Karcher SC1 Steam Stick review

The Karcher SC1 is a portable steam cleaner at an entry level price point. If you’re unsure about what exactly it is you want out of a steam cleaner, this has pretty much every feature you can think of, thanks to a wide array of extras.

Design

The baby brother of the Karcher line, the SC1 is the cheapest, lightest and smallest of the range, functioning as both a steam mop for tiled floors and a steam cleaner with a flexible hose for those harder to reach areas. Weighing in at just 1.6kg, the multifunction steam cleaner comes with a handful of accessories, which can be put to good use in a surprising amount of different cleaning situations. Its sleek and compact design is perfect for easy storage, too, and there’s a bag for all the smaller accessories too.

The steam cleaner is incredibly easy to operate with accessories and attachments easily attached and disassembled with ease. Out of the box, the SC1 comes with two 0.5m extension tubes, extending the reach for those difficult to get to areas, or doubling up to turn it into a makeshift steam mop. There’s a mop head for that purpose, small and medium brushes, plus two nozzles for more intense cleaning. All these can fit on the short flexible hose provided as well.

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If you’ve got young ones running around, the lock button is very handy, since the large button to produce steam is easily pressed. You can lock the steam button off when heating the water up, making it safe from little hands. A large light on the side lets you know if the device is on and hot, while you’re also unable to access the water tank when the Karcher SC1 is in use, with the internal pressure locking the screw-down lid in place.

The water tank capacity is on the small side at just 0.2 litres, with average steaming time unsurprisingly coming up short at just over 7 minutes between refills. This is somewhat lacklustre compared to larger steam cleaners such as the 0.4 litre tank on the Morphy Richards 12-in-1, with its 14 minute total steam time. Given its size and portability though, I’d say it’s a more than reasonable trade-off.

Cleaning performance

During testing the Karcher SC1 could easily handle any cleaning situation I threw at it. Using the nozzle for steam cleaning with the extended tubes, the 6.2m total reach meant that I could work all the way around our test kitchen. After a lengthy three minute heat-up time, which is considerably longer than the 20 seconds of the Vileda Steam Mop, I got to work on the wall tiles in the kitchen.

The handheld Karcher handled the mouldy grout between the tiles with ease and a clear difference could be seen between tiles I had cleaned and others that I left alone. It only took around 1 minute of solid work and parts of the kitchen were already white and sparkly again. I could access difficult to reach places thanks to the handy thin nozzle.

I did find that the Steam Stick was particularly heavy during extended use though, proving to be quite taxing for the arms due to its one handed design. Elderly users might struggle with it, especially considering the button needs to constantly be pressed down with one hand while the other is used to navigate the hose. It would be best to get your thumb exercises in before using it. That said, the flexible hose means you can often set it down while cleaning.

The Karcher SC1 did struggle a little when used as a mop, requiring multiple strokes to get rid of the stains, but did the job in the end. I did have to apply a fair amount of elbow grease to get rid of the tough stains too. There’s no steam variable setting, you just have to make do with what you’ve got.

Conclusion

The Karcher SC1 Steam Stick is a handy and versatile steam cleaner, with a wide range of accessories included in the box, that’s able to handle pretty much any cleaning scenario you throw at it. The steam cleaner function is excellent and able to reach some particularly tricky locations, with noticeable results in just a few seconds.

It even held its own against other dedicated steam mops when cleaning hard floors and even got better results than some more expensive cleaners. Yes, the heat up time is long, the water tank is on the small side and the device is a little heavy during extended use, but the portability and sheer convenience of the SC1 Steam Stick outweighs these minor downsides. If you do want a purebred steam mop then check out the Vileda Steam Mop instead.

The handy and versatile Karcher SC1 Steam Stick is a great buy for anyone wanting that bit of extra help with cleaning around the home. Buy Karcher SC1 Steam Stick on Amazon.