A Toy for Cleaning Bilge, etc.

Sucker for a sales pitch that I am, I decided to buy a little portable steam cleaner I have been seeing on infomercials. This little cleaning unit sells under name "Shark" in Target stores.

So I tried it for the first time tonight and it works as advertised...pour in 800cc tap water, let it build up steam (I'm old enough I once worked on Great Lakes carrier with steam deck engines). Then point the spout at the end of the flexible line and squeeze the trigger. It looks tough and has good looking stainless steel and brass boiling unit.

Surprise! true steam comes out under pressure and oily greasy stuff comes off. Hold it about 1/4-1/2-1" away and the material loosens or flies off. Lots of adapters.

Now this was underhood of a car, but similar to the bilge I think, and I was able to get tiny nooks and crannies clean, which heretofore just wouldn't clean up. This is great because I'm an underhood neatnik.

Well, next to the boat and fire it up there. Looking forward to trying it on bilge floors, engine, etc.

So I'm a guy who found a nice toy... going to Drummond Island for the 4th...playing the Rock...a golf course built by Dominoe's Tom Monahan, who barged in massive quanties of dirt, because the entire island is a rock...bye...

This sounds like a neat toy...is there a provision for putting any kind of cleaning solution in the water, or does it work fine without it?

... it requires NO solution. Live steam is an excellent cleaner all on its own.

I read a bunch of reviews of the shark and they are about 50/50. A lot of people say the quality isn't good and the product support nonexistant. They cost about $100.00.

I stumbled upon the oreck website. They have a Sanapathic vapor cleaner that gets good reviews. On the Oreck site (under small appliances) it says they were originally 139.95 but are now on sale for $32.50. Sounds too good to be true. I wonder if this is about the same thing.

.... does not appear to have a hose.

This is a major problem on a boat, as a lot of the places you'd like to clean are going to be in tight little corners and cubbies....

I've had zero trouble with my steam shark. YMMV, of course; I've used it on, among other things, the transmission cooler cores to blast out gunk that laughed at my usual Phosphoric Acid solution.

they are available on e-bay at good savings sometimes.

Is the Shark you're talking about the one that's blue and looks like a small canister vacuum?

I was thinking about one, also.

K

... but yes, it looks like a small cannister vacuum with a hose that looks kinda like a pressure-washer thing.

I'd buy it again.

To reply to above, this little unit looks like an oversized coffee carafe. Has a flex hose about 1.5-2 ft long, plus two wands, and some adapter tips. Don't pay much attention to warrantees anymore, since only the right to sue. Prefer strong looking stuff that won't break, at least right away and this looked fairly well engineered...made in Turkey on the box.

Tried it on the boat this week. Used it on the Princess stove, which hasn't really been cleaned much...my wife freaked...all the old grease everywhere came off, including in little crevices she could not get clean before. So she thinks its great.

Next stop...the engine room!

bought a Shark portable yesterday. Already been fooling around with it in a 40 year old 50' MY engine room. Great gadget! It is really heavy duty and is a great steam generator.

Use a little cleaner/degreser first and this thing should really clean things up.

K:D