Clothes Steamer

What's in a name?: famous steamers

Whether vapor or dry, household or travel-sized, clothes steamers provide you an easy way to both clean and de-wrinkle your garments. Here, we'll take a look at some of the steaming world’s famous names—and the products and processes behind them.

The Scunci Hand Held Steamer

The popular Scunci Hand Held Steamer offers the best in a steamer with a price tag just around $50. This steamer works the usual way; fill the boiler tank with water, turn the steamer on and, when ready, use any of the accompanying hose attachments to clean and steam your clothes. The heated vapor escaping from the nozzle dissolves dirt and gently smoothes wrinkles away. The Scunci steamer has an oversized water tank, is energy efficient, and can actually be used to clean and sanitize any number of upholstered or hard surfaces in your home. Keep in mind, though, that when using this steamer for a big job, the tank must have time to cool between fillings.

The Eureka Enviro Steamer

The Eureka Enviro Steamer is so handy it comes in two sizes: a larger, wheeled size for hefty domestic jobs and a small, hand-held "Hotshot" size for clothing care. Both come with an assortment of attachments, brushes and squeegees, as well as extended power cords. The Eureka Enviro Steamer is billed as being environmentally friendly; like any steamer, it uses water alone to produce its cleaning vapor. And because the vapor is so hot—generally, steamers heat water to 240 to 260 degrees Fahrenheit—it dissolves and evaporates dust mites, dander, and germs such as salmonella and E. coli.

Stanley Steemer

Perhaps the most famous name in the steaming business, Stanley Steemer Carpet Cleaners hails from San Diego, Calif., where it was started by Jack Bates in 1947. Named after the Stanley Steamer steam-powered automobile (made by the twin Stanley brothers in the early 1900s), Stanley Steemer's reputation was eventually built by Bates' grandson Steve Thompson. Thompson took over the business in the 70s—and, at the time, the "business" consisted of Thompson and a truck. Now headquartered in Ohio, Stanley Steemer has 300 centers across the nation. But Stanley Steemer technicians have little to do with clothing care; as the company's name would imply, it specializes in steam carpet cleaning, though it also offers a host of other home cleaning services and flooring products.

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