Gemoro UltraSpa Professional Ultrasonic & Steam Cleaner for Jewelry, Eyeglasses, Watches - Deep Cleaning at Home & Salon Use

We bought the GemOro UltraSpa jewelry cleaner after my wife had some rings cleaned at the jewelers and wanted to be able to get her jewelry this clean at home. I really wanted to be able to rate this 5 stars but for the reasons below I can only give it 3. It did a great job cleaning her jewelry and I would give it 5 stars for that but the steam cleaner did not work right spitting out hot water all over the counter and floor. This was purchased from Jewelers Toy Store and fulfilled by Amazon and it was apparent on opening the box that this was not a new item and had considerable use. The top was splattered with water spots and the steam cap and threads had a build up of hard water residue. My guess is that this was previously returned for the steam problem and then sent out again as new. We decided to try it out anyway and found the problem with the steam unit.We used the GemOro Sparkle Pak cleaning solution with the ultrasonic cleaner and it did a great job and the steam cleaning made it even better. However the hot water spray from the steam unit made a mess and is not safe. The steam cleaning tank takes 12 oz. of water and the instructions are clear not to overfill the tank or it will dispense not just the dry steam but will spray hot water. We made sure to put in the right amount of water but it continually sputtered lots of hot wet spray even after the water level was lowered. I am not sure if this is a defective unit or if it is a problem with this model. The unit in the videos that we saw did not act like this.A couple of additional observations. The company calls this a compact unit and perhaps it is as these things go but it does take up a lot of room on the counter. We ended up putting this in a back bathroom that is not used much rather than in the master bath as we had planned. We were pleasantly surprise to see that the steam tank heated up very fast. It was ready to use before the 6 minute ultrasonic cycle was finished. Very nice. The instructions were clear and complete and along with the various Youtube videos we had no problems understanding how to set this up and use it. The instructions say you can use tap water in the steam tank and I am sure you can but for things like this I always use distilled water. I just think it will last longer as any type of steamer will get mineral build up and eventually cause problems.This unit is being returned but since it does such a good job cleaning the jewelry we will try to order this again. This time from a different seller.Update 6/3/2013: Shortly after submitting this review I was contacted by the seller who wanted to correct the problem personally. He indicated that all of these units are sealed when he gets them,that he does not repackage returned items and that he wanted to personally make sure I got a good replacement unit. He promised to personally inspect a new unit and send it out right away, which he did. The second unit was brand new and worked perfectly. I cannot verify where the problem in the first unit came from but I do know that the seller's follow up service was excellent and that I would not have a problem ordering from them in the future.Using distilled water this steamer only lasted 5 months!! Spend more money on a real professional one.It was work perfectly and one day i moved it and connected to power and immediate made big sound and burned the power board but the funny thing is the fuse was okay as i know fuse job is to protect the devise from cases like thisnow i need to buy the electric boardthank youHad this for a month now and I have not had any issues. I was not sure what to expect based on other reviews, but since it was prime eligible I figured what the heck.No issues with machine out of the box. Brand new.Easy set up. Smaller than i expected which is great Takes up less room. Still plenty big cleaner and steam reservoir. Clenaed about 15 peices of jewelry first time and did not run out of steam.Ultrasonic sounds good. I have no way to measure the frequency of the cleaner other than it sounds just like the full size machines I use to clean guns. The dog left the room as soon as I turned it on, so it seems to actually use ultrasonic waves, not just vibrating like some cheap machines do.Steam works great, a little residue with the first spray, but that should be expected. Very controllable valve for regulating amount of steam. Push down all the way and the jewelry flies right out of the tweezers.(Close nearby drains, don't ask why)Cleans just as well as taking it to the local jeweler. I used some Blitz cleaner concentrate, just a little in the water to help clean and it worked perfect. Little blast of steam after that and perfection.The only downside is that it is so easy and fast, less than 10 min from turning it on to done that my wife wants her earrings and ring done every week. Had to find a place for it to stay out instead of emptying it and storing it.I love love love this, the picture defiantly does not do the GemOro justice, after I took my rings out of the cleaner for the first time they looked better but still not as shiny as I knew they could be that was because there was so much lotion and hard water on my rings, I watched a video and someone suggested when you have rings that dirty you first take a toothbrush, and some dish soap and go over your rings including the under side where the diamonds are set then rinse it and leave them in a cup of warm water ( I used hot, from my water dispenser) and leave your rings in the water for five minutes that way and grime and build up can loosen up, I did that then used my GenOro again and vola my rings looked brand new again even the silver was shiny so happy I purchased this, my only complaint would be it was bigger than I expected but other than that I love it, totally worth the money also when I purchased it Amazon had a suggestion that when people buy this they also purchase Gem & Jewelry Cleaner concentrate by Blitz to use in your water that the rings sit in very happy I did. I was leary of spending so much money on a jewelry cleaner however in the end it is an great investment.I have had and used this for my wedding ring and tennis bracelet for about 6 months. I only use it for personal use, about 2-3 times a week. First of all, I LOVE how great it makes my jewelry (stunning!) HOWEVER, (after 5-6 months of use) all of a sudden, when it is plugged in it trips the circuit breaker immediately. It no longer works and I am worried it may be a fire hazard. I can't understand what happened, the unit wasn't even moved or anything. I do not know yet if the manufacturer will honor a warrantee or not yet (I am waiting to hear) and if they are able to make this right I will be updating this: because this problem happened after 6 months, we are no longer eligible for Amazon's basic return policy. When this unit is working, I LOVE IT. But let's face it, if it isn't working-- $200 is a lot of money.J’ai reçu mon appareil pour nettoyer mes bijoux. Elle est très belle et énorme. Cote ultrasonic, ma petite machine acheter dans le passé à 50$ je trouve qu’elle nettoie mieux, et on voit les ultra son, j’ai fait le test de la feuille d’aluminium la petite perfore, mais la grosse non. Pour la section vapeur ces vraiment impressionnant. WoW. Ça cleans. Si ça serais à refaire j’achetais que la machine à vapeur. Mais en gros je regrette pas trop.tal como en su descripción el producto muy buenoMy rings just sparkle like they never did before. Very pleased with the steaming part.