Put the machines you own beside the surfaces you listed
Walk the line first and write down what the cleaning crew could realistically reach: shell heights, whether a platform or ladder is needed, how far the reel can be parked from the job, which aisle stays open for trolleys. Then put that list next to the equipment catalogue the supplier can actually ship - PowerDe cleaning equipment, which covers fixed units, mobile units and hand-pushed units.
Compare reach, mobility and footprint, not marketing wording. A fixed unit belongs where utilities and a permanent position already exist, while a wheeled or hand-pushed machine travels along a line; that difference is what decides whether the tall shells on your list are a job or a wish. A shell above platform height with no safe standing position stays on the exclusion list until someone is put on a scaffold or a long-reach tool is quoted.
Separate the shells you can wet from the shells you cannot
Every machine on that catalogue page is described by its working modes. A setting that carries more water behaves nothing like a drier setting, and the difference decides what is safe to wet: electrical enclosures, junction boxes, cable runs, bearing housings and any cabinet whose seals were never rated for a washdown belong behind a boundary line, and the drier setting is the only one that goes near them.
Draw that boundary with tape or a marker on the floor plan and let no one improvise past it during the job. The same walk records which shells already carry an insulation cladding, a painted coat or a lagging jacket, because those need a very different pass from bare metal and are often better left alone on a first round. Where a shell needs both a soaked pass and a light pass, write which one goes where instead of leaving the operator to choose under time pressure.
Trace the run-off from every shell you plan to wet
The water a lance puts on a tank does not stay on the tank. Before the first pass, follow where it will go: down onto the floor, into a gully, off a platform edge onto whatever sits below, or into the gap behind a base plate that no mop will reach. Note which shells drain straight into the process area's own drainage and which ones drip into a place that will pool and sit there for hours.
Then check that the run-off can actually be contained while the job is running, because the review that only looks at the surface being cleaned misses the mess underneath it. Where the answer is no, the shell is not a steam job on that day. A written map of run-off paths costs an hour of walking and prevents the argument afterwards about who flooded what.
Ask the supplier to answer for the exact machine being quoted
Ask for the delivery configuration in writing for the unit you would actually buy: which working modes it runs, what is fitted for handling run-off, which cleaning accessories are delivered, and which items must be ordered separately. A Fixed Steam Cleaning Machine PowerDe HW02 is one row on that page, and its parameter table is written for that row alone - the same question asked about a mobile or hand-pushed row needs its own answer, because figures are never transferable between machine families.
Also ask where the unit is meant to sit and what it needs to be started at all. A machine that is described as fixed cannot be wheeled from the brewhouse to the packaging hall, and a machine that travels still needs a water supply, a power point and a parking position that does not block a fire route. If your brewery list assumes one machine covering the whole line, make the supplier say whether the quoted unit covers it or whether two different rows are needed.
Book the shift and the permissions before the steam starts
Exterior cleaning around a running site needs a window: which line is stopped, who signs off access to a platform, who is told that a hot surface and a wet floor will exist for the next few hours, and when the area is handed back. Write the window into the plan with a named responsible person rather than an understanding. Note what has to be covered before work starts - adjacent open vessels, belts, motors and any instrument whose sensor faces the pass - so that the covering itself does not become the delay.
Put the walk-back step in the same plan: after the pass, someone inspects the shells, the gullies and the equipment standing below them, and signs that the area is back in service. A cleaning pass with no hand-back step produces the same dispute every single time, whether the shell looks clean or not.
Run one shell and let the record decide the rest
Choose one shell that carries the awkward combination - one coating, one seam and one drain that worries you - and clean only that. Record what actually happened: whether the coating lifted, whether the seam released its deposit, how long the surface stayed wet, what the run-off carried and what had to be covered before the run-off reached it. A short written record like that is worth more than any brochure claim, because it speaks about your shells and your deposit and your drainage.
Take that record back to the supplier and let the rest of the shell list follow from it: more of the same approach where it worked, a different machine row where reach or travel was the limit, a different setting where the wetness was the problem. For installations where nothing on the catalogue fits, the supplier can be asked about customized steam cleaning equipment using the same record as the starting document.
