Does It Work? The Scunci Steamer

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By By Connie Thompson

Summary

The Scunci Steamer is a pressurized steam cleaner that boasts cleaning and degreasing like nothing else can, so we put it to the test.

Story Published: Aug 17, 2005 at 3:51 PM PDT

Story Updated: Jul 24, 2009 at 12:04 PM PDT

Does It Work? The Scunci Steamer
SEATTLE - Every time you turn around, it seems like there's another household cleaning product claiming to out-clean all the rest.

KOMO 4 News viewer Jim Carl asked us to check out the Scunci Steamer.

"Is it all that its cracked up to be?" he writes by e-mail.

The Scunci Steamer is a 1,000 watt pressurized steam cleaner that boasts cleaning and decreasing like nothing else can.

Jim was not able to help us with the test but I found a perfect volunteer in Karen Ruder of Covington.

The Scunci Steamer claims twice the water capacity of comparable steamers. Even better: it claims to get rid of soap scum on shower doors, baked on grease in the kitchen, grease on tires -- hundreds of uses.

Connie: "You've never heard of this? Karen: "I've never heard of this."

Use a funnel to pour 9 ounces of water into the steamer, replace the cap, attach the hose and desired tip -- we choose a long nozzle -- and plug it in.

Karen's first target is baked-on grease on the kitchen stove drip pans. She's already tried everything.

"SOS pads, Comet, anything you can get your hands on," she says.

Steam hisses when she presses the trigger with her thumb. As the steam goes to work, we see brownish white stuff -- melted fat.

"Oh, it looks like it's loosening it up."

We switch to a scrub brush attachment. After just a few minutes, Karen is pleasantly shocked.

"Yeah, I'm shocked, because we have worked so hard to clean these."

I asked her at this point would you pay $60 for one?

"Yes!"

Well we haven't even done the shower doors yet!

"I know, but if it's gonna do this, I've got high hopes for the shower doors!"

Now, this is not the first time Karen's taken steam to her shower doors, but so far, the soap scum buildup has been winning.

She starts steam cleaning her shower door outside in the yard, The scum is stubborn, but it's loosening under the steam pressure. You can see it even better on the aluminum frame.

"I think it's pretty great!"

It's not 'instant' success and you do need a lot of scrubbing, but Karen is sold.

"Thumbs up! I'd buy it. I see a lot of places around the house where we could use it."

So, does it work? Yes. But don't expect it work instantly on everything. With dried on dirt, plan on scrubbing and using some elbow grease.

It can also be heavy and cumbersome and when it runs out of water, you have to wait much longer than the 5 minutes it says on the box for it to cool down so you can refill.

Scunci Steamer sells for around $60 at places like Fred Meyer, the As Seen On TV Store, and many online stores like Target.com and Amazon.com.

For More Information:

Other consumer reviews -- www.epinions.com.