This is one of my Top 10 Favorite Amazon Purchases. If you like short reviews, my second to last section is pretty much a summary of why I find the Bissell Steam Mop far superior to the Shark Steam Mop.

I've been trying to write more in-depth, detailed reviews with pictures and videos. On this steam mop, there's tons of great reviews and videos already and I don't think I can make one that's better. I did want to throw my hat in the ring with those who LOVE this steam mop. My review will focus on how much more happy I am with this steam mop than with the Shark Steam Mops I had in the past.

♦I Got a Shark!
Our house is about 2100 sq ft and every inch except for the garage and the kitchen area is ceramic tile. The kitchen area is laminate for now (i.e. steam-moppable). I remember thinking, I am never going to scrub these floors on my hands and knees. I was impressed by the infomercial and read many reviews on the Shark. The negative ones mostly mentioned about how the plastic shaft broke by putting too much pressure on it. This didn't seem too bad to me, so I went ahead and purchased it new for about eighty to a hundred bucks at a local store around the time we moved in about 5 years ago.

♦It Worked Great "“ Until It Didn't!
I was delighted to find out how well the Shark cleaned the floors and was always careful to be gentle as possible to avoid breaking the plastic. I admit I didn't 100% understand the difference between distilled and filtered water, so I always used bottled water. I'll also admit that I am not a clean freak: I clean to relieve stress, for company, or when it's getting really bad, even by my not-so-high standards. The first Shark lasted for several years of infrequent use. My mother accidentally broke it when cleaning once and replaced it with one from the second-hand store.

The one she purchased for me worked for a while. I think I got a third from the second-hand store as well. That one stopped working a few months ago. I tried another two from the thrift but neither worked. At this point, I was just about done with Sharks "“ I didn't see any at the second hand store and I wasn't about to buy another one for full price. A few months ago we had houseguests coming, so I searched on Amazon for several hours and this Bissell appealed to me the most.

♦Hail Mary Pass! Fail.
I was about to purchase it but wondered if any of the literally 3-4 Sharks I had in my laundry room could be fixed. I read several articles on the Sharks not working due to being clogged with mineral deposits. I tried the pipe cleaner, the paperclip, and CLR; unfortunately, nothing worked. At this point, I decided to cut my losses and ordered the Bissell.

♦Hello Bissell "“ Where were you all my life?
I was impressed by the Bissell immediately upon taking it out of the box. Here are my thoughts on the differences between the two:

•The Bissell is significantly sturdier and of a much higher quality than the Shark. I wish I would have taken side-by-side pictures, but I immediately trashed the Sharks upon using the Bissell for the first time.

•The water tank on the Shark is small. It is built into the unit, which is inconvenient when it comes to re-filling. The hole to pour water in is tiny. It's nice that they provide a tiny funnel, but that's just something else to store and/or lose and I'd rather have an opening big enough where I didn't need a funnel. The Bissell tank is much larger. It is removable and the opening is very easy to fill. We can mop so much more of the floor on one Bissell water tank than we could with the Shark.
**I am not sure if my other Shark issues were possibly caused by not using distilled water; I want to keep my Bissell for a long time, so I am making it a point to keep several gallons of distilled water on hand for those times when I am in the cleaning mood.

•I find that the Bissell cleans just as well as the Shark, and I wouldn't be surprised if it worked better and allowed me to clean it faster if I was able to do a side-by-side comparison. We haven't used the scrubby brush yet.

•The Bissell stands up by itself; the Shark does not (if not propped against something, it will fall). I am definitely someone who has a tendency to knock things over so I won't be leaving the Bissell in a room upright for an extended period of time, but I find this very convenient when I am moving from room to room, or refilling the water tank. I may also get motivated one day to leave it running on the floor to try to clean the grout lines. There was no way to do this with the Shark.

