BUILT IN A CREAMERY. SENT TO ANTARCTICA.
Sixty years of American engineering. Worldwide distribution. The same family philosophy since day one.
Alkota. The name is not a brand invention. It is a place.
In 1964, a small company started building steam cleaners in a converted creamery in Alcester, South Dakota — a rural town of a few hundred people on the Great Northern Plains. The company took its name from that town and that state. Al, for Alcester. Kota, for South Dakota.
Sixty years later, Alkota still builds every machine in Alcester. The creamery is long gone, but the town is not. And neither is the philosophy.
In 1983, a competing pressure washer company in Vermillion, South Dakota was sold to an outside bidder. Seven of its key employees — engineers, craftsmen, people who had spent their careers in the industry — looked at each other and made a different choice.
They pooled together and bought Alkota Manufacturing. Not to extract value. Not to grow quickly and sell. To build the best pressure washing equipment in America.
Their shared philosophy was simple: treat customers right. Treat employees right. The rest will follow.
All based in Alcester, South Dakota
Many over 20, some over 40 years
On the active build team
Alkota has 90 employees. The average tenure is 17 years. Many have been with the company for over 20 years. Some for 30 years. A handful have been there for more than four decades.
The engineers and craftsmen who build Alkota machines know the industry and what it takes to deliver the right product better than almost anyone alive. That knowledge does not get outsourced. It does not retire when one person leaves. It compounds.
The combined engineering experience on the Alkota build team runs to over 150 years. When you have a problem, you have access to the people who designed the machine.
Every Alkota machine starts as raw sheet metal — 11 gauge to 20 gauge — cut, bent, welded and punched in the Alcester factory. Angle iron, rod, tubing and pipe strengthen the frame. The combustion chamber, which Alkota engineers consider the critical differentiator in any hot water machine, is fabricated in house.
External components — pumps, motors, engines — are sourced from trusted American manufacturers. They are assembled to the frame by Alkota's own craftsmen.
Every machine is tested before it leaves Alcester. Pressure checked. Flow verified. Electrical checked. Visually inspected for fit and finish. Standard stock orders turn around in five business days.
That figure is not a marketing claim. It is what the factory actually produces.
Coil Warranty
The Hydro-Insulated Coil
Alkota's most significant engineering contribution to the industry. The hydro-insulated coil wraps cold water around the outside of the heating coil, creating a protective layer that does two things simultaneously: it protects the operator from a hot surface, and it pre-heats the incoming water before it enters the coil, increasing efficiency. Combined with the Soft Damping System — which protects the coil, pump and all high-pressure components from vibration and thermal stress — the result is a 7-year coil warranty. Industry standard is 1–2 years.
Partnership
The Wayne Combustion Partnership
Alkota has worked directly with Wayne Combustion — the leading US combustion technology manufacturer — to develop burner designs that are more reliable, more fuel-efficient and more user-friendly than anything the competition offers. The Wayne-Alkota oil burner system has become an industry benchmark. When you light an Alkota burner, you are benefiting from decades of co-developed engineering.
ASTM Standard
Schedule 80 Coil Pipe
Every Alkota hot water coil is wound from Schedule 80 high-test steel pipe to ASTM A53 standards. Schedule 80 is heavier walled than standard pipe — it resists the thermal cycling, pressure surges and chemical exposure that kills lesser coils in months. The stainless steel wrapper protects the outside. The hydro-insulated wrap protects the inside. Sixty years of coil engineering in every unit.
Custom is not a word Alkota uses lightly. Here is what it actually means.
of Antarctic ice
Half a mile of ice. A subglacial lake. An Alkota machine.
In 2013, scientists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln used a battery of custom-built Alkota pressure washing machines as the centrepiece of a hot water drill system. Mounted on sleds and deployed on the Antarctic ice sheet, the machines bored through half a mile of ancient ice to reach a subglacial lake beneath — the first time this had ever been achieved. The project was a genuine scientific breakthrough, reported internationally. It required machines that could operate in conditions that no standard equipment would survive. Alkota built them.
hot water delivery
Philadelphia's water mains. Philadelphia's subways. Philadelphia's streets.
Alkota dealer Brown's Equipment in Philadelphia has built custom machines for the city's transit authority — cleaning elevated rail platforms and subway infrastructure, delivering hot water over 400 feet at 5 GPM. They built machines for the city's sewer jetting operations — 8 to 10 GPM at extreme pressure to clear blocked city drains. They matched Alkota trailers to the Philadelphia Transit Department's specific shade of orange — so distinctive that when a trailer was stolen, an off-duty worker spotted it driving home and had it recovered. That is what a real custom build looks like.
industries served
Batman. Fort Lauderdale. Whatever needs cleaning.
Alkota has provided custom steam machines for film production special effects — including Batman and We're the Millers. They have built custom trailer systems to clean the streets of Fort Lauderdale after spring break. As Joe Bjorkman, Alkota's VP, puts it: there are industries in every letter of the alphabet that use our product if something needs cleaning. No job is too big or too small.
THE UK IS NOT AN
EXPORT MARKET.
Alkota's primary markets are the United States and the United Kingdom. The UK operation is the only international market where Alkota operates as a full-service presence — not just a product catalogue but a full bespoke build, water recovery, wash plant and service capability.
The UK industrial cleaning market has specific requirements that the American market does not share: UK road legal trailer specifications, UKCA and CE certifications, 230V / 400V electrical standards, trade effluent legislation, Environment Agency compliance, and the biosecurity obligations that govern matting and equipment movement across sites.
Alkota UK is built around these requirements. Every trailer system is UK road legal. Every electrical configuration is to UK standards. Every water recovery system is specified for UK regulatory compliance.
SEE THE FULL
CAPABILITY.
Bespoke builds, wash plants, water recovery and beyond.