Steam cleaning
Steam car wash machines that need no drain
Three electric machines and one diesel fired. Steam at 180 °C out of a 304 stainless boiler, two outlets on every one of them — and so little water that nothing runs onto the floor.
Spares available in Morocco.
What a steam machine is actually for
It is not a cheaper pressure washer, and it will not replace one. It does a different job, and it does it in places a lance cannot go.
Five litres, not five hundred
The electric machines draw 0.25 litres a minute at the gun. Twenty minutes of steam is five litres of water — so there is nothing to drain, nothing to collect, and no wet floor to walk a customer past afterwards.
180 °C does the work
Pressure and chemicals are how you clean cold. Heat is how you clean without either. Steam at 180 °C releases grease and sanitises what it lands on, which is why it goes where a lance cannot — the dashboard, the vents, the seats.
Steam waiting, not steam on demand
Every machine holds steam in a stainless boiler under pressure, so the gun opens onto steam that already exists. A coil-type generator has to fire its burner each time you pull the trigger, and you wait while it builds.
The range
Four machines
Three heat the water electrically and one burns diesel. All four store steam in a 304 stainless boiler at up to 10 bar, and all four have two outlets.
Two outlets is not the same as two people working non-stop. Whether the machine keeps up with a second gun is a question of heater rating and boiler volume, which is what the middle two columns are really telling you.
First steam is time to usable steam from cold, not time to a boiler at full temperature. Hoses, lances and brush attachments on request.
| Model | Heat source | Boiler | Steam | Power supply | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KKE DR110 | Electric · 5 kW | 10 L · 304 stainless · first steam 10 min | 8 bar working · 180 °C | 230 V single phase, or 415 V three phase | One operator. The only machine here that will run off a domestic supply. |
| KKE DR112 | Electric · 12 kW | 15 L · 304 stainless · first steam 5 min | 8 bar working · 180 °C | 415 V three phase | A detailing bay working all day, and two guns when the work needs them. |
| KKE DR118 | Electric · 18 kW | 21 L · 304 stainless · first steam 5 min | 8 bar working · 180 °C | 415 V three phase | The most steam of the electric three. Two people, continuously. |
| KKE DR150 | Diesel burner · up to 4 l/h | 304 stainless · first steam 3–5 min | 9 bar working · 185 °C | 220 V single phase, 0.26 kW — runs off a generator or an inverter | No mains, or the machine goes to the car. Van-mountable. |
Which one
Electric or diesel
All four machines do the same job at the gun. What separates them is where the heat comes from, and that decides where the machine is allowed to stand.
DR110 · DR112 · DR118
- There is a supply you can rely on — and three phase for the 12 and 18 kW machines.
- The work is indoors. Nothing is burning, so there is no flue gas to get rid of.
- Quiet enough to stand beside while somebody talks to a customer.
- Cheaper per hour to run.
DR150
- There is no mains at the wash point, or none you would want to depend on.
- The machine goes to the car — wheels off, bolted into a van, running off an inverter.
- Outdoors, or across a large site, where the exhaust is not a problem.
- Quickest to steam from cold, and the highest steam output of the four.
Inside the machine
What you are actually buying
The boiler
The boiler is the machine
Everything else is a way to heat water and get the steam to a gun. The boiler decides how long you wait at the start of the day, how long two people can work before the pressure drops, and whether the machine is still yours in ten years.
All four hold steam in a 304 stainless pressure vessel rather than flashing it off a hot coil. Cross-section illustrative.
- 304 stainless, not mild steel. A boiler spends its whole life full of hot water. Stainless is what stops that turning into a corrosion problem.
- Steam is stored, not made to order. Pressure is held in the vessel, so the gun opens onto steam that already exists.
- 10, 15 or 21 litres of it. Boiler volume is what carries you through a busy hour, and through a second gun.
- First steam in 5 minutes on the DR112 and DR118, 10 on the DR110, 3 to 5 on the DR150.
Safety
Ten bar of steam, and the things that keep it there
A steam cleaner is a pressure vessel with a heater in it, standing in a room with people in it. These are less features than the reasons one can be left running.
