Use the power of steam to get your home clean

Steam cleaning can eliminate 99.9% of common household bacteria, making it an ideal solution for parents, pet owners, allergy sufferers, or just folk who like things to be squeaky clean. Steam mops are fabulous for cleaning hard flooring, carpets, and rugs, and some, like our overall choice, the Morphy Richards 9-in-1 Steam Cleaner can be quickly converted into handheld steam cleaners to spot steam clean in your kitchen, bathroom and all-around your home.

Best Overall: Morphy Richards 9-in-1 Steam Cleaner

This versatile Morphy Richards steam mop can be used in both an upright and a handheld mode. In the upright mode, you can clean hard floors and use the carpet glider attachment for the carpeted floor. At the push of a button, the mop transforms into a handheld cleaner, and the bundled attachments allow you to clean the likes of worktops, tiles, ovens, BBQs, windows, grout, upholstery and more.

The mop heats up in 30 seconds then offers continuous steam, the 400ml water capacity will give you a clean time of 15 minutes between refills. The design of the floorhead is manoeuvrable for easier handling, and the power cable measures five meters, giving you enough room to clean, although not as much freedom as some rival models.

Pros:

• 400ml capacity
• Ready to use in 30 seconds
• 15 minutes clean time
• 1,500 watts

Cons:

• 3kg
• 5m cable

Best Overall

Morphy Richards 9-in-1 Steam Cleaner

• £59 at Amazon

Top mop

This has you covered for hard floors, carpets, and spot steam cleaning around the home.

Best Value: Russell Hobbs RHSM1001-G Steam and Clean Steam Mop

With no handheld mode, this is a floor-only option, but this Russell Hobbs steam mop does offer a rapid warm-up time of between 10 and 20 seconds and gives you 15 minute's worth of steam cleaning time, so should be plenty long enough to do at least one floor between tank refills.

The angular, rotating swivel floorhead is useful for getting into corners, and the two included microfibre cleaning pads can be machine washed after use. There's also a carpet glider attachment so you can steam clean rugs and carpeted floors.

Pros:

• Ready to use in 20 seconds
• 15 minutes cleaning time
• Machine washable microfibre pads
• Low profile swivel mop head
• 2.3kg

Cons:

• 380ml capacity
• No handheld mode
• 1,189 watts
• 5m cable

Best Value

Russell Hobbs RHSM1001-G Steam and Clean Steam Mop

• £34 at Amazon

Steamin'

Washable microfibre pads help make this an excellent everyday solution for regular steam cleaning.

Best for Hard Floors: Shark S6003UK Klik'n'Flip Smartronic Deluxe Mop

This "deluxe" option from Shark brings you "Dirt Grip Technology" with a set of two double-sided microfibre pads. They click onto the floorhead and offer a touch-free way of detaching them when you've finished cleaning, so you can drop them straight into the washing machine.

While there is no handheld mode with this product, it is recommended if you're looking for a super-efficient floor cleaning solution. The "Steam Blaster" mode offers a direct blast of concentrated superheated steam from the nozzle for especially grubby areas, while there are three steam settings to clean all types of sealed hard floors including hardwood, marble, tile and stone.

Pros:

• 3 Intelligent steam control settings
• Machine washable microfibre pads
• Steam Blaster mode
• 8m cable
• Swivel steering

Cons:

• Only 11.5 minutes clean time
• 3.2 kg
• 1,200 watts
• No handheld cleaning mode

Best for Hard Floors

Shark S6003UK Klik'n'Flip Smartronic Deluxe Mop

• £87 at Amazon

Blast away

The Shark has no handheld mode, but it's the ultimate floor cleaning steam mop.

Best for Deep Cleaning: Vax S86-SF-CC Steam Fresh Combi Classic Multifunction Steam Mop

This Vax mop converts into a handheld steam cleaner with no less than 13 tools and accessories stored onboard the mop so that you can clean taps, tiles, windows, hobs, ovens, grout, upholstery, mirrors and more. From the floor cleaning perspective, the angular floorhead is perfect for corners, and there's a built-in 200ml cleaning solution tank so you can go to town on grease and grime and enjoy a fresh-smelling result.

The Vax S86-SF-CC Steam Fresh Combi Classic heats up in 20 seconds and offers 15 minutes of cleaning time with a steam flow rate of 15 grams per minute.

Pros:

• Ready to use in 20 seconds
• 15 minutes clean time
• Variable steam control
• 200ml cleaning solution tank
• 7m cable
• 1,600 watts

Cons:

• 3.69kg
• 260ml capacity

Best for Deep Cleaning

Vax S86-SF-CC Steam Fresh Combi Classic Multifunction Steam Mop

• £70 at Amazon

Chemical attraction

This Vax mop offers a steam plus detergent solution for better tacking grease and grime.

Dream steam

As you can see from our carefully curated selection, the best steam mops available today aren't expensive and offer capable and comprehensive cleaning abilities to get your floors spotless.

We'd recommend opting for a product that can convert into a handheld steam cleaner too, like our overall best choice the Morphy Richards 9-in-1 Steam Cleaner which heats up fast, offers a decent clean time and can be used to sanitise your bathroom and kitchen too.

If deep cleaning is essential to you, and you want to use detergent as well as steam for a belts-and-braces mopping session, consider the Vax Steam Mop as this has a dedicated tank to add in a cleaning solution.

Credits — The team that worked on this guide

Amy-Mae Turner Living in a busy household with multiple dirty paws, muddy boots and a range of flooring from hardwood to tiles via laminate, Amy-Mae was a natural choice to investigate steam mops.