Vapor Clean Gaia - Finally!

[SeaJay's]

Well, as many of you know I purchased the Vapor Clean Gaia prior to DF. I haven't had a lot of time to really play with it and get a write up done.

So, yesterday it was 75 here in MA and I decided to give the interior of my truck a good cleaning.

The reason I purchased the Gaia is due to it's a steamer and a carpet extractor in one. It was recommended by Richy who is very happy with the machine.

Cost was $769.
This is what the machine comes with for accessories (copied from their website)

*1 Flexible hose with on/off steam switch & on/off vacuum switch
*2 Extension Wands
*1 Multipurpose Floor tool for all hard surface floor cleaning
*1 Transparent Floor tool for carpet extraction
*1 Vacuum driven Turbo Brush with "Beater Bar"
*1 Upholstery Tool
*3 Incrementally sized squeegees
*1 Detail nozzle with crevice tool'
*1 Detail cleaning extension
*2 Bristle brushes 1 large/1 small
*1 Atomizer
*3 Nylon Detail / 1 Stainless Detail cleaning brushes
*1 Blower attachment
*1 Filler Bottle

Here are a couple pics of the machine and the accessories. It comes with a bag to store all the accessories, however not everything fits. I can get everything in there except for the hose.






The machine itself is pretty heavy duty. Nothing seems to be cheaply made, except this piece...


The piece itself isn't so bad, it's when you put the extension (which is shown) on it. You have to be careful when scrubbing due to it feels like it could break if you put too much pressure on it.

Also, note that on the sprayer nozzle portion, it has barbs on the connector so it will only fit the transparent extractor tool (on the right in the above pic), which IMO is too big for interiors. So, I cut the barbs off the piece so I can fit other accessories onto it, mainly the upholstery tool and crevice tool.

Here is a pic of what I'm taking about


I realize having to modify the accessory is probably not what most people want to do. But it works for me.

Here are a few pics of the steamer in action. Sorry I do not have pics of the extractor in action. I have trouble snapping pics while I'm working..lol.




Since I was doing my truck there wasn't really much for stains on the carpets. So, I managed to find a grease spot under my back seats which I tested this out on.




I used the sprayer attachment with the upholstery tools on the end


I pretreated the spot with some of the solution from the machine and put the brush attachment onto the end of the upholstery tool and gave the spot a little scrub.



Then extracted



After extracting it I took the sprayer nozzle off and decided to hit it with some steam and the suction to help get the soaps and residue out of the carpets.

Here is the spot all done


And here is the mess I had in my driveway...foam is bad! And it over flowed from the tank. I've been told that a little bit of vinegar in the holding tank can help reduce the foaming. I'll have to try that next time.


So over all the extractor portion of the machine works pretty good. I don't think it would hold up to the Mytee Lite or Aztec since those machines are dedicated extractors. However, it does seem to hold it's own pretty well. One thing that I think isn't so great about the machine is that with the sprayer and upholstery tool attached it makes working in tight spaces some what difficult. Just because with the handle on the hose and those pieces it's pretty long and awkward to get into certain positions.

Onto the steamer portion....

My drivers side floor had some salt stains from the long winter we had. So, I attached the crevice tool with the small brush attachment. The crevice tool also comes with a small brush that can be put on the end.

Here you can see the spots and the tool I used. These spots were not pretreated and were only hit with steam and the brush.



After



The steamer on this machine works amazing! The steam has 3 different levels, as does the vacuum portion of this.

The steamer does not seem to loose pressure. I've used the machine for an hour to an hour and half off and on and I barely used any water and the steamer does not loose pressure. It does squirt out a little bit of water when you initially put the steamer portion on, but this seems to happen with most steamers.

Overall I'm very happy with the machine and would recommend it. If your looking at it mainly for the extractor portion of it, you may be some what disappointed as I said earlier I think the machine is mainly made for the steamer portion and not the extractor. However, the extractor does work pretty well though, just some what bulky and hard to get into tight areas. I also wish that it had just a steamer accessory (similar to most steamers) that you could put the small brushes on. Instead of having to put the extension on the crevice tool.

Hope this review was helpful and I would recommend this to anyone looking for a quality steamer/extractor in one. If your main focus is extracting I don't think this would be your type of tool. However, if you only extract on occasion and your main focus is a tool for steam, this is the tool for you!

Thanks for reading!

[BobbyG]

Jason,

Congratulations on your new steamer vac! That looks like some serious piece of equipment and for nearly $800 I can see why it works so well.

The carpets in your truck came out very nice. I like the added steam feature when cleaning and this unit should get out even the toughest stains.

The steamer in itself can be used on a wide variety of troublesome areas and will make short work of most grime.

Very nice job on the description, writeup, and photos.

[Crazy Amos]

Great review! That is a pretty cool looking machine, much cooler looking than my Eureka haha! It cleaned that grease spot very nicely.

When you are scrubbing with the brush attachment, does it feel pretty rigid or does it feel like you need to be cautious with the direction of force/pressure used?

What is the boiler capacity?

[SeaJay's]

Jason,

Congratulations on your new steamer vac! That looks like some serious piece of equipment and for nearly $800 I can see why it works so well.

The carpets in your truck came out very nice. I like the added steam feature when cleaning and this unit should get out even the toughest stains.

The steamer in itself can be used on a wide variety of troublesome areas and will make short work of most grime.

