Oreck Steam-It Review and Giveaway!

Update: Contest now closed - winner will be announced tomorrow!

Hi folks! I'm here today with a review and giveaway that would absolutely make my teenage self roll my eyes... but makes my adult home-owning self oh so happy! (See Mom, I do my chores!)

The huge prize up for grabs is... a steam mop from Oreck!

The Oreck Steam-It comes with six different attachments to help you clean a variety of surfaces... including floors, windows, floor or shower tile, carpets, upholstery, windows, glass showers, drapery, countertops, marble, and more.

The Steam-It retails for $179.99 and will be provided to the winner by Oreck. This review and giveaway is sponsored by The Freckled Citizen.



Why do I need a steam mop, you're asking yourself? Well, I asked myself the same question when the nice folks at Oreck contacted me about giving one away to a reader. Here's what I discovered as I tested the Steam-It in my own home: by utilizing the simple power of steam, I can deep-clean our home without the use of chemical cleaners that give me, for lack of a better term, the heebie-jeebies. In addition, the pads the Steam-It uses can be thrown in the washing machine and reused - the ultimate sustainable solution. Need more pads? Sure, you can order them online... but the universal clips on this tool will also hold any old washrag or handtowel you already own in place, and you can use those instead. No chemicals! No disposable pads to not-decompose in a landfill! I like it.

But how well does it work, you're asking yourself? I took the Steam-It on a spin in multiple areas of my house and took pictures for you.

 Ready to rumble... with the floor attachment in place:

You know that experience of using other mops that spray cleaning solution on the floor, and then when you're done you see streaks of cleaner everywhere? It always grosses me out. Or I think about Barbara Ehrenreich's 'Nickel and Dimed,' when she's working undercover as a maid and reveals that all they do is spread dirty water over the floor all day, every day, in every house. Double-gross out. This is how I appreciate the Steam-It the most - that it makes our 1906 floors look this good using only hot steam, without any chemicals whatsoever:

All types of flooring are a breeze to clean:

The Steam-It freshens up carpets, too. This is our entryway carpet, which tends to get the most traffic in the house, and it was freshened up nicely with the steam. I'm looking forward to trying it on our cats' favorite sleeping chairs, too. Alert to anyone who might be battling pet stains on carpets or upholstery: this little device just might change your world:

Next up I wanted to try the Steam-It's spot brush. We tend to get soap scum build-up around our kitchen faucet. Check out the results I got not from scrubbing it with a toothbrush and a harsh abrasive cleaner, but using only steam. Pretty impressive, right?:

The squeegee attachment on the Steam-It would have been a godsend in our last two apartments that had glass showers. I decided to try it on the upper windows of our walk-out dining room windows, which are too tall for me to reach without a big ladder. While I need to improve my technique to avoid streaks, I was again impressed with the power of steam alone (no chemicals! I'm a broken record!) to make these windows shine:

There you have it... now here's how you can win a Steam-It of your own:

Mandatory Entry: 

Visit Oreck.com and leave a comment that describes one thing you learned about the Steam-It. 

For Additional Entries:
(Make sure you leave me separate comments for each of your additional entries. There should be one separate comment for each of your additional entry options.)

• Follow @oreck on Twitter
• Like Oreck on Facebook 
• Sign up for Oreck’s email list by clicking on “Sign up for Email” in the top navigation bar and entering your email address. 
• Tweet about this giveaway and mention @oreck and @freckledcitizen. 

This giveaway will be open for one week, closing next Wednesday, November 2. I'll announce the winner on Thursday, November 3. Good luck! 

Important Details and Rules: The giveaway winner must be a resident of the U.S. 48 contiguous states. You must be 18 years and older to enter. No duplicate comments. Winner will be determined via drawing on random.org.  Odds of winning will be dependent upon total number of entries. Please leave a way for me to contact you if you win the Steam-It; otherwise, another winner will be chosen using random.org. This giveaway will run from October 26, 2011 until November 2, 2011.

Disclosure – I was given the Oreck DualMax Air Purifier to review and keep. All opinions stated in this post are entirely my own. Oreck Corporation provided the prize for the sweepstakes but is not the sponsor of the sweepstakes.