I Didn’t Expect to Like a Vacuum Steamer So Much
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Once is chance, twice is a coincidence, and three is a trend — so I was intrigued when three brands contacted me about a breakthrough in garment steaming technology, all at the same time. The pitch: Getting a smooth finish while steaming requires holding sleeves taut, flattening hems, and an annoying level of garment fussing. But what if the steamer were also a vacuum, suctioning fabric to steam? Enter the Neakasa Magic 1, the Rowenta AeroSteam Twist, and the Nori Cloud Max, early entries in the brand-new category of vacuum steamers.
I am a big fan of steaming clothing— I use my steamer at least once a week, and I prefer it to ironing because it’s easier for me and gentler on textiles — but I was skeptical. It sounded like a home-appliance Mad Lib, an overengineered solution to a problem that doesn’t really need to be solved. I was perfectly happy with my vacuum-less Jiffy standing steamer, a product that has not been significantly redesigned since the 1970s. Still, I had to try them out for myself to see what the hype was about.
The Neakasa steamer was a miss …
Of the three steamers I tried, the Neakasa Magic 1 is the least fully cooked. There are a lot of head-scratching design quirks — it doesn’t have a flat surface to stand on, so it wobbles or flops over when you put it down; the vacuum’s outflow shoots out the top of the steamer, blowing the garment away from you when you pull downward and toward you, which happens quite often. It was also the least effective steamer, and the vacuum struggled to hold onto fabric without skipping. When I tested it against the Rowenta AeroSteam on the left and right sides of the same shirt, the Neakasa produced a noticeably wrinklier finish.
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… but I loved the Rowenta AeroSteam
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I fell in love with this thing as soon as I swept it over my first sleeve. I had always been happy with the unrumpled finish I get out of my Jiffy steamer, but the AeroSteam is in another class: It got a shirt so crisp you could crack an egg on it faster than I’ve ever steamed anything. It unwrinkled nylon shorts and thick canvas pants without a hitch. Textile nerds love Rowenta for its engineering, and I was reminded why: This is a fantastic steamer before you even turn on the vacuum, and with it, you can get a dry-cleaner finish in minutes. It’s especially good for garments with a lot of details, like collared shirts — the suction makes it easier to keep your fingers away from heat, and I was able to unwrinkle hems I never bothered with on the Jiffy.
The trade-off is that the vacuum is noisy, comparable to a Dustbuster in volume and pitch. Would you rather have an appliance that does the job in half the time but yells at you or a quiet one that takes longer? If you’d pick the former, the AeroSteam is for you.
The Nori Cloud has some manufacturing errors
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The Nori Cloud Max fell in the middle of the pack — the steamer function is more effective than Neakasa’s, but it has comparably weaker suction and a few manufacturing errors that kept it from beating out the AeroSteam. The buttons were wiggly in a housing that was so loosely adhered that I nearly pulled it off without trying to, and there’s a crack where two plastic sections meet — not great signs for the device’s long-term durability. Both the Neakasa and the Cloud Max vacuum steamers have a smaller head, which also proved less effective for keeping a grip on clothes. I tested the Cloud Max against the AeroSteam steamer on a pair of pants, and although both produced a crisp finish, the AeroSteam was quicker and more enjoyable to use.
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