I bought my steamer from Salon R Us. I named it Shaitan.
It was a stand up on wheels. This model:
http://www.ccibeauty.com/CC-1002.html
I paid $119.17 for it with free shipping, but that was two years ago. The price has gone up alot since, so you might want to shop around and see if anyone has it cheaper. Or even just get the one in the link. It looks so cute and the price is so much better.
I did like the service that I got from Salon R Us though...they shipped fast and nothing arrived broken or anything like that. I'm actually considering getting a stand up dryer from them in the near future.
I had it for a little over a year. I sold it to another LHCFer last May, because my new dorm room wouldn't have space for it and steaming wasn't really that beneficial to my hair. Before I sold it though, it worked great. There were two settings of steam, and you could really tell when you were using the low or the high one, and it had a little timer that would automatically turn off the machine after I was done steaming. The height was also very adjustable, so I never had to scrunch under it or anything. I could just sit comfortably at my desk and watch a movie or do homework while I steamed. It was also very relaxing, to the point where I would do the treatments more for the sake of stress-relief than for my hair. If it worked for my hair, I would have never let it go, even if I had to keep it in my bed LOL.
While I had it, it held up fine. I used only distilled water in it, and ran it with vinegar water about once every six weeks or so, to keep the insides clean. For the outsides, I would wipe it with a damp rag every week. I never knocked it over or banged it, and for its part, it never broke down on me.
I didn't like that assembly was kind of tough, because the instructions were in Chinese. And then, it's doesn't exactly fold away for easy storage like a desktop model would. If you can find space in a closet or something though, that should take care of it. Of course too, it's expensive, but at least it pays for itself in a few months, once you consider the price of a weekly steam treatment at the salon.
If my hair actually liked steaming, I would definitely repurchase. Or not gotten rid of the one I had lol.
Sorry for the novel, but I hope it helped.
I think the stand ups are great (my girlfriend has a table top) and so long as it has at minimum a low and high setting you're good to go
