Not quite a vacuum, but not a steam cleaner either – I tested Kärcher’s unique new floorcare appliance to see if it has a place in our homes

The Kärcher SCV 4 promises to take some of the legwork out of cleaning by vacuuming and steam cleaning hard floors at the same time, while doubling up as a regular vacuum on carpets. As someone who's tested plenty of floorcare appliances for Ideal Home, I was keen to see whether this multi-tasking model could compete with the best steam cleaners and mops (and the best vacuums) out there.

After putting it through its paces around my home, there was plenty that impressed me - but it's not without its drawbacks.

In a nutshell

The Kärcher SCV 4's biggest selling point is its ability to vacuum and steam hard floors at the same time, and I was impressed by how effectively it managed both. It made my vinyl kitchen floor look noticeably cleaner after just a few passes, while the sensitive steam mode will be helpful for delicate hard flooring. Better still, it only uses water, so there's no need to buy a separate cleaning solution.

It performed well in my tougher cleaning tests. Flour and raw egg disappeared from my kitchen floor in a single pass, although it struggled slightly more with a large pile of baked beans, with a few getting caught underneath the floorhead. For everyday crumbs and spills, though, I'd be more than happy to reach for it.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was how well the SCV 4 worked as a standalone vacuum on carpet. It picked up almost all of my flour test in one sweep and glided smoothly across the floor, making it a seriously versatile appliance. The self-cleaning mode and powerful LED headlights are handy additions, too.

My main reservations are its bulk and corded design. It can't reach right up to the edges of a room or fit into every tight space, and I found the long cable less convenient than using a cordless cleaner. But if you're happy to sacrifice some manoeuvrability for a solid cleaning performance and want one appliance that can steam hard floors and vacuum carpets, the SCV 4 is a worthy pick.

How I tested

Katie Sims

I'm Katie, a regular freelance contributor here at Ideal Home, and I've tested a variety of home appliances over the past four years, including vacuums, dehumidifiers, air purifiers, and coffee machines.

I tested the Kärcher SCV 4 Steam Cleaner Vacuum for two weeks in my flat in Leeds. As well as using it for regular steaming and vacuuming, I also performed the beans, flour and egg test to see how it fares against heavy-duty jobs.

Specifications

• Weight: 7.1kg
• Dimensions: H:122 x W:31 x L:31 cm
• Clean water tank capacity: 500ml
• In the box: main unit, cleaning roller, descaling cartridge, cleaning station, accessories holder
• RRP: £339.99

Unboxing and set up

The Kärcher SCV 4 arrived in a fairly large box that was a little awkward to carry around, but thankfully not too heavy. Inside, all of the parts were neatly packed in cardboard, but there was still some plastic wrapping, which I’d personally prefer to see less of. You can recycle this kind of plastic at most larger supermarkets, at least.

Setting everything up was pretty straightforward thanks to the quick-start guide and (somewhat bulky) instruction manual. The handle slots easily into the main unit, and the cleaning roller is fitted into the roller cassette. I found getting the cassette back into place a little fiddly, but it only took me a few minutes to get it back in place again.

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You’ll also need to insert the descaling cartridge into the water tank before getting started. This is included to help protect the appliance from limescale and extend its lifespan, which I thought was a nice addition. Another plus is that you only need to fill the tank with water, so there’s no separate cleaning solution to keep buying.

Design-wise, I wouldn't exactly call the SCV pretty. As someone who loves a cordless vacuum, I'm used to sleek, compact appliances that don't have trailing wires. This isn't necessarily a critique of the product; it's just not my personal preference. But I was hoping the bulk meant it would pack a powerful punch and fare well against heavy-duty cleaning.

Performance

Once I'd filled the water tank up and plugged the SCV 4 in, it was good to go. As the appliance heats up, the screen display lights up with flashing icons for each of its cleaning modes: vacuuming, regular steam mode and a sensitive steam mode, designed for more delicate floor surfaces, such as laminate and sealed wooden floors.

Vacuuming can also be combined with either steam setting, which is a major plus - to be able to vacuum and steam at the same time is never a guarantee, so I was looking forward to putting this feature to the test.

