Temperature is the number that decides whether a cleaning job needs scrubbing or a pass with a nozzle. Comparing it across options is where most buyers go wrong, because a temperature quoted in a brochure is not the temperature that reaches the soil. Compare the three quantities below instead.
Separate the machine's rating from what reaches the surface
Ask three different questions about any machine. What does the boiler or heater produce, according to the machine's parameter table? What does the steam do to the air between the nozzle and the surface? And what actually warms the soil, given the distance, the dwell time, and the airflow in the room?
The first figure is easy to compare; the third is the one that decides your labour time. Ask the supplier for the outlet figure and for a demonstration at the distance and pass speed you will really use. The product page for the Fixed Steam Cleaning Machine PowerDe HW02 lists 160° steam temperature and 0.8 MPa vapour pressure with 6 kW heating power; those figures say what the machine can hold at the outlet, and a trial on your own surface tells you what survives to the panel.
Compare hot water, dry steam and wet steam as three different heats
Hot water carries a lot of water against the soil, so it transfers heat well over a wide area and it rinses at the same time. It also leaves volume to dry and, where there is no drain, a disposal problem.
Dry steam carries very little free water. The heat arrives with almost no liquid, which is what makes it usable near panels, bearings and seams — and what makes it slower on an open, heavily soiled floor than a hot-water flow.
Wet steam sits between them: more moisture than dry steam, faster on open surfaces, with less water than a hot-water wash. A machine that switches between the modes changes the comparison from "which machine do I buy" to "which mode does this surface need", which is the question an operator can answer in seconds.
Compare against the alternatives on the same axis
Cold washing with detergent relies on chemistry and mechanical scrubbing; the temperature of the water barely matters, and the cost shows up as brushing time, rag waste and the disposal of the detergent solution.
Solvent works at room temperature because it dissolves the soil rather than releasing it with heat. Its cost is not in time but in handling: storage, ventilation, PPE, oily waste disposal, and the restrictions that apply wherever an ignition source exists.
Abrasive and scraped cleaning uses no heat at all, and its cost lands on the part: finishes removed, faces damaged, swarf driven into guides and into the air of the room.
Put all four against the same soil sample and measure the minutes to reach your acceptance condition. Then add what each method costs afterwards in drying, containment and disposal.
Check what the heat costs you on the surfaces you cannot wet
Heat has limits, and they are set by the object, not the machine. Plastics can warp, elastomers harden, aged paint blisters, and any assembly with a bearing or an electrical connection needs masking regardless of the mode. Ask which surfaces in your plant rule heat out, and write those exclusions into the procedure before the first job.
Where the finish is unknown, run the lower-heat mode from a longer distance on a hidden area of the same object and record the result. That single line on the job sheet prevents most of the damage claims attached to heat cleaning.
Compare the supply each option demands
A high outlet temperature with a large heating load means a mains supply, a water inlet and drainage. A battery-fed machine takes its power from an on-board battery rather than from a socket at the wash point. That difference is the comparison that decides whether the equipment reaches the machine, the vehicle or the floor that actually needs cleaning.
Write down what your site can offer at each wash point — voltage, water, drain, and the distance to it — and read the options against that list, not against the specification page. The mobile and hand-pushed models in the PowerDe cleaning equipment range are listed for narrow indoor spaces where a fixed station cannot go, which is a supply answer as much as a size answer.
One sheet for the comparison
- Machine outlet figures from the parameter table, and the trial result at your working distance
- Mode used per surface, and the minutes to reach the agreed acceptance condition
- Drying, containment and disposal time added by each method
- Consumables and disposal for the non-heat options: detergent, solvent, rags, abrasive media
- Surfaces and assemblies excluded from heat, written before the trial
- Utility available at each wash point: power, water, drain, and walking distance
Run the sheet on two real jobs before you decide. Temperature on a datasheet is a claim; minutes to a clean surface on your own floor is a number you can budget.
If the comparison points at a setup you cannot buy off the shelf
Where the wash points, the utilities and the objects force a particular combination, you can describe the conditions through Solutions, or contact us on the contact page.
