Your Commercial Floor Scrubber Buying Guide

What to look for in a high-quality commercial floor scrubber? Important factors to understand as you consider your next cleaning equipment purchase or rental.

Commercial floor cleaning has come along way from the old mop and bucket model over the past several decades. But how do you choose the commercial floor scrubber that’s right for your business or commercial facility? Particularly given the need for increased and enhanced sanitizing and cleaning power.

A commercial floor scrubber is one of the best ways to clean your floors effectively and efficiently, both with regards to labour as well as cost. Here’s everything you need to consider as you prepare to include a machine into your cleaning procedures:

Floor scrubber components

How does it work? Let’s consider the basics of a commercial floor scrubber.

Clean water is consistently delivered to the floor. This typically requires two tanks: one for clean water and one for dirty water. The machine’s solution system delivers the clean water with the cleaning solution and the scrubber cleans the floor. Once the scrubbing is complete, the recovery system is kicked into gear. A squeegee collects the dirty water is essentially vacuumed into the recovery tank.

What powers the scrubber? Either an electrical cord, an engine, or a battery. Battery or electrical powered machines are versatile, effective for a range of facilities. Those with an engine tend to be reserved for large industrial ride-on commercial floor scrubbers and utilize gasoline, diesel, or liquid propane.

As you contemplate which scrubber is best for your needs, consider these important factors:

Cleaning Area Size: If you need to clean a large area but choose a smaller cleaning machine, chances are you’ll end up spending more money in time and labour over the long-term. The chart below can help you identify the size of floor scrubber that will be most appropriate for you. Keep in mind, that this is an estimate and may vary depending on the manufacturer.

Solution System: The solution system of the commercial floor scrubber is critical – it delivers the cleaning solution to the floor. The solution tank carries the chemicals with the water and delivers it either through gravity or a pump. The solution system keeps the dirty water from contaminating the clean.

Scrubbing System: Depending on what you need, there is a range of scrubbing systems to choose from:

1. Cylindrical: A cylindrical brush is great for grout, uneven, or rough floors but it tends to be more expensive. A cylindrical sweeper takes care of the pre-sweeping as it is designed to also include “light sweeping”.
2. Disc: A machine with a disc scrubber is best for smooth floors and produces more down pressure than the cylindrical scrubbing machine. Depending on the project or your needs you can choose between pads or brushes. Pads produce cleaner smooth surfaces than brushes with a wide range of pads available depending on how aggressive a clean you require. Pads aren’t quite as “green” as brushes as they require replacing far more frequently. But, brushes may provide more value than pads depending on the type of floor you will be cleaning with your scrubber.
3. Recovery System: Once the solution system has done its job and you’ve loosened dirt and grime from the floor, the recovery system kicks in to retrieve the dirty, or waste, water. A rear squeegee gathers and wipes the liquid as it provides a seal for the vacuum to effectively suck up the dirty water. What kind of squeegee you use depends entirely on the type of floor surface you will clean:
   • Gum rubber – the most cost-effect option. Good performance on smooth floors but given its softness, expect it to wear rapidly on rougher surfaces.
   • Linatex –  great for floors that tend to accumulate a high concentration of petroleum-based grime and dirt such as factory.
   • Polyurethane – the most costly option as it offers the best abrasion resistance.
4. Propulsion System: There is a choice of three types of propulsion for commercial floor scrubbers. Micro-scrubbers utilize manual propulsion. Smaller scrubbers utilize brush- or pad-assist propulsion. The brush-or pad-assists the machine to move on the floor. Traction drive propulsion is utilized for smaller or ride-on scrubbers to effortlessly propel the floor cleaning machine.