Overheat cut-out
The heater drops out on its own if boiler temperature goes past the safe limit.
Pressure relief valve
Mechanical, not a control setting. It vents before the vessel can be over-pressurised, whatever the electronics are doing.
Low water cut-out
The heater will not run dry. If the level falls too far, it switches off.
Automatic pressure control
Pressure is held at a setpoint rather than swinging between the limits, which is also why the steam is consistent.
Emergency stop
One button on the machine takes everything down, within reach of the person holding the gun.
Insulated steam hoses
The hose stays safe to hold along its length, which matters more than it sounds when two people are working around a car.
What steam actually gets used for
Steam is not a cheaper pressure washer and it will not replace one — a lance is still the right tool for a mud-covered vehicle. What steam does is clean without water, which turns out to matter in six places on a car.
Application
Interior
Seats, carpets, mats, boot linings. Dry steam lifts what is ground into the fabric and takes the smell out with it, and because there is so little water in it the trim is dry enough to hand the car back.
- Dry steam for fabric. Set the outlet dry and a seat comes up clean without soaking the foam underneath it.
- Nothing to extract. No water pools, so there is nothing to suck back out and no machine to empty at the end of the day.
Application
Door cards and armrests
The inside of a door takes more hand contact than anything in the car except the wheel — grained plastic, leather, a pull cup and a switch pack, all of it holding skin oil and dust down in the texture. Steam floats that out of the grain instead of polishing it further in.
- Into the texture, not across it. A cloth moves dirt around on grained plastic. Steam lifts it out and the cloth carries it away.
- Around the switch pack. Little enough water that it flashes off — worked across the contacts at an angle, never held on them.
Application
Vents, dash and touchpoints
The parts of a car nobody can properly reach: vent blades, switchgear, seat rails, belt buckles, the gap under the handbrake. Steam goes in and comes back out, and at 180 °C it sanitises on the way through.
- Heat is what sanitises, so there is no residue and nothing to wipe off afterwards.
- It is what the customer notices. A car that smells clean sells and rents better than one that has been sprayed with something.
Application
Engine bays
An engine bay is the one place on a car where a pressure washer is a liability. Steam carries the heat that releases baked-on oil film, but almost none of the water that drives past a connector seal.
- Very little free water. Steam condenses on the surface it lands on instead of flooding the bay.
- Grease comes off warm. Oil film releases at steam temperature when a cold rinse will not shift it at all.
- Lower risk than a lance, not no risk. The usual care around the ECU, the alternator and open connectors still applies.
Application
Exterior, where there is no bay
Wet steam will wash the outside of a car. It is slower than a pressure washer and it is the wrong tool for heavy mud. What it buys you is the ability to wash on a forecourt, in a basement or on a customer's driveway, with no drain and no runoff to account for.
- Nothing runs off, which is the entire point — no bund, no interceptor, and nothing to ask the landlord about.
- Set the outlet wet for panels, and back to dry for the inside. Same machine, same gun.
Application
Wheels, arches and door shuts
Where brake dust and road film collect and a sponge does not reach. A narrow steam jet gets between the spokes and behind the arch liner, and lifts the film instead of moving it around.
- Between the spokes, onto the inner face of the rim, without taking the wheel off.
- Door shuts, fuel flaps, sills. The details that decide whether a valet looks finished or nearly finished.
Who buys them
The businesses these end up in
Detailing studios
Interior work is most of the revenue and steam is most of the interior work. Two outlets means two people, or two bays, off one machine.
Dealerships
Pre-delivery and used car preparation, done indoors, without a wash bay and without a drain in the floor.
Mobile valeting
The DR150 in a van. Arriving with your own water and leaving no mess behind is the whole business case.
Car wash sites
A steam interior clean is the upsell a tunnel or a rollover cannot do, on equipment that fits in the corner of the bay.
Rental and fleet
Sanitising between hires, at volume, with a process you can describe to a customer who asks.
Workshops
Engine bays, gearboxes, sumps and parts — without a parts washer full of solvent to dispose of.
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