If you’re merely acquiring into the field of building service maintenance or office cleaning you’re certain to face the decision of whether to utilize a floor buffer or a automatic scrubber for your floor cleaning jobs. You may imagine at 1st “these must be the same kind of machine, correct?” Well, not actually.
Generally, a floor buffer is a machine that has a horizontally rotating head that sits straight on the floor. Imagine of a big, round scrubbing pad spinning in a round. The spinning of the pad is powered by a little motor, normally straight over the center of the pad. Some buffers come prepared with an answer tank that can squirt cleaning answer straight into the scrubbing pad and onto your floor. This extra feature allows the user to place little quantities of cleaner on the floor as needed, without having to stop and pour it straight out of a bottle– an actual time and back saver. But, there is no means for a buffer to “vacuum cleaner up” that answer when it’s on the floor.
Floor buffers are also known as rotary floor machines because the scrubbing surface is constantly rotating in a round in 1 way. Automatic floor scrubbers MAY have a rotating head, synonymous to buffers, but many models provide a cylindrical brush head. We’ll address that difference in a minute. Merely recognize that you’ll run over the terms “floor buffer” and “rotary floor machine” as meaning the same thing.
Buffers are made to spin at a variety of speeds. The speed at which the floor buffer pads or brush rotates straight affects the kind of floor cleaning job you desire to do. Low speed buffers are designed to handle scrubbing jobs, when your floor has in-ground dirt that you require to place some muscular tissue into scrubbing away. Low speed machines are also your machine of selection when you require to strip off the older wax finish from a difficult surface, like commercially tiled floors you frequently discover in grocery stores. Low speed buffers will rotate from about 175 rpm. Variable speed buffers will go from about 175-350 rpm.
Low speed buffers are also appropriate for scrubbing – or bonneting – carpeting, provided the machine has enough horse force (or double capacitors) to handle that kind of high-friction rotation. Create certain to follow the manufacturer’s instructions for whether a floor buffer can be used for carpeting or not. Many manufacturers will void your guarantee if you’ve used a machine on carpeting that’s not expected to be used that means (don’t worry, they’ll be capable to tell if you send your machine in for guarantee function!)
High speed buffers are designed merely for polishing difficult floor surfaces. They rotate at really high speeds, anyway from about 1000 rpm to 3000 rpm. You CANNOT utilize high speed buffers for any kind of scrubbing function. With the correct polishing pad and a little buffing spray you can bring a large shine to a difficult floor surface. You simply can’t do that with a low speed or variable speed machine.
Most floor buffers run from a direct connection to a force source, but some have internal batteries or a propane-powered motor to propel the rotating pad. The advantage of an electric battery or propane-engine kind model is being complimentary of force cords interfering with your scrubbing job. The advantage of the electrical models is continual source of force without having to worry about draining an electric battery or fuel tank. Battery-powered models are frequently used in LEED and green building maintenance programs.
Floor scrubbers, also known as automatic floor scrubbers or car scrubbers, are an entire different animal. They not merely have a scrubbing head, but an automated system for dispensing cleaning answer and then vacuuming it upwards. Thus, in 1 pass over your floor, you can distribute cleaning or stripping answer, scrub it into the floor, and vacuum cleaner it all upwards with a squeegee attachment at the back of the auto scrubber machine. Car scrubbers have an individual dispensing tank and a collection tank to maintain your clean H2O from your dirty H2O.
Even though automatic scrubbers are generally more expensive machines upwards front, the time saved in cleaning your floors could really well off-set that initial cost. Saving operator time (and money) is the most frequent cause for buying these effective machines for building maintenance programs.
In the end there are many factors to consider in deciding which kind of machine, a floor buffer or a floor scrubber, is right for your specific situation. If you have a really big facility with both comfortable open spaces (like the center of a mall) and tight spaces (like in bathrooms) then possibly your right tool for the job is BOTH kinds of machines.
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