•My mother was able to find many Shark pads at the second hand store. I still have about ten of them in a container, in hopes that I'll find a way to be able to use them with the Bissell. Extra Bissell pads are expensive. I purchased a pack of 2 on Amazon, since if the cleaning bug hits me, I don't want to be forced to wait to finish mopping until after laundering the pads. I wish the Bissell pads were cheaper, but the replacements did fit perfectly and work as well as the originals. I have no complaints about the quality. http://amzn.com/B00A6G37SU

•I didn't use and I have no intention of using fragrance disks. I don't like artificial fragrances, although I do like essential oils. I read some people put a few drops in the water tank, and I bet they smell great, but I plan on just using water. My main concern is that the Bissell continues to work as long as possible, and I don't want to add anything that could potentially clog or degrade the system.
**Edit: Please read the excellent comment another reviewer added regarding the warranty. I find this information very important.**

♦Last Word
I feel somewhat hypocritical in being harsh on the Shark for not lasting longer when I did have my first at least two years for sure, and I've only had the Bissell a few months (so I don't know for sure how long it will last). The difference in quality between the two, even at first sight, is remarkable, so I would be very surprised if the Bissell did not outlive the Shark. I will update my review if anything changes for the better or worse.

This is probably the best purchase I've ever made in terms of functionality, design, and cost.

I bought this to replace an Oreck Steam Cleaner that I owned for 2 years. When in failed, the cost to replace the parts were just $25 less than the cost of buying a new one (and the parts are only guaranteed for 30 days!) So I decided to move on and see what else was out there in the world of steam mops, and I am SO glad I did. I LOVE this Bissell!

First of all, the Bissell has a removable water tank. (The Oreck required you to lean the whole mop over and use a tiny funnel to get water into it's internal reservoir...messy!) The capacity of the water tank isn't as much as the Oreck, but one tank's worth was enough for me to mop 6 rooms and a hallway, so it was plenty.

The Oreck stands on it's own. This seems like something that all steam mops would do, but no. The Oreck only leaned against things, and of course, fell over a lot.

The mop head of the Bissell is about twice the surface area of the Oreck. This means that you are getting your floors cleaned faster!

Attaching the mop pads is SO much easier with the Bissell! The Oreck had 4 snap lock gator teeth that would hold the pad in place, which required holding the mop like you were riding a broom stick, while you wrestled with it, hoping you didn't get your fingers snapped by the gator teeth clips. The Bissell's mop pad just attaches with elastic that fits easily inside a groove. Done in seconds! The pads are machine washable, and seem to be high quality.

The Bissell mop head swivels! This makes it so much easier when you're trying to mop hard to reach areas. The Oreck was stationary, so you had to do the contortions necessary to reach out of the way spots. The Bissell's mop head moves with just a twist of your wrist.

The cords for both the Oreck and the Bissell are very long, which is helpful. However, the Oreck didn't have any real way to wind up the cord when you were done...the Bissell does. Super easy! The Bissell also has a little clip on the underside of the handle that holds the cord out of the path of the mop. This is a super handy feature that the Oreck does not have.

Both machines allow for variable steam output. The Bissell has 3 buttons for steam output, while the Oreck has a dial. My experience with the Oreck was that the steam output was almost always too much, on any setting, and would leave the floor wetter than it needed to be. The Bissell, even at the highest output, does not overwhelm the capacity of the mop pad.

The Bissell does not leave streaks like the Oreck did. The Oreck often just pushed dirty water around, much like a real mop would do, but the Bissell leaves everything clean. I suspect this is because the mop pad of the Bissell can retain more moisture before reaching the saturation point than the significantly smaller Oreck's pad can.

The Bissell does have scent pads that are put into a slot withing the mop pad. The Oreck sells essential oils that you can add to the water. I have personally not used the scent pad, as I have parrots that are sensitive to any fragrance. However, I will say that it's easy to tell that this would be a simple thing to add and remove.

As far as power to clean goes, the Bissell once again outshines the Oreck dramatically! I have 2 parrots, a German shepherd, a musician husband, and a teenage son. This machine is like the Magic Eraser of steam mops! While it cleans most spills/stains on the first pass, should you reach an especially sticky or difficult spot, simply park the machine on top of the stain for a few seconds, and then mop over it again.

Cleaning with the Bissell is FAST. The floor dries almost instantly. I have used this steam mop on genuine hard wood floors, tile, and two types of laminate flooring (the expensive kind and the cheap kind). It works perfectly on all of them.

