How do I pick up the right scrubber for the site? This is one thing most customers are unclear about and end up buying machines which probably is not the right one for their factory or hotel. Further, be it ride-on or walk-behind scrubber-drier, they come is various sizes and range.
Normally, walk-behind scrubbers come in smaller size – maximum up to 500-600mm and in two versions:
- The drive version where an additional drive motor is fitted to move the machine forward, and
- The self-propelled / powerflow version.
In the powerflow version, there is no drive motor. The scrubbing brush is mounted in a particular angle where only three-fourths of the brush comes in contact with the floor. As the brush rotates it creates a powerflow and the machine moves forward.
Most of the walk-behind scrubbers are available in electric power as well as battery operated versions. However,smaller the machine, lesser is the capacity of battery and lesser the running time per charge. This is the reason why in India, smaller scrubbers of battery version are not so popular.Theoretically the charging time of a drained battery will be three times than the running time.
The application of walk-behind scrubbers are normally in smaller and narrow areas and between obstacles.In the commercial segment, walk-behind is suitable for supermarkets,hospitals, restaurants, kitchens and hotels. In the industrial segment they are used in cleaning shopfloors, areas between machines, canteens, auto showrooms, service stations and food & pharma sectors.
On the other hand, ride-on scrubbers are normally battery operated. The larger the machine, higher the capacity as traction batteries are used to run for longer working hours. There are a few ride-on scrubbers which are powered by LPG also.
Large halls, gangways, warehouse and workshops have wide areas to be scrubbed and ideal to run the ride on scrubbers. The ride-on scrubbers come in single or dual brush 600mm scrub path and go up to three brushes of 1200mm scrub path. The larger machines also have additional functions like auto dosage system which dispenses the detergent to the required level either into the fresh water tank or at the dispensing point.
