A battery version of a driving style cleaning machine changes what you are buying, so it also changes what an accurate quotation has to describe. The application details you share when requesting that variant decide how comparable the answers are. The same model name appears on this site both as a variant listed without a battery and as a variant including one, and the two rows are not interchangeable when someone prices the job. The useful answer to the question in the title is a short list of conditions you state before the first quote, and a short list of rows you insist on getting back in writing for the exact machine quoted.
This is written for the engineer, facilities lead or buyer who already knows the machine family and needs the enquiry to be specific enough that two suppliers answer the same question.
Why the battery option changes the enquiry, not just the price line
In this product family the published description is a mobile active-water cleaning machine with dry steam, wet steam and hot water modes, intended mainly for indoor garages and narrow outdoor parking spaces. The machine moves on its own rather than being pushed, which means it has to be driven where the work happens, and the driving is the first thing a battery changes. A quoted machine may be described as including a battery, or as the same model listed without one, and the difference is not a small option at the end of an invoice.
It also changes the questions you cannot skip. If part of the duty runs away from a wall socket, the supplier has to say what supplies that part of the work, and how long it lasts on the shift pattern you actually run. If the duty is always beside a supply, the battery question becomes simpler and the quotation gets shorter. Write the answer down for yourself before you send the enquiry, because the variant you ask for should follow from it.
Before comparing any two quotations, confirm that both are for the same variant. Comparing a with-battery price against a without-battery price is the most common way a comparison goes wrong.
The site records the variants separately, so name the one you want
In the cleaning category the same machine name is published twice: one entry for the variant listed without a battery, one entry for the variant including a battery, with the same dry steam, wet steam and hot water modes in both descriptions. The without-battery page is the one that also prints the protection items; the with-battery page is the shorter record. Read your own model choice against the page for that exact entry, and attach the entry you are asking about when you write. The variant is what your shared details apply to, so if the battery version is the one you want, say so in the first line of the enquiry, and use the variant name that appears on the page.
The protection wording is worth handling carefully. The published overview for this family names leakage, short-circuit, high-temperature, high-voltage and water-shortage protection. List the items and ask which of them apply to the machine quoted, and what each one does and does not cover. Do not carry a count across from one product page to another, and do not assume a protection row on one variant describes the one you are buying.
A related point for later comparison: one page in this category adds a row for suction with a flat nozzle and a sewage tank, while the page for the machine family discussed here does not. Never carry a capability across from one page to another, and if recovery of loosened soil matters to your job, ask in writing whether it is offered on the machine quoted.
Describe the wash point, not the machine category
The detail that decides whether a self-propelled unit fits is the space it has to work in. Send the measured aisle width, the turning space, the height of anything overhead, and the surface underfoot. Say whether the ground is smooth concrete, painted flooring, or an outdoor apron with a fall. Say where the unit parks between jobs, and whether that parking spot is beside a power supply.
The published wording for this family refers to indoor garages and narrow outdoor parking spaces, which is a description of the working envelope rather than a promise about your building. A unit that turns comfortably in a garage with clear aisles may not be the right size for a bay with columns, a ramp, or a doorway you cannot widen.
If the site pages for a model do not mention your setting, treat that as a question for the supplier rather than as permission to assume it works there.
Name the object being cleaned and the deposit on it
The same machine can be pointed at a vehicle exterior, an engine compartment, a hard floor, a plinth or a rack, and the answer you get depends on which one you actually named. In an enquiry these named targets are the application details: write the surfaces in order of frequency, and for each one state what is on it: road film, oil, grease, dust, food residue, dried spray. State what is near it, because a cleaning task next to an electrical enclosure, an open bearing, a steam-sensitive seal or a painted surface that has already been repaired is a different job.
State what must not be touched. An exclusion list is shorter to write than a method, and it is the part of the brief a supplier cannot guess. If any object in your list requires a mode or an accessory the published description does not mention, flag it and ask for the mode and accessory to be named in the reply.
Write those application details as they are on the site, using the model and variant names you are asking about, so the record of the enquiry matches the record of the product.
Write out the shift pattern and the power reality
The battery question is really a duty-cycle question, so the enquiry should carry the shift pattern. How many hours a day the machine is expected to work, how many of those hours are spraying and how many are walking or waiting, how many operators share it, and how long a shift lasts before the next one starts. Add the pause structure: one long break, several short ones, or no natural gap.
Then write the power reality in the same paragraph. Where is the nearest supply to each wash point, is it 220 V single phase or three phase, is it on a circuit you are allowed to use, and is there anywhere the machine can be connected while it is not in use. If any part of the day has to run off-board, say which part and for how long. A supplier who receives that paragraph can answer on a variant. A supplier who does not will send you a catalogue.
If your shift pattern has no natural charging window, say so explicitly; it is a design question rather than a price question, and it is cheaper to raise it before the quotation than after delivery.