I am not in anyway affiliated with Bissell, so believe me when I tell you that this is the best product I have ever purchased, and it has made my life so much easier. This is a BARGAIN. You will not be sorry with your purchase, you'll only be sorry you didn't buy it sooner!

PS: As with all steam mops...use distilled water. It will save you problems with mineral deposit build ups later. The distilled water is easy to find and super cheap...a gallon is about $1 and will last you many moppings.

Although very optimistic about this purchase, after following the instructions TO THE LETTER, and only using distilled water, it failed to produce steam after only one use. How disappointing! I DO NOT recommend this product at all. Accordingly, I am sending it back for a refund. I will, most likely, order a HAAN steam cleaner to replace this Bissell failure.

UPDATE #1: I posted the above review several hours ago after trying to use my Bissell PowerFresh Steam Mop for only the second time. Of course, as I explained above, the steamer failed to work, prompting me to request a return shipping label for a refund; however, before packing the unit up, I looked online for possible fixes to my problems and came across this U-Tube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz8OvV30sHM

I tried the half-CLR / half-Distilled Water mixture (poured directly into the water reservoir) and let it sit for approximately three hours. Upon turning on the unit to see if it would make steam "¦. NOTHING "¦. but wait! "¦. after trying for several second without success, I (as they did in the video) shook the steamer from side to side quite forcefully and "¦ BLAMMO "¦. a strong burst of steam suddenly came exploding from the steam mop head and it began functioning absolutely perfectly, as if nothing was ever wrong. I immediately powered the steam mop down and promptly emptied the water reservoir of the CLR mixture, rinsed the reservoir out good, then refilled the reservoir with clean, fresh distilled water. Afterwards, I was able to mop my entire tiled kitchen, tiled hallways, and tiled bathrooms with nary a hitch. The Bissell Steam Mop operated exactly as it was designed.

In retrospect, now that I see how the Bissell Powerfresh Steam Mop operates when it is working properly, I realize that the first time I used the steam mop, the steamer was not putting out the proper amount of steam. Obviously, there was a clog in the unit when I unboxed it, when lends me to believe that Amazon shipped me a unit that had been returned. I come to that conclusion based on the fact that the box the Bissell PowerFresh Steam Mop arrived in from Amazon was a plain brown cardboard box, unlike one you would expect from a manufacturer. While I was at Sears yesterday, I looked at some Bissell PowerFresh Steam Mops that were displayed for sale and (unlike the box I received from Amazon) the boxes were very colorful with bold pictures of the steam mop proudly displayed on each side. Quite a difference!

I'm going to keep the return label that I downloaded from Amazon's website for at least a couple of weeks since I may still very well return it. It kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth that Amazon (to my belief) sent me a used/returned unit. I will give it another try or two before I decide whether or not to return it. However, I WILL upgrade my rating, just slightly (to 3 Stars), because the Bissell PowerFresh Steam Mop DID do a beautiful job on my floors after it was flushed with whatever debris/gunk was clogging the steamer flow tubes. Indeed I was VERY impressed with the overall simplicity of operation, the amount of steam that contacted the floor, and the finished cleanliness of the finished floors. Quite nice!

Recommended "¦ but with caution!

UPDATE #2: Okay "¦. it's official "¦ the Bissell Powerfresh Steam Mop is a piece of CRAP! Today I attempted to use it for the third time and, AGAIN, it would not operate. It required yet another dose of CLR before the steamer mechanism came to life. Accordingly, I am reducing my review to only one star, but that's only because I can't give it ZERO stars.

NOT RECOMMENDED!!!