Very nice job on the description, writeup, and photos.

Thanks Bobby!

Great review! That is a pretty cool looking machine, much cooler looking than my Eureka haha! It cleaned that grease spot very nicely.

When you are scrubbing with the brush attachment, does it feel pretty rigid or does it feel like you need to be cautious with the direction of force/pressure used?

What is the boiler capacity?

There is actually a brush that slides onto the end of the upholstery tool. So the brush is very rigid. The little brush attachment that goes on the crevice tool is not so rigid.

And I should have posted the specs on the machine...sorry still trying to perfect my review write ups!

Here are the specs on the machine from their website.

• 1700 Watts
• 293 F Internal Boiler Temperature
• 1.6 Liter Boiler 1.5 Liter Injector Capacity
• Replaceable Heating Element
• Stainless Steel Boiler - AISI 304 18/10
• Up to 60- PSI operating pressure - 4 Bar
• Steam temperature at the exit: 240 - 260°F
• 21 lbs
• Home Use
• High temperature steam with powerful extraction leaving hard surface floors dry in seconds
• Heated water / solution exit temp 180° +
• Extended Warranty
  Lifetime Boiler & Heating Element
  Warranty -1 Year Parts & Labor - Shipping included!
• 5 Levels of vacuum suction
• Audible beeper notifies when:
  Steam boiler running empty
  Injector running low
• Hose offers on/off switch for steam on handle
• Separate on/off switch for vacuum on handle

[richy]

Jason, I'm glad you finally got a chance to play with the Gaia. You're right about the extractor, it's not solely designed for that purpose so a dedicated unit would be better. What I have found using mine for 3 years is that it is actually very seldom when you do use the extractor feature. Steam alone will remove most stains. Wrap a white cotton terry towel (you can get them cheap at Cosco or Sam's Club) around the upholstery tool and have at it. You will have to change the towel often as the crap that gets absorbed into it is disgusting. The carpet actually feels soft after using the steam. I don't use the extension on the crevice too that often. I just put the nylon brush on the end of it and tilt it up. Another thing is that if you run the steam and vacuum at the same time with the upholstery tool, you can cut very distinctive rows back and forth in the carpet. The combo seems to make the fibers really stand up. For less than 1/3 of what some people are paying for a steamer alone, I think the unit does a great job. The more you use yours, the more you will explore its possibilities.

[SeaJay's]

Jason, I'm glad you finally got a chance to play with the Gaia. You're right about the extractor, it's not solely designed for that purpose so a dedicated unit would be better. What I have found using mine for 3 years is that it is actually very seldom when you do use the extractor feature. Steam alone will remove most stains. Wrap a white cotton terry towel (you can get them cheap at Cosco or Sam's Club) around the upholstery tool and have at it. You will have to change the towel often as the crap that gets absorbed into it is disgusting. The carpet actually feels soft after using the steam. I don't use the extension on the crevice too that often. I just put the nylon brush on the end of it and tilt it up. Another thing is that if you run the steam and vacuum at the same time with the upholstery tool, you can cut very distinctive rows back and forth in the carpet. The combo seems to make the fibers really stand up. For less than 1/3 of what some people are paying for a steamer alone, I think the unit does a great job. The more you use yours, the more you will explore its possibilities.

I'm very happy with it Richy and I'm glad I took your recommendation and picked it up. It does everything I need it to do. A couple little things I don't like about it, but over all I think it was worth the money!

[Crazy Amos]

And I should have posted the specs on the machine...sorry still trying to perfect my review write ups!

Well, Corey has set the standard incredibly high for the rest of us

Still a great review and thanks for taking the time to post the specs.

My steamer isn't quite as nice as this one so I think I get a little more vapor build up in the hose when I'm not using it so when I do grab it, it spits water for a few seconds. So, to help with that problem I now keep the steamer on the ground and hang the hose on my cart when not in use during a detail. This keeps the vapor from building in the hose and keeps it in the tank.

Does it seem to roll well as in follow you when pulling the hose? Mine tends to fall over because the casters are junk.

I would really like to get a new one so maybe I will look into this one. Thought about getting a Vapor Chief ! Yeah right.

[SeaJay's]

Well, Corey has set the standard incredibly high for the rest of us

Still a great review and thanks for taking the time to post the specs.

My steamer isn't quite as nice as this one so I think I get a little more vapor build up in the hose when I'm not using it so when I do grab it, it spits water for a few seconds. So, to help with that problem I now keep the steamer on the ground and hang the hose on my cart when not in use during a detail. This keeps the vapor from building in the hose and keeps it in the tank.

Does it seem to roll well as in follow you when pulling the hose? Mine tends to fall over because the casters are junk.

I would really like to get a new one so maybe I will look into this one. Thought about getting a Vapor Chief ! Yeah right.

it does roll pretty well. However, the wheels on the front are a little small so they can get stuck in cracks some times. But for the most part it does roll.

And that's a pretty good idea about keeping the hose up on your cart. I need to get myself a cart...would make life much easier.

[bwalker25]

I'm glad to see this review, very nice and well put together! Thank you! No thread hijack meant here but I pulled the trigger on the Vapamore MR-100 which is the same one at Griot's Garage for $299.00, I hope to have the same results you did with my steamer, should be here tomorrow.

[J1nx93]

That thing looks like it would be great to have. Only if I had that much spare cash!