Portable steam cleaner

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Has anyone got one of those hand held portable steam cleaners the like they sell in ALDI or WILKO? Would it be man enough to remove seventy five years of accumulated black tarry oil deposit as seen within my shaper table?

Rik

Edited By Rik Shaw on 18/11/2014 17:11:47

Edited By Rik Shaw on 18/11/2014 17:17:16

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Perhaps you should get English Heritage to organise an archaeological investigation first!

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Perhaps you should get English Heritage to organise an archaeological investigation first!

Neil

[HowiParticipant @howi]

Well! You could suck it and see, if it won't, give it to your wife for Christmas .

With 75 years wirth of crud, you might be better off with a thermal lance………

[Peter TuckerParticipant @petertucker86088]

Hi Ric,

I don’t know the particular cleaners you are looking at however some time ago my wife bought a handheld steam cleaner which proved to be absolutely useless so I would strongly recommend that you do not waste your money on one of these.

Best of luck.

Peter.

[Phil WhitleyParticipant @philwhitley94135]

we have a polti vaporetto, steam cleaner which is excellent on carpets and car interiors, it easily delivers enough steam to make short work of this, but you would need to glove up!

Phil

[frank brownParticipant @frankbrown22225]

I suspect that because of the high conductivity of the iron, the steam will condense into water, except for the steam that escapes to rust your other tools. We have a Vax floor steam cleaner for our kitchen tiles. Its operator says its very good. Can you not borrow a steam wall paper stripper?

Frank

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

I think if anyone in your area still has a hot caustic tank it would be worth a small fee rather than spend time and money on other cleaning methods, engine refurbishers could well be the people to contact.

Mike

[houstoncengParticipant @houstonceng]

We have a Polti Vaporetto and I agree it's great on carpets, floor tiles, tiled walls, etc.

However, when I tried to clean the really mucky club loco and, at another time, the alloy wheels on my car, I found that the steam immediately turned to water and it was useless for these tasks.

Try some solvent – eg caustic soda or paraffin with the usual precautions – and a bit of El Bow grease.

[FMESParticipant @fmes]

A visit to your local car garage to enquire about using a proper steam cleaner would be more of use.

I have a Kaarcher Diesel powered high temperature water (95deg) @ 140 bar that will strip paint from an engine block in seconds.

Take some rust preventer with you as it will get a surface coat of corrosion before you get it back in the boot of your car.

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

Use Gunk or similar cleaner, then pressure washer, might take a couple of goes but it will work. PS best to use next doors drive.

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