I have never used one, but my brother saw one used in a class he took and was thoroughly impressed. It replaces your iron for use on red dye, wax, etc. cleanings. He said it heated up almost instantly (which is a complaint of the wallpaper steamer method) and also allows you to steam the spot with much less risk of scorching the carpet (which is an iron complaint). Should also eliminate the need for the white towel. If you do a lot of red dye treatments or wax removals, I would think it to be a wise investment. We had a red dye situation today and commented how we would have been over half way done (over 10 spots to hit) by the time our wallpaper steamer finally heated up if we had that steam iron. Time is money.