to put on right after so it doesn't drip on the floor of my closet when I store it between cleanings. 6)requires pumping to release steam This didn't really bother me that much but you have to pump a lot to steam extra dirty, sticky, gunky spots. This may be more for the pro side because you can control the amount of steam but I kind of like the idea of constant steaming without needing to pump the handle like crazy... didn't know they made stuff like that until I started looking into the haan today. 7)makes other things look dirty Now this may sound silly but once i cleaned my floor with this mop I wished they made something like it for my walls! All the pen, crayon, fingerprints and various things I have scrubbed off my walls I really wished I had some sort of steam mop to help with that job! LOL 8)need to clean in corners and along edges of floor This mop does not clean well right up to the baseboards. You will need to take the pad and wipe down the area right against the baseboards and in the corners. You can still use cleaning wipes or something for this job if you wish but going for the whole no chemicals green approach you could use an extra pad and pump the steam mop facing the baseboards so the mess is steamed then wipe with the extra pad. So yeah it's annoying but I haven't heard of one that actually does this job for you. Now I know there are more cons than pros but altogether I really loved my steam mop until the handle broke. I'm not saying there isn't anything better. I'm just saying steam mopping is the best and the shark is a pretty good option that works well in comparison to regular mopping. I do not have any other steam mop experience to compare it with which is why I am researching this stuff myself right now. So yes the steam mop is a great idea. The shark steam mop was great introduction to steam mopping. Now that it is broken and I am faced with buying another one I'm definitely prepared to do some researching to find a better one. Oh yeah and I didn't have this mop for very long and would have returned it but I lost the receipt and just decided to keep using the broken one until I could get a new one. Hope all this helps and I'll book mark this so I can send you a link to any comparisons I find between the haan and shark steam mops.