Steaming in the Ozarks

 Steaming in the Ozarks

If you follow us here on the blog you will know I am a big proponent of steam for deep cleaning nothing cleans better and makes less of a mess for certain jobs. While I would not want to steam clean each and every project we take on steam has a place in the cleaning world. I have always wanted a "Sioux model B steam-cleaner" it is a proven machine that has been around for a long time. It just so happened I found one in a tractor/truck repair garage in northern Missouri for the right price, and bought it. With this addition we can open up even more ways to help you clean your projects. Cleaned by Pete now offers more cleaning alternatives and any one else in the Ozarks. Dry low pressure steam, steam cleaning, wet steam, hot and cold water power washing and safe "soft washing" for homes and businesses.

Sioux model B steam cleaner

Sioux model B propane fired burner.

Those of you not familiar with steam cleaners I thought I would talk about them in this entry. Some of the features of steam cleaners that make them so useful are they: eliminate any splash back we as an operator need not worry about what we are washing splashing back and soaking us with water and what we are washing off. Water consumption is reduced by 57% which also reduces runoff (this is compared to a hot water pressure washer). You can achieve hotter and higher temperatures which increases the effectiveness of chemicals and cleaners. Steam cleans grease and oil off of surfaces more effectively and thoroughly. Lastly since the steam cleaner is quicker we save on electric or gas consumption which ever may be powering the unit. With these features we can achieve these benefits less cleanup time with less mess. It will cost less to do the job with a environmentally friendly footprint. Steam is saver for the operator and is more controllable. We can reduce the time, water usage, chemicals, time and other resources (gas, oil, electricity) using steam-cleaners. Our model "B"

is also propane fired which carries more BTU's than a diesel fuel and burns cleaner another win for the environment.

With all that why don't we use steam for everything then? As with any tool it works better for certain jobs, while we could hammer in a nail with a pair of pliers it would not be the best tool to use. Having the option of what tool to use is the key. Having the option of using steam over the hot water power washer puts one up and over the competition. It also put one up higher up as a stewards of the earth doing a bit more to help this old world's streams and lakes. I am older than most power washers and back in the day these machines were found in auto shops, garages, and shops where I spent alot of time as a kid growing up. I have even heard my dad speak of the steam cleaner at the welding shop in the small town where I was born and how people and business would come there to use it. Just amazing that one tool could be used by the folks in the town and the farmers around. Cleaning greasy equipment, detailing car motors, steaming years off or farm equipment for repair this did it all. 

What am I going to use this steam cleaner for? It will be used the same as the other steam cleaner in our line of cleaners. Our other steamers are low-pressure dry steam cleaners this one is more powerful and will help to widen our cleaning capabilities to clean even more. The list below is form the Sioux web sight and is what they suggest a typical steam cleaner can be used for:
TYPICAL APPLICATIONS FOR STEAM

• Cleaning engines, transmissions, drive trains, and other equipment prior to performing service and maintenance work.
• Thawing frozen drains, tanks, piping systems, culverts, etc., for street and highway departments, manufacturing and processing plants, pipelines, and other industries.
• Thawing railroad tank cars to accelerate removal of viscous liquid contents, while ensuring that the maximum temperature is less than the boiling point of water (to prevent fires and other high temperature damage).
• Removing chewing gum from sidewalks, tables, stadiums, entryways, etc.
• Degassing tanks prior to welding or other maintenance work, especially gasoline, oil, and petrochemical tanks of all sizes.
• Preparing surfaces for painting, especially removal of cutting oils, grease, and similar oily or greasy substances.
• Degreasing dies and tools in manufacturing operations.
• Removing fats, grease, oils, and substances from surfaces and equipment in food processing plants.
• Melting and removing paraffin and wax or grease from traps and drains in wastewater treatment plants, petroleum refineries, and for similar use in other industries.
• Cleaning and restoring brick, block, stone and other masonry surfaces for maintenance or restoration projects, at monuments, cemeteries, and similar applications, where steam is more gentle and less intrusive and damaging than high pressure cleaning.
• Wide range of other specialty applications.

