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.
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| Sioux model B steam cleaner |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
I have plans on putting this all on a custom Cushman 3 wheeler I have and am building a C-cab for it. I hope I can get this all together this year, in spare-time and weekends.
