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Handheld Steamer: Before and After

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DBTech Handheld Steamer

A handheld steamer is a great addition to your cleaning regiment. Here’s my review of this steamer, how to use it, and what tasks it works best for.

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I posted on Facebook a while back about jumping on steam cleaning bandwagon so I figured I’d share my results with my handheld steam cleaner.  I got this and I’ve been running around the house testing it on everything for the past week.  Not joking. I test it on EVERYTHING.

Wondering what I’ve tried? Here’s a run down and a quick rating from 0-10 with 10 being the best. The rating is just pertaining to how well I feel it does performing that particular function.

  • Stains on carpet (Ranges: 0-6)
  • Stains on fabric (6)
  • Removing labels from wine bottles (6)
  • Stovetop (10)
  • Counters (10)
  • Cleaning inside of oven (1)
  • Flat paint (5)
  • Higher gloss paint (10)
  • Shower Door (10)

Buy the handheld steam cleaner that I have below:

Steam Cleaner for Stove Top

First, it works for cleaning up countertops, walls, mirrors, and other easier to wipe items beautifully. My stove top looks awesome with very no scrubbing involved. You steam, then wipe clean.

Before and after pictures of using a steam cleaner on a stove top.

Steam Cleaner for Walls

Higher gloss paint is easier to clean with it (obviously), but flat paint cleaned up better than I expected. I’ve been unable to clean mine without scrubbing and taking off a layer of drywall… I plan to repaint but wanted to wash walls a bit first. This will do an okay job. It took several runs with steam cleaner to get it somewhat clean though. Can’t blame the steam cleaner, this paint is awful to clean.

Before and after pictures of steam cleaner used for semi gloss paint walls.
Before and after pictures of steam cleaner used for flat paint walls.

Steam Cleaner for Microfiber

I tried it on very dirty “white” microfiber-like fabric that I was stupid enough to reupholster our nursery rocking chair with. Want to see how beautiful it was when I first made it? Check out my post on it. I’ve got two boys so it’s gross now.

At first I wasn’t too impressed with the before and after, but the after picture below is actually while it was still wet from all the steam/wetness. It looks much nicer dry and I suppose that means I’ll need to do the rest of the chair now too.

Steam cleaned microfiber couch, before and after

Steam Cleaner for Carpet Stains

Stains on Carpet- Worked pretty well for a recent stain, but I’ve got a mystery stain on nursery floor that it did absolutely nothing to help get clean. The recent stain was on our carpeted stairs so having such a small product to use was nice. Short cord though was an issue- I barely made it from the outlet to the stain.     

Steam Cleaning a Shower Door

It works GREAT on the shower door. Very fast to clean- spray, wipe, dry. You would still need to get into the cracks for grime with a scrub brush or toothbrush for the tough stuff, but it made my shower see through again! And it was EASY and FAST… unlike every other method I’ve tried. I only got an after picture before I couldn’t quite capture the grime for the before picture.

Glass shower door cleaned with a handheld steamer

Using a Steam Cleaner for the Inside of the Oven

It was worth a try, but it didn’t do much. I had to use my typical method for cleaning my oven to really get it clean. This may have helped a bit, but not worth getting it out in my opinion.

Removing Labels from Wine Bottles with Steam Cleaners

I had high hopes it would work on the wine bottles because I’ve got a ton of wine to bottle in about 10 days and I need to get all of my wine bottles ready to be reused.

The labels came off with the steam cleaner eventually, but with approximately the same amount of time and effort that I spent soaking them. I still end up with some sticky glue residue to remove. But no hogging the sink forever to wait for soaking.

Review of the DBTech Handheld Multi-Purpose Pressurized Steam Cleaner

Overall I’m very happy with this. It’s super small. It does a really good job on many things. And it’s affordable.

Things I’d like to see improved upon:

  • The cord is long-ish, but really needs to be longer to do a lot of cleaning. The cord won’t reach my shower so I can steam the inside of the shower doors. I think this will clean the doors awesome but I’ll need to get an extension cord. The plug is three pronged FYI for purchasing an extension cord.
  • They give you one washable microfiber pad. Awesome. I love that it’s reusable. But it’d be nice to have gotten a second. I’ll probably try to make one. 
  • I also will probably make something to store/carry the parts in. I don’t really want to keep the box. There are a LOT of parts which is good but I don’t want to lose any.
  • Tank is pretty small so you run out of water quick.

Safety Tips for a Handheld Steamer

Read the instructions… These are hot and blow hot steam. I am stupid and put my hand in front at one point. Didn’t burn myself, but not comfortable.

When you go to refill, you need to unplug it first. You unscrew the top a couple turns and let the steam release until it stops. Then you can finish unscrewing and refill. It’ll burn you if you aren’t careful.

You shouldn’t wash your windows with this if its 40*F or lower out- potential for window to crack. Heat on one side of glass and cold on the other can stress the glass.

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