Stainless steel is everywhere in a commercial kitchen: worktables, splashbacks, sinks, exhaust hoods, oven surrounds, trolleys and floors. It tolerates heat and water well, yet it is also the surface where grease, starch dust, sugar syrup and carbonised deposits build up fastest. Most operators who call a cleaning-equipment supplier ask one question: "which machine should I buy?" That is the wrong starting point. The right starting point is a set of questions the supplier should be asking you. The answers decide whether you get a machine that fits your kitchen or an expensive unit that sits in a corner.
1. What exactly is on the surfaces, and how thick is the deposit?
A supplier who has not seen your kitchen needs you to describe the soil before recommending anything. Light food residue and dust on a prep table are one job. polymerised fat on a fryer housing, carbonised grease on a hood canopy and sugar that has caramelised on a bake oven are another. Thick, baked-on grease cannot be lifted by detergent alone; it needs heat to soften and flow, which is why central kitchen degreasing work is usually specified as a steam or hot-water process rather than a cold-wash process. Describe the deposit by location, how long it has been there and whether it has been re-heated many times. A competent supplier will ask for photographs of the worst surface, not just the floor plan.
2. Which surfaces can be moved, and which must be cleaned in place?
The split between removable and fixed items changes the whole equipment choice. Wire shelving, grease filters, baffles, splash guards and small utensils can usually be taken to a washing area and treated off the line. Hoods, duct access points, stovetops, griddles, salamanders, fryer bodies, sinks and floor areas must be cleaned where they stand. In practice most kitchens need two workflows, not one: a soak-and-agitate routine for parts, and a portable in-place routine for fixed equipment. Tell the supplier how many of each item you have and how many can be off the line at one time, because that sets the throughput the washing area must handle.
3. What services are available where the cleaning happens?
This is the question suppliers ask least often and the one that kills most specifications. For each candidate location confirm the following in writing:
- Power: is there a 220 V single-phase outlet within reach of the washing area, and what is the available current? The Fixed Steam Cleaning Machine PowerDe HW02 is listed at 220 V with 6 kW of heating power, so a shared kitchen circuit that already carries fryers and ovens may not accept it without a dedicated supply.
- Water: is there a tap-water inlet at the station? The HW02 page lists a tap-water inlet and an 80 L SUS304 tank, so the feed must be stable enough to refill between shifts.
- Drainage: where does the washed-off grease go? A floor drain with a grease interceptor is very different from a sink that will block.
- Ventilation and steam: in-place cleaning releases heat and vapour into the room. Confirm that the area has extraction, and that staff can work comfortably while it runs.
- Floor loading and access: a fixed unit with a full tank, plus trolleys and hoses, has to be pushed through doorways and lifted over kerbs. Measure the widest obstacle in the route, not the door you usually use.
If any answer is "we do not know", a serious supplier will send someone to look rather than quote from a catalogue.
4. How much water, and where must it go?
Kitchens are not unlimited wash-down areas. Hosing a floor in a basement restaurant with no gully is not an option, and many operators now have to account for water use and effluent as a cost line. High-temperature steam cleaning equipment is worth asking about precisely because it works with far less water than a hose: the energy goes into the steam, not into volume, and the soil is lifted as a film that can be wiped or squeegeed into a proper drain. Ask the supplier to walk you through the water route for your specific floor, and to state tank capacity and expected refill frequency for the model being quoted.
5. How will the cleaning be scheduled around service?
Ask yourself how the work actually fits into the day, then tell the supplier honestly. A hood and its filters may need a deep clean weekly or monthly; a stovetop and its surrounds may be scraped and wiped every night. If the kitchen runs breakfast, lunch and dinner, there may be only a one-hour window between shifts. That window determines the steam temperature and pressure needed to soften baked-on deposits quickly, and it determines whether you need a machine that heats up fast and holds output, or one that is left running on standby. Suppliers should be told the window, not just the area in square metres.
6. What are the safety and material limits?
High-temperature, high-pressure steam is a tool that requires discipline. Ask the supplier which protections are built into the unit. For its fixed and mobile cleaning machines, PowerDe lists leakage, short-circuit, high-temperature, high-voltage and water-shortage protection; ask them to confirm these for the exact model and market being quoted. Then check your own surfaces: insulation on electrical housings, bearings on fans and motors, painted or laminated panels, timber or composite substrates under stainless cladding, and any adhesive-bonded trim. Steam into a bearing or under a laminate can create a repair that costs more than the cleaning. A good supplier will ask what must not be sprayed, and will mark those items on your cleaning sheet.
7. Who operates it, and what training comes with it?
The machine is chosen by the person who will push it at 22:30 after a full service. Confirm how the unit is started, how dry and wet steam are switched, how the tank is filled and drained, and how nozzles and hoses are changed. Ask what training is provided, whether it is on site or remote, whether it is available in your language, and what documentation you receive. Also ask what happens at 2 a.m. when the unit stops heating: which parts are held as spares, where they are shipped from, and what the response commitment is. These answers matter more than a brochure specification.
8. Can the supplier trial the equipment on your own surface?
The strongest question you can put to any supplier is simple: can we see this on our own soil? A demonstration on a clean test panel proves nothing. Ask them to treat one hood filter, one stovetop corner or one section of floor, and record the time taken, the water used and the finish achieved. If a trial is not possible, ask for references from kitchens with the same equipment and the same deposit, not from a different industry. A supplier who expects to sell equipment that will be used every week should have no difficulty arranging either.
9. What does total cost of ownership actually include?
Compare quotations on a single sheet that includes the purchase price, any electrical or plumbing work needed to make the location usable, consumables such as nozzles, hoses and filters, expected service intervals, freight, and labour time per clean. A cheaper machine that requires an electrician, a plumber and two extra staff hours a week is not cheaper. Ask the supplier to state which items are in scope and which are yours.
Before you send the enquiry
Prepare six items, and you will get a real recommendation instead of a product link: photographs of the three worst surfaces; a list of what can be removed and what cannot; the power, water, drainage and ventilation available at the cleaning location; your available cleaning window; the surfaces that must not be sprayed; and your annual cleaning budget including labour. With those answers, PowerDe's engineering team can map the requirement to a fixed or mobile machine, or to a customized steam cleaning equipment configuration, and tell you plainly where a machine is not the right answer. Send that information before you ask for a price, and the specification conversation starts from your kitchen rather than from a catalogue.
