Review: Shark Steam Pickup 3-in-1 Hard Floor Cleaner (SD201)

To me, mopping is like filing my taxes or changing my oil. A necessary evil that I dread, a task that I procrastinate until I have no other choice. Luckily, I've been testing steam mops, which means I stopped mopping entirely in order to assess how well each model cleans. The floors of my 250-square-foot high-traffic kitchen have been … how do I put this … really gross. But so far, the Shark Steam Pickup 3-in-1 has ticked every box in what I'm looking for when it comes to an effective steam mop that can bust through shoe-sticking grime.

Suck It Up

Photograph: Louryn Strampe

Putting the Shark Steam Pickup 3-in-1 together was easy. Slot in the handle and fill up the clean water tank, which holds 0.42 liters. Then plug the mop into a wall outlet (the cord is 25 feet long) and press the button to pick a steam level—there are Light, Medium, and Deep cleaning options. Tilt the floor cleaner head down to sit flush with your cleaning surface, and give it about 20 seconds to start generating steam. Then you're ready to go.

As I mentioned earlier, I hadn't mopped for a month in preparation to test this, and I was surprised at how efficiently the Steam Pickup 3-in-1 worked.

The built-in suction is probably my favorite feature of this mop, and it's also what sets it apart from some other hard-floor cleaners. It vacuums as it mops, which means you don't have to pre-sweep your floors beforehand. And it did this efficiently, too, picking up crumbs and stray hair with no issues. The head has two built-in lights that help illuminate anything you might've missed, which was really nice to have near the dark and scary corners near my fridge. And the steam it emits sanitizes your floors through the magic of high heat.

This lightweight 7-pound mop has a built-in brush roll that scrubs as it goes. I encountered a few stuck-on messes, like a ketchup spill or shoe dirt in front of the kitchen sink, and this mop busted through all of them. There was only one time that I needed to help it out, and it was to peel a fruit sticker that was stuck to my tile floors. But once I peeled the sticker back a bit, the mop sucked it up like it did the rest of my messes. And it was much quieter than I expected throughout the whole cleaning process.

Steam It Clean

Photograph: Louryn Strampe

Photograph: Louryn Strampe

While this mop did manage to leave the majority of my floors sparkling clean, it did struggle a bit on the edges of my baseboards. I just let it steam over each section for a few seconds before moving the machine back and forth, and I switched up my cleaning paths and directions frequently. This helped the process go more smoothly.

I didn't notice any excess water, aside from once when I picked up the machine and set it down with some force. (I just sucked up the spilled water.) It didn't leave any streaks or stickiness, and the vacuum function meant my floors dried quickly. All in all, it only took me 30 minutes to clean my disgusting kitchen floors. For maintenance cleaning, it took 10. Maybe I'll be a more frequent mopper thanks to this little gadget.

When you're done mopping, the machine is also very easy to clean—which you should do every time you use the mop. Let everything cool off for two or three minutes, then remove the top cover of the cleaning head. There's a collection bin inside that sorts wet messes and dry messes into two different compartments. I just rinsed the whole tray out over my garbage disposal, but this feature is nice for separately dumping out crumbs into the trash and dumping liquid down the drain.

Photograph: Louryn Strampe

You'll also remove the brush roll and rinse it. The mop comes with a stand that has storage for the brush roll, so you can stand the roll upright to let it dry out. The brush roll is treated to make it resistant to mold and mildew, but Shark still recommends replacing it every six months or so.

One thing to note regarding cleaning the brush roll: Make sure you squeeze out excess moisture before plopping it on its stand to air-dry. I didn't, and I came back to a puddle on the floor. This was user error, so I'm not counting this as a “con”—just something to be aware of.

The Shark Steam Pickup 3-in-1 is suitable for most hard-floor types, including wood, tile, linoleum, vinyl, and marble. So long as the floor is sealed, you should be good to go—though you should always perform a patch test just to double-check. Note that you shouldn't add anything but water to the reservoir, so if you're looking for that Fabuloso-scented mopping experience, this isn't the right mop for you. And although it does have suction, it's not as strong as a stand-alone vacuum. But if you just want a quick and easy way to get your hard floors clean, it's hard to imagine a better mop than this one for the job.