Every listing for steam degreasing equipment promises high temperature and high pressure. The difference between two suppliers only becomes visible when a restaurant asks questions about its own kitchen: the polymerised film on the outside of a fryer housing, the range hood filters at the end of service, the floor seam beside the drain. The nine questions below are the ones a restaurant team should put to a supplier before buying, together with what a useful answer sounds like and where a vague answer should raise a doubt.
Start with a one-page brief
Questions get generic answers when the questioner has nothing specific to hand. Before contacting anyone, write one page containing three things:
- A list of the surfaces you want cleaned, each marked with the condition of the soil on it: a fresh oil film, a sticky polymerised film, or a hard carbonised deposit.
- The real time window you have after service closes, counting cool-down, cleaning, drying and the walk-back before anyone leaves.
- What you assume is out of scope: the duct above the first reachable section, the oil circuit inside a fryer, the interior of the grease interceptor, and drain clearing.
Without this page, every supplier answers in generalities and you cannot compare one answer to the next.
1. Which surfaces on my list are in scope, and which are out?
Send the surface list and ask the supplier to mark each line yes, no, or needs a test. A supplier who has worked in kitchens will volunteer the exclusions without being prompted: ducting above the first reachable section, the oil circuit inside a fryer, the inside of the grease interceptor, and blocked drains. An answer of "it handles everything in a kitchen" is not an answer. Ask for the agreed scope in writing, because that sentence becomes the boundary of every later complaint.
2. What are the steam temperature and pressure, and where are they measured?
For saturated steam, temperature and pressure are two readings of one condition, not two separate achievements. The data sheet of the PowerDe HW02 fixed steam cleaning machine, for example, lists 160 °C steam temperature and 0.8 MPa vapour pressure: that pair describes a single state of the steam. The follow-up question matters more than the numbers: were they measured at the boiler or at the nozzle? The nozzle figure is what softens your grease, and pressure and temperature fall along a long hose. Ask what arrives at the end of the hose that will actually be supplied.
3. What evidence do you have on polymerised kitchen grease?
Ask which uses the manufacturer's own product page states. The HW02 listing describes vehicle exterior cleaning at fuelling and parking sites, interior vacuuming and disinfection, and engine-compartment cleaning; kitchen surfaces are not on that list. That does not mean the machine cannot help with restaurant kitchen grease cleaning — it means the kitchen claim has to be established before you order. Ask what supports it: references from comparable kitchens, or a written confirmation of the intended use. If neither exists, treat the purchase as an experiment and negotiate the trial described in question 9.
4. What site conditions do I need to prepare, and who confirms each one?
A steam machine is an electrical appliance, a water appliance and a drainage source at the same time. Ask the supplier to state, for the exact model:
- Electrical: the working voltage and heating load — the HW02 page lists 220 V and 6 kW — so your own electrician can confirm or size a dedicated circuit. The machine's built-in protections (the HW02 page lists leakage, short-circuit, high-temperature, high-voltage and water-shortage protection) guard the machine; they do not guard your wiring.
- Water: the inlet type (the HW02 page lists a tap-water inlet) and the distance from the nearest tap to the point where the machine will stand.
- Drainage: where the wash water will go, and whether a grease interceptor or trap is required on that line. Grease and discharge requirements are set by your local drainage authority, not by the equipment supplier, so confirm them separately.
- Room: ventilation for steam in an unvented kitchen area, floor slope toward the drain, and clear floor space around the machine.
A supplier who has done this work before will ask these questions back at you.
5. What is the realistic working cycle between refills?
The 80 L stainless steel tank on the HW02 page tells you the scale of job the machine is built around, but it does not tell you minutes. Ask four timed questions: how long preheating takes from cold, how many minutes of steam one tank supports, how long recovery takes between tanks, and whether the machine is expected to run continuously through an overnight clean. These figures are often absent from published data sheets. Get them in writing before you plan a shift around the machine, because a cleaning window that fits on paper fails when half of it is spent waiting for the boiler.
6. What exactly arrives in the crate?
Ask for a packing list that names every item, and check it against your surface list:
- The steam hose and wand length. This decides what one operator can reach from the machine's fixed position, and it is the number most often missing from listings.
- Nozzles, brush tools and extension lances, and which are standard versus optional.
- Wear items such as nozzles, seals and swivel joints, with part numbers, prices and stock availability, ordered with the machine rather than after the first failure.
- The machine's overall size — the HW02 page lists 1,200 × 800 × 1,200 mm including handles — measured against your door widths, corridor and the point where it will finally stand.
7. What training and documents will my team receive?
Ask what the manual covers and in what language, whether commissioning includes hands-on training for the people who will actually operate the machine, and what personal protective equipment the manufacturer expects for steam at the stated temperature. Ask for retraining material you can hand to a new hire later. One boundary is worth stating plainly: an inspector asks about your process and your records, not about the machine. The cleaning log, the checks you perform and the results you keep remain your documentation; the equipment supports them but does not produce them.
8. What happens when the machine needs help?
Ask what the warranty covers and excludes, and single out descaling and water hardness, because scale is the most common cause of steam machine downtime and the treatment is often the owner's responsibility. Then ask how a fault is reported, in what language and time zone support answers, how quickly, whether remote diagnosis is offered, where spare parts ship from and how long they typically take, and which servicing tasks your own staff may perform without affecting the warranty.
9. Can we test on our own equipment before deciding?
Propose one cold equipment surface after service closes: one half cleaned with your current method, the other with the supplier's machine, the whole cycle timed, and the surface checked again the next morning when any remaining film has had time to show itself. A supplier confident about kitchen grease accepts a trial on your equipment. A supplier who will only demonstrate on a sample panel in their own showroom is telling you where their experience actually ends. After the trial, send the supplier your records — timings, photographs, what remained — rather than a summary.
Red flags worth noticing
- Adjectives where numbers should be: "incredibly powerful", "removes anything".
- Refusal to confirm scope or intended use in writing.
- Promises about hygiene results rather than about cleaning capability; sanitation is verified by your own process, not by the machine.
- No willingness to test on your equipment.
- Inability to say where the steam temperature and pressure figures were measured.
Send the questions with the inquiry
Put the nine questions and your one-page brief in a single message and send it to two or three suppliers. Comparable written answers turn a purchase decision into a comparison. If you would like PowerDe's answers to these questions, send your surface list, the condition of the soil on each surface, and your real cleaning window through the contact page, and ask for the same nine answers in writing.
