VX 5000-Review-- What do you Guys Use Your Steamers for & How

**ShineTimeDetail** · 05-12-2011, 10:31 PM

So I got the steamer on Tuesday night and I kinda played with it but nothing much. The following day the first thing I did was cleaned my sisters tile and grout in her kitchen.(Yes I know nothing to do with a car lol) It did a nice job in a decent amount of time(for my first time every attempting to clean tile)

Today I decided I was going to clean my moms engine compartment on her old car which is a 2003 Ford Taurus with 75K. Its never been touched. At first I applied no degreaser or any type of product. I didn't think it was doing to well. I sprayed the compartment down with a full strength APC and it worked better..Still not what I expected.

It seems to loose steam quickly. It never goes over 4 bars and it drops to 2 bars in a mater of seconds. Is this normal?

So what all does everyone pull their steam cleaners out for? When your cleaning fabric seats what attachments do you use and what settings do you use? When you use it to clean engine compartments what settings do you use etc?

Thanks for looking

**richy** · 05-12-2011, 11:52 PM

Tom, I have a Gaia, which is off the beaten path that most people choose to follow on here. Mine is an extractor and a vacuum as well as a steamer, so, what that means is that it sees its fair share of duty in the house for puke on carpets, stains on carpets, grout and general cleaning. for cars, I use it for the carpet mats, carpet on the interior, steaming the vents to clean out the AC system (you need to let it run at least 60 seconds to accomplish anything) as well as cleaning both leather and fabric seats. It also does a GREAT job on glass. In fact, I've stopped using glass cleaner now too. It is great on cleaning the plastic in the centre console and can blast away merde that gets in crevices too. Trust me, the more you play with it, the more uses you will find for it. (I even used mine to strip wallpaper!)

**Bates Detailing** · 05-13-2011, 12:01 AM

What I use the VX-5000 for :

Carpet and Upholstery -

Triangle head with 3 hole steam sprayer thingy (dont know the name lol)

when needed I use either a MF or a terry clothe to remove access stains.

Engine Compartment :

I use the single hole wand doohicky...... blastes steam directly and rather hard. This worked for me without degreaser...... so I am wondering why yours did not work well with degreaser.

Blowing crap out of crevices :

Single or tri hole head wand. Either work great.

Dropping to 2 bars IS normal for my unit. I usually use the button on the wand that produces max steam and it seems to work great.

Excuse my wordage..... mbut I am somewhat new to the steamer and am not sure of the proper vocabulary.

I can say I use the VX-5000 EVERY day now and get wonderful results. Maybe playing with it a bit longer will get you used to the max ability that the unit will provide detail wise?!?!

**ShineTimeDetail** · 05-13-2011, 06:39 PM

So Ive been playing!! LOL I did the leather seats on my moms old car and they came out good, quickly too. I cleaned my dads entire interior on his 98 F150- Never been cleaned but he is very clean and particular. His truck has a vinyl bench seat which looked clean but really wasn't, cleaned his door panels, door stills, pedals in like maybe 20-25 min. I also cleaned the fabric seats in my brothers 03 dodge 1500. They were disgusting!! The bottoms of the seat were caked with crap and they were black and hard!! Cleaned them twice and with the first pass I couldn't believe it!! I will post pics of everything later tonight.

**PAR Detailing** · 05-13-2011, 07:38 PM

Originally Posted by richy

blast away merde

I learned that word in my high school french class.

**richy** · 05-13-2011, 07:46 PM

Originally Posted by PAR Detailing

I learned that word in my high school french class.

Yes, well the profanity editor won't let me write the English equivalent...

**ShineTimeDetail** · 05-13-2011, 10:28 PM

Dirt that came off that section of the seat!!

If you look on all of the edges it is black and shiny. That is all hardened crap! or as some would say Merde lol But its cleaned the seat far past what I ever expected!

**ShineTimeDetail** · 05-13-2011, 11:01 PM

So richy, putting that steam down the vent won't melt anything?

**richy** · 05-14-2011, 01:09 AM

Originally Posted by ShineTimeDetail

So richy, putting that steam down the vent won't melt anything?

No, not at all. I learned that trick from Carlos. You put the nozzle into the vent and the steam comes out the other vents. You let it run for at least a minute. Any bacteria or merde, LOL, in the system gets killed. The AC has a nice fresh scent. My problem is that I keep forgetting to tell my customers that I did that for them. Wait till you try steam on the glass too...it does an amazing job!

**catfish07** · 05-14-2011, 05:34 PM

I use the hell out of my vx5000.. (especially since I tweeked it to 5 bar) it's awesome for crayons melted on leather or plastic or carpet. the "goo" on steering wheels and turn signals melt away.. (just ewww). windows come out flawless.

I used it the other day to get hardened grape gum out of carpet that the owner said was in there for 5 years cause she couldn't get it out. 2 minutes and it was gone.. the funny thing was that you could smell grape as it was working.. MMMMM... 5 year old grape....MMMMMM!

I think the vent steaming while it certainly looks way cool, does not really do much but put humidity in the vents.. think about it.. i can put my hand 8" from the tip of the steamer without it burning.. 2" would jack me up but 8" nothing.. to kill bacteria with steam you have to have contact, temperature and time. when shooting through the vents, all you get is the time.. I'm sure the germs appreciate the humidity blast though.

I'm not saying I never did the vent show, I just don't buy that it works. Just sayin.