Which One's Right For You?

Not sure what type of floor cleaning machine your industrial facility needs?  There are machines that sweep, machines that scrub, and machines that both sweep and scrub.  All three of the aforementioned types of machines will clean your floor and each will do it with varying levels of "clean".  We're often asked to explain the differences between them and here's some detail that you might find useful.

Rider Sweeper

A sweeper is designed to sweep, or pick-up all sorts of dry debris such as litter, pallet pieces, metal shavings, sand, gravel, dirt and surface dust from your floor.  Often they're referred to as "vacuums" however this type of equipment doesn't genuinely vacuum up debris.  Typical sweepers in our industry are termed "mechanical" sweepers.  This means the sweeper utilizes a cylindrical broom, rotating at a fair rate of speed, mechanically "throwing" debris into a hopper.  Industrial sweepers do have a vacuum system coupled with a filter which serves  to control the dust being generated by the mechanical sweeping function.  

Diagram of debris/dust flow
in a sweeper hopper

Have you ever swept a dusty floor with a push-broom and noticed the airborne dust it creates?  Industrial sweeping machines utilize flaps positioned around the sweeping broom essentially containing the dust underneath the sweeper, at which point the vacuum pulls it into a filter, and this drastically reduces visible airborne dust.  The end result is a floor clean of debris and most surface dirt.

I say most surface dirt because although the floor looks clean, you may wipe your finger across the floor after a sweeper goes by and find that your your finger gets a little dirty.  Or perhaps you have forklift tire marks or oily spots on the floor.  If you want those spots clean, then this is where a scrubber comes in.

Walkbehind Scrubber

A scrubber applies water to its brushes as the machine travels over the floor.  These brushes are called scrub brushes (for obvious reasons) and today are commonly cylindrical in design instead of disc allowing for the machine to pick up light debris as it scrubs, and thus reducing the need to sweep the floor prior to scrubbing.  In addition to providing a deeper clean, the water used by a scrubber also provides dust control.  Scrubbers do have a vacuum system too, but this vacuum works in conjunction with a squeegee at the rear of the machine to pick up the water, collecting it in a recovery tank. This process will leave the floor virtually dry.  Wipe your clean finger on the floor after a properly tuned scrubber passes by and you should still have a very clean finger.

        Combination Sweeper/Scrubber

If you've made it this far, you likely already know how a combination sweeper/scrubber functions.  All together now, a combination machine is capable of dry sweeping or wet scrubbing or doing both functions simultaneously.  Well, maybe you wouldn't have used those exact words.

So which machine is right for your application?  Again, that depends solely on how clean you want your floors.  Keep in mind that all types of floor cleaning equipment are performing a dirty job and routine daily maintenance is critical for long-term proper performance.  Scrubbers tend to require a bit more attention on a daily basis so a true commitment to proper use and care should go along with that desire for cleaner floors.

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