Hi,
Oh, yeah! I am the Master of the Steam Cleaner! That was my job at the old tractor shop starting about the time I was 10.
The grade school was across the street from the shop. My schoolmates would see me steam cleaning all sorts of stuff on a daily basis. Dad didn't like to work on grimy things if he could help it, you see. I rode to and from with him, so there was 3 hours each day after school and before his quitting time that I had to kill. So, keep the kid busy out in the shop yard where you can keep an eye on him was dad's thinking.
So, I was nicknamed 'steamer', which was a double pun since there was also a Stanley Steamer car once upon a time.
I can attest that a steam cleaner will clean circles around a pressure washer and yet never get water into things that don't like water in them - like bearings, bushings, clutches, and the like. They will also remove the worst caked on crud in a heartbeat - can anyone say 'manure spreader'?
You do have to watch the angles, though. One learns all about angles of incidence and reflection with one of these things. Guess where the crud goes if one gets the angle wrong??? Yuck! I suppose I ought to be glad that the kids called me 'steamer' and not 'crappy' (or worse)!!!
The pressure washer is the lazy modern method. No one wants to wait for the gas burner to heat up the water in the boiler before they can clean.
Later!
Stan