Ask for the battery rows, since they are not published
Read the published record for the variants in this family and you will find mode of movement, water modes, protection items on one page, and on a nearby hand-pushed model a battery working supply. What the cleaning pages in this category do not print is a battery capacity, an hours-per-charge figure, a charger rating, a charge time, or a battery weight. That is a gap in the published record, not a small oversight in your copy, so ask for those rows for the exact machine quoted.
Ask them as a set, because each row is meaningless on its own: what supplies the battery working, its capacity, the runtime stated at the duty the supplier assumes, the time to recharge, how the machine behaves when that supply runs down mid-job, what it costs to replace and how often, and what happens to it if the machine sits idle for a fortnight. Ask whether runtime changes between dry steam, wet steam and hot water modes, since that is where a duty profile and a marketing figure disagree.
Keep the answers as a table, and hold the supplier to the machine they intend to ship. A battery answer for a different variant is not a basis for award.
Ask for the rest of the specification in the same table
The machine rows to request are the same ones you would ask for on a fixed unit: heating power, working voltage, the steam temperature and pressure the supplier will state for the machine quoted, tank or box volume, the water inlet and its fitting, which modes are offered, footprint including handles, and weight. Two of those rows are traps. A tank volume is not a working time, because it does not say how fast the machine consumes water or how far the operator has to walk to refill. A generator temperature is not the temperature at the surface being cleaned.
For orientation, the category also publishes a fixed machine, the PowerDe HW02 steam cleaner, whose page prints 220 V working voltage, 6 kW heating power and an 80 L SUS304 tank, and describes vehicle exterior work at gas stations and parking lots alongside engine compartment cleaning. Use those rows as an example of the level of detail to demand for the machine quoted to you. Do not transfer them to a self-propelled variant: a fixed plumbed unit and a mobile one are different answers to a different duty.
Ask, in writing, what the published protection items cover, and which failure each one is intended to prevent on the machine you are being offered.
Water, run-off and the building services around it
Water is where most enquiries are thinnest, and it is the part of the job that involves your building. State the inlet available at each wash point and its fitting. State where the run-off goes: a foul drain, a separator, an external gully, or nowhere. Say whether your water supply is hard, since scaling changes the maintenance you will be quoted later, and ask what descaling is recommended and how often.
Ask which mode the supplier proposes for each surface on your list, and why. The published mode set is dry steam, wet steam and hot water, and a supplier who names a mode per surface has read your brief; a supplier who lists modes has sent you a brochure.
If any wash point has no drain at all, say that in the enquiry. It changes the method to one with recovery or containment, and the cost of that belongs in the quotation rather than appearing after installation.
Service, spares and the training that has to happen anyway
Ask where the machine is supported, who attends, and within what time, and get that in the same document as the price. Ask which wear items exist and at what interval they are replaced, what the accessories are, which ones are included and which are extra, and how a wand, nozzle or hose is replaced when it fails mid-shift. For a battery machine, add the battery to that list rather than leaving it in the specification table.
Ask what training comes with delivery and who receives it. On a self-propelled unit the operator is driving as well as cleaning, so the training conversation should cover both, and the answer tells you something about how the supplier understands the machine. Ask what the machine may not be used on, in the supplier's own words.
Where your wash point, water route and surfaces do not match a published listing, the site's customized steam cleaning equipment route is where site conditions and the machine proposal get settled together.
What you should receive back, and how to compare it
A usable reply names the variant, including whether a battery is included, and lists the battery rows requested above rather than describing the machine as battery-powered. It states the modes proposed per surface, the footprint including handles, the inlet and fitting, the protection items with what they cover, the recommended accessories with prices, and the service arrangement. It also states what is excluded.
Compare the replies on your duty, not on the model name. Two quotations for the same model can differ because one includes recovery for run-off and one does not, or because one has priced the descaling your water will need. Before anything is signed, ask for a bounded trial on one of your own surfaces, with an acceptance statement written beforehand in words your own supervisor will use, and get the trial terms in writing.
If a test arrangement is offered, ask what is tested, on what surface, what record comes back, and who bears the cost if the machine does not pass - and hold that answer next to the price.
A short list to paste into the enquiry
Send the same block to every bidder: the variant wanted, and why, stated in one sentence; measured aisle widths, turning space, overhead height, floor type and parking spot; the objects to be cleaned with the deposit on each and an exclusion list; the shift pattern with spraying hours and break structure; the nearest supply to each wash point and whether any part of the day runs off-board; the inlet and fitting available, the run-off route, and whether the water is hard; and the request that the battery rows, the heating and pressure rows, the footprint, the protection items and the service terms be answered for the exact machine quoted. Keep the details you shared in one block, so nothing has to be reconstructed later.
Ask each supplier to answer in your order, so the comparison is read down a column instead of reconstructed from different formats. Anyone who cannot answer your battery rows for the machine they intend to ship has, in effect, told you what they know about the variant you asked for.
The point of the exercise is not a shorter enquiry. Every detail listed above is an application detail you are sharing so the supplier can quote the right variant, and the sequence in this article - confirm the variant, describe the wash point, name the application and the object, write out the shift pattern, request the missing rows, settle the water, then trial it once on your own surface - is what turns a model name into a quotation you can defend.
