Average Jane Is Unconvinced

I try not to watch infomercials because I’m usually too much of a sucker for whatever it is they’re trying to sell.  With enough demonstration and repetition, almost any product starts to look terribly desirable.

Then there’s this new "cleaning system" I saw advertised the other day.  It uses a superheated jet of steam to clean, well, pretty much any surface.  It looks like a normal plastic bottle with a curved steam jet and a power cord.  The infomercial goes on and on about steam cleaning toilets, sinks, countertops, etc.  The presenter touts the lack of chemical residue, the germ-killing potential and the versatility of this device.

I watched for several minutes because I had an initial thought about the product that I was sure they would address sooner or later.  I waited and waited, but they never brought it up.

If you’ve ever cooked or ironed, I’m sure you know what I was thinking:  How can this powerful steamer not put the user at risk of severe steam burns?

The fact that this fairly basic concern was never covered in the infomercial tells me that the advertisers were hoping to gloss over the whole "agonizing burn" thing and, hey, look!  It steams the wrinkles out of clothing, too!

I may sleep on a buckwheat hull pillow, sweep my garage with a Hoover SpinSweep and add OxiClean to my laundry, but I think I’ll pass on parboiling myself with the steam cleaner.  Nice try, guys.  What else do you have for me?