2Chief Steamer Refill 100 vs. Vapamore Forza MR-1000

Vapamore seems to be all over the internet and there are many distributors of their machines. They have a done a great job in marketing their machines and have many retailers selling them, so that says something good about their company in that people feel confident to sell them. Their latest is the Forza MR-1000 which is their best model. They made this one larger with higher pressure and a great warranty. But let’s look further and compare our Chief Steamer Refill 100 against theirs

The Vapamore Forza MR-1000 is made in Italy.  It’s very well made and will perform rather well. Here are the specs of the Forza Vapamore MR-1000

• 120 volts
• Continuous refill
• 1900 watt heating element- this wattage is higher than ours but should be used on a 20 amp circuit ONLY!
• INTERNAL heater and boiler. Only replaceable as one complete unit
• 90 PSI of pressure
• 320 degrees inside the boiler
• 4 liter boiler
• Adjustable steam control
• Heating time of 9 minutes
• 4.2 liter refill tank
• Steam hose length- 8 feet
• Power cord length- 25 feet
• Lots of brushes

These are nice features and the specs should be good enough to tackle most commercial cleaning jobs. Lets again, look at our machine, the Chief Steamer Refill 100

• Now at 110 PSI
• 335 degree steam temperature
• Continuous fill
• 2.0 liter stainless steel lifetime warranty boiler
• 2.5 liter refill tank
• Full pressure adjustment from zero to full blast
• 12 foot detachable steam hose (a longer hose always helps) and now a 3 foot extender is available
• EXTERNAL heating element (never touches water)
• 1750 watt heater- can be used on a dedicated 15 amp circuit
• Lifetime boiler and heater warranty
• 3 year parts warranty
• 9-11 minute heat time (we are realistic)
• Stainless steel body
• ALL Italian made
• Horsehair brushes are part of the accessory kit (very important for car detailing)
• VERY easy to repair and diagnose issues

Where you may think the Vapamore machine may win is that is a bigger machine with a basket that holds stuff. That’s nice but bigger is not always better. It does look industrial and will take a beating

Vapamore has a longer power cord. That’s helpful. Vapamore uses a bigger boiler and a bigger refill tank. Let’s address this. A bigger boiler can be helpful. There will be a larger steam chamber. It most likely will take longer to heat more water that is in their boiler. At a maximum of 90 PSI we think both machines can produce about the same amount of steam. Our 2 liter boiler certainly makes impressive steam and has no trouble holding pressure and recovering. We do not feel we are at a big disadvantage here. Vapamore uses a large 4.2 liter refill tank. Why not,  as they have a huge body so you can fit a larger tank inside. however, that will have nothing to do with steam or even the continuous use. It just means that the larger refill tank will take longer to run out of water. But on ANY continuous refill steam cleaner, adding water to the refill tank is simple and it’s not needed all that often. This is not a big advantage over ours

Vapamore uses an “integrated” heater within the boiler. This is what “integrated” really means and you decide what is better.

To “integrate” the heater, the boiler is cut off near the top. The heater is placed inside the boiler. Then the top is welded back on and the heater is now non replaceable within the boiler. This may not seem like a big deal since they offer a lifetime warranty on the heater and the boiler. HOWEVER, their lifetime warranty states that it will not be covered due to calcium or mineral build up on the heater, boiler, or other internal components. Let’s face it, at some point there will be calcium and mineral build up inside a steam cleaner. A little corrosion as well. Its the nature of making steam.This is why we use an EXTERNAL heater and do not have a set up such as this. If a customer were to be charged for a complete boiler and heater, it could cost hundreds for a boiler and heater of this size.

To combat calcium build up and sediment, we use a drain plug at the bottom of our boiler to allow it to be drained as often as needed. We assume they do as well although we did not see that on their site. But most good quality continuous refill machines use a drain plug on the bottom. If the boiler is drained it will help with calcium build up and keep the warranty in effect

We also RECOMMEND TAP WATER in our machine. It actually works better this way. With an external heater we are not worried about calcium build up on the heater. Some machines require distilled water to keep a warranty intact. We are not sure what their policy is on this and we encourage you to call Vapamore

Vapamore uses a hose and accessory kit that we looked at but we did not like as much for a commercial application. We have used this style before in some of our previous machines, and we did not like it. This does not mean that theirs will not hold up, or that is not satisfactory, but we feel we use a better and heavier duty hose and accessory kit. Our hose is also longer and that surely will help. A shorter hose such as theirs, may provide a little better steam volume. However, we feel our customer like as long of a hose as possible, so we use 12 feet.

Our Chief Steamer Refill 100 has 20 more PSI and 15 degrees more heat. We realize this is not much but it’s still helpful. This technical advantage of ours may equal out with their bigger boiler

Our Chief Steamer Refill 100 uses an EXTERNAL 1750 watt heater. Sure, it’s 150 watts less. But their bigger heater technically exceeds the limits on a 15 amp circuit and should be used on a 20 amp circuit which is not always available.  We also feel with an external heater it radiates heat better around the boiler and heats just as fast or faster as an internal heater. And of course our heater is not ever exposed to water. And yes, we also offer a lifetime warranty on both the boiler and heater. Neither of which will fail very much. But if it happens, we will just warranty it and not claim there was too much calcium inside. If ours fails it will not be because of calcium build up, so its an unquestioned warranty.

Our Chief Steamer Refill 100 also uses the CEME brand which is a well known Italian component manufacture. Let’s address all the “stuff” and brushes they give you. First, they DO NOT include any horse hair brushes which are important in car detailing and other sensitive surfaces that can’t handle brass or nylon very well. But they sure do include lots of others. Yes, we give you fewer brushes, but we also do not have people re-ordering very often as our brushes do hold up well. We also do not give you a bag. Sorry about that. We also do not give you a water bottle. Sorry about that as well. We do not give you the water bottle holder or the funnel as well. Sorry again. But all that stuff sure looks good in the picture and they can say they give you 50 accessories and attachments! We give you less but they are all of very good quality. So for quantity of stuff you get, they do win on that

Now the size and the look of the Vapamore Forza MR-1000 compared to the Chief Refill 100 machine.

The Vapamore MR-1000 is larger. It looks very heavy duty and industrial. It’s made of steel.Ours is stainless steel. No big difference in materials here. They have painted it a nice yellow and it stands out. They use very nice and large wheels. They have a big basket and nice handles. All very nice. But it’s not about size. The “look” should not be that important. We purposely make our machines a bit smaller to be used in more places more easily, like upstairs in homes. They can use a larger boiler and a large refill tank as they have a bigger body. We feel it’s not needed, but if you have the room, you may as well use bigger stuff. But it does cost them more for all the bigger stuff they use inside. But hopefully if you are comparing specs head to head, you will see that we are close or higher on most of them. And being more compact in many ways is an advantage. I am sure they will not agree especially on the size of their boiler and heater beating our specs. But we feel we do a great job in balancing size, capacity, and performance as well as a great price

And of course one last thing…..the PRICE! Their larger body, larger boiler, larger tank, more stuff, etc will cost them more. That is why they are MORE expensive. Look at specs and performance and see if a little smaller body will not work well for you