15 Compelling Reasons to Upgrade to the i-mop Floor Scrubber

Since the introduction of the first-generation i-mop floor scrubber in 2015, users have been blown away by its phenomenal blend of agility, speed, cleaning power, and ease of use.

The i-mop has revolutionised hygiene standards, cleaning routines, and labour costs in cleaning operations. Now, years – and literally hundreds of design and feature upgrades – later, the i-mop floor cleaning machine continues to change the game.

But what makes it so special? Let’s dive in.

Say goodbye to manual mopping

Mopping has been the traditional way of cleaning small to medium sized floors for decades. While it's not the best method, as most mops only remove 30-40% of dirt, it’s often the only option for cleaning smaller or hard-to-reach places.

Conventional walk-behind floor scrubbers are great for cleaning warehouses, shopping centres , sports halls and large open spaces. But you still need a mop to clean in the 50 – 1500 square meter range as floor scrubbers are just too bulky.

The i-mop floor scrubber changes this completely. Each model in our range of industrial floor scrubbers can be used anywhere you can use a mop, while still matching the “big box” scrubbers in the open spaces. Thanks to the mobility of its 360-degree titanium swivel joint, the i-mop can clean under and around tables, benches, and other tight spaces the competition can’t reach.

Close to double the cleaning power of conventional scrubbers

Thanks to the design of the i-mop’s twin scrubbing brushes, the i-mop floor is almost twice as powerful at cleaning as a conventional floor scrubber of comparable size.

With twin scrubbing brushes that spin at 350rpm, the i-mop has been proven to clean better, compared to regular mopping and conventional “big box” walk-behind scrubbers. The i-mop xl floor scrubber has 103% more cleaning power than a comparable 66cm walk-behind floor scrubber.

Plus, it’s more efficient all-around. Generally, machines with just a single brush are particularly heavy and bulky in design, which is why the brush is often on a very slight angle so that it’s easier to move around. However, this means there’s more pressure on one side of the brush, leading to uneven cleaning and reduced brush life.

The dual brushes on the i-mop are mounted level, ensuring an even brush pressure right across the contact surface. And on floors with more undulation (such as grout lines), having separate brushes allows the bristles to contour more easily to the deeper recesses of the floor, allowing for better dirt removal. This is backed up by before and after ATP testing, which clearly shows the difference in cleanliness:

Makes cleaning safer

Cleaning with a conventional mop and wringer bucket is a hazardous process. To start with, you need to balance on one foot to wring out the mop. After mopping, wet floors typically take 15 minutes or longer to dry, leaving a dangerous window of time in which slips and falls can happen.

With the i-mop floor cleaning machine, all of these OHS risks can be avoided. As a floor scrubber and dryer in one, the i-mop cleans and dries hard floor surfaces as you go, with floors drying within 10 - 30 seconds of cleaning.

Cleans floors faster

Each i-mop model is quicker to set up, clean with, and pack away than conventional mops:

• Faster setup: The i-mop XL holds 4 litres of water, which is enough to clean 400 square meters, while a comparable walk-behind scrubber typically needs 10-15 litres of water to clean the same space, while taking 3-4 times as long to fill up
• Faster to clean: You can clean at full walking speed with the i-mop, including around objects due to its unique maneuverability. A walk-behind scrubber is bulkier and requires more caution when cleaning around obstacles. And a mop just can’t compete!

• Faster to pack up: Compared to a mop and bucket, the i-mop is faster to pack away, even after rinsing your recovery tank and cleaning the squeegee and brushes to keep them in top working order. Of course, with all this saved time, this means you’ll save loads on labour costs, cleaning supplies, and more.

Of course, with all this saved time, this means you’ll save loads on labour costs, cleaning supplies, and more.

To find out how much you can save by switching to the i-mop, try our quick and easy i-mop savings calculator.

Fast charging and longer-lasting battery

The i-mop floor scrubber uses the latest lithium-ion technology as its power source, which means it’s faster to charge and has a longer life than other battery types.

- Clean and charge as you go: Most big box scrubbers need to be charged for a minimum of 6-8 hours before they can be used again. Not the i-mop, though. In fact, after just 1 hour of charging you can use your i-mop for another hour!

