Commercial steam cleaners have been used for around 150 years for cleaning machinery especially around the railways and power stations where keeping machinery clean is important for efficiency and safety. The commercial application of steam for cleaning involves much higher temperatures than domestic steam cleaners can produce. These cleaners are used for various applications such dissolving fats, oils and grease and for sanitising or killing bacteria.
Commercial steam cleaners are increasingly being adopted by businesses due to the benefits of steam cleaning over the conventional way of cleaning with disinfectants and chemicals. The added benefits of steam cleaning has seen many contract cleaners employ the use of commercial steam cleaners to provide a quicker and more efficient way to complete cleaning jobs that would otherwise take more time and cost more money to have cleaned.
The use of steam cleaners, especially commercial types is not restricted to use just on flooring and hard surfaces with many applications found in industries such as health care, food preparation and local council. Steam cleaners are used by professional cleaning companies and also by workers in each of these industries to perform a variety of tasks such as the following.
Commercial steam cleaners can be used quite effectively in the food preparation industry due to the ability of the steam cleaners to clean and sanitise. In a kitchen environment steam cleaning can be used for cleaning range hoods, ovens, greasy and dirty floors as well as food preparation areas including bench tops.
The health care industry also uses them as a way to clean and sanitise areas to avoid the spread of disease and to keep facilities as clean as possible. The health care industry includes hospitals, nursing homes, hospices and aged care facilities which need to be kept clean and sanitised and commercial steam cleaning can provide in some cases better cleaning than using chemicals.
Local councils also use steam to clean graffiti, chewing gum and other dirt and grime from car parks, foot paths and school grounds. It is also used for cleaning and sanitising amenity blocks at council ovals and sporting fields.
Commercial steam cleaning is also used in the hospitality industry for sanitising mattresses and minimising problems such as bed bugs. It is an effective way of killing bed bugs as long as the steam cleaner used is a commercial cleaner that reaches a high enough temperature of above 45oC to effectively kill both the bed bugs and their eggs.