Steam cleaners?

[Mike Phillips]

VX5000 hands down.

Is the VX5000 offer constant fill ability or do you have to turn it off, let it cool down before adding water?

Can you use tap water or must you use distilled water?

The brush attachment, how do you secure a clean towel?


I've never used the VX5000 but I'm completely impressed with the Dupray constant fill models. You can use tap water and they have a very ingenious method of attaching a towel to the brush head that's fast and easy. A real time saver.

And why this is important is because if you are in fact cleaing anything that is really dirty you're going to go through a lot of towels and that means swapping them on and off often. If you click the link below for the full article at the end I have a tip for this aspect.



How To Use the Dupray Hill Injection Steam Cleaner


The size of the brush head is PERFECT for any standard size 16" square microfiber or cotton towel.





Simply fold the towel diagonally to create a triangle shape like this...





Place the brush head onto the folded towel like this with a little more extra space at the top. (not much just a little, you need some excess at the back also)




Use your finger or thumb to depress the spring loaded clamp....





Then simply pull the three corners of the towel up and through the open slots of the clamp....





Should look like this when done correctly...







This is steam coming out of the brush head on the low setting....




This is after making a single pass over the 4 black tiles you see on the floor behind the brush head....





NOW THIS IS WHAT'S REALLY COOL ABOUT THIS TOOL!

Most steam cleaners use a pressurized tank to hold the steam. What this means is that when you run out of water you have to TURN THE MACHINE OFF THEN WAIT FOR THE MACHINE TO COOL DOWN BEFORE YOU CAN ADD MORE WATER. This is a HUGE time killer.

Not so with the Dupray Hill Injection Steam Cleaner. This unit offers continuous fill, that means you can continually fill the tank with water as needed without having to turn the machine off and letting it cool down.

Here's the tank cap, note the hole in the top of the cap which is your first indicator this is not a pressurized steam cleaner.







This steam cleaner is on, it's at full temperature and I'm pouring water directly into the holding tank. No problems.

All you have to do is use a pressurized style steam cleaner one time to fully understand how important and desirable this feature is in a steam cleaner.

[Mike Phillips]

Steam Cleaning a Ferrari Interior with the Dupray Hill Injection Steam Cleaner

Cleaning grimy leather seats...




Look closely at the leather and it's a brown color....




Ewww.... that's pretty gross... the good news is not only has all the body oils, dirt and grime from 1987 been removed but any bacteria, mold, germs and viruses have been killed.

[Mike Phillips]

The model I show above is $2,200.00

Dupray Hill Injection Steam Cleaner


But if you want the ability to add water water on the go... that is the continuous fill feature, then the entry level Dupray model that offers continuous fill and comes with all the same attachments is this one,

Dupray ONE Plus Steam Cleaner

[Evan.J]

Is the VX5000 offer constant fill ability or do you have to turn it off, let it cool down before adding water?

Can you use tap water or must you use distilled water?

The brush attachment, how do you secure a clean towel?

Mike I have yet to empty the tank on an interior. Once you do run out of water you can open up the lid add the water and let it heat up.

You can use tap water, however if you do you should use a little bit if CLR to clean the tank once a month and rinse it out. A person should NEVER run anything but water through the system.

It's always best to use Distilled water when using a steamer.

It comes with a large selection of brush attachments but the large triangle brush attachment has two clamps so that one can do the "Diaper Wrap with a towel to clean.

I'll post a photo once I get one.

[Mike Phillips]

It's always best to use Distilled water when using a steamer.

I agree that's why I purposefully showed Distilled Water being added in these pictures....






This steam cleaner is on, it's at full temperature and I'm pouring water directly into the holding tank. No problems.

All you have to do is use a pressurized style steam cleaner one time to fully understand how important and desirable this feature is in a steam cleaner.





That said, Dupray says it's not necessary. To me the cost of distilled water is low enough it's certainly won't hurt and it might help. Some people have some pretty foul tap water.

[BradsDetailing]

Really depends on your money and how many times you are going to use it. I went with a cheap mcculloch that works great for the weekends and cleaning my own car once or twice a month. If I did this as a business or weekly I would go with something like the vx5000 because of the reputation, warranty and parts used.

[mrckeys]

Really depends on your money and how many times you are going to use it. I went with a cheap mcculloch that works great for the weekends and cleaning my own car once or twice a month. If I did this as a business or weekly I would go with something like the vx5000 because of the reputation, warranty and parts used.

Agreed, I have heard a lot of good things about the McCulloch. For the amount of work I'm doing right now with steam this would probably be my best bet. If I see that I'm gonna be using it more regularly I will probably need to think about saving the money to get the VX5000. Thanks for the input.

I'd really like to have one like most professionals have. I'm sure they will be more time saving and hold up a lot better over time, but my wallet doesn't agree with that right now.

[mrckeys]

The model I show above is $2,200.00

Dupray Hill Injection Steam Cleaner


But if you want the ability to add water water on the go... that is the continuous fill feature, then the entry level Dupray model that offers continuous fill and comes with all the same attachments is this one,

Dupray ONE Plus Steam Cleaner

Hopefully, one of these days I'll be able to afford a big boy toy like that. Thanks for posting all the great information on the steamer. I will keep this information in mind when I decide to upgrade in the future. Thanks!