McCulloch Steamer Test and Review
We included this McCulloch steamer in our Best Steam Cleaners article based on over 11,000 positive reviews. As it’s the best selling canister steamer on Amazon (and probably the world), and tied for best-rated on our list at 84%, we bought one to find out not only if it’s as good fans of the model say, but how useful a steamer really is for both interior and exterior automotive cleaning.
McCulloch’s MC1275 steamer is the least expensive canister steamer in their lineup, but the second-most expensive steam cleaner on our list. To earn it’s place with us, it had to have a lot of useful features and accessories. Some standouts are a long 16 foot cord and 10 foot steam hose, plus two rigid extensions that let you use it on floors like a canister vacuum.
Water and steam capacity
It also has one of the largest water capacities in the category, 48 ounces/1.42 liters, which gives it a long 45 minute run time despite making (as we found out) a whole lot of steam. In fact, steam expands to 1,600 times the volume of water, so that 45 minutes (about 35 grams/one ounce a minute) means vast quantities of 43 PSI steam, a much higher volume than most competitors.
The steam the McCulloch steamer produces comes out at somewhere less than 212°F/100°C, depending on the attachments you’re using. This is much lower than many other steamers, some of which make close to 300°. You’re a lot less likely to damage anything with steam this cool (including yourself— steam can give you worse burns than other heat sources), but it won’t dissolve everything, and will generally take more time to work. If we had to choose, we’d definitely go with this one that won’t melt plastic, but it’s not as effective on things like tar and pine pitch.
Table of contents
McCulloch Steamer Accessories and Product Tour
The McCulloch steamer comes with a triangle brush, short and long nylon brushes, a squeegee, mop head and two pads, a brass brush, scrub pad, two extensions, a cup, and a funnel. There's what the company calls "onboard storage," but it's only for a few small brushes in some dead space around the filler cap. You can either put them in sharp and pointy side up; or small and hard to grab side up. There's nowhere to put anything else, nor any way to wind the hose or cord. The nozzle does clip in nicely to the top carrying handle.
The base unit has two free-rolling plastic wheels on one end, and two swiveling plastic casters on the other, and it rolls around easily. We were impressed by how easy it is to attach and detach accessories and extensions, which lock in with a pushbutton. A few of them were stiff the first time we used them. Filling the tank requires the included (or any) funnel to access the small filler hole.
Everything felt solid and well-constructed. We do think the hose should have additional reinforcement. When it warms up, it can take a sharp bend where it leaves the tank, and this could be a future failure point.
Using the McCulloch Steamer
A long hose and cord are very helpful when working inside a car. Photo credit: David Traver Adolphus / AutoGuide.com.
Interior cleaning
It took us a while to figure out what parts of the interior of our Dodge Magnum RT could be cleaned with steam. We had no luck doing anything with our very stained seatbelts, and the wide steam mop head was too big to be useful on the leather seats.
But it worked great on interior plastics that were discolored by 17 years of skin contact. It was hard to work around the center console lid in the car, so we took out two screws and got to work on it on the bench. The very stiff nylon bristle brushes soften up when hot, which we'd been worried about. A few passes of steam, scrubbing, and wiping with a microfiber cloth did what repeated attempts with assorted plastic cleaners couldn't.
Once we figured out we just needed to blast the seats with a steam jet from the bare nozzle, then wipe them down, that worked great, too. Be sure to follow something like this up with some good leather conditioner.
Exterior cleaning
The squeegee seems like more of a gimmick than anything else. If you had a large greasy area, it might be helpful, but probably no more so than a bucket of hot soapy water. However, the steam jet was able to soften some very stubborn lumps of pine pitch on the roof, and they came off with the scrub pad. Because it isn't superheated steam, removing contaminants like sap, bird droppings, and tar, will take longer but as we said: We don't mind that trade off for less risk of melting things.
McCulloch vs. Wagner and Sun Joe steamers
If we were only going to use a steamer for interior detailing, we'd go with the Wagner AutoRight, which (depending on sales) is less expensive and has some smaller, vehicle specific tools that the McCulloch lacks. However, it's not a good choice for using elsewhere in your house, because without the extension tubes, you can't stand up and mop a floor, and you can't reach anything that you can't access with your hands.
Some people have suggested the Sun Joe STM30E, which heats up extremely fast and has several smaller tools that are useful for interiors, but it has a poor 63% positive rating which disqualifies it from our recommendations. We've had good luck with a Sun Joe pressure washer, though, so it might be worth a look.
Specifications
| Heat Up Time / | 8 minutes (full) |
| Max Steam Time / | 45 minutes |
| Tank Size / | 48 ounces |
| Steam Hose Length / | 10 feet |
| Power Cord Length / | 15.7 feet |
| Weight / | 9.95 pounds (dry) |
| Steam Rate / | 33-37 g/m |
| Steam Pressure/ | 43 PSI |
Our Final Verdict
After completing a degree project in automotive design, Dave wrote and photographed for almost a decade in print car magazines (remember those?), before transitioning to digital. He now subjects a series of old high-performance cars to the roads and weather in Vermont and wonders why they're always expensively broken. Please stop when you see him crawling under one on the side of the road.
More by David Traver Adolphus
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I have this steamer and I love it!! Very quiet and constant steam...I just keep accessories in a bag where steamer is stored.. I've used on car window slides... House cleaning. I would recommend this to anyone..
Can this steamer safely be used on acrylic bath tubs and shower stalls?