Hard floors

To get used to the feel of the SCV 4, I took it for a quick turn around my vinyl kitchen floor, starting with the vacuum and regular steam functions switched on together. From the off, I could tell this was a powerful appliance - so powerful that it almost seemed to move by itself. Very little effort was required from me to push it around the floor, despite the fairly bulky build. It's also fairly noisy, though not at a level I'd deem unpleasant.

As I passed the SCV 4 around my kitchen, the floor became visibly damp, while crumbs and other small pieces of debris all but disappeared. After just a few passes, the surface looked noticeably cleaner.

While vinyl is hard-wearing enough to withstand regular steaming, I did try the sensitive steam mode as well. Less steam comes out, but the floor still seemed pretty clean afterwards. It's a good option if you have delicate hard flooring in your home.

I'm also a fan of the SCV 4's LED headlights. These are pretty powerful and do a good job of illuminating hidden messes on the floor, especially in darker corners and areas that are harder to see.

For a more controlled test (and as part of how we test products at Ideal Home), I scattered flour, baked beans and a raw egg across the kitchen floor to see how the SCV 4 would cope with these kinds of messy spills. Given how much food we somehow seem to get on the kitchen floor on a weekly basis, I was pretty keen to see the results.

It was impressive to watch the flour and egg disappear in a single pass, but the device definitely struggled more to pick up the beans.

Some were pushed around the floor rather than immediately sucked up, and when I thought I'd finished, I discovered that a few had actually become lodged along the underside of the floorhead rather than making their way into the waste tank. I had to wipe these away with some kitchen roll afterwards.

That said, this was a fairly big chunk of baked beans concentrated in one spot, and the SCV 4 still dealt with most of the mess surprisingly well. The liquid was successfully collected in the dirty-water tank, too, and the floor itself was left looking clean.

Based on this test, I'd be confident reaching for it to deal with everyday kitchen mishaps and smaller food spills, although I'd probably pick up the bulk of chunkier spills first rather than expecting it to replace a dustpan entirely.

Carpets

The SCV 4 can also be used as a regular vacuum cleaner on carpets (though the steam function shouldn't be used here).

It's fair to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the SCV's performance as a vacuum. It glided smoothly across my living room carpet and left behind those satisfying vacuum lines that make it easy to see where I've cleaned.

To put its suction to the test, I scattered some flour across my living room carpet, and it picked up almost everything in a single sweep. Steam vacuums can sometimes prioritise their steaming capabilities over vacuuming, so I was pretty pleased with this result.

I've tested plenty of vacuum cleaners for Ideal Home now, and in terms of straightforward pick-up power, the SCV 4 held its own against some of the best performers I've tried.

Where it falls slightly short as an everyday vacuum is its size. The handle lowers until it's almost flat, which means you can technically reach underneath furniture, but the bulky floorhead still needs enough clearance to fit.

It was also too wide to squeeze through the gap between my sofa and pouffe, something my usual vacuum manages comfortably. It also won't clean the edges of a room, so even if you did choose to use the SCV 4 in place of a standard vac, you'd probably need a good handheld vacuum to use alongside.

I also just prefer the ease of a cordless model compared to a corded one. This might come down to personal preference, but I found the trailing wire of the SCV 4 a bit annoying when I was trying to clean. The cord is also pretty long, which does mean you can comfortably clean larger spaces - but on the flip side, there's more cord to avoid and wrap up when you're done.

Cleaning and maintenance

Handily, the SCV 4 has a self-clean mode, so there's no need to spend a lot of time keeping the device working in tip-top condition. The process is carried out with the vacuum sitting on its cleaning stand, where it runs water through the roller and internal system to help flush out any lingering dirt.

A word of warning, though: make sure you actually put it on the stand before pressing the self-clean button. I made the mistake of starting the cycle while the SCV 4 was still sitting loose on my kitchen floor, at which point the powerful roller sent it trundling off by itself. Amusing in hindsight, but not something I’d recommend repeating, as my floor was quite wet afterwards.

The self-clean function takes a few minutes to complete and does get rather noisy. It also uses a fair bit of water, but the roller brush looked much cleaner afterwards.

