Dry steam is the mode buyers name most often in an enquiry, and it is also the mode that gets mismatched to the job most often. Somebody writes “we need a machine with dry steam”, a machine is quoted, delivered and switched on, and for a week it behaves. Then the operator discovers that the surface they actually clean all day needs a wetter steam, or that the tank lasts half the shift, or that the bay has no water point and the machine expects one. None of that is a fault. It is a brief that arrived without the information the engineer needed to set the mode and the machine correctly.
Say what the mode has to do, not just its name
Dry steam is steam with very little free water carried along with it. Under pressure it delivers heat into a deposit and leaves the surface almost dry afterwards, which is why it suits oil films, waxy residues and work you cannot afford to soak. Wet steam carries more moisture and is the better stage for loosening something thick that has dried solid. Hot water is what you use when the job is to move a volume of loose soil off a large area. On the PowerDe cleaning equipment range these options sit on the same platform rather than on separate machines: the mobile driving-style PWD01, PWD02 and HMW2 units list dry-steam, wet-steam and hot-water modes, while the fixed HW02 and the hand-pushed HMW3 switch between dry and wet steam. Telling the supplier which mode you will use on an ordinary Tuesday matters more than telling them you want “dry steam”.
Describe the surface, and what must stay untouched
Steam settings are chosen against a material, not against a machine. List what you actually point the lance at: painted bodywork, bare steel, stainless, galvanised frames, aluminium castings, plastic trims, rubber hoses and wiring insulation, upholstery and seat fabric, sealed concrete floors, powder-coated panels. Then list what must not be hit: bearing seals, electrical connectors, control housings, sensor blocks, adhesive trims, sealant joints, anything where heat can soften a bond or drive water into a housing. PowerDe's fixed dry and wet steam cleaner, the HW02, is described on its product page with three uses side by side: vehicle exterior cleaning at fuel stations and parking areas, interior cleaning with the vacuum function, and engine-compartment cleaning. Those are three materials and three safe distances, and they are the kind of detail that decides nozzle and mode selection before a price is quoted.
Describe the deposit, and how long it has been there
The nature and age of the soil is the second half of the brief. A thin oil film on a panel, a caked mixture of road grime and dust on a wheel arch, cutting oil on machinery, dried salt, or biological growth are different problems, and dry steam does not treat them the same way. Give three facts: what the substance is, roughly how thick the layer is, and how long it has been exposed. A coating that has been cooked repeatedly on hot equipment has hardened and needs a wetter steam and a slow pass before anything lifts; a fresh film comes off with a single dry-steam pass and a cloth. Say also whether anyone has already put a detergent or solvent on it, because a residue of that product changes what happens next.
Give the utilities exactly as they are
This is where most configurations go wrong, because the buyer describes the work and not the room. The published figures for the fixed HW02 show why: 6 kW of heating power, steam at 160 °C, vapour pressure of 0.8 MPa, an 80 L SUS304 tank, and 220 V working voltage with a tap-water inlet on a 4-point internal-tooth joint. The hand-pushed HMW3 is a different world again: a 4.5 kW PTC semiconductor heater, a 50 L clean-water tank, and a 48 V battery as the working supply. Those two sets of numbers need two different rooms to work in. Send the supplier:
- Power as installed. Voltage available at the point you will actually plug in, single-phase or three-phase, the breaker rating, how far the run is from that point, and whether an outdoor or underground position is involved.
- Whether a battery machine is required. The PWD01, PWD02, HMW2 and HMW3 are each listed in versions with and without battery. A battery version answers the problem of a long cable run or a bay with no supply, and it changes how long you can steam between charges.
- Water as installed. Is there a mains tap, a hose union, a hydrant, or nothing at all? Say whether the supply is tap water, whether it is hard, and whether any treatment exists. Hard water scales a heater, and that is a maintenance conversation to have before purchase, not after.
- What happens to the run-off. An indoor garage with a gully and an oil separator, a forecourt, an open yard, or a floor with no drain at all. Where the water has to be recovered rather than drained changes the method and sometimes the machine.
Temperature and pressure figures for a specific model should be taken from the current product page and confirmed for your market. Some listings do not publish everything: the HMW3 page, for example, gives heater power, tank volume and the battery supply but not steam temperature, steam pressure, battery capacity or run time. Ask for those figures in writing before you accept a quotation.
Measure the space the machine has to travel through
Mobility is decided by geometry. The mobile active-water units are positioned for indoor garages and narrow outdoor parking spaces, and that description is a real constraint rather than marketing wording. Send the width of the door the machine has to pass, the height of any lintel or pipe run, whether there are steps or a ramp, the width of the working aisle, and the distance between the parking position and the farthest point you clean. A hand-pushed unit is described with dimensions of L1150 × W520 × H1030 mm, which fits a normal doorway but not a tight aisle. Whether you need driving-style, hand-pushed or a fixed installation usually follows from that list rather than from preference.
Describe the shift, not the wish list
Productivity is sized from your working pattern, so send the pattern: how many vehicles, machines or square metres are cleaned per shift; how many people work; how long a shift runs; whether steaming is continuous or in short bursts with idle gaps. Then ask the direct question about endurance. With a 50 L tank or an 80 L tank, the practical run time before a refill depends on the mode you are in, and dry steam and wet steam consume water at different rates. If the shift has no natural break for a refill, say so, because the answer may be a larger tank, a second machine, or a battery and water swap routine.
State the safety and hygiene rules you have to satisfy
Tell the manufacturer what your site requires, and let them confirm what the machine can support rather than assuming it. Work near fuel and vapours is one situation; a clinic, care home or laboratory is another, and the hand-pushed HMW3 is listed for cleaning and disinfecting hospital beds and medical machinery; food preparation areas are a third; a public car park with pedestrian traffic is a fourth. The protection functions published for these machines include leakage, short-circuit, high-temperature, high-voltage, water-shortage and high-voltage-explosion protection, with the exact set depending on the model. Match that list against your own rules and insurance requirements, and ask for whichever certificates, declarations or manuals your procurement department will demand. Where your intended use is not written on the product page, ask for a written confirmation before it becomes part of your plan.
The ten lines that make a brief answerable
- What is cleaned, and what material it is made of.
- What must not be sprayed, and the clearance you need.
- What the deposit is, how thick, and how long it has been there.
- Whether the surface stays in use, and how wet it may be left.
- Power available at the working position, and whether a battery machine is needed.
- Water source, water hardness, and where the run-off goes.
- Door widths, aisle widths, steps, ramps and travel distance.
- Volume of work per shift and the length of that shift.
- Safety, hygiene and documentation rules that must be met.
- Country, mains voltage and plug standard, and whether you need customized steam cleaning equipment rather than a catalogue model.
What the supplier does with those ten lines
With that brief in hand the choice becomes a mapping exercise. A fixed 220 V installation for a bay where vehicles and engine compartments are cleaned points at the HW02. A hand-pushed machine for facility and medical-area work points at the HMW3. Work spread across an indoor garage and several narrow outdoor bays points at a driving-style unit. Where none of them fits the room, the brief is what makes a custom configuration a realistic conversation instead of an experiment. A quotation built on assumptions about your site will look competitive and behave badly; a quotation built on those ten lines is the one that survives the first month of use.
And if you already own a machine that produces dry steam but does not deliver, send the same ten lines with a description of the failure. Mode selection, missing utilities and lance technique are separated very quickly by that information, and it is usually one of those three rather than the machine itself.
