5 Walk-Behind Commercial Floor Scrubbers You’ll Want to Check Out

The 20-inch auto scrubber is one of the top selling auto scrubbers in the cleaning industry—making this machine incredibly important.

It’s easy to understand why, when taking a deeper look. It’s one of the smaller yet still very productive walk-behind scrubbers on the market, making it easy for cleaning professionals to work with and maneuver in both small and large size spaces.

Plus, each manufacturer has their own set of unique offerings and variations, making the capabilities of these machines vast and adaptable.

What is a Commercial Floor Scrubber?

A commercial floor scrubber is an automated machine that is designed to scrub large areas of hard surface flooring—speeding up the time it takes to get the job done.

They are a cost-effective alternative to mopping, due to reduced labor hours spent on floors, and a safer option, as these machines leave floors dry after being scrubbed—thus reducing risk of slip and fall accidents.

What is the Best 20-inch Commercial Floor Scrubber on the Market?

While we haven’t identified the “best” 20-inch commercial floor scrubber, we put together the following list of industry leading 20-inch floor scrubbers produced by manufacturers that continue to improve their machines and technology and lead the industry to cleaner floors.

ICE Cobotics i20NBTL+ Walk-Behind Commercial Floor Scrubber

Machine Specs

• Cleaning Path: 20-inches/ 500mm
• Productivity: 16,000-24,000 sqft per hour / 4,877-7,315 sqm per hour
• Battery: 24V lithium-ion with onboard charger
• Fleet Management: i-Synergy Fleet management, included with subscription
• Solution Tanks: 16 gal/ 60 L
• Pad Pressure: 65-100 lbs./ 29-45 kg
• Price: starting at $292 a month

What Makes It Different

A) ICE Cobotics specializes in subscription services. Some key benefits of the subscription are customers receive quality equipment, without the burden of ownership, and experience easier budgeting and forecasting, which can help with bidding future work.

The subscription also includes service and maintenance, which means the ICE Cobotics’ service team helps monitor equipment, reviews alerts and notifications, and if they cannot fix the issue remotely, they will schedule a technician to go to the site for the client, resulting in less downtime at no cost.

B) Another differentiating feature of ICE Cobotics’ equipment is they are powered by lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries are becoming more popular but still not commonly used. ICE Cobotics’ uses them in their equipment and the result is longer cleaning times, and less mess and hazardous conditions for cleaning professionals. The batteries are safer and more environmentally friendly.

C) Lastly, as a leader in innovative technology, ICE Cobotics recently added a new component to their fleet management software, i-Synergy. The most recent update of i-Synergy now includes Clean Score. Simply put, Clean Score is a fast and easy way for managers to check in on progress across all the sites they manage.

Managers simply log in to the app and view the score. The score indicates if a site has met its cleaning goal, is on track to meet its cleaning goal, or if the cleaning team is behind. By quickly observing Clean Score, a manager can know if a team needs additional support to get the daily cleaning done.

Karcher BD 50/50 Classic Walk-Behind Commercial Floor Scrubber

Karcher’s BD 50/50 is part of the Classic Line of walk-behind scrubbers and comes in at an affordable price point, $3535, for any commercial cleaner looking to get started.

The classic line offers three sizes of walk-behind scrubbers, the BD 50/50 being the smallest.

Machine Specs

• Clean Path: 20-inches/500mm
• Productivity: 13,995 –21,530 sqft per hour/ 4,266-6,562 sqm per hour
• Battery: 2 x 12-volt 100Ah AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) batteries for 24 Volt power, comes with shelf charger
• Fleet Management: Karcher Fleet; can be purchased separately
• Solution Tanks: 13 gal/ 49 L
• Pad Pressure: 59-62 lbs./ 26-28 kg
• Price: $3,535

What Makes It Different

The BD 50/50 is a standard, no frills, walk-behind scrubber and allows for easy operation, simple training, and flexible cleaning and is designed to be used across a variety of industries.

A) Easy Operation—As part of the classic line, this scrubber is built as basic as they come—in a good way. It is standard operating procedure with this scrubber, making it easy for janitorial staff to use in any situation.

B) Simple Training—Since the BD 50/50 is easy to operate, it takes little time to train new employees how to use this machine, meaning, your team will spend the day cleaning.

C) Flexible Cleaning—The BD 50/50 has three cleaning modes for flexible cleaning:

• Normal Mode: Scrubbing and vacuuming
• Intense Mode: Scrubbing only
• Vacuum Mode: Vacuuming only

These three modes offer flexibility for cleaning professionals that face different floor cleaning scenarios throughout a shift.

The machine even has a home base rail system that allows for manual tools to be hooked onto the machine, so cleaning professionals don’t have to make multiple trips to and from the cleaning closet.

