In fast moving environments it’s common to be bombarded by countless options. Where do you source your products? How do you manage your team’s schedule? And when it comes to your facility how do you keep your floors clean and safe?

Two options that many people look at are steam cleaners and floor scrubbers, but how do you decide which one is a better fit for you?

What Type of Floors Do You Have?

Floor surface is a much bigger deal than many people realise when deciding between a commercial floor scrubber and a steam cleaner.

Steam cleaners are designed in a way that makes cleaning irregular surfaces easier. The high temperature steam can penetrate the porous surface of grout lines, textured tile, and uneven flooring in a way that flat scrubbing pads simply cannot match. If your facility has heavily textured flooring, this might be an option worth looking into.

Even though many standard walk-behind floor scrubbers can struggle with floor texture, there are many options for industrial floor scrubbers that are designed to circumvent this issue. Floor scrubbers like the Mopit floor scrubber use a cylindrical brush which pushes directly down into the texture resulting in a better clean for uneven surfaces.

This design offers the convenience of a compact floor scrubber while guaranteeing a more consistent clean. Learn more about leasing a Mopit here.

What Are Your Cleaning Goals?

The next question is how and when you plan to clean.

If you are planning to clean often throughout the day (picking up spills, spot cleaning high traffic areas)  a floor scrubber is a better option. Compact scrubbers can be pulled out for quick messes in seconds leaving the floor dry and safe for customers and staff. This is critical for spaces like restaurants, convenience stores and retail shops.

Steam cleaners can be a good option for occasional deep cleaning. They sanitize without cleaning chemicals which can be an advantage in food service or healthcare settings, but their slow paced and wet process makes it impractical for daily, on-demand use across a full facility.

Final Thoughts

For most commercial businesses, the answer is a floor scrubber for daily use and potentially a steam cleaner as a supplemental deep-clean tool for specific surfaces or periodic sanitization. If your floors are mostly smooth and your priority is keeping up with high traffic day-to-day, a quality commercial floor scrubber will almost always be the better investment.

If texture is a concern, look for a scrubber with a cylindrical brush.

If you’ve walked into any business recently, there is a good chance you’ve seen an industrial floor scrubber being used and for good reason. Floor scrubbers have become an irreplaceable tool in a wide range of industries and they’re only becoming more common.

Why Businesses Use Floor Scrubbers

The main appeal of a floor scrubber is the efficiency that it provides. Businesses that want to balance a clean environment with reduced labor costs, especially when managing large areas and high traffic, are the most likely to choose a floor scrubber. Compared to the mop and bucket, floor scrubbers are cleaner, faster and place less strain on staff.

Large Warehouses and Retail Stores.

Ride-on floor scrubbers are common to encounter in large-scale operations. Warehouse stores, distribution centers and other large retailers often have tens of thousands of square feet to cover. These larger, ride-on machines allow for a single operator to cover the full area in a reasonable amount of time.

Small and Mid-Sized Businesses: Convenience Stores and Quick Service Restaurants

Not every business is in the market for a mammoth of a machine, instead they might use a compact floor scrubber.  Convenience stores and Quick service restaurants deal with constant foot traffic, spills and safety hazards constantly throughout the day. Using a regular mop is not only time consuming but sometimes genuinely dangerous.

A machine like the Mopit Floor scrubber is built specifically for environments like this. It’s small enough to pull out during a rush for a spot clean, while having the capacity to clean the whole store when it closes for the day. This type of walk behind scrubber is the answer to many problems owners and operators of these facilities face. Learn how to lease a Mopit HERE.

Event Venues and Hospitality Spaces

Floor scrubbers for event spaces is another growing industry. From wedding venues to banquet halls owners need to turn a party into a clean space for their next event. Especially when venues like this are independently owned, this can be a challenge without the right tools to help you out. A quality machine allows for a quick turn around with impressive results.

Who Else Uses Floor Scrubbers?

The list of industries using commercial floor cleaning equipment is broad:

• Gyms and fitness centers 
• Schools and universities
• Hospitals and healthcare facilities
• Auto dealerships 
• Manufacturing plants 
  

Final Thoughts

If there's a hard floor that needs to be kept clean, safe, and presentable, there's likely a floor scrubber doing the job. Whether you're managing a massive warehouse or a busy corner store, the right floor scrubbing machine can save time, cut labor costs, and keep your space looking its best.

As businesses continue to improve over time it becomes more and more common to see floor scrubbers in their facilities. In many stores they are entirely replacing mops with new machines that are faster and cleaner.

This has led many people to ask: What are floor scrubbers and why do they matter?

What is a Floor Scrubber?

In the most basic terms, a floor scrubber is a machine designed to clean floors more effectively than traditional methods.

Machines will vary in size, brush style and features but most will follow a three step cleaning process.

• Dispense cleaning solution.
• Scrub the floor
• Remove dirty water.

These simple steps are what allow a deep clean while leaving a dry floor behind.

Step 1: Dispensing Water and cleaning solution.

Most floor scrubbers will dispense a mixture of water and soap onto the floor in order to break down any dirt or grime that has built up. This cleaning solution allows for tougher messes to be broken down and helps sanitize the floor.

Many floor scrubbers will allow you to adjust the amount of solution being dispensed.

Step 2: Scrubbing the floor.

Now that the solution has been dispensed it’s time to scrub. There are two common kinds of brushes on floor scrubbers:

Disk Brushes

Disk brushes are large circular brushes that sit flat against the floor and spin. They cover a larger surface area and apply strong downward pressure.

Cylindrical Brushes

Cylindrical brushes are shaped like a roller and typically spin at much higher speeds than a disk brush. They cover a smaller surface area than their counter part but can also help collect small debris and reach grooves and grout lines a disk brush might struggle with.

Step 3: Recovering Dirty Water

Once the floor has been scrubbed the machine will collect the dirty water. This is typically done using a combination of a vacuum motor and a squeegee. The squeegee acts as a seal on the floor and pulls all of the water into the vacuum where the dirty water is collected in a separate tank.

Why have floor scrubbers become so popular?

These incredible machines solve three of the most common problems owners and operators face when running their facilities.

Reduced Labor

Cleaning large areas with a mop and bucket can be time consuming and physically demanding. Floor scrubbers work in tandem with your employees to reduce the time and effort required to get a deeper clean.

The Mopit offers a month-to-month lease that includes soaps, squeegees and replacement parts reducing your cost even more. Learn more about leasing a Mopit here.

More Effective Cleaning

Mops will spread dirty water across the floor and often struggle on bigger messes. A floor scrubber like the Mopit never recycles dirty water and actively removes the mess from the ground resulting in a much cleaner environment.

Improved Safety

Floor scrubbers don’t leave water on the floor just to slowly air dry, they pick up the water immediately. This creates a walkable surface as you clean, reducing slip and fall accidents for both customers and employees.

Final Thoughts

Floor scrubbers are designed to make commercial floor cleaning faster, safer, and more effective. By combining water dispensing, mechanical scrubbing, and water recovery into one machine, they provide a more efficient alternative to traditional floor cleaning methods.

Whether you manage a retail store, warehouse, school, or other commercial facility, understanding how floor scrubbers work can help you choose the right cleaning solution for your business.

For more information about which floor scrubber may be the best fit for your facility, explore additional blogs and videos covering different machine types, floor surfaces, and cleaning applications.