Eight Things to Look For While Buying a Ride On Floor Scrubber

The purchase of a ride on floor scrubber is no small investment, which is why it’s essential that you pick a product that offers the latest and greatest features within the commercial floor cleaning machine segment.

With a number of options out there, it can be difficult to know exactly which ride on scrubber machine meet your needs and offer a range of features to help you clean large floor areas in the shortest amount of time.

With that in mind, let’s begin unpacking eight key features available in the leading ride on floor scrubber machines to help you out with your next purchase.

Productivity Rate

To ensure that you’re making the best decision, though, you want to ensure that your chosen ride on scrubber meets leading benchmarks within the floor cleaning machine segment. This means comparing speed figures, but more importantly, claimed cleaning rates and how they would suit the amount of floor surface area that you need to clean.

For example, the i-drive ride on floor scrubber has a maximum floor cleaning performance rated at 2,745m2 per hour, and more practical cleaning speed rated at 1,400m2 per hour. These figures, however, depend largely on the layout of the area that you’re trying to clean, with large, open areas offering the perfect environment for fast-cleaning results

Cleaning Power

You can have all the speed in the world, but if your ride on scrubber machine doesn’t offer a powerful, effective means of cleaning your floor surfaces, it could prove a costly mistake. The leading ride on floor scrubbers on the market offer cleaning pad pressures of anywhere between 25-200kg, which transforms dirty, stained floors back to showroom fresh.

Pad pressure isn’t the only factor when it comes to the best results from your floor scrubber, though. We also need to consider just how fast those pads are spinning, which helps to remove certain stains that sheer pressure can’t tackle.

Most ride on floor cleaners have spinning speeds that range from 150-250rpm.

To compare the cleaning power of a floor scrubber, take the amount of pressure – in kilograms - on the brushes, and multiply it by the revolutions per minute (rpm). The resulting figure can be compared against other scrubbers to give you an indication of how effective the floor scrubber will be.

Wide Coverage

Another important consideration, here, is the cleaning width on offer from your commercial floor scrubber. You want to ensure that the unit you’re looking at offers at least 50cm of working width for a speedy clean. The inherent trade-off, here, is that as you increase your cleaning diameter, the size of the floor scrubber increases, too, which reduces its maneuverability within your workspace. The largest segment of the ride on floor scrubber market is perfectly suited to industrial-sized floor spaces like airports, stadiums and shopping malls.

Opting a compact or medium-sized scrubber can be the most appropriate size for the majority of tasks, while retaining user-friendliness and agility that can clean around certain edges and obstacles.

User-Friendly Controls

Having the best hardware on the market doesn’t mean much if you and your team need a PhD to operate it. It’s important to remember that one of the major motivations in upgrading to a ride on floor cleaner is to improve productivity, rather than increase complexity. This means that user-friendliness should be a key concern when shopping around for your chosen floor scrubber.

Simplicity is key when it comes to getting superior cleaning results in the shortest possible time, which is why the best commercial floor scrubbers offer a user-friendly set of controls that can be operated by inexperienced and unskilled operators. The i-drive, for example, features self-explanatory icons for the operator, allowing them to quickly gain confidence and get to work in the shortest period of time.

Cordless Operation with High-Capacity Battery Packs

If you’re looking at a ride on floor scrubber , it stands to reason you have some serious surface area that you’re tasked with cleaning. This means that long battery-life is the key to seamlessly cleaning large areas in a narrow window of time.

The average runtime of ride on scrubbers stands at anywhere between 2-4 hours of operation, depending on the amp-hour of the battery pack, and charging times of anywhere between 6-10-hours. If you’re looking for a scrubber that can run for more than four-hours, however, a machine like the i-drive offers 24/7 operation thanks to the interchangeable battery system that enables streamlined, continuous use.

Large Volume Tanks

If your ride on scrubber machine offers powerful scrubbing with long run-time potential, it’s important to consider how a series of large onboard tanks for fresh water, chemicals and your waste water can help unlock more cleaning potential.

The last thing you want is for your scrubber to be held back by limited capacity in the absence of large volume tanks, which will eat away at your cleaning productivity.

Onboard Accessory Mounts

While ride on scrubbers offer the leading solution for cleaning large floor areas, if you’re looking to ensure your floors are completely clean, they’re going to need some hands-on attention in tight areas. After all, there’s no point in partially cleaning your floors- particularly for industries that have tough regulatory standards to meet.

That’s why opting for a ride on scrubber that features onboard accessory mounts for hand-held mops, like the i-mop lite, microfibre cloths, detergents offer benefits for time-saving and added productivity.

The flexibility of having a micro scrubber onboard allows the operator to clean tight spaces and edges, transforming your ride-on scrubber into a fully-fledged, transportable cleaning cabinet helps to minimise time wasted travelling back-and-forth from the supply room.

With everything you need on hand, you can more effectively use your time, so keep an eye open for ride-on scrubbers that offer an array of accessory mounts.

Comfortable Operator Ergonomics and Safety

The final consideration when it comes to the leading floor scrubbers on the market surrounds user operation, to ensure that your unit offers a comfortable driving position with an ergonomic design for added ease of use.

While it may seem like a mere afterthought, ensuring your ride on floor scrubber remains comfortable and easy to drive allows the operator to focus their attention on cleaning your floor surfaces to a high degree, rather than being distracted.

It’s also important that the ride-on scrubber features safety precautions for your staff and passers-by, with high-visibility lights and built-in safety features.

Read this in-depth guide on how long floor scrubber pads should last.

Discover the i-drive

Since its introduction, the i-drive has fast built itself a reputation within the commercial sector as one of the segment’s leading ride on floor scrubbers. The i-drive manages to tick all the important boxes, from fast and powerful cleaning results to its interchangeable lithium batteries for continuous use, onboard accessory mounts and user-friendly approach to cleaning large floor areas.

In the below video, you will discover the features of our powerful, futuristic and dependable i-drive ride on floor scrubber:

Common Questions Answered

1. What is the ideal battery type for a ride-on floor scrubber?

Answer: The battery type is crucial for maximizing runtime and reducing downtime. Look for scrubbers with lithium-ion batteries for longer-lasting performance, faster charging times, and a more eco-friendly operation compared to traditional lead-acid batteries.

2. How important is the cleaning path width for ride-on scrubbers?

Answer: The cleaning path width determines how much area the scrubber can cover in one pass. For larger facilities, opt for a wide cleaning path to maximize efficiency. Smaller facilities benefit from narrower cleaning paths, allowing for better maneuverability in tight spaces.

3. Are ride-on scrubbers easy to operate?

Answer: Many modern ride-on scrubbers come with intuitive control panels and ergonomic designs that make them easy to operate, even for beginners. Features like adjustable speed settings and automated controls enhance user comfort and minimize operator fatigue.

References

Tennant Co – Ride-on Floor Scrubber Guide
URL: https://www.tennantco.com/ride-on-scrubber-guide

CleanLink – How to Choose the Right Ride-On Floor Scrubber
URL: https://www.cleanlink.com/ride-on-scrubbers

i-team ANZ – Ride-On Scrubbers for Industrial Cleaning
URL: https://www.i-teamanz.com