Industrial floor scrubbers and sweepers can be a significant investment for a business, so we understand why it’s tempting to chase that low price you saw while searching for a new machine. Factory Cleaning Equipment, Inc. president Rick Schott explains why that surprisingly cheap floor scrubber you find online may cost way more in the long run.
I came across this quote the other day. It applies to almost any product or service we need in our lives. It is amazing to me that this advice written over 100 years ago is even more applicable today given our infinite shopping ability online.
“There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price alone are that person’s lawful prey. It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money — that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot — it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”
- John Ruskin – 19th Century English Poet, The Common Law of Business Balance
Factors to Consider Before Investing in Floor Cleaning Machines
1. Which Floor Cleaning Equipment Manufacturer Has the Best Reputation?
If you look around our website, you will find that almost all our floor scrubber and sweeper products are Made in the USA. We believe in supporting American manufacturers as much as possible. However, this is not the only reason we lean toward domestic suppliers. In my almost 30 years in the floor cleaning machine business, I have had experience with almost every brand of equipment. It has been our experience that locally produced cleaning equipment is worth the premium price verses a foreign-made machine.
2. Does the Make/Model of Your Floor Scrubber Have Quality Parts?
Overall quality is probably the biggest factor you need to consider before you invest in a commercial floor scrubber or sweeper. Of course, there are always exceptions, but in general American-made brands of floor scrubbers are built with higher quality components, including:
- Robust bumpers to help protect them in tough environments
- Larger motors, belts, and gears
- Heavily protected scrub heads, some of which retract when hit
- Push button circuit breakers that offer convenient and easy reset options
Most of the European floor cleaning machines use fuses that must be replaced when they trip. Imagine if you are halfway through a scrubbing job and your fuse burns up. Most of these fuses are not available at your auto parts store. Your floor cleaning maintenance procedures could be on hold for days or weeks while you wait for an oddball fuse that is just not locally available.
3. Can You Easily Access to your Floor Scrubber’s Manual?
Parts and service manuals, along with the necessary electrical schematics, are essential when you decide to invest in a commercial or industrial floor cleaning machine. Because they spend their lives in dirt and water, and floor machine operator and driver turnover is often high (leading to equipment abuse and neglect), floor scrubbers and sweepers require routine maintenance. Easy access to your machine’s service manuals will save you time and money on repair service. If you do not have access to a good manual, they are nearly impossible to fix.
Before for you purchase any type of cleaning equipment, always ask to see the parts and service manuals to confirm it includes:
- Replacement part and accessory SKUs
- The supplier has an e-commerce option to easily order parts
- Online access to the service manual
- Clear operation and maintenance language
Some of the language in the manuals is absolutely hilarious. It amazes me that our foreign competitors will go to great lengths copying our supplier’s designs, but they never bother to have someone with a strong command of the English language read over their manuals.
4. Are Floor Cleaning Machine Parts Regularly Stocked Inventory?
Before you purchase cleaning equipment from an inexpensive “off brand” manufacturer, consider the availability of replacement parts availability. Many of the large catalogue-style companies that sell floor scrubbers are not managing an inventory of replacement parts. Most of the time these companies are acting as third-party fulfillment system - you order it from them, and they order it from somewhere else.
5. Does The Machine Supplier Have Expert Customer Service?
When you order commercial equipment from an “off-brand” distributor or supplier you may also get frustration with their customer service department. If you call them, the person answering the phone is not always knowledgeable about floor cleaning equipment or experienced in maintenance, operations or repair. We regularly run into delays that go on for weeks or even months because we cannot get the simplest parts like vac motors or squeegees.
For example, we had a customer that imported a rider scrubber that he bought on Ali Baba, a multinational online importer site. He paid less than $10,000 for a floor cleaning machine that would cost on average $25,000 if it were built in America. It was delivered in non-working condition. We were not able to obtain manuals and schematics from the manufacturer in China in order to fix it, and we never even made it to the point of ordering parts because we could not get a manual look them up. Eventually we brought the unit back to the customer and, unfortunately, he had totally wasted $10,000.
I can promise you that all floor scrubbers break, and they all need wear items like squeegees and brushes from time to time. Please do your homework. Find a company that will be able to properly support the equipment for years to come.
Factory Cleaning Equipment takes great pride in taking care of our customers long term and are always mindful of the trust our customers place in us when investing in our floor cleaning equipment products. If you have purchased an “off brand” floor scrubber and sweeper and our currently experiencing some of the frustrations I have mentioned above, contact our team of floor cleaning experts. We will do everything we can to get you back up and running!