- Top up your i-mop’s charge without affecting battery life: All batteries have a limited number of charge cycles (or times it can be recharged before it needs to be replaced). With some types of batteries, if you use, say, 10% of the battery and then put it on to charge, that 10% discharge counts as a whole cycle.

On the other hand, when you use an i-mop for a few minutes, then pop it back on charge with the batteries depleted by say 10%, you only deplete the overall battery life by 10% of a full discharge.

In other words, you can use (or charge) an i-mop whenever you like – for as long as you like – without worrying about the overall life of the batteries.

Uses less chemicals and water to clean

The i-mop’s cleaning brushes have been specially designed to minimise the use of water and cleaning chemicals, while leaving your floors clean from any dirt or chemical residue left behind by traditional mopping methods.

Per point 3, the i-mop XL holds 4 litres of water, enough to clean 400 square meters. To clean the same area with a mop bucket, you’ll need to change the water at least every 200 square meters, which equates to 20 litres of water. A comparable walk-behind scrubber would use around 8-10 litres.

Read Powerful tips for better cleaning results and understanding chemical ph.

Fun to use

If you are sick of the time-consuming and physically taxing process of manual floor mopping, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much easier and satisfying it is to clean with an i-mop instead!

It's common for people who previously saw cleaning the floors as hard work to completely change their view once they try the i-mop floor cleaning machine. Suddenly, the floor cleaning part of the routine is now the best part!

If you're used to a conventional big box walk-behind scrubber, you’ll also fall for the i-mop. You’ll get your floor-cleaning done faster and easier, giving you time back to spend on other cleaning tasks or take a break.

Super easy to use

We engineered the i-mop based on extensive user feedback, which is why it’s so much easier to use.

First off, the controls are labelled with easy-to-understand visuals instead of complex words. In fact, the only thing an operator must learn is the black “Eco” button, which reduces the water usage by 40%.

The i-mop XL & XXL have a battery on the left and right side of the scrubbing deck. There is no mixing them up. Not only will the batteries not fit on the incorrect side, they have a colour coded clip and holder (grey on one side, blue on the other) so you don’t waste time trying to insert them incorrectly anyway!

The tanks are specially designed so that it is impossible to mount the water tank where the recovery tank goes, and vice versa.

There are no finger-twisting elastic or rubber straps to wrestle with while getting the tanks in position. The clean water tank clicks on with a heavy duty metal clip, and the recovery tank uses a powerful magnet in the handle to pull it into place.

Finally, the centrally-mounted handle means your hands are free to sit anywhere on the handle grips, and are not wedged in between an uncomfortable side wall that some scrubber handles have - making single-handed operation easy. Of course, this all sounds great in theory, but the real test is when your staff give it a whirl themselves.

Booking a live demo of the i-mop is easy: simply fill out your information here and one of our team will schedule it in!

The most portable floor scrubber

The unique design of the i-mop means that it is incredibly easy to transport around. Firstly, the i-mop’s transport wheels are specially placed to maximise the clearance of the i-mop from the ground when being wheeled around, which makes it really easy to manoeuvre.

Secondly, the i-mop floor scrubber can be easily picked up using the handle that is integrated into the deck. At 23kgs for an i-mop XL , you can put an i-mop in the boot of most vehicles or even in the back seat. Try that with a comparable 120kg walk-behind “big box” floor scrubber!

Thirdly, to save you even more time, the i-mop can be mounted and transported around on the i-land trolley. This cleaner’s trolley is designed to carry everything you need to complete your cleaning regime, so that you don’t have to waste time walking back and forth from the cleaners room every time you need something!

You can use it on virtually any “moppable” surface

If you can mop it, you can i-mop it. Various hard floor surfaces like, ceramic tiles, porcelain tiles, granite, marble, travertine, concrete, terracotta, terrazzo, slate, vinyl, timber (timber decking as well) and cork are all floors that can be cleaned with the i-mop.

