Customer Reviews

Shark Steam Pocket Multi-Purpose Portable Steamer, SC630

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(42)

 

 

I bought my Shark steamer on a whim. We had just purchased a bank owned home and it had been left with a rotting chicken in the refrigerator. The tile had a dried stream of "blech" from the refrigerator to the lowest part of the floor where it had pooled. I bought the steamer to sanitize the floor along this path. Something amazing happened when I used it- the grout changed color DRAMATICALLY! I posted photos so you can see for yourself. At first I thought it was somehow bleaching the grout, but then I noticed that the grout around the perimeter of the room was indeed a much lighter color- matching the tile color. EWWWWW! I had previously mopped this floor several times with a regular mop and bucket, a Swiffer wetjet, and even along this same path with a toothbrush and cleaner on my hands and knees. Nothing did what the steamer did with just water and the nylon brush attachment. I dragged the whole family in to show them because I could not believe what I was seeing! I hated the floor when we moved in. I hated the dark grout and how chopped up the tile looked with the dark grout lines. After cleaning- the grout blends into the tile and the floor has a completely different look! It's truly amazing- check out my photos- you HAVE to see it to believe. I haven't tried any of the other attachments, but I have received a steam burn on my hand from working so close to the nozzle on the floor. It's hot, just as they warn. My only complaint is that you must hold the trigger for continuous steam, and when using it continuously- it runs out of water fairly fast. Don't know how it does if you are pumping it and steaming in short bursts. Frankly, I don't care- it has done more for my floor than I had hoped.

Okay, well, I can't speak to the longevity of this product since I've only had it for one day but as for it's functionality I do NOT understand what all the complaints are about.
Maybe I'm just lucky too like the other reviewer but mine steams like crazy! The catch seems to be not that you have to wait for it to heat up but you seem to have to hold the trigger down for a while before it REALLY starts to steam. It's kind of like buying a 2000 Toyota Echo. You can slam down the gas pedal but it's still going to accelerate at it's own pace. Once it gets up to speed though, it'll get going at a good clip!

I started in the kitchen and ran the thing over my stainless fridge. It left what appeared to be streaks but after it dried it was as good as when I would use Twinkle stainless cleaner.
Then I decided to really put it through its paces and go for the microwave. I have an Advantium so it's also an oven. The inside top has tons of holes in it that lead to the components so I've never been able to spray Easy Off on the top. The top of my microwave has always grossed me out because I can never get it clean.
Using the scrubber end and a little elbow grease this thing took it all right off. This is the first time since I had my microwave I've been able to get the top clean. I was sold at this point.

I moved on to the bathroom and even though the steamer produced a lot of steam, there was just too much dust and hair stuff in the bathroom. I mean, my bathroom is REALLY clean by most standards, but it's hard to use something like this when the pads keep getting gunked up with debris. I think a cursory wiping down before the real cleaning with the steamer would be better.

Lastly (and mostly because all my ends were now in need of a washing) I remembered that a friend told me she uses her steam mop to clean her walls. Thats just freaky. I have red walls in my living room and any time I try to dust them or wash them it leaves streaks that are worse than the dust that covers them so I haven't cleaned the walls in a LONG time.
I tossed on the dusting attachment and buzzed over the walls quickly. No streaks. No dust. It did exactly what I wanted it to do.

I am VERY surprised at how well this worked given the nasty reviews. I really though I'd be returning it by now.

If I have any complaints its that this thing comes with nothing to carry your attachments in. A basket or a bag would have been nice. Also, some ends do not attach to the hose. Everything should be able to attach to the hose to get wherever you need to. Lastly, and most importantly, this thing REALLY needs a locking feature on the trigger so you don't have to constantly hold it down. Sometimes you need to clean with both hands. It should just run without having to hold down the trigger if I want it to.

I hope I don't have to come back here in a few weeks to amend this and say it broke... I really don't want to do that.

I purchased this item from my local Walmart wanting something RIGHT NOW to get some heavy duty cleaning done. Does it work, yes, absolutely! Could it be improved upon, yes, absolutely!

First of all, for those reporting lack of actual steam, not only must you let the unit warm up for the 30 - 45 seconds first, you must also hold the trigger in until the steam comes out of whatever attachment you are using. Note that the trigger, as mentioned before, could stand to have a locking mechanism so you don't need to hold it constantly while cleaning - I found a large hair clip did the job nicely.

Next, just having to tote the steamer jug around is a bit of a pain. It's not terribly heavy, but it is a hindrance. A little longer length of hose could solve that issue, but I'm afraid the Euro-Pro people probably already tried that and found a great loss of steam power.