The self-clean function takes care of some of the day-to-day upkeep, but it doesn’t remove the need for a little hands-on cleaning, particularly after messier jobs. It's recommended to empty the dirty-water tank after each use, and following my flour, egg and bean test, mine definitely needed more than a quick rinse.

Emptying and washing the tank itself was straightforward, but I had to go in with an old toothbrush to remove the last traces of bean sauce from some of the harder-to-reach areas.

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I also wiped around the inlet to the dirty-water tank, where a fairly unappealing combination of bean juice and matted hair had collected, and took the opportunity to rinse the filter at the same time. None of this was especially difficult, but it’s worth bearing in mind that the more ambitious you get with wet food spills, the more cleaning you’re going to need to do afterwards.

Overall, I found maintenance pretty manageable. For everyday vacuuming and steaming, the self-clean cycle should keep much of the routine upkeep to a minimum, while the removable parts are easy enough to rinse when needed. Just don’t expect the machine to completely clean up after itself if you’ve asked it to tackle half your dinner.

How does it compare to similar models?

Currently residing in the top spot of our vacuum mop guide is the Shark HydroVac Cordless Hard Floor Cleaner, which is perhaps the main other model to consider when weighing up whether to buy the Kärcher SCV 4. The Shark offers cordless convenience and a much lighter build, so it's probably going to feel easier to use on a day-to-day basis. But the Shark can't be used on carpets, so you'll save on storage space if you use the SCV 4 as a regular vacuum as well as a mop.

It's also worth comparing it to the Bissell CrossWave OmniForce Edge, another lighter, cordless and easy-to-manoeuvre mop that might be better for everyday cleans. The Bissell is slightly more expensive though (£379.99), and you'll have to commit to an ongoing cost of cleaning solution fairly regularly.

There's also the more affordable Kärcher Floor Cleaner FCV 3, which our reviewer found very easy to steer around hard floors. This is a cordless model with a run time of 30 minutes, and does a great job of both vacuuming and mopping. The main drawback is that it doesn't provide steam cleaning, which is where you'll get a deeper clean on hard floors. But if it's just a mop and vacuum you're after, the FCV 3 is a worthy pick.

How does it rate online?

There aren't a tonne of reviews of the SCV 4 online yet, but those that are out there are fairly positive. It has an impressive 4.8-out-of-5-star rating on the Kärcher website (from 24 reviews), and a 4.4-star rating on Amazon (from 19 reviews).

Customers praise the powerful vacuuming and steam cleaning capabilities, and like the fact that it can be used in place of a regular vacuum. People are most impressed that it can vacuum and steam clean at the same time, though there are critiques around the SCV 4's bulk and the fact that it can't clean the edges of a room.

Should you by the Kärcher SCV 4 Steam Cleaner Vacuum?

The Kärcher SCV 4 isn't the lightest or most nimble floorcare appliance I've tested, but it does an impressive amount to justify its bulk. Being able to vacuum and steam hard floors at the same time makes it a good option for quick but thorough cleans, and during testing it made easy work of everything from everyday dirt to flour and a raw egg.

Its vacuuming performance was one of the biggest surprises for me. It picked up flour from my carpet almost entirely in one sweep and performed just as well as some of the best vacuums I've tested for Ideal Home. That makes the SCV 4 a versatile option if you want one appliance that can tackle both hard floors and carpets, rather than a vacuum mop you'll only be able to use in certain rooms.

The sensitive steam mode also makes it a solid choice for homes with more delicate hard flooring, as you can reduce the amount of steam without giving up the benefits of steam cleaning altogether.

But there are compromises. Its bulky floorhead struggles to clean the edges of a room, the cord makes it less convenient than a cordless model, and my baked bean test showed that chunkier spills can leave some debris caught underneath the roller. The self-clean mode makes maintenance easier, although messier jobs will still require some hands-on cleaning afterwards.

I'd recommend the SCV 4 most to anyone who prioritises thorough floor cleaning over lightweight convenience. It's particularly appealing if you have a mix of hard floors and carpets, want the hygienic benefits of steam without having to keep buying cleaning solution, and would rather invest in one capable multi-purpose appliance.

If grab-and-go cleaning and easy manoeuvrability are your priorities, however, one of the lighter cordless vacuum mops I've compared it to will probably suit you better.