Which Steam Cleaner Do I Need?

Steam cleaner is a quick and effective equipment for house cleaning. It produces hot steam that heats up any surface to 95-100 degree Celsius. Stubborn stains on the surface will be greatly loosened and subsequently removed by either a steam cloth attachment (mopping) or a steam brush attachment (scrubbing).

Picture: Two models of steam cleaner are currently available for rent – the Karcher SC 2 (upper left) and the Karcher SC 5 (lower right).

Examples of Steam Cleaning

(A) Steam mopping with a cloth attachment is able to remove dirt and stains for

Window curtains
Leather furniture
Kitchen stove & hob
Walls & Floors

(B) Steam scrubbing with a brush attachment is a much more aggressive cleaning for

Taps & Fittings
Hard surfaces

In the following we compare the different models of steam cleaner available for rent and which one is good for your needs.

Steam Cleaners Compared

Currently, Karcher SC 2 and Karcher SC 5 are available for rent. The following tabulates their main differences:

Model	Karcher SC 2	Karcher SC 5
	View	View
Heating Power	1500 Watt	2200 WATT
Max. Pressure	3.2 Bar	4.2 BAR
Machine Weight	2.7 kg	6 kg
Operating Time	20-25 mins before running out of water. An emptied unit needs 5 min for cooldown and another 6 min for heat up, which sums up to 11 min of idle time.	NON-STOP steam output for long hours of usage (heavy-duty).
Special Feature	—	VAPO-HYDRO FUNCTION that shoots hot water for hard-to-reach areas.
Main Uses	Window curtains Leather Furniture Kitchen Stove & Hob — —	Window Curtains Leather Furniture Kitchen Stove & Hob WALLS & FLOORS TAPS & FITTINGS

The Karcher SC 2 is a small machine with the following limitations:

Its steam pressure is lower (3.2 Bar). This makes it not effective for wall & floor cleaning which requires a larger coverage of area by hot steam at any given time. Also, it is not suitable for steam scrubbing (e.g. bathroom taps & fittings) which requires a more powerful steam heating to loosen or soften the stubborn stains for subsequent removal.
It takes time to refill and boil the water. A fully loaded Karcher SC 2 has 20 mins of steam time before it runs out of water. After that, it takes 5-10 mins for the unit to cool down before one can safely open the unit for refill, and another 7 mins to boil the newly added water. To summarize, one has to wait at least 12 mins between every 20 mins of steam time.

The Karcher SC 5 is a more powerful machine that is not bounded by the above-mentioned limitations:

Its steam pressure is much stronger (4.2 Bar). This makes the cleaning of walls, floors, taps & fittings effortless.
Its steam output is non-stop or uninterruptible. The machine will prompt the user for water refill when the “refill tank” is empty. However, the “boiler tank” inside the machine still contains water and is able to produce hot steam. The adding of refill water does not affect the steam output. Hence, the steam output is always ready.

Recommendations

The Karcher SC 2 is good for window curtains, leather furniture, kitchen stove & hob, and other light-duty cleaning jobs which do not require long hours of steam time nor high rate of steam output.

The Karcher SC 5 is capable of house-wide steam cleaning which requires long hours of usage, or steam scrubbing which requires the output of powerful hot steam.