Polti Unico MCV20 Allergy Multifloor Vacuum with Steam Cleaner

As a steam cleaner / vacuum cleaner it does the job it is supposed to. But my goodness its an overly bulky thing. Far too bulky to easily manoeuver around and pretty heavy to carry (even before you fill it with water).And the manual... lets just say hieroglyphics are easier to comprehend than the manual.Plus point: It does heat up quickly so you are not waiting too long before you can start steaming, and its pretty quiet when heating too. Like a small kettle coming to boil.The suction was sufficient, although I have a much smaller Dirt Devil that has better suction than this.Unless you heart is set on having one of these, maybe give it a miss.

This is brilliant, our kitchen and bathroom floors look so much cleaner. Our carpet is difficult to vacuum as we have a dog who visits and his little terrier hairs take a serious effort to lift. This seemed to get them all, it looked so much cleaner and I found the sniffles I sometimes get haven't been there. My only concern is that it seems slightly bigger and heavier than a start vacuum cleaner so I will probably keep it for occasional use and my old vacuum for day to day use.

What can I say about the Polti Unico..... This is a very clever & useful piece of kit. Not only is it a vacuum cleaner, it's a fantastic steamer & also has the facility to suction up spills. Reading the manual is an essential with this cleaner ... this is definately not something that you can just plug in and go with. A month in, and I am just about getting to grips with the button functions ! This is also incredibly heavy ... in fact ours has earned the nicknameof R2D2, because it bears a close resemblance to R2, & feels just as cumbersome as I use it. Having said that, it really is an excellent cleaner, but it's weight & price need to be taken into consideration before investing in one .

First things first. This is a beast of a machine. But I suppose it has to, in order to do everything that it does. However, bear that in mind, if you're not an Olympic weightlifter. You'll also need to have plenty of storage room, unless you want to display it as modern sculpture.But once you gird yourself and get it going, it's a very good cleaner indeed. It does everything. It's a wet / dry vacuum cleaner and steamer, and as a vacuum cleaner it works well. The instructions are pretty good, so you shouldn't end up doing the wrong thing. But, again, if you have more than one level in your house, think carefully. As a steam cleaner, it also does the job, although at the price, I would have thought a few attachments might have been thrown in.It's a good machine, but I'm not convinced that it does a better job than two seperate devices, which would come in at a lower price. Also, it's not a replacement for a proper carpet cleaner, so don't expect miracles.

What’s good:All-in-one device (vacuum, wet-spills & steamer)Steam-cleans without detergentWhat’s not so good:It’s expensiveWould be cheaper to buy separate devicesA bit unwieldy at timesI am already the proud owner of a standard Polti steam cleaner, and my mum has used one for many years so I am already an advocate of steam cleaning as a hygienic way of cleaning tile floors and surfaces and getting grime of suitable items.This ‘Unico’ range from Polti appears to be trying to kill two birds with one stone, in that it takes the steam-cleaning ability from other devices in its range, and add in a bagless vacuuming function. It is also able to suck up wet spills as a handy bonus. The general functionality of the device is quite similar to Polti’s main range of steam cleaners. It has the same patented pressurised valve for putting water in - although I notice that the two models above this one have a different system which allows for ‘continuous filling’ which I rather like the sound of, as it can sometimes be a little frustrating when you 85% finish your kitchen floor and it runs out of water as you have to wait for the system to cool down before you can open the valve and fill it up again. No matter.The device is all nicely put together and the main parts you interact with feel good quality, but it is quite unwieldy in some respects. Not only is the device itself quite large as it has to house both a vacuum function with the dust container, but also the steamer function with water reservoir and heating chamber, but it’s quite heavy as well - made more-so if you have filled the water chamber.Noise levels are on par with what I’d expect of it in vacuum mode and in steam mode. Nothing out of the ordinary. It’s performance as a vacuum is very good. I like how they list the ‘kPa’ value of suction capacity on the amazon product description page. Perhaps this would be a useful standard to apply to all vacuums provided they were done under controlled environments as it would help to ensure people knew what level of suction was being offered. The one thing I will say however, is that the capacity of the dirt collector is only 0.8 litres, which is not very big and means that depending how much dirt and fluff you have lying around your house, you could find yourself having to empty it quite frequently.Overall, it is a good device and I like Polti as a brand, but I am a little concerned that in trying to combine two areas of cleaning, they’ve ended up making a device that is a little burdensome and slightly counter-productive. When you factor in the high price it doesn’t really make much sense. You could easily save money by purchasing a steam cleaner and a separate vacuum cleaner and end up with potentially two better-functioning devices in isolation. Plus, if one of them breaks (which they all do eventually) you only have to replace that one aspect instead of rendering the entire expensive multi-function device as defunct. The only real saving grace for it that I can see, aside from the good build quality and general functionality, is that it could be perceived to save you space if you absolutely must only have a single device - but again I think Polti might be targeting a niche audience that may simply not exist.