Often the best cleaning solutions are the most natural ones.

Water is one of them and the most widely used.

Heat water to get 100% steam and you have an awesome medium to clean just about any surface in your house.

Now you only need a tool to do this effectively and safely.

Presenting the Laurastar AURA PLUS.

For regular readers of this site the name Laurastar is well-known. We’ve reviewed a couple of their Swiss-designed steam irons over the years.

Right now, Australia distributor Innovative Home Solutions , is bringing this latest addition to their wide product range to the Aussie market.

And we get to test the AURA PLUS claims.

Our expectations are high.

My wife, referred to by our Editor-in-Chief as Lady M, was even more excited to welcome another Laurastar product to help keep the house clean.
She’s the one that mostly cleans the house and my mess.

I will just collect her impressions of the AURA PLUS and fluff out this review with some bits and pieces of how it all works.

 

Unboxing the Laurastar AURA PLUS: Swiss Quality and Accessories

From having watched the excellent How-To videos that Laurastar produces, we knew what to expect.
Any product from the House of Laurastar exudes that Swiss-made quality: engineered and built to perfection.

As you can see, the unit has a large variety of nozzles to deal with the various surfaces.

It comes with a bottle of descaling solution, and an anti-scale cartridge.
Also, some microfibre cloths and a thermoprotective glove.

For storage and for carrying everything from room to room, there’s an optional basket available.
No snide remarks about the AURA PLUS being a basket case!

On the contrary. The case is lightweight and foldable. Four plastic inserts give the basket its shape. All the bits and pieces of the AURA PLUS fit in nicely.

And, just like a picnic basket, we can easily take it around to our daughters and blow off some steam there…
Literally.

 

The AURA PLUS Design: Scented Steam and Versatility

The moniker AURA is well-chosen as aura is that distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround and be generated by a person, thing, or place.

That “thing” is our review unit right here.

This aura is heightened by the Scented Steam Technology: the Laurastar AURA PLUS includes a natural citrus fragrance process that uses a 100% plant-based fragranced wooden tab to infuse the steam.

This is also one of the new features that come in the PLUS model.
And more versatile interchangeable nozzles.

In our household this appliance is affectionately known as Laura.
Close enough, we reckon.

 

Laurastar DMS Technology: Killing Bacteria Without Chemicals

Behind its effective cleaning is Laurastar’s DMS or Dry Microfine Steam technology.

It’s not what your great-great grandpapa would recognise watching the steam locomotives of his day.

Here are the lab-tested claims:

• DMS eliminates 100% of mites, lice and bed bugs in 2 seconds
• DMS kills 99.9999% of bacteria and viruses in 2 seconds

My curious mind wants to know why they couldn’t get that very last 0.0001% of the bacteria…

Would another second have done it??

I’m afraid I’ll be forever chasing after that elusive single bacterium that could escape if I don’t pull the trigger long enough…

Just kidding.
These are awesome figures by any standard.
And that without any chemicals.

The Program Settings are very simple:
Three programs, from light to heavy as indicated by 1, 2 or 3 light bars.

From Beautifying (reviving delicate textiles to Cleaning (getting rid of mould, limescale or dirt) and the heavy lifting done by the Purifying program (blasting the nasties like viruses and bacteria).

Real-World Testing: From Shower Grout to Bedding

After looking at all the tools and nozzles, I asked Lady M an innocent question.

Where would you like to start cleaning, dear?

A loaded question as, being the house-proud mum, with our kids all grown up, our house is pretty spotless.

Not a great testing ground.

I helpfully suggested to let me make some mess first.

Another idea waved away…

Finally, we settled on the always reappearing mould and the dirt between the tiles in the shower.

She normally uses bleach for that job, but wouldn’t it be great if steam can do the job better and healthier?

Wait, didn’t she clean the shower area just recently?

Same thing with trying to find something to clean in our oven.
Already spotless.

