Green Cleaning Gathering Steam

Porirua Auto Crash Repair owner Neil Butterfield was an early adopter of the steam cleaning system. He was looking at putting in a wash bay at his busy repair shop a few years back and discovered he could save a large sum of cash and add to the business’s green credentials by installing a steam vehicle wash.

“We were looking at putting in a wash plant about 10 years ago and back then it was around $32,000, I would hate to think what the cost would be now,” he says.

“Then we discovered the steam machine for cleaning and that changed my mind. Why would we bother with all that when we can have a small machine that does a better job and costs around a quarter of the cost?”

The big advantage with the steam clean is there is no run-off from the cleaning process so there is no drainage needed.

“The floor is dry when you clean the vehicle, and no detergent is used, and it can be used on the interior of the car too.

“After washing the vehicle window cleaner is used, and there is product we put on the tyres to get that new look shine. For the plastics on cars another is product used, but as far as the washing goes very little water is needed,” Neil says.

• You can read the full story in the upcoming April edition of Radiator magazine.