UPDATE #3: August 22, 2015 "¦. Today I was at Sears in Savannah, GA and purchased a new Bissell Powerfresh Steam Mop. As noted above in my earlier review, the steam mop I received from Amazon was packaged in a plain brown cardboard box, void of any embellishment or product photos. This, of course, led me to believe I might have been sent a repackaged unit by Amazon, perhaps a defective unit that was previously returned. Regardless, the Powerfresh that I received from Amazon NEVER worked properly. Fast forward to today "¦. the Bissell Powerfresh Steam Mop that I purchased from Sears (unlike the one from Amazon) was contained inside a very colorful cardboard box, adorned with photos of the product and highly descriptive information. I purchased the unit for $89, and paid an additional $18 for a 2-year replacement warranty. I brought the Bissell Powerfresh Steam Mop home and assembled it according to the instructions (which is VERY simple). After assembly, I poured fresh distilled water into the reservoir and plugged in the unit. YES! "¦. The Bissell Powerfresh Steam Mop that I purchased from Sears fired right up and within one minute was pumping away steam like an old locomotive! I immediately steam mopped my tile kitchen, tile hallway, and tiled bathrooms with nary a hitch. It worked beautifully and the resulting cleaned floors looked fantastic!

Acccordingly, I am now escalating my star-rating from 1 to 5. Yes, it was a frustrating and annoying beginning to my relationship with the Bissell, but the unit that I purchased today worked so well and did such a fantastic job on my floors, I have to give it a max-rating. Would I purchase the Bissell Powerfresh Steam Mop from Amazon? "¦. HELL NO "¦. Would I purchase the Bissell Powerfresh Steam Mop from a local department store? "¦.. YES YES YES! At the moment I whole-heartedly recommend the Bissell Powerfresh Steam Mop; however, it I run into issues in the future I will most certainly provide an update.

Let me preface this by saying I live on a cattle ranch. If it's not dusty, it's muddy. I also have a toddler.

I originally received this mop as a wedding gift 7+ years ago. I used it regularly and it worked great. I didn't have anything to compare it too. Because I am cheap I used regular ol sink water (well) and not distilled. After 5 years of regular use (every 2-4 weeks, don't judge me, who actually has time to mop every week!) it stopped steaming. Probably clogged with hard water minerals.

I bought a different brand and it was terrible. I won't even get into it but I picked a different one because I like the detachable feature so I could use it on the shower, windows, etc. That part was great but for actually mopping it sucked and let's just say you could tell I didn't mop every week. I bought another one of these bissells with the little scrubber.

Here's what I like in no particular order:
- it gets good and steamy and it's hot.
- it cleans well evidenced by the mop pad being completely dirty and the floor appearing clean. The mop pad isn't uneven dirty either like that interim mop I purchased. I don't see streaks on the floor.
- the scrubby thing. Not sure why all mops don't have one of these. I run the mop over the sticky mess (or whatever mess) and then use my foot to scrub and ta-da. Love that scrubber thing. Precious mop I was down on my hands and knees with something to scrub off leftover food.
- other reviews I read while searching for my last mop mentioned cord length. I don't live in a big house and I change the pad a couple times just because so honestly I could care less about this but if it's important to you this cord is much longer than the last mop I bought. I'm sure the description gives you actual length.
- being able to pull out the water reservoir is nice. Didn't realize that until I couldn't with the last mop. In my original bissell a piece broke on the water reservoir cap but I was able to buy a replacement easily.
- you can buy extra mop pads

I've learned to put some white vinegar in there and that helps keep the minerals from ruining your mop if your on well water and too cheap to buy distilled like me.

Finally, let's be honest, no mop is going to magically clean your floor. Some elbow grease is required and maybe a couple passes. But keeping a ranch house clean (clean enough it's not the end of the world if my toddler is eating off the floor daily) is not for the faint of heart. Steam mops are pretty handy (should have mentioned I have all tile floors) and that scrubber feature makes this mop #1 in my book.

Hi. I'm an artist. Which means I don't earn much... but all the chores of a house husband. I don't mind most chores. I do windows, despise dusting, and resent mopping. But you have to mop the porcelain floors or you can't invite guests over.

It took a long time for me to figure out how to mop properly. I used one of those sponge mops (which you can pull back into itself to ring out the dirty water). Instead of ringing out into the same bucket, I'd ring into the sink and even wash the sponge. Picture this. Even in a moderately sized condo, I'd rinse the mop at least 20 times during once mopping. That's a lot of hot water. So is the two gallon bucket I'd have to fill with Simple Green. Gallons of water and chemicals.

And when I was done? MEH said the floor. It was better but not optimal.

