High traffic areas
The floor gets dirty in less time and the frequency of cleaning will be high. If we choose smaller capacity machines, then cleaning will take longer and there will be more load on the machine, which will lead to mechanical wear and tear. To counter this, more machines will need to be deployed, as well as more people to operate them. Instead, if you choose the right machine (bigger machine, ride-on), cleaning can be done much faster and in less time.
People movement will also be high. For uninterrupted cleaning, it will be useful to choose a battery-operated machine over a cable-operated machine. If the latter is chosen, extra care needs to be given to the hanging cables to avoid accidents. Speed of the machine will be reduced and time to clean the same area will go up.
Tank capacity
If the facility is large and a smaller tank is chosen, then one will need to give a longer water fill stop, which is time consuming and will affect productivity. While choosing the tank size, one should know full tank capacity, full tank coverage (how much sq ft is covered in one fill?), time available for cleaning (if the time available is short, you need to have a fairly medium-to-large water tank) and proximity to a water filling station (If the water filling station is close by, you can choose a smaller tank but if it is far away, one should choose a larger tank).
Recovery tank
Since the recovery water tank collects dirty water and it can lead to a smell issue due to growth of bacteria, it should be cleaned every day. For that, the water tank should have a large mouth/ opening to clean the tank, good visibility to check the cleanliness level and reachability to all areas/corners of the recovery tank.
Other factors
Dimensions: Important when an aisle or a congested area needs to be cleaned. Can it enter an elevator to clean upper decks?
Operational cleaning width: To calculate the cleaning performance
Vacuum suction power: Better the vacuum suction power, better the drying and less chances of slip falls.
Brush Pressure: The right brush pressure will remove the light and sticky soils from the surface and makes the surface looks neat and clean
Maximum Area Performance: Useful while preparing the SOP for machine deployment
Common purchasing mistakes
- Smaller machine for bigger areas
- Batteries with less autonomy
- Mismatch between width of the machine and width of the cleaning area
- Buying the machine purely on the basis of price instead of looking at technical specs and total cost of ownership over a period of time
- Choosing inappropriate accessories