Now for the cleaning - I used the large wedge for the job I chose to tackle which was the walls and ceiling of a 12' X 12' room. These surfaces had not been cleaned in a long time and had seen it all - nicotine, heating oil residue, general grit and grime, etc. I was actually surprised at the amount of time I had to work between fill-ups and when the steamer needed to be refilled, I used that opportunity to rinse out the cloth cover for the wedge. I wrung out that cover and it worked just fine...even using it wet (which it eventually gets as you use it anyway), all surfaces dried quite quickly. I was working around shelving units and stuff piled up next to the walls so I didn't exactly clean all of the walls, but I did get the entire ceiling and most of the wall surfaces done in about 20 minutes with 4 rinses of the cloth (these surfaces were dirty!!). The walls and ceiling are painted in a semi-gloss so I can not attest to how well it would work with a flat paint finish.

While you shouldn't put anything but tap or distilled water into the steamer, I found that washing the cloth with a mild detergent before rinsing and wringing produced a nice deodorized, just cleaned scent.

September 24th addition to my review! Nine months later and my Shark Steam Pocket is still going strong! I have fixed the trigger issue by using a Velcro "cord keeper" strap I found at a hardware store so I no longer have to constantly hold that trigger in which is a huge help. I also sewed up some of my own pocket covers and use another Velcro cord keeper strap to keep them on the large steamer head, placing the cover over the head and using the strap as the elastic drawstring is used on the original covers. I was able to make some of fluffy terrycloth and made several using some cheap microfiber cleaning cloths that work well when I need a little elbow grease.

Since reviews are still mixed with people either loving or hating the Shark, I would highly recommend purchasing the unit either locally or at a good online retailer with free and easy returns in case you end up with a less than perfect unit.

I bought this Shark steam cleaner at Bed a Bath. I took it home and could not wait to try.

I followed the instructions and waited about 5 minutes to try, it says on the box that it only takes 30 seconds
but I wanted to make sure it was really hot. I tried it on a couple of different surfaces (floor, refridgerator and
sink) and it failed to help me clean any of the areas I tried.

The warning in the instructions says not to put your hands in front of the cleaner when spraying. I did it anyway and
my hand did not become hot until I was less than 1/2 of an inch in front of it. I've taken hotter showers than this!

Stay away from this steamer, I suspect all shark steamers are not much different. I'm returning this item.

This product is nothing like the original Shark steamer. I had an original one for a couple of years and unfortunately it stopped working. I didn't realize how much I used it until I no longer had it. It did wonders for cleaning my bird's cage. So I decided to try the Steam Pocket, even though it's twice the price of the old style. It does not heat up in 30 seconds. In fact it takes almost 10 minutes! It has a new pump inside if the unit that regulates the steam which really doesn't work well. After three separate tries, I returned it. I have found the old type in another brand for about $40.00. Even though my original one didn't last more than two years, for the price it averaged out to be about $20.00 per year, which really isn't too expensive in today's world.

I bought this from a Bed Bath and Beyond because it was the only one I could find in a physical store that I could buy right away. I'd read so many unfavorable reviews about handheld steam cleaners that I didn't expect much from this product. I made sure that I kept the receipt handy for the inevitable return. When I got home and opened the box, I was kinda freaked about by the number of accesories that came with it - strange looking multi-pronged wand things.

So, after reading the instructions, I started in the bathroom. There was a mildew colony gaining ground in the shower that I wanted to obliterate. The cleaner started up after a few spurts and coughs, and eventually gave me a steady stream. The pressure was good, but as another reviewer mentioned, you have to get really close to the nozzle to get the kind of heat that's going to make a difference. I was able to comfortably hold my hand in the steam stream six or seven inches from the nozzle. Any closer than that, and I would have been burnt (I actually did give myself a pretty smart burn in a moment of carelessness later on). The nice thing about the steamer was that is was able to clean out mildew from crevices that a brush could never reach, but again, you have to hold the nozzle very close to the area you want to clean for it to be effective. And if you're expecting that using a steam cleaner is going to magically leave your shower sparkly clean with a few passes, I have to tell you that you're going to be disappointed. I found that I still had to come around with a brush, a conventional spray cleaner, and some elbow grease to complete the job, although, it was not as much work as it would have been without the steam cleaner. It was very effective on the shower head - blasting out more mildew from the crevices than I thought was actually there. Then I moved to the toilet bowl. Being a single man, there were a few ... um ... spills to deal with. The steamer was again very effective. I really felt that I was giving the bowl a thorough cleaning, although again, I had to follow up with some good old-fashioned wiping to finish the job.

Then I went to the kitchen, and tackled the filtiest appliance in everyone's (or at least my) kitchen - the microwave. I had to deal with a Tomato Cheddar Soup explosion that happened in there a while ago which I was turning a continuous blind eye to. The steamer was very effective in loosening up the old crud - my microwave looked almost new after some follow up wiping off with a conventional spray cleaner, and a paper towel.