So my mop broke and I went to replace it. Couldn't. The Rollomatic was no longer at OSH. Which sucks because I have a replacement head that's now useless. I went to Amazon to see if they carry it. They do, but they also carry this Bissell baby.

It looks like cheap plastic. Know why? To keep it light. If it were metal you'd never use it. This light design is just right and about 1/4th of the work of the Rollomatic. And there's no bucket to move around. The 'bucket' is a small reservoir that could hold two cans of Coke in it. Maybe one and half.

When you open the box, assembly should be easy but for one thing: when you attach the handle to the unit, the handle can be slid in upside down. Which means when you go to put the one screw in it mysteriously won't work. I'm not the handyman type but I know 'engineers' can paint on a little red line on the handle and unit and tell us to make them 'match' each other to avoid this mistake. Or shape the rod in such a way that it can only slide in the correct way. A silly little design flaw.

Okay. There's no on or off switch. You just plug in. A little blue light blinks. About a minute later it's ready. Then you pick what steaming power you want. Light, Medium, Heavy. Understand the unit comes wearing a 'gentle mop' and includes a 'scrubby mop' in the box. So it therefore comes with six levels of intensity: gentle light, gentle medium, gentle heavy, scrubby light, scrubby medium, scrubby heavy.

I put off buying a new mop for ages and so it was particularly dirty. On my tile floor in the kitchen and major walkways, scrubby mop/heavy steam was needed. In other areas the gentle mop/medium steam did the trick. I should say here that I had to change from the gentle mop to the scrubby mop because the gentle mop got filthy fast. If Bissell wanted to be the bestest -- they'd include an additional set of mop heads for the same price. If that didn't get through: if you have a ginormous home to mop, you'll need more of the mop heads if the floor is particularly dirty.

A few cool things --

1. Under the cabinets in my kitchen is that part of floor the normal mop could barely clean. Grime would slowly build up and the only way to fix that was paper towels, spray, and hands & knees. This Bissell? Cleaned MONTHS OF FILTH in minutes. (This is what made me first consider taking the Bissell out for dinner and a movie.)

2. You don't need Simple Green and Pine Sol. This is STEAM. And you don't need a ton of water. (This is when I considered asking the Bissell back to my place.)

3. What was a solid hour of mopping is about 25 minutes with the Bissell. And that old school mopping used to make me so tired I refused to clean the upstairs linoleum bathroom... which is only a few feet wide. I did that too... in two minutes. (This is when I poured the wine for the Bissell and dimmed the lights a little.)

4. Because it's now so easy to 'mop'... I can do this weekly. Instead of what seemed to be every 4-6 weeks. (I told you I didn't like mopping, didn't I?)

(Oh, and this is when my wife caught me and the Bissell in a compromised position. But this is my only affair and I won't apologize! Damn it this thing is awesome. Sure I wish she was a cheaper date, but hey, she sure can make me steamy.)


THREE MONTHS UPDATE:

Yes, my affair with this thing is still on-ongoing. Maybe not as hot and heavy, but yes -- there is still love. However, I stumbled upon something which requires rewording and correcting.

Above I said that grime came off with the first uses. And it did. What I didn't know until recently was that it doesn't remove ALL the grime. I had six or so years of it building up slowly, despite my Simple Green mopping and Bissell steaming. I basically forget my floor was matte finished, and you could clearly see a grimy 'shine'.

So I got on my hands and knees with a harsh plastic brush, hot water, and some soapy water with some OxyClean mixed it. Surprise surprise -- this cleaned off YEARS of gunk. What I thought were scratches in the porcelain floor were really scratches in the gunk. This is why people hire people when they sell their home to come in and use those machines to REALLY clean the floor.

And so my question will become IS the Bissell enough to stave off this 'gunk' that builds up -- and how long before I'm forced to scrub hands and knees style. If I can go a full year without needing to scrub so hard, I'll be satisfied but not delighted. If it's two to three, delighted but not thrilled. If the Bissell prevents me from ever having to scrub the floor again, I'll be Michael Jackson Thrilled.

So I'll come back the first moment I have an answer to that question.