I had a small travel steamer once, really didn't work worth a damn. It was hardly more than a mister, slightly warm, nothing more. A real steamer to my mind emits steam, which is 212F, and that's hot.
Actually steam has nothing to do with 212f, steam can occur at much lower temps. My Perfection steamer is very hot and would burn burn you (and I have) The hot steam reacts with the gunk in the grooves to loosen it better than if it was cold. Just like dishwashers work better at hotter temps. Plenty of others have cleaned records with tap water, Windex and everything else you can imagine, hot steam seems to get the really tough gunk that is easily audible during playback. Sometimes I have to steam a record more than once to get all the visible stuff off the surface and if you can see it you surely are going to hear it.