Author: Aynaria

My Dupray Neat Steam cleaner arrived yesterday. It was supposed to arrive on Wednesday, but that didn’t happen and that’s another story.

The Dupray Neat Steam Cleaner required a signature for its delivery. I took care of that and immediately went through the process of opening the box. Check out the logo, “Steam is Cleaner. I love that!

If you think the box is empty, well… it is. I didn’t remember to take a photo of the box until after I’d unpacked everything. Whoops!

 

At the top of the large box was a smaller accessories box. The rubber hose and wands were positioned around the Dupray Neat Accessories box.

 

Removing that box, I found this cardboard that clearly was placed on top of the actual unit. I must say, the Dupray Neat was packaged securely. As you can see, there’s plenty of insulation to help prevent it from being damaged.

 

What’s beneath that cardboard? The Dupray Neat steamer.

 

I’ve gotten into the habit of naming my most loved items. Until now, it’s been craft related items. I was going to give this a female name, just like the other three items I’ve named, but my daughter snorted and said it should be called,“Steven the Steamer!” So… Steven it is. Welcome to your new home, Steven.

 

First Impression/Review:

Yesterday and today, I’ve had the chance to place the Dupray Neat Steam Cleaner aka Steven through a few hours of work and I must say that I’m very impressed with its performance. Today, my daughter helped also. 

Where the dirt was really apparent was the grout from around the granite tiles. Over time, dirt seems to find it’s way into those narrow cracks. Do you see how filthy that was? Well, it didn’t appear that way, until I started blasting the grout with steam. Yuck!

 

Here’s how it looks after one pass with my Dupray Neat. Do you see the difference? I went over it a second time with the Dupray Steamer, and it became cleaner.

 

I will say that the ceiling and walls didn’t appear that they needed to be cleaned, however, the steam quickly showed the accumulated dirt that was on them. The wood laminate floors get cleaned weekly, so they didn’t show too much dirt when the steam blasted them.

 

I’m loving that I can clean my walls and ceilings without needing a ladder. Now, that’s impressive! My first impression is that I really enjoy this steamer. It’s miles ahead of the Hoover twin tank steam mop that I was using, and that’s because it can do so much more than my steam mop could ever hope to accomplish.

Pros:

1. Versatility – This is more than a steam mop! I cleaned the floors, walls, ceilings, oven, baseboards, sinks, windows, Venetian blinds, and toilets! Phew… Guess what? There’s still more I can clean with my Dupray Neat steamer.
2. Attachments are well made and feel solid. I noticed this when I pulled the rubber hose out of the box. My first thought was this feels solid and it’s sturdy. That only intensified after using the item.
3. Mop head attachment uses clamps so you can apply any type of cloth to the mop head and secure it with the built-in clamps or use your own butterfly clamps or rubber bands to secure the cloth to the mop head.
4. Compact size
5. The steam that it generates. It gets hot. (It gets up to 275 F)
6. Lock feature so you don’t have to continuously depress a button to produce steam.
7. A long hose. It’s 6′ 6″!
8. A long extension cord. It’s 16″
9. No chemicals. I don’t use chemicals, however, steam has always made that process easier. We have pets. I don’t have to be concerned with our pets tracking through a chemically treated floor. I felt the same way when my daughter was an infant. We were chemical free back then also.
10. Three year warranty.
11. Lifetime warranty on the boiler.
12. Dupray donates some of their steam cleaners to various animal outreach programs.
13. Dupray plants tree with each purchase of some of their select steamers.

With the cons most are minor and I understand why they most likely aren’t a feature since this would increase the price of the unit.

Cons:

1. The nylon bristle attachment can’t withstand grout cleaning. My first two attachments melted after the first use use. This wasn’t new to me. I already knew about this from some of the reviews I’d read. It seems that people experience this with other brands also. My suggestion would be for Dupray to use a material that would withstand the high steam? Is there one?
2. A channel/notch where you can securely snap/attach the extension cord while in use. This is very minor since I really haven’t had any issues with cord tangles.
3. A detachable hose.
4. You get about 45 minutes of cleaning and then you need to refill the water. You have to wait 25 minutes before you can do this. When you unscrew the cap, you’ll hear a hiss. Wait for the pressure to be released an refill! A minor inconvenience. I just did other things, however, moving forward 45 minutes is most likely all I’ll need.
5. An indicator light/meter that shows when you’re running low on water. It doesn’t have one. My Steamfast portable is the same way. I will say that I already know when it’s running low. The amount of steam/pressure slows down.

