Comparing two machines from a brochure is easy and usually unhelpful. The plate data on both will mention heat, pressure and a tank volume, and none of it tells you what either one does to the outside of a hydraulic power pack, a cylinder or a valve block. The comparison only becomes real when the questions below are answered in writing by the supplier and checked against your own equipment. Each question below is written for that surface, because the surface decides which answer matters.
What exactly is on the surface you want cleaned
The outside of hydraulic equipment usually carries a mixture, not one kind of soil: a film of leaked or misted hydraulic oil, dust and abrasive grit bound into it, cutting or forming fluid from the same bay, and in older installations years of oxidised oil that has gone varnish-hard. Ask each supplier which of those they have actually removed, on a sample, and how long the deposit took to release from first contact to wiped surface. A supplier who answers "grease and oil" in general has not worked on that surface. The answer also sets the mode you need, because a light fresh film and a varnished deposit are not the same job.
What the published temperature and pressure become at the nozzle
Heat does the loosening on an oily exterior, so the figure you compare has to be the figure at the nozzle at the hose length your work actually needs, not the value measured at the machine. PowerDe lists its fixed PowerDe HW02 steam cleaner at 160° steam temperature, 0.8 MPa vapour pressure, 6 kW of heating power and an 80 L SUS304 tank, with dry-steam and wet-steam modes. Use those numbers as the starting point for a question, not as the answer: ask any supplier to state what reaches the nozzle with the hose and lance they intend to supply, and ask for it per model rather than per range. Pressure at the pump and pressure on the deposit are different facts.
Which mode you will use, and what the other modes are for
A machine that offers only steam is a different machine from one that switches between dry steam, wet steam and hot water. Dry steam holds heat on the surface with little free water, which suits loosening a heavy oil film where you do not want water running into gaps. Wet steam and hot water carry volume, which suits flushing the released soil away. PowerDe's driving-style units in the mobile steam cleaning machine range, such as the PWD02 and HMW2 models, are listed with all three modes, while the hand-pushed HMW3 line is listed with dry and wet steam only. When comparing, write down which mode you intend for each step of your task and check the machine offers that mode. A specification that is strong in a mode you will not use is worth nothing.
How the machine is moved to the work, and what it needs on the way
Hydraulic power packs sit beside presses and machines, often with no clear floor space around them and no water point or socket close by. That decides the form of the equipment before the cleaning figures come into it. A fixed 220 V unit needs a supply and a cable route and carries its tank with it; a battery machine goes where the cable cannot, and there the comparison is run time in the mode you intend, at the end of a charge rather than at the beginning. Note also that PowerDe lists the same cleaning models both with and without a battery, so confirm the configuration being quoted rather than the model name. Ask each supplier how the unit reaches the machine, how it is refilled, and what has to be moved out of the way.
What on that equipment must not be cleaned
Any honest comparison includes an exclusion list, and on hydraulic equipment it is long. Sealed and unsealed electrical connections, indicator lamps, pressure gauges, sensor connectors, adjustment scales, painted and labelled safety markings, bearings, rod wipers, and any cavity or gap that water can enter and cannot leave are all candidates for exclusion. Heat plus mechanical action can also change a painted or marked surface permanently. Ask the supplier what they exclude as a matter of course, and put your own list in writing before a trial. A supplier with no exclusions is selling you a dispute.
Where the released oil goes, and where the water comes from
Heat releases soil; it does not take it away. Around hydraulic equipment the run-off is oil and water mixed, and the site decides whether that may reach a drain, has to be recovered with cloths and a squeegee into a container, or is restricted altogether. Water supply and run-off recovery are part of the machine comparison, not a separate facility matter. Compare how each unit is fed, what its tank holds, and what has to be provided on site to handle what comes off. The fixed HW02 page also lists leakage, short-circuit, high-temperature, high-voltage and water-shortage protection among its listed protections, with variants differing in what is included; ask each supplier which protections their quoted configuration has and on what supply.
What the supplier will commit to in writing
A comparison is only usable when each side is written down: the deposit, the mode and nozzle figures at working hose length, the exclusions, the run-off arrangement, the accessories, and for battery models the run time in the intended mode. PowerDe lists customised configuration, engineering services and hardware testing alongside its cleaning range, so a buyer can send the surface, the soil, the site conditions and the cleaning window and expect the configuration and accessory set back in writing from an intelligent cleaning equipment manufacturer. Send to sales@powerde.net or call +86 13023198376, and hold both suppliers to the same written list before deciding.
