By now, you know that using a steamer in your detail business is almost a no-brainer. There is no reason to discuss using a steamer to clean the interior of a car, as it should already be a major part of your car cleaning arsenal.
Assuming you have a steamer, the next thing most detailers want is to employ steam extraction and get away from using a traditional hot water extractor. But can you do this with ANY steamer?
First, let’s address the vacuum setup. Not just ANY steamer can act as an extractor. MOST steamers DO NOT have an incorporated internal vacuum. Our Chief Steamers DO NOT have an internal vacuum. We have never done the combo units. We feel they are too complicated to work on, as they have to split power between the steamer and internal vacuum. They make the machines larger and heavier, and they make them MUCH more expensive. We choose not to do it this way. There are a few steamer/vacuum combination units out there, but ours is NOT one of them. Here is what we do:
We sell separately a steam/vacuum hose with a 4-inch extraction suction tool, similar to a regular extractor head seen on traditional extractors. The steam part is the same but sent through the sprayer on the suction tool. The suction is gained by using YOUR vacuum. This is generally a small wet/dry vacuum. The vacuum hose on our setup is mated to the vacuum hose of the wet/dry vacuum you have. Generally, the smaller vacuums have almost the same diameter hose so that these easily mate up together. There is also an adapter that Home Depot sells to mate different size hoses together, so this is generally not an issue. Once your suction hoses are mated together, the steamer is ready to steam, and the vacuum is ready for suction. Turn them both on, and you are ready to go.
Most of our competitors do not sell a separate vacuum hose. They either do not offer any kind of extraction, or they may sell the steam/vacuum combo unit. We think the steam/vacuum hose is a better way to do it since you will not need the vacuum portion most of the time. Our main competitor, Rino, sells the steam vacuum hose and operates similarly to the way we set it up. They do it a little differently, however. They use a tube that goes through the steamer body for the suction. The front part is where the suction part of the vacuum plugs directly into the front of the steamer, so BOTH the steam is plugged into the steam port and the vacuum hose is plugged into the vacuum port. That takes care of the entire hose. The back is where the vacuum hose of the shop vacuum is plugged in for the actual suction. We are not sure if most shop vac hoses fit this port easily without an adapter. We choose not to use the tube inside the machine as we feel it’s not needed and takes up too much room inside the body. We just have you mate hose to hose for suction. In the end, we both get there the same way, and it works in the same fashion.
Rino does offer brushes for their suction tool, which we do not. Ours is suction only. We keep the price of our setup less expensive by eliminating brushes. We feel if you need to brush, use the regular steam hose as the first step. That brings us to the main point of… Is steam extraction the same as a regular wet hot water extractor? This is a difficult question to answer as every car and every job has a different level of dirt. If there is a level of mud and ground-in dirt, a steam/vacuum setup does not have the flushing action that a traditional carpet extractor will have. However, for lighter and less ground-in dirt, the steamer and vacuum can do a nice job and keep a car interior or furniture much drier, as the steam will not get the surface soaking wet.
We know most car detailers want to get away from a traditional carpet extractor. We feel this setup gets them most of the way there in having a machine that can tackle multiple jobs. And since every detailer has to have a vacuum anyway, that is not something that needs to be purchased in addition to the steamer. The Chief Steamer vacuum hose is far less expensive than the cheapest carpet extractor and generally will do a very nice job in most cases.
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