I purchased my Dupray Neat Steam Cleaner from Amazon.

Dupray is a third party seller on Amazon, so the item ships directly from Dupray. Even though I did not have the guaranteed two-day delivery. I still received my steam cleaner within four days. Overall, I’m thrilled with this purchase. As I mentioned it’s much better than the Hoover twin tank steam mop that I had and that’s because it can do so much more than “mop” the floor.

My initial impression is that it’s worth more than what I paid based on the amount I can do with the cleaner and in less time. Here’s hoping I continue to feel that way. I’ll continue to write updates about this item.

Reference:

• Dupray Neat Steam Cleaner
• The use of domestic steam for the control of house dust mites.
• Dupray: Why Dupray supports animal charities?

Several months ago, my Hoover twin tank steam mop stopped working and now I’m down to my handheld Steamfast handheld steamer. Five years later, and that steamer is still doing a great job cleaning. Since my Hoover mop wasn’t as fortunate I’ve been searching for its replacement. It’s taken months. I wasn’t in a rush and I always research thoroughly before making a purchase. For me, it makes sense and I have zero regrets since my purchases aren’t impulsive. This time around, I decided to purchase a steam cleaning system that not only cleaned floors but also ceilings and walls. Because of the design of my Hoover (mop head), this wasn’t an option.

 

After extensive research, Initially, I was going to purchase the McCulloh 1385, however, in one of the comments about that model the reviewer mentioned the Dupray Neat steamer. He had both and ranked the Dupray over the McCulloh. Of course, that additional research, and after my digging, I did choose the Dupray Neat. Dupray makes commercial steamers, but earlier this year, they created a steamer for home use. The parent company also make Daimer steam cleaners. While doing the additional research on Dupray steamers there were several reviews that I dismissed.  Why? The people reviewing them were given steamers by Dupray and part of me wondered if the users were given a glowing review because the product was free? Sure, I know that you can give an honest review of an item that was given to you, however, in the reviews I saw not one of them had mentioned anything that they’d change about the product? One or two reviewers having nothing but glowing things to say, ok… I can understand that, but over 15 reviews that I read, none provided constructive feedback? Well… I found that a bit odd. I made a similar observation when I was reviewing the Hoover twin tank machine. Because of that, I ignored those type of reviews and searched for reviews from people that had actually purchased the items themselves. I must say that I was impressed with what they had to say. There were a few cons (not many) however, overall, this cleaning system appears to be exactly what I want. I’m impressed with their customer service, their warranty (three years on the unit and a lifetime warranty on the boiler). I’ve also read some nice things about the company. They supposedly donate some of their units to various animal organizations and for every unit purchased, they’ll plant a tree. I haven’t verified those two statements, but I will do a bit more research to see what I can learn.

I ordered the steamer on Sunday and based on my tracking information, it should arrive tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to receiving the item and am purposely waiting until tomorrow clean a few items.

I believe that I mentioned that I’d started making kombucha again. I really enjoy the slightly tart taste of this beverage and since I really didn’t want to keep purchasing kombucha (it can get pricey) I decided to make my own. However, this time I didn’t create a SCOBY from one of my purchased bottles of kombucha.

I ordered my own SCOBY. See the above picture. That’s the little disc that I received well over a month ago

and now I have these SCOBYS!

That’s a lot bigger than the first one, right?

I have a two-gallon glass pitcher that I use to create my kombucha. Which explains why the SCOBY’s I now have are so large. They’ve adjusted to the size of the container that I use. My starter tea is black tea, Currently, I’m using English Breakfast, 16 cups of water, 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of my already fermented kombucha. I must say that the purchase SCOBY is much healthier than the SCOBY I made several years ago from one of my GT kombuchas. With this kombucha, we receive fizz with the first ferment.

One of the main flavors that we brew is a ginger, turmeric kombucha, which is added to the second ferment. However two days ago, I blended fresh pineapple and strawberries in my Vita-Mix and added the mixture to my glass flip top bottles.

Afterward, I added the kombucha tea. I opened one of the second fermented bottles one day later. It was extremely fizzy and delicious. Currently, I’m sipping on a cup of kombucha while I review my work assignments for today.

We really don’t eat too many sandwiches, bread or any grain-free based products in our home, but the past few months, we checked out a few brands of gluten-free, egg-free bread and other gluten-free options. I’ve also been researching sourdough bread, something I’m very familiar with. Flour is still not going to be common in our house, but as I’ve mentioned in a few posts, I’ve been researching gluten-free flour and plan to experiment on the occasion I might want to make some type of bread, cookies (like the gluten-free chocolate chip cookies that we made recently) or other baked goods.