With the range of soft (for timber & cork), regular (standard brushes supplied with the i-mop which are good for most applications), hard (dirty and aggressive floors), and natural fibre brushes (specifically for sports floors) available, you can clean virtually all flooring surfaces with the i-mop. It takes just 10 seconds to swap the brushes from one to the other, then you are ready to keep cleaning.

It’s the easiest floor scrubber to maintain

The total cost of ownership (TCO) of any piece of commercial cleaning equipment is closely linked to how well the machine is maintained.

That’s why we’ve designed the i-mop floor cleaning machine, to make maintenance as easy as possible, so that you can maximise its operating life and your financial investment. For a snapshot of how easy this process is, check out the tutorial below.

Fill up anywhere you go

You cover a lot of ground when cleaning floors, and often find yourself far away from where you started cleaning – and where you filled up your bucket or scrubber tank the first time.

The i-mop XL & XXL’s tank has an inbuilt fill hose which allows you to fill up from virtually any tap, anywhere, saving you time travelling back to the nearest cleaners room for a refill.

Reduce wear and tear with a smarter parking position

The vertical position of the i-mop when parked is no mistake. This is part of the careful design to help minimise maintenance costs.

Firstly, exposing the underside of the machine means you are kept aware of the state of the brushes, squeegees and caster wheels. This makes it easy to clean away debris or arrange maintenance before any significant damage or decline in cleaning performance occurs.

The i-mop's vertical park position also means the weight of the machine is never left sitting on the brushes, which can be an issue with conventional walk-behind floor scrubbers if not parked properly. If this is overlooked, the brushes quickly flatten out and need replacing much earlier than they should or than you would need to with an i-mop.

Avoid cross-contamination with colour coding

Colour coding different areas that need cleaning is mandatory in many facilities, so as to avoid spreading bacteria from one place to another - the mere thought of cross-contamination between the bathrooms and kitchens is enough to make you sick!

Unlike other existing floor scrubbers, the i-mop can be fitted with colour-coded tanks and brush rings, allowing you to have separate, fully colour-coded tanks for all areas and maintain your colour coding regime.

Clean right to the floor edges

Sick of mops and scrubbers that don’t let you get into the nooks and crannies? The i-mop’s deck is specially designed so that you can clean right up to the edges of the floor with either side of the machine. No bulky machine parts will get in the way, and you won’t need to do any extra manual mopping or worry that the mop has missed important sections and left a ‘tide mark’ (dirty line along the edges of the floor) behind.

With the i-mop, you’ll be able to clean any edge or corner just as thoroughly as you would any regular surface. If you’re not already convinced by the savings that you’ll make on labour, maintenance, cleaning supplies, then we recommend experiencing the i-mop for yourself!

To book a demo with one of our friendly and knowledgeable team, simply fill out a request here or give us a call on 1800 861 030.

Common Questions Answered

1. What are some signs that indicate it’s time to upgrade your floor scrubber?

Answer: Understanding the signs of wear and inefficiency can help you decide when to upgrade. These signs may include frequent breakdowns, increased maintenance costs, reduced cleaning performance, and higher water or chemical usage.

2. How can upgrading your floor scrubber improve cleaning efficiency and productivity?

Answer: Exploring how newer models can enhance efficiency can highlight the benefits of upgrading. This includes faster cleaning times, better performance on various floor types, and advanced features like automated systems or improved ergonomics.

3. What are the potential cost savings associated with upgrading to a newer floor scrubber?

Answer: Examining the potential cost savings can justify the investment. Benefits might include reduced maintenance costs, lower water and chemical usage, and decreased labor costs due to improved productivity and efficiency.

References

CleanLink – When to Upgrade Your Floor Scrubber
URL: https://www.cleanlink.com/news/article/When-To-Upgrade-Your-Floor-Scrubber--24268

Facility Cleaning Decisions – Reasons to Upgrade Your Floor Scrubber
URL: https://www.facilitycleaningdecisions.com/article/reasons-to-upgrade-your-floor-scrubber

The Janitorial Store – Benefits of Upgrading Your Floor Scrubber
URL: https://www.thejanitorialstore.com/articles/benefits-upgrading-floor-scrubber