Steam Cleaners?

Dougal

Dougal

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Looking at buying a small portable steam cleaner to try on anround my very messy engine and bilge.

I see there's quite a range with large price variations. Don't mind paying a higher price, but only if it does a better job.

Anyone have any recommendations or the opposite?
 
I went for the cheapest available (many years ago) in Argos. It is one with a smallish (4 litre) tank, long supply tube and different nozzles. It does the job well enough but with one problem. Once you start steaming the engine or bilge you can forget being able to see what you are doing through the fog.
 
It seems to me that I haven't seen big steam cleaners for some time. I assume that they have been replaced to a large degree by pressure washers. I might suggest that you hire buy or borrow a pressure washer especially one that has provision for detergent injection. That might just do the job you want with less cost and concern re hot steam. Of course you will need provision for draining the bilge again. I assuming you will need power and water supply for as steamer just like a pressure washer. Or perhaps you should just rry using a degreasing cleaner and paint brush. olewill
 
Bodach na mara said:
I went for the cheapest available (many years ago) in Argos. It is one with a smallish (4 litre) tank, long supply tube and different nozzles. It does the job well enough but with one problem. Once you start steaming the engine or bilge you can forget being able to see what you are doing through the fog.
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Hehe RIGHT on. I had that "pleasure" before as well.
 
William_H said:
It seems to me that I haven't seen big steam cleaners for some time. I assume that they have been replaced to a large degree by pressure washers. I might suggest that you hire buy or borrow a pressure washer especially one that has provision for detergent injection. That might just do the job you want with less cost and concern re hot steam. Of course you will need provision for draining the bilge again. I assuming you will need power and water supply for as steamer just like a pressure washer. Or perhaps you should just rry using a degreasing cleaner and paint brush. olewill
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I did one up that my wife was not to thrilled about. I “commandeered “ her fancy steam iron, one of those with a tank thing that produce a ton of steam, and used it to degrease and clean the engine on my 4x4. In retrospect It worked well but it would have been cheaper to buy a steamer since the “peace” was bought at a high cost of mirrors and shiny trinkets to pacify the natives. It even involved attending a fancy new restaurant where the coffee alone would have paid for half a steamer at Argos. But hey, it did work like a charm.
You just need hot steam …
 
William_H said:
It seems to me that I haven't seen big steam cleaners for some time. I assume that they have been replaced to a large degree by pressure washers. I might suggest that you hire buy or borrow a pressure washer especially one that has provision for detergent injection. That might just do the job you want with less cost and concern re hot steam. Of course you will need provision for draining the bilge again. I assuming you will need power and water supply for as steamer just like a pressure washer. Or perhaps you should just rry using a degreasing cleaner and paint brush. olewill
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Thanks William
I have a good pressure but they just don't 'hack it' for this job. They also tend to do a lot of collateral damage around the engine;-) I once used a small portable steam cleaner on another engine. I found it to be much more precise and controllable in an engine compartment.
 
Some decent degreaser and warm water seems to deal with most things.
The 'no nonsense' degreaser from Screwfix removes everything from motorcycle chain wax to kitchen grease.
I dilute a bit and use a trigger spray, plus an old paint brush to work it in. Then rinse with warm water from another trigger spray.

We have one of those domestic steam cleaning things, it's not bad, but I'm not sure it's as good as the hype.
It's good when you don't want to use chemicals.
 
Dougal said:
Looking at buying a small portable steam cleaner to try on anround my very messy engine and bilge.

I see there's quite a range with large price variations. Don't mind paying a higher price, but only if it does a better job.

Anyone have any recommendations or the opposite?
Click to expand...

Why not hire first and if you like it make an offer to buy? https://www.hss.com/hire/p/steam-cleaner-osprey
 
MartynG said:
Something like this perhaps ?
https://www.aldi.co.uk/easy-home-multi-steam-cleaner/p/082328192110600
.
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I bought one of those after a recommendation on here.

Bought primarily to clean out a large diesel tank, it's proved very useful since.
Only slight frustration is that you have to wait for it to build up pressure for long, sustained blasts, but it was perfectly serviceable and I'm happy with it.
Do read the reviews carefully though, QC is non-existent. The first one I got didn't work properly, it was returned for an immediate replacement.
 
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