Today, I purchased this bread (Northern Bakehouse) from Mom’s Organic Market. As you can see, it’s gluten-free and egg-free. Results? I really loved the chewy texture. In fact, I’ll be trying to replicate the texture when I’m actively making gluten-free bread.

Regarding the sandwich, I kept the ingredients simple. There was spinach, red bell pepper and a delightful spicy tomato and miso sauce that I made yesterday. I created that specifically for the oven baked herb fries that I made from red potatoes and sweet potatoes. Well today, I slathered that onto the bread. The tomato sauce tasted even better today than yesterday.

 

To accompany the sandwich, I had kombucha! In our house, we don’t drink artificial sodas. We mainly drink water, herbal teas and freshly made juices (using my Breville or Green Star) or smoothies (love my Vita-MiX). If we want something fizzy, we will drink water kefir sodas or kombucha. They’re both high in probiotics and the resulting drink produces a nice and delightful fizz. I much prefer the taste of kombucha and when I used to make it religiously, my daughter didn’t like it as much as water kefir soda. But now? I kombucha has nudged ahead. Since I no longer have a SCOBY to make kombucha, I purchased a bottle of Health-Ade Kombucha when I was at Mom’s Organic today. This is my second time purchasing this brand. The first bottle got consumed before I could start my SCOBY, but this time around… that should not be an issue.

Also, since I want to create a large SCOBY, I decided to purchase a 2-gallon Anchor Hocking Heritage Hill Beverage Dispenser.

The spigot is plastic and so I ordered a stainless steel spigot to replace the original. Since this dispenser is much larger than the mason jars I was originally using, it will give me the opportunity to create a much larger SCOBY. I think it’s even larger than the glass pitcher, I ended up using.

About flour…

The past few months, my daughter and I’ve been talking about grains and how prevalent they are in so many peoples lives. We even discussed the health-related issues/diseases that can be contributed to being nutritionally deficient. Some people literally consume flour-based products at every meal. The variety of flour that’s available today, is nowhere near the same nutritional value of the bread made by our ancestors, sourdough was commonly used.

 

I first read about sourdough in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book, By The Shores of Silver Lake. I have the complete series. My parents bought me the complete paper backed set when I was seven years old. In my late thirties, I purchased a hardcover set.

But how do you make the sour dough?” Mrs. Boast asked. “You start it,” said Ma, “by putting some flour and warm water in a jar and letting it stand till it sours.” “Then when you use it, always leave a little,” said Laura. “And put in the scraps of biscuit dough, like this, and more warm water.” Laura put in the warm water, “and cover it,” she put a clean cloth and the plate on the jar, “and just set it in a warm place,” she set it in its place on the shelf by the stove. “And it’s always ready to use whenever you want it.”

By the Shores of Silver Lake

I’ve eaten sourdough bread several times and it does taste different than the typical bread available in the store today and it’s seemingly so much better for you. I will say, that I don’t experience the slight nasal congestion when consuming sourdough products, I do with regular gluten flour. Although I knew a fair amount of flour and the health issues it can cause, last month I purchased Wheat Belly and Grain Brain, I found them extremely informative and some of the symptoms discussed were symptoms that a few acquaintances experienced. I knew about the connection between flour based products and a variety of health-related symptoms, but it was nice to see it acknowledged by some medicaldoctors within the medical community. Interesting indeed. Those that know me, already realize that I don’t reach for over the counter remedies for minor ailments. If I do experience them (which is rare on our whole foods plant-based eating routine) I try to locate the source of the problem first.

The past several weeks have been extremely busy for my daughter and me,

but even though the weeks passed by in a blur,

we’ve still been eating a large variety of whole foods. With some noodles, sprouted breads, and homemade flatbreads issued into the mix. Some of the dishes featured in this post were taken within the first week of this month. Flour based products, even gluten-free are rare in our house. We treat them as an occasional supplement.

I will say that a lot of the meals eaten, were prepared several days in advance,

frozen and brought out to consume either by itself, or

in addition to another quickly prepared whole food dish meal. In total, none of the meals took over 15 minutes to prepare. How’s that for quick, nutritious food that’s great for the body?

In other news…

In addition to food, I was able to knit a bit more on this blanket. This picture was taken about two weeks ago and is posted on my crafting website, it’s grown a LOT since that time. My daughter loves the colors and calls it… Insanity.