The one thing that I found when using the attachments (those strange looking wand things?) is that they significantly reduce the effectiveness/heat/pressure of the steam. As I mentioned before, I was able to comfortably hold my hand five inches from the nozzle without getting burned. Some of the attachment are more than a foot long. How effective could the cleaner be with those wand things added on? The stream that the cleaner produces just isn't strong enough to support the use of those attachments. They simply put too much distance between the steam stream and the area you want to clean. I tried using the brush attachment (the smallest of the set) in the shower and it hindered far more than it helped. I basically paid for a lot of useless plastic. The one exception was the glass cleaner (looks like a small squeegee). It worked very well on the bathroom mirror, but it alone can't justify all the other stuff they put in the box.

Hence, three stars. I would have given it 2.5 if that were an option. My recommendation to Shark: put less junk in the box and lower the price.

So I ordered both the Shark Pocket mop and the Shark Portable Pocket steamer from the Shark web-site. The portable cleaner is complete garbage! I plugged it in ready to put it to the test and it smelled like it was burning AND it didn't even steam properly. The directions very clearly say do not put your hand in front of the steam as it is very hot and will burn you, I put my hand less than 1/2 inch from the nozzle and it STILL wasn't hot. I've been trying to return this product for over a week, the first time I called customer service I landed up overseas somewhere they didn't speak English very well and was yelled at! I told this man to send me to someone I could understand so I was given a number in Canada, which is fine but the three times I've called they've kept me on hold for over 20 minutes! A waste of time and money!

I just bought this in the hopes that it would somehow make life easier and also thought it might make things a bit cleaner than elbow grease could. I was surprised at the number of plastic attachments that came out of the box and my initial thought was, wow... if this works, this was a worthwhile investment. after letting it warm up for a few minutes, I went to town on the fridge. It took about 3 times longer than cleaner and a sponge and added plenty of frustration (cord dangling, dripping, steam turning on and off, etc.).

Long story short, I packed it up and am taking it back. That was an hour of my time I will never get back. it did satisfy my curiousity however, regarding whether these things are worth trying. No is the conclusion.

I will have to ask the same question, what's up with all of the one star reviews?

I bought one at out local Bed Bath and Beyond after reading what amazing things this steamer does and decided why not try it for myself and make my own decision. I immediately fell in love with it. Granted, there were some things that the infomercial showed that weren't very true or at least didn't work for me, but overall I love it and plan on keeping it. Also considering purchasing their steam mop - I am that impressed.

Things I cleaned:

All cupboards, underneath them (filthy old grease from previous owners), stove top, microwave, refrigerator door handles (no chemical cleaner could get those handles to look white again) look brand new again. Used the scrubbing brush to get a lot of grease from the tiles behind and all around the stove, even the grout has gotten it's white color back. Used the purple scrubbing pad to get the inside of the oven cleaned, didn't do what the infomercial showed, but got some more grease and gunk off the door. Then put on the yellow squeegee pad and steam cleaned our glass dining room table - very impressed, proceeded to the bathroom to clean my glass shower - perfect, mirrors - great, no longer need windex (I did have to use a dry papertowel to wipe off excess water, but I didn't mind. Glass vanity table, stuck on hairspray came right off and the table looked spotless.
I also read a review about someone hating their kitchen floor grout and then they cleaned it to discover a whole new color, well I did the same exact thing. I figured, let's see if ours will get any lighter AND IT DID!!! I will say, that it does take some muscle to get the tough jobs done, but what did you expect? It's not a magic machine that will effortlessly clean all by itself. I wish I took pictures to show the difference, but I am very impressed and will take a day to clean out all of the grout in the kitchen to make it look pretty again.

The drawbacks:

As others have mentioned, constantly holding the trigger is a pain in the behind, but I got a velcro strip and that was done. A shoulder strap (as previously mentioned) would be nice, but didn't bother me, I simply placed it on the flat surface as I was working on an area. The water does run out somewhat fast (depending on what you're doing), but again, I didn't find it to be a problem to check the level and re-fill as needed. The long cord is a plus and a minus because you can trip over it if not careful.

To summarize, try it for yourself, don't rely on the reviews too much. Don't believe the infomercial 100% as the steamer didn't do a couple of those things. It does get very HOT (despite what others are saying) and I have a burn to prove it (reckless move on hand placement). I like it and like the idea of less chemicals being used around the house. This one is a keeper!!!

P.s. It is a water steamer, so yes, depending on what attachment you use, there will be water dripping (common sense people), so place a towel down or have a dry rag handy.

We had a Shark Floor cleaner that had worked fairly well until it died about a year later, figured it was a problem with over use and not always empty the tank. Saw the Portable Steam pocket and thought what a great idea. Excitedly brought it home. It worked for about 20 minutes and then no more steam. Spent another 40 minutes trying to get the steam back. Finally just returned it.