Shark Steam & Scrub Automatic Steam Mop S8201UK Review

Introduction

There’s been a massive growth in cordless hard floor cleaners that vacuum and scrub simultaneously, but they’re all relatively expensive and can be a bit complicated to use.

The Shark Steam & Scrub Automatic Steam Mop with Steam Blaster S8201UK is a refreshing, simple cleaner that combines steam with dual microfibre mopping pads to give a quick, simple clean.

Well priced and effective, this cleaner has a handy Steam Blaster mode that shoots out a jet of steam to loosen tough dirt. The combination is great for all hard floors, although the need to replace pads during cleaning may mean that those with a lot of hard floor to clean will be better off with a machine that has a self-cleaning roller.

Design and features

• Dual microfibre mopping pads
• Three power modes
• Steam Blaster

If the Shark Steam & Scrub S8201UK looks familiar, it’s because it is: it’s an updated version of the Shark Steam & Scrub Automatic Steam Mop S6002UK that I reviewed in 2021.

Both hard floor cleaners operate in a similar way, pushing steam out the bottom onto the dual spinning microfibre cloths. The main difference is that the Shark Steam & Scrub S8201UK adds a Steam Blaster mode.

Activated via a trigger underneath the handle, Steam Blaster shoots a blast of steam out of the nozzle at the front of the floor head.

It’s designed to work on stains five to 10 centimetres from the nozzle, with the steam helping loosen dirt. Shark recommends spraying the mess and then waiting five seconds (20 seconds or more for tough stains) before continuing to clean as normal.

As my tests below show, Steam Blaster really does help with the toughest stains, making tidying up much quicker than with the mop pads alone.

For regular cleaning, the Shark Steam & Scrub S8201UK works much like its predecessor. Before you can use it, there’s a 350ml water tank that needs to be removed and filled with cold water (distilled water is recommended for those who live in a hard water area).

It’s a little stiff to remove the tank, and it needs a bit of force to get it back into position, particularly when the cleaner is new. After a few uses, I found that the tank became easier to remove and insert.

Although not huge, this tank should last for cleaning a good-sized room, and it’s easy to refill part way through a clean.

Once the tank has been fitted, the Shark Steam & Scrub S8201UK can be used. It’s a mains-powered cleaner, but the 5.18m long cable should mean that you can clean most of a house using only a few power sockets.

There are three cleaning modes to select from: Light, Normal and Deep. The quick-start guide tells you which floor surfaces each mode is ideally suited to, and the types of stains that they can tackle.

With the mode selected, it’s a simple matter of tilting the handle back to engage the steam and start the mop pads spinning at 150rpm.

This movement gently encourages the Shark Steam & Scrub S8201UK to move forward over stains. At just 3.4kg and with the pads gently gliding over the floor, this floor cleaner is easy to move, and it needs just a light touch to guide it where you want it to go.

As the handle folds parallel with the floor, it’s easy to use this mop to clean under sofas or cupboards.

I like the way the cleaner can be stood upright by itself. This makes it easy to pause cleaning to move furniture around, such as a chair in the way, or just to answer the door or phone.

Dirt is collected on the microfibre pads. Once they’re saturated with dirt, they start to leave dirty water behind and can begin to streak. At this point, you should remove and replace them; Shark provides four pads in the box.

Having to replace pads does limit how far you can clean. And, this cleaner can’t collect any solids, so you do need to vacuum first or wipe up wet messes that contain solids.

If you want to clean for longer or want to be able to suck up solids, a hard floor cleaner with a self-cleaning roller might be better, such as the Shark HydroVac Cordless Hard Floor Cleaner WD210UK or Dyson WashG1.

Once you’ve finished cleaning, the microfibre pads need to be washed. Shark says to use a washing machine with liquid detergent, and to avoid powdered detergent and fabric softener to avoid damaging the fibres.

Performance

• Cleans tough stains well
• Can’t manage any solids
• Excellent edge performance

To see how good the Shark Steam & Scrub S8201UK is, I put it through my normal range of tests, with dried-on stains on my hard floor.

I started with the coffee stain, which is one of the easiest to remove. With laminate flooring, a couple of sweeps through on the Light setting was enough to remove this.

I found the same was true of my red wine stain, with the combination of steam and spinning pads enough to easily lift this.

Next, came a trickier challenge with my dried-on ketchup test. For this, I had to up the power mode and use a liberal amount of Steam Booster to loosen the stain. A decent steam spray, followed by a short wait, was enough, and the Shark Steam & Scrub S8201UK easily lifted what was left.

That’s a very impressive performance. I didn’t need to linger too long on this stain, showing that this cleaner is capable of dealing with the toughest stains quickly.

Finally, I moved on to my dried mud stain. This is a combination of ground-in dirt and some loose particles. For the main stain, the middle power setting was enough, and the dirt started to lift.

As I’d already tackled some heavy stains, I did have to swap cleaning pads part way through cleaning, as I started to notice dirty water was left behind. At the end of the clean, my mud stain was removed.

However, as noted before, as the Shark Steam & Scrub S8201UK has no suction power, the solid bits of dirt were flicked around. That shows why it’s important to vacuum first before tackling the stains with steam.

I then tested the Shark Steam & Scrub S8201UK’s ability to clean to the edge of the room, adding ketchup to the floor in front of the kitchen plinth. As the microfibre mop pads extend out from the side of the mop, and have slightly raised edges, they make good contact with the edge, and even get a good way into the corner.

As such, I managed to clean pretty much right to the edge of the floor, avoiding having to tackle this area by hand.

At just 51.3dB, the Shark Steam & Scrub S8201UK is exceptionally quiet, with just a gentle hum of its spinning pads and the sound of steam escaping.

Should you buy it?

FAQs