We at Cleaned by Pete have used our steam cleaners on patio furniture, greasy motors, greasy equipment, motorcycles, stoves, shopping karts, playground equipment, kitchen and butchering items, terracotta floors and grout lines, while used mostly in the auto and manufacturing areas vapor cleaning is gaining a whole new life in the USA. Vapor cleaning in Europe and Australia has been going on and being refined for some time now. During the '60's steam cleaning was loosing a battle to the pressure or power washer here in the States. Back then it seemed we had unlimited water, gasoline and diesel fuel all of which you would need to run a heated power washer, but in other countries they were already starting to conserve and look ahead. Vapor or steam cleaning is more efficient way to clean in a lot circumstances. We now have low-pressure dry steam cleaning, steam cleaning, wet steam and hot water cleaning in our lineup each is different each is used in a different way and for different jobs.

This is a picture of the steam cleaning machine that Cleaned by Pete just bought, looking for years of use from it.

This is an excerpt form our web page that I wrote about steam cleaning, thought it would fit in here it is about why a steam cleaner works.

Vapor Expansion is why steam cleaning works heating water up way over 214 degrees plus in one self-contained cleaning machine at low pressures between 80 to 200 psi. Pressure affects the point at which water boils or vaporizes into steam. At a pressure lower than the pressure of the atmosphere at sea level water boils at a temperature lower the 212°F boiling point of water at sea level. At pressures higher than the pressure of the atmosphere at sea level, water boils or vaporizes at temperatures higher than 212°F. a pressure washer operation the pump simply pushes water out of a restrictive nozzle. The narrow passage through the nozzle increases the water's velocity and, consequently, its potential impact and cleaning power. In pressure washing, the pressure or restrictive nozzle is the last part of the machine the water flow passes through. In simpler terms these units put out steam more like a whistling tea kettle in stead of super hot water out of your kitchen faucet at full blast. The steam cleaner doesn't so much use steam to clean as it uses steam expansion to propel water at near its boiling point at a high velocity. The closer the steam cleaner's nozzle is to the surface to be cleaned, the higher the temperature and velocity of the water, the more effective the cleaning action. In addition to steam our vapor cleaners have a feature that we can add soap or cleaning solutions directly in to the cleaning stream the biggest advantage to this is that heat will help any soap or chemicals work more effectively this also reduces any "chemical runoff" to a smaller factor. The expanding and cooling of the water when the water passes through the  special nozzle puts the vapor additional pressurization and cannot remain a liquid at ambient temperature. The water cools itself to 212°F by vaporizing a portion of its volume. This is called "flashing to steam." Depending on the system, from 5 to 15 percent of the volume vaporizes, cooling the remaining liquid. This steam vapor, with a properly designed steam cleaning nozzle, also propels the remaining water droplets. Unlike a pressure washer nozzle, where the restrictive orifice is the last thing the water passes through before reaching the atmosphere, the steam cleaning nozzle has an expansion nozzle placed past the pressure orifice. This directs the water vapor energy rather than allowing it to dissipate in all directions. When water vaporizes, it expands to almost 1500 times its former volume. This expansion, directed by the somewhat conical steam nozzle, adds velocity to the water droplets. So, not only does the expansion nozzle direct the steam cleaner's output, it serves as a sort of propulsion chamber. No simply the super heated water hits the air out side the small hole in the nozzle and becomes steam it more or less expands or flashes becoming like a small explosion and these small drops or hot water hit the surface and tumble and splat to chip a way the dirt or grease. 

May be a bit faded and scratched but it has not effected it cleaning power Pete's newest addition to the steaming line up at Cleaned by Pete

Call Cleaned by Pete we are "Steaming in the Ozarks" 

417-459-7869

from the listing where I purchased it.