Steam Cleaning

[Wai-Fan]

Just ordered one of these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VAX-V085-STEA...omeGarden_CLV_Cleaning_CA?hash=item5ad897f9a8
A Vax V085.

I'm mainly planning on using it on the interior and alloys, but I've seen people steam clean exteriors with just the steam and an MF cloth. Just wondering what are the chances of the paintwork being scratched because I want to give it a go, my car just has about a weeks layer of dust on the surface so not dirty enough for hose pipe, shampoo etc etc.

Thanks.

 

[Wai-Fan]

Just received my steam cleaner today! Might give it a go sometime this week and see how it goes!

 

[Sarah's A3]

good luck, hope you get good results. Never tried one to be honest!

 

[JD09]

Personally wouldn't steam clean anything other than the engine bay, but as you said, have heard of people use it on exteriors.

Try it! You can always correct it as it will be very minor marring inccured if it doesn't work!

 

[Wai-Fan]

Gave the steam cleaner a try last night. It was a quick job as it was getting dark so not really the best way to do it. Also I'm still trying to get used to it and I was limited on equipment as it wasn't my house. All I had was some microfibre towels and a tea towel because it was lying around.

Anyways, good points and bad points I noticed so far.

Starting with the bad points.
In the morning I found a few marks on the paintwork, nothing disastrous. Some reasons for this could be the cheapo microfibre towels I bought from Morrison's, poor technique or probably because it's not powerful enough.

Good points.
Was pretty good at removing the majority of dirt off the alloys including brake dust and tar. The stubborn bits wiped off fairly easily with a cloth after. I reckon using it with some wheel cleaner would be pretty good.
With 1.4L of water, I managed to do the whole car and have some water left over.

I mainly bought it to do the interior, door shuts and engine bay, so wasn't expecting it to be that great on the exterior.

I'll probably update with some more info when I have more time.

 

[putang]

Steam cleaners are superb for cleaning wheels, arches, interior and your bay. They can be used for loads of jobs.