The combination scrubber dryer is one of the most important advances seen in the cleaning industry, as not only does it achieve two processes within a much shorter timeframe than manual methods, it also ensures a far more thorough and even clean across your entire floor-space.
Whereas previously a team of cleaners armed with mops might take all day to fully scrub and dry a commercial floor, a scrubber dryer slashes that time and also the amount of people needed for the job.
The process of using a scrubber dryer is an incredibly simple one. Scrubber dryers employ a front scrubbing unit to give your flooring a deep clean using water and chemicals. The residual dirty water is then collected in one smooth motion by the machine’s rear drying unit, which often consists of a squeegee and suction combination that deposits grime and excess fluids into a containment tank.
But whilst the job of manually scrubbing and drying your commercial flooring is taken off your hands, choosing the right scrubber dryer is most certainly not. There are two types of scrubber dryers for sale and hire; the Walk Behind, and the Ride-On, and each has their own set of advantages and disadvantages.
The Walk Behind Scrubber Dryers
These machines are operated by an employee who pushes the scrubber dryer around the surface manually. Whereas some employers may look into walk-behind scrubber dryer hire as a way of getting their workers some exercise, the main reason walk-behinds are used is for reasons of space.
In a tight spot your ride-along scrubber dryer may struggle to hit every nook and cranny, whereas a walk-behind has a working width of 35cm up to 100cm, and therefore makes much more sense in smaller commercial premises.
The walk-behind is also great for spot cleaning, especially if you need to quickly and efficiently remove a spillage in a public area. Where a large ride-on machine would be seen as intrusive in somewhere like a busy supermarket, a walk-behind can simply nip in and get the job done. And of course a walk-behind scrubber dryer is far cheaper than a ride-on, as they are not required to transport a human operator.
The Ride-On Scrubber Dryers
A Ride-On machine usually has a working width of between 65cm to 150cm, so obviously these should be your first choice when tackling large open areas of commercial flooring. Their increased size means they also have a much higher storage capacity for both cleaning fluids and dirty water tanks, meaning they require emptying and resupplying less frequently than a walk-behind.
You also have the added bonus of comfort for the employee operating the machine. Whereas operator fatigue can seriously affect the amount of work done using a walk-behind cleaner, the fact that the employee is now sat down means the cleaning process is far less strenuous than it once was, allowing for far more surface area to be covered.
So those are the basic differences between a walk-behind and ride-on machine, but of course if you simply can’t choose then why not go for a step-on hybrid, an increasingly common choice for medium-sized commercial properties.
It can be tough knowing where to start when it comes to cleaning equipment hire or purchase, but by carefully analysing the needs and requirements of both your working environment and employees, you’ll ensure that whichever option you go for will benefit your business and save you time and money in the process.
