Auto-Scrubber Benefits
Floors play a major role in any business. The physical appearance of your business directly affects the customer’s overall perception and experience. Keeping floors clean is a great way to improve the client’s first impression of your business, but it’s also necessary for safety. Cleaning machines, such as floor scrubber, also known as auto-scrubbers can be a great tool in maintaining clean floors and increasing productivity – making for a cleaner and safer facility.
Benefit 1: Reducing Slip & Fall Accidents
Most slip and fall accidents don’t occur on dry floor surfaces. Slips account for the vast majority of slips, trips and falls accidents. Slips and falls are the leading cause of workplace injuries. In Canada, more than 42,000 workers get injured annually due to slip and fall accidents. According to the National Floor Safety Institute, 55% of all slip and fall accidents are caused by hazardous walking surfaces. These include uneven floors, damaged/loose flooring or carpeting, and wet surfaces due to the weather, spills or cleaning. Apart from the cost incurred for the “lost-time” and workers’ compensation; lawsuits for such injuries can run for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A great feature of auto-scrubbers is that with a single pass, they spray a cleaning solution onto the floor, scrub and quickly pick up the excess liquid; with a quicker drying time. When compared to the traditional mop and bucket method, which leaves droplets and water puddles and leads to hazardous walking condition, an auto-scrubber doesn’t use nearly as much water and floors dry much faster. This feature greatly reduces the likelihood of slip and fall accidents which could translate to lawsuits and/or injuries for both your staff and patrons. Your downtime is also greatly reduced – making auto-scrubbers ideal for 24/7 operations.
Benefit 2: Avoiding Repetitive Motion Injuries
Mopping is the #1 cause of repetitive motion injuries. Mopping is a very strenuous task. Cleaners swing these mops around – reaching away from their bodies and arching their back for hours long each day, day after day, and also bending down to ring the mops periodically as well. Mopping can lead to back pain, carpal tunnel, tendinitis and bursitis, and these injuries often put productivity at risk. Repetitive motion injuries lead to an average of 18 lost work days per injury. Auto-scrubbers take the risks out of cleaning. The cleaner simply has to follow the self-propelled machine. Sounds much easier no?
Benefit 3: Cost Savings
Whether you have tiles, linoleum, ceramic or concrete, floors require regular maintenance. Instead of spending on costly cleaning supplies, tools and manpower, investing in an efficient auto-scrubber will quickly translate to cost savings. In most cases, these machines pay for themselves in a matter of months as the productivity increases significantly.
As labour costs represent 80% of a company’s overall cleaning costs.– reducing your labour cost might be your largest savings opportunity. Just like self-checkouts are becoming more and more popular in retail stores, automated floor machines are fast becoming more popular amongst businesses.
Auto-scrubber allow for a job to get done better and faster with less staff required. A single person can easily operate the auto-scrubber and tackle the task of cleaning the floors instead of 3-4 staff members. This enables you to allocate the rest of your staff to other maintenance duties across your establishment.
Benefit 4: Time Savings
Time is money – spend yours wisely. For any company to be successful, they must find ways to be efficient while maintaining certain standards. An employee requires on average 14 hours to clean a 50,000 ft2 space using the traditional mop and bucket method. An auto-scrubber can complete the same task in only 3 hours. Automating the cleaning process not only saves time but allows you to reclaim many hours of cleaning time – making it possible to do more in less time. Your crew can be free to tackle other tasks that require their attention.
Benefit 5: Cleaning Efficiency
Using a mop and bucket is the traditional floor cleaning method. While this method has stood the test of time, it is simply not efficient in larger floor space. Auto-scrubbers take away the effort needed to clean, meaning your staff no longer has to exert themselves to get the job done; they also enable staff them to cover a larger floor surface more efficiently. Operating an auto-scrubber is less tiresome for the user and allows them to maintain a higher productivity rate. They do all the hard work for you and take away the risks of repetitive motion injuries.
No matter how experienced and skilled your staff is at mopping floors, nothing compares to the power and effectiveness of a machine. Auto-scrubbers offer consistent deep cleaning and easily take care of dirt and grime that is traditionally very difficult to remove manually. They offer a more thorough clean at every pass. Studies have shown that the mop and bucket method eliminates 35% of dirt on the floor while an auto-scrubber can eliminate 95%. Auto-scrubbers provide different scrubbing speed and pressure which allows you to adjust the machine according to the task at hand. The rotative motion of the brush or pad easily loosens the soil and results in a cleaner floor than with the traditional mop and bucket method. Floors are left clean and spotless – every time!
Auto-scrubbers are also more sanitary in many ways. The risk of cross-contamination is completely eliminated through the use of two different tanks, one for the dirty water and one for the clean solution. Spreading dirt throughout your facility is more expensive to clean up than stopping the dirt at the source. Auto-scrubbers use 100% clean water the entire time, leaving floors cleaner and more hygienic. These tanks are also very easy to clean, therefore preventing the growth of bacteria.
Benefit 6: Environmental Impact
Cleaners throw away mops after a short period to keep floors clean and reduce cross-contamination. These mops ultimately end up in landfills. Even before throwing them out, mop heads must be laundered in hot water on a regular basis. Neither are environmentally responsible actions. Auto-scrubbers consume less power and uses less water and chemicals than mopping.
Most auto-scrubbers are battery driven to facilitate their use and prevent the release of toxic gases.
Auto-scrubbers do more than just meet the demands of sanitation in the workplace – they do it better and faster. While auto-scrubbers present many benefits to your business, before purchasing one, make sure to select one that fits your needs. Auto-scrubbers come in a wide array of sizes. The area of floor that needs to be scrubbed, should ultimately determine the size of the floor scrubber your operation needs.
Download the infographic here: Infographic: Auto-Scrubber Benefits
