Start with the surfaces you actually clean
Write the job down as a surface list before you look at any machine. For each area record what the deposit is, whether the surface tolerates heat and moisture, and how far the operator must reach. Grease film, dried residue, dust bound with oil and loose soil all behave differently, and the deposit type is what decides whether a drier steam or a wetter, water-heavier pass does the work. The PowerDe cleaning equipment category splits its models by dry steam, wet steam and hot water modes, which is exactly the choice an operator has to make per surface.
Then mark the exclusions on the same list: sealed housings, electrical connection points, bearings that are not sealed, painted or coated surfaces with a finish you cannot re-do, and any area where run-off has nowhere to go. A fixed unit helps most where the surfaces sit still and are cleaned on a repeating cycle. If the work is chasing vehicles around a yard, a mobile option belongs in the comparison instead.
Read the model wording before you compare quotations
The PowerDe HW03 steam cleaner page shows more than one designation for the same unit, so treat the designation as a line to confirm rather than something to assume. Ask the supplier to state, in writing, which model the quotation covers and which parameter table belongs to it. Then read the table you have been given. The published rows on that page are machine dimensions, hand push, 4.5KW semiconductor heating, a 50L clean water tank described as box volume, tap water inflow with a 4-point internal tooth joint, dry steam and wet steam modes, 220V working voltage, and a high pressure water gun with nozzle.
Those rows are not performance figures, and they should not be read as such. A tank volume is not a working time. A heating power figure is not a steam temperature and not a delivery pressure. Steam temperature and steam pressure are not published for this machine, so ask for them for the exact unit being quoted, and do not fill the gap with the numbers printed for a similar fixed model. The same caution applies in reverse: a job that needs the duty of a fixed machine should be specified against the fixed machine's own rows.
Check the utilities and the footprint where it will stand
A fixed machine is judged by what it connects to. Confirm three things on the floor: the supply voltage at the position you intend to use it, the water inlet arrangement, and the drain or collection route for run-off. On the HW03 page the inlet is listed as tap water with a 4-point internal tooth joint, so the question for the buyer is whether that fitting matches the site plumbing or whether an adapter and a qualified installation are needed. A 220V working voltage row answers only part of the question; the circuit, protection and cable run at that location are yours to confirm.
Then measure the route, not only the machine. The published footprint is the cabinet; the working radius is the hose, the wand and the path the operator pushes it along. Ask for the hose and wand lengths, and walk the route with a tape measure, including door widths, thresholds, turns and any ramp. Because the mode of movement in the table is hand push, an operator should also check that the route is firm and level enough to push along, and that the machine can be parked where it will not block traffic or a fire route.
Match the mode to the duty, not to the label
Dry steam and wet steam are different tools. The drier mode suits deposits that respond to heat with little free water, and it leaves a surface nearly ready to return to service. The wetter mode carries more water, which suits deposits that need soaking and flushing, and it leaves run-off you must manage. If the same area needs both, ask whether the machine switches between modes during a cycle and how long the change takes. Where your surfaces carry heavy grease, equipment specified for a duty like yours is the row to request, not a general catalogue sheet.
Next write the duty in your own units: how many square metres or how many items per cycle, how many cycles per shift, and who operates it. The 50L clean water tank and the heating power on the page are values for the quoted machine; what matters on your floor is how many minutes of work they support between refills at your own pace. Ask the supplier to answer that in writing, and hold the answer against the surface list rather than against a general claim.
Run one bounded trial before you sign
Choose one representative area from the surface list and set the acceptance standard before the trial starts: the deposit that must be gone, the surface condition that must be preserved, the time allowed, and the state the area must be in at the end. Then run the trial with the machine on your own utilities, at your own position, with your own operator. Record what took the longest, what had to be shielded, what had to be repeated, and where the run-off went. A trial that flatters the machine is a trial that was set up wrong.
A single pass also shows what a fixed unit cannot do for you. If the trial shows that most of the time goes on moving the machine and re-reaching the area, or that the job is spread across several locations that the cable and hose cannot cover, then a fixed machine is the wrong shape for this job and a mobile or hand-pushed option should be quoted instead.
Close with what you need in writing
Before you decide, send the surface list, the footprint walk and the trial record to the supplier and ask for a written response to each open row: which model and which parameter table the quotation covers, the steam temperature and steam pressure for that unit, the hose and wand lengths, what the published tank volume supports in continuous work at your duty, and which fittings are supplied with the inlet.
Where your surfaces, your cycle pattern and your utilities do not line up with a published row, that gap is a specification conversation rather than a reason to guess. Describe the surfaces and the duty and request customized steam cleaning equipment against them, then compare the written answers side by side. An operator who arrives with a surface list, a measured route and a bounded trial answers the suitability question with evidence instead of a product name.