Nilfisk SC500 53 B FULL PKG Walk-Behind Commercial Floor Scrubber

Nilfisk’s SC500 53 B is designed to help cleaning professionals increase productivity and decrease cost to clean, while making the machine useable across industries.

Machine Specs

• Cleaning Path: 200-inches/500mm
• Productivity: 5,216 sqft per hour /1,590 sqm per hour
• Battery: 24V lithium-ion battery
• Fleet Management Software System: TrackClean; can be purchased separately
• Solution Tanks: 12 gal /45 L
• Pad Pressure: 33-66 lbs./15-30 kg
• Average Price: $8350

What Makes It Different

Three key benefits of Nilfisk’s SC500 53 B 20-inch walk-behind floor scrubber dryer are:

A) SilenTech, Nilfisk’s noise reducing system. The machine comes with a low noise vac motor system that can be switched to silent mode.

This makes the machine useable during the daytime and can be particularly beneficial to hospitals, assisted living facilities, schools and other facilities that require floor cleaning throughout the day but require a quiet environment

B) Nilfisk’s SmartFlow automatically adjusts the water/solution flow based on the speed of the machine and according to Nilfisk this results in “optimized consumption of water and chemicals.”

The benefit of this is a balanced use of water and cleaning solution that helps increase productivity.

C) In addition, Nilfisk’s Ecoflex system can help drive down costs of cleaning due to flexible use of detergent and the ability to push one button for water only cleaning.

Tennant T300 Walk-Behind Commercial Floor Scrubber

The many benefits of Tennant’s T300 range from reducing cost to clean, to improving health and safety, and reducing environmental impact—all while tackling a variety of floor cleaning tasks.

Machine Specs

• Cleaning Path: 20-inches/500mm
• Productivity: 20,000 sqft per hour/1,858 sqm per hour
• Battery: 24 Volt; 2 batteries required (Wet 105AH, Wet 130AH, Wet 150AH, sealed AGM 140AH).
• Fleet Management Software System: IRIS; can be purchased separately
• Solution Tanks: 14 gal/ 53 L
• Pad Pressure: up to 109 lbs. / up to 49 kg
• Average Price: $6000-$6500

What Makes It Different

A) Tennant has updated the squeegee design on the T300 to more effectively remove dirt and soil from the floor.

This not only helps to reduce risk of slip and fall accidents, but the squeegee combined with consistent pad pressure, multiple pad options, and their unique solution disbursement system work together for more consistent cleaning, less environmental impact, and an enhanced facility.

B) Tennant’s optional ec-H20 Nano technology “electronically converts water into an innovative detergent free cleaning solution.” This technology can be added to the T300 for an extra charge and helps to reduce disposal of cleaning detergents into wastewater for more environmentally friendly cleaning.

C) In addition, the T300 comes with what Tennant calls Zone Settings, “which allow supervisors to preconfigure the machine for various surface types and soil level.” Zone Settings paired with Tennant's’ Quiet-Mode sound reduction technology, makes this machine versatile and adaptable to many hard surface flooring types.

Minuteman E20 Walk-Behind Commercial Floor Scrubber

Minuteman’s E20 walk-behind scrubber is ergonomically designed for easy use and safe operation by cleaning professionals.

Machine Specs

• Cleaning Path: 20-inches/500mm
• Productivity: 15,200(BD)-27,280(TD) sqft per hour/ 4,633-8,315 sqm per hour
• Battery: 24 Volt with onboard charger
• Fleet Management Software System: None
• Solution Tanks: 12 & 13 gal/ 45 & 49 L
• Pad Pressure: 40 lbs. / 18 kg
• Price: $5000--$6000+ (depending on a chosen add-ons)

What Makes It Different

This machine was built with ease of use at its core. All due to the following:

A) Ease of Use -- The control panel is easy to understand, brush loading and unloading can happen with the turn of a switch (there is no manual removing of brushes), making it easy for janitorial staff to use.

B) Simple to Maneuver- The adjustable handle and ergonomic hand bails, plus regulated speed that is adjusted with the turn of a dial, make it simple for cleaning professionals to maneuver.

C) Compact Design--The machines overall compact design provides an ideal line of sight during operation, making it easy and safe to guide around any facility.

Whatever your floor cleaning needs, one of these scrubbers is sure to fit the job. With a wide variety of add-ons to select from, these machines are versatile and powerful.

ICE Cobotics offers a variety of intelligent walk-behind and ride-on scrubbers and sweepers. Plus, with our subscription, everything you need is included—no hassle adding options to the machine or worry about extra cost and payments—it's all-inclusive.

Our service team is ready to help answer any questions you may have and to get you started with an i20NBTL+.