Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I did a lot of research on steam mops here on Amazon and elsewhere. I was ready to purchase the highly rated Eureka Enviro in large part due to the Aug 2009 review by Chandler. But that review is somewhat dated, this SI-70 is newer I believe. I was also concerned about the size of the Eureka mop head. I think it is important that the head swivel and in this case, the HAAN does an excellent job of getting into areas I suspect would be impossible for the Eureka. I also wanted a unit I could use as a stand-alone steamer. My past experience with Steam was a rather old and inexpensive unit called Steam Buddy or something like that. It did a reasonable job on the floors and as a standalone. But the HAAN is vastly superior. So here is my findings after using the SI-70 for a week. As mentioned, the mop head is a great size and easily moved into different positions thanks to the way it swivels. Kind of reminds me of my Dyson Ball. Easy to get into all kinds of tough areas. The time to heat the water is very fast. 20-30 seconds advertised is correct. That old Steam Buddy must have taken 4-5 minutes. The HAAN doesn't put out a lot of visible steam or make the floor really wet. This is a good thing! For one, the floor dries very fast. I'm working on ceramic tile in my new home and the HAAN clearly gets the floor `wet', and it cleans it but leaves a minimum of moisture. You can clean an area of the floor and if you have to, walk over it maybe 1 minute later. Not putting out excess steam also means that it will not run out of water quickly like the older unit. The claim of 20 minutes of steam is accurate. The unit can be removed from the body for standalone stemming tool easily and quickly, then pop back in the same. It is useful to have a stand-alone unit for the grill, toilet, the small pad that fits on the unit did a really nice job on my man-made granite counter tops. The unit is pretty light and easy to move about. Another plus is the removable bottle that holds the water. Very easy to snap out, refill and move back into the unit to get back to cleaning. Some have said the cord is too short. Well no cord is going to be long enough for many but a good extension cord solves that little issue. Putting the unit together took about a minute. It has a nice cord wrap that also works as a hook to hang the unit. I think the quality of the two pads provided is very good. They are thick and well made. While I recommend you vacuum before any moping, I did try the HAAN a couple days after the last vacuum and the pads picked up a lot of stuff (I have three dogs). The floors are streak free which is big plus for this unit. If I use a conventional mop or the old Steam Buddy, I could see streaking. Not with the HAAN. At an angle with the right lighting, the floors look absolutely streak free after using the HAAN that would show streaks using either a mop or the older steam unit I like the idea of using steam instead of costly and sometimes nasty chemicals. That said, my Thermapen thermometer showed that steam out of the think fabric was about 190 or so. Over 200 out of the unit in stand-alone mode. I'm NOT a germanophobe! Even if the steam killed 99.9% of whatever, it will be back next time someone or some dog walks on the floor. What is really great about the HAAN is the floor feels and looks very clean! I should note that I'm not about to throw away the conventional mop. I think that I'll use the HAAN most of the time but every now and then, I'll pour a little Simple Green into a pale of hot water and use a good mop just to get to areas that no steam mop can get to. I don't think any one floor product is a prefect solution although the HAAN is faster, easier and does a really great job on areas it can access. So far I have zero complaints with this product. UPDATE 11-15-2013, today the Haan died on me. Started for a minute then died, no pump, no heat but a light. Not good but that said, since it's out of warranty and have pad's, I just ordered a new unit so I can recycle some of the original. Hopefully I can go year and a half without failure. Otherwise I love this unit (when working, it does a great job). But beware if others report failure after out of warranty time frame. UPDATE 04.18.2016 today the 2nd Haan wouldn’t activate the pump. I figured I had a 2nd unit that died out of warranty. Futzed around with it (turning on and off, shacking), the unit did turn on and did work but I'm wondering if it's going to die on me like the last. I'll keep the 5 stars for now, it's working. But if next time I use it, it dies again, it's going to be a 1 star review. Love the unit when it works, wondering if it's a piece of junk, I shouldn't lose two units in 4 years considering it's operated no more than twice a month max. UPDATE 03.30.20. 2nd unit died again. So now I'm giving this product 1 star. Amazon doesn't sell it any more which I suppose is good but if they do, pass. It is a nice unit while it works but the quality isn't up to par and you can't expect the unit to last more than a few years.