Yes, You Need to Clean Your Steamer
A few years ago, I got inspired and put cheap perfume in the steamer, thinking that my clothes would smell nice after I ironed them. It didn’t work. Some time later, I noticed crystals accumulating inside the steamer and concluded that I must have confused them with perfume. However, this week I came across information that lifted my spirits: All steamers contain crystals due to minerals in the water they heat and discard, which means the problem was not due to my idiotic behavior. Hooray! Unfortunately, this means that we will have to clean our steamers regularly. Boo!
Cleaning a steamer is actually not that difficult. I found this out when I rummaged through my closets for a long-discarded crystallized laundry tool. Here’s what I found.
How to clean a steamer
I’ve been reading about this process for a while and discovered that all you have to do is pour a little vinegar on that bad boy – or so they say. I obediently filled the steamer with distilled white vinegar and immediately noticed that some crystals were floating to the top. Gross! After this, you will have to wait 20-30 minutes for the vinegar to actually dissolve the dirt, which is what I did. Leaving it unplugged in the sink, I let the vinegar do its work.
The next step is to plug it into an outlet, turn it on, and let the vinegar come out of the spout, just like water normally does. I assessed the situation and decided that I didn’t want crystals coming out through the nozzle, so I poured the vinegar down the drain and decided to refill it and vaporize a second round. To my horror, it was still quite mineralized, so I grabbed an old toothbrush and cleaned it. This had very little effect, which helped me understand why the second step of forcing the vinegar through the nozzle is so important: it needs to heat up there.
I filled it up and turned on the car. It got as hot as I remember, God bless it, but the vinegar didn’t mist. Rather, it gushed in streams all over my shell. I don’t know the science behind this, but it was a little scary, so keep in mind that you should keep a close eye on your steamer as you complete this step. When it was finished, I opened it… and saw minimal improvement. True, no one has touched this ship since 2019, when the perfume incident occurred. Things are probably much worse than yours. But what better way to tell if the vinegar trick is working than by cleaning a very dirty item?
I scrubbed with the toothbrush some more, then refilled it a third time and repeated the heating and dispersing process. This time, after brushing more vigorously, I saw significant improvement. Vinegar really helps clean the steamer. I rinsed it and promised to do a third pass later once it’s cooled, but once you’re done running the vinegar through the machine, be sure to fill the reservoir with water and drain that too, for good measure. sweep.
How often to clean your steamer
In general, you should clean your steamer every two months to keep it working well. One of the reasons I stopped using mine and bought a new one was because it stopped working properly once I started noticing crystals. The good news is that I was wrong and there was nothing I could do about them. The bad news is that you’ll have to add vinegar every two months (or monthly if you use it daily), and I won’t lie: it stinks.
If you’re not sure how often you should clean it, use your judgment, but always do it if it starts sputtering water, you see visible crystals, or you’re about to use it to disinfect your home.