Two of the mops tested came with a host of additions in the box, although notably the Lakeland only came with an instruction book. Whereas traditional mops rely on detergent and elbow grease to disinfect floors, steam mops heat water in an onboard tank and then release the vapour directly on to the floor at temperatures of up to 120 degrees Celsius, making for a deeper clean and killing most bacteria likely to be lurking on surfaces.

Steam Cleaner - Floorcare - Russell Hobbs

All the handles snapped into place easily and the various shapes of mop pads all velcroed securely onto the bottoms, although the Russell Hobbs mop also came with a plastic carpet glider which, if you're wanting to deep clean textiles, helps keep the pad in place once although it took a bit of fiddling to get it securely attached. They also both came with small plastic jugs to make filling the mops with water easier - but this isn’t necessarily the perk you would imagine.

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. It wasn't all about colour choices either, although at first glance I thought the pale blue Shark looked a bit more modern and on trend than the retro brown/pink of the Russell Hobbs which reminded me of my nan's old Hoover. This minimised the possibility of spills while filling, making it the easiest of the three to prep and, more importantly, the simplest to remove any leftover water from at the end before putting the mop away. While they’re all roughly the same weight, once the Shark is on and working you need to really hold on tight to make sure you don’t lose control of it.

Russell Hobbs RHDSM4001 POSEIDON Detergent 11-in-1 Russell Hobbs RHDSM4001 POSEIDON Detergent 11-in-1

If your house is one where muddy foot and paw prints are a daily feature then it is absolutely the pick of the three. I used them on different parts of the floor so they were tackling the same amount of grime and while they all got me out of my sticky situation in the end it was soon clear that for the worst kinds of dirt and mess the Russell Hobbs took a little longer to get the job done, with me having to run the mop back and forth across the same spot several times to see the difference.In practice however, they all seemed much of a muchness and it’s not as if I was tapping my foot impatiently waiting an extra couple of seconds for the Shark to come up to temperature.