Maybe the air fryer? That one is always a bit grotty after a couple of uses.

We started with some outdoor seat cushions.

Once the initial dribbling with the steam stopped after a minute, the steam did its work.

Interesting fact: the steam is not very hot once it leaves the nozzle.
That’s a great safety feature.

Now we come to the invisible stuff.
Bedding and bugs.

We know that steam can get rid of 99% of all the nasties lurking on your mattress. But how do you really know you’ve killed them all dead (as one terminator ad says)?

Hard to prove.

Nevertheless, we went to that task with gusto. Mattresses, toppers, covers and doonas.

You’ll see in the short video below how we tackled a woollen topper and a cotton and wool-filled quilt.

Another area of testing is getting the wrinkles out of curtains that have been stored for a while.
Not so much a cleaning job but still very useful.

Same applies to getting shirts and other garments wrinkle-free.

 

Deep Cleaning Challenges: Fireplaces, Windows, and Mould

Test 1

I wanted to see whether the LAURA PLUS could also tackle the glass screen of our fireplace.
You know, they always soot up on the overnight slow burns and that soot is often hard to get rid of.

I first wiped off what I could with a moist paper towel dipped in the ash of the fireplace.
That got rid of most of the soot in the middle of the glass.

Then I engaged the AURA with the Precision nozzle and went along the edges.

Finally, the multi-use nozzle, with the clip-on brush and covered with a microfibre cloth, cleaned up the persistent soot layers in under a minute!

This use of the AURA PLUS clearly demonstrated the cleaning power of steam!

Some of the other applications have no visible result, even though the health benefits will be there.
But here, the immediate and very noticeable difference, makes me a believer.

Test 2

The second glass surfaces I tried it on are some of our windows.
They have a bit of a calcium or limescale stain, again very hard to clean in normal window washing.

Did some research on that and found that, yes, you can absolutely use a steam cleaner to remove calcium or lime deposits (limescale) from window glass.
Steam is highly effective at softening and lifting hard water stains without harsh chemicals, as the high heat breaks down the mineral buildup.

Our results?

Well, the deposit had been on those windows for many years, so we had to lower our high hopes of it suddenly disappearing altogether.

This is an exercise we need to repeat several times, me thinks.

Test 3

Another unorthodox area that got the Laura treatment was these colorbond sheets with mould stains.

We were able to loosen those and scrub them off easily.

That’s a win.

Note to Self:
When changing the nozzles, make sure you don’t lose the citrus scented tab that sits between the hand piece and the nozzle.

There must be a better way to hold them in place…

 

Verdict: Is the Laurastar AURA PLUS Worth the Investment?

Well, for us it is a very definite YES.

We’ve found it performs admirably in all the crucial areas we tested it on.

That’s why we can highly recommend this unit for its versatility, simplicity, no ongoing costs to spend on cleaning solutions and the built-in longevity through Swiss design.

Now here’s the difficult part: pricewise the AURA PLUS may not be for everyone.
The RRP is AUD$1999, down from the original $2199 ticket.

That’s what I’d call an investment, not an impulse Temu or Amazon buy.

You’ll never have to buy another unit (our original Laurastar LIFT steam iron is 12 years old and still going strong).

The impact on healthier living cannot be overestimated.

The good news is that the Laurastar folks regularly have sales on their units and for first orders you’ll score 10% off anyway if you join the Laurastar Club.

That brings it down below that 1800-dollar barrier.

Here is the product page for more details.

If you want to see the AURA PLUS in action, they have showrooms in every capital city.

Tell ’em that you read about the AURA PLUS on DRN and maybe, maybe they’ll throw in that handy basket (value $149) for free.

Or just be cheeky and ask for that to be included!

Going back to the steam age is not a bad thing!

Hey, if you wanna see this latest Laura “Star in a Movie”, we made a short video of some mundane cleaning chores and somehow tried to make it exciting…

And I found a piece of music to go with it, called “AURA”.

How convenient!