Good but not disappointing compared with their Vacuum range in terms of usability. Margin for improvement
4/5
Got this because I recently bought a Shark cordless vacuum cleaner, which was absolutely brilliant, but I was left feeling a bit underwhelmed by the mop in comparison. This could be because, being corded, it is obviously less convenient to use (but nobody seems to make cordless steam mops at the moment, so that's not necessarily a fault of the product), but there definitely does seem to be room for improvement in terms of usability.
1. There is no indication on the water reservoir to indicate when it is at minimum or maximum capacity, or how much water there is remaining in the tank. The instruction manual just says "it will stop producing steam" when it runs out, which isn't very helpful!
2. There isn't a simple 'on/off' switch - you just have to press the one button, which toggles between 'high', 'low', 'tools' and 'stand-by' (both 'high' and 'low' lights flash). This can be really confusing and stressful when trying to turn it off for the first time and realise you don't know how!
3. There are lot of tools and accessories (they look pretty comprehensive, although I haven't yet had the opportunity to try them out!) but, unlike with the VC, no bag is supplied in which to store them and they can't be stored 'on board' the mop. I've therefore put them in my existing 'Shark' bag along with the accessories for the VC but that is now full and they are spilling out!
4. The mop pad was very easy to remove and 'flip' to use the other side (a great feature!) but the procedure for producing a "steam blast" seemed somewhat convoluted, when I'm sure it would be much easier to have a simple trigger or button on the handle! The mop itself isn't *that* light, so 'flipping' and 'squeezing' just to get a blast of steam (and potentially putting the 'dirty' side of the pad on the floor you've just mopped) seems a bit odd.
On the plus side, it did leave the floor really clean without making it soaking wet and it therefore dried really quickly afterwards. I also managed to do a Kitchen, Utility, Hallway and downstairs Loo on one tank on the 'high' setting, which was something I was concerned it might not manage based on the advertised 15 minute run-time.
I will come back and update my review once I've had a chance to try out the tools.