Should You Rent or Buy Commercial Cleaning Equipment

When it comes to making a large equipment purchase for your business, navigating the myriad of services, companies, and opinions advertised online can be daunting and time consuming. Add to that the decision on whether to rent or buy equipment for your business and the list of options and opinions is even greater.

For businesses who want to save time and money, the subscription model is the way. The low monthly subscription cost and all-inclusive service and parts model can save you 2x the machine cost in it’s lifetime and proactive service will save your team significant time on repairs.

In addition to lowering the bottom line and increasing efficiency, the subscription model offers flexibility for changing needs and analytics for fleet management.

Benefits of Renting Commercial Cleaning Equipment

Often when we think of renting commercial cleaning equipment, we either think of it in terms of very short term rental, or we shy away thinking that owning the item is a better option because we’ll be making an “investment” and can re-sell the equipment when the equipment is no longer useful to us.

However, this is not always true—it depends on the market and type of item. In fact, for many in the cleaning industry, just the opposite is true due to the very nature of how some subscription services work.

Typically, when we think about rentals, we think of short-term agreements—rent the equipment for a project and then return it. If there is one quick job to handle, this can work fine, however, for businesses that have regular cleaning routines, this is a less than ideal option.

Especially when there are companies like ICE Cobotics, that offer a 36-month term rental subscription. This is a long-term rental subscription that is very cost effective. Prime benefits are:

Predictable Low Monthly Payment

Includes Parts and Service

Proactive Maintenance

Affordable Advanced Intelligent Equipment

Disposal of Equipment

Let’s explore these further!

1. Predictable Low Monthly Payment

With a subscription service, the predictable flat monthly fee is the only payment your business will need to budget for, maintenance and parts are completely covered! Stop worrying about large upfront capital investments when you can switch to a flexible monthly subscription to meet changing needs. Manage a large fleet? Good news, there is only one bill for the entire fleet making it easier to track payments and costs associated with the your equipment.

2. Includes Parts & Service

When a business invests in cleaning equipment like autonomous floor scrubbers and vacuum sweepers, there is no guarantee that your equipment will last or not have issues. The cost of purchasing equipment upfront combined with the service and parts can end up costing you a fortune.

Over the lifetime of the machine, an equipment owner typically pays for the machine twice over its useful life and the unpredictability of repair bills and parts. When renting, the monthly payment includes, service, parts (including lithium ion batteries), air freight charges, training, installations, travel and labor. Often, these items go overlooked and are a large added expense throughout a year.

3. Proactive Maintenance

When working with equipment that has i-Synergy and Whiz Connect like Whiz by SoftBank Robotics and i20BTL Walk Behind Scrubber, two of ICE Cobotics floor cleaners, the units are tracked through an online platform. If something should go wrong we have two programs to help!

Whiz works through a Swap Model service where any machine that is experiencing trouble that cannot be fixed remotely is immediately swapped out for a new one. The Intel Line of equipment, available through the ICE Cobotics' subscription, provides clients with access to the Tech Connect team. With this service, a technician can remotely access your machine to diagnosis and fix the problem. If the issue cannot be fixed remotely, a technician will be sent to the site to fix the problem within 48 hours. This service saves your team time and money.

Additionally, this built in service frees up cleaning staff to continue to focus on cleaning versus trying to fix and repair malfunctioning equipment. This allows for cleaning staff to remain productive and efficient. It is also important to note the machine technology is automatically updated regularly, keeping the technology up to date.

4. Affordable Advanced Intelligent Equipment

Our equipment is advanced and intelligent. It comes fully-equipped with lithium ion batteries and smart software. It is no secret that lithium-ion batteries have become one of the best ways to power technology.

Due to the ultralight metal combined with the highest electrochemical potential these batteries hold their charge long enough to get any cleaning job done. They are some of the fastest charging batteries on the market and need the least amount of replacement or attention.

For example, in the ICE Cobotics i-Synergy machines, the lithium-ion battery performs five times better than traditional lead-acid batteries. In the i20BTL i-Synergy machine, this equates to 3.5 hours of autonomous floor scrubbing. As one might assume, lithium-ion batteries are also some of the most expensive batteries on the market—so knowing that these are covered with the subscription service is rest assured another cost saving component and benefit to renting versus buying.

The i-Synergy software within the i-Synergy machines and Whiz Connect within Whiz guarantees frequent software upgrades and provides in-depth analytics on fleet tracking including machine location, areas cleaned, square footage cleaned, time used and malfunction and service reports. The collection of data allows users to discover how much time and money they’ve saved over the 36-month rental service.

5. Disposing of Large Equipment

This can also be another costly expense once a large piece of equipment has run its course. Disposing of technology of any sort can be a hassle and hinderance, not to mention costly, sometimes in the neighborhood of $2K just to dispose of the item.

With a subscription rental service, this cost is included—keeping expenses down in yet another way. Additionally, should a business decide to purchase equipment like this, there is the chance of re-selling and making some money back once the robot has run its course.

However, it is important to think of how fast technology advances and how quickly updates and advances happen in the tech industry. By the time the subscription service is up, a business will mostly likely be ready for the latest upgrade and newer equipment. Trying to sell the old equipment can be a hassle and by the time regular maintenance and parts are factored into the total cost of the equipment it is likely your return will not make up for the investment.

ICE Cobotics Subscription Model

ICE Cobotics is the premier manufacturer of subscription based intelligent cleaning equipment and their all-inclusive rental model is the best in the industry.

From the low monthly cost all the way to the disposal of the equipment, ICE Cobotics has aligned their interests with their clients and is equally invested in the performance of the equipment. Their subscription model is focused on benefiting the client and making the partnership as easy as possible!

Reach out to our experts learn more about our services and equipment.

If you'd like to read further, we suggest: The Ultimate Guide to Renting vs. Buying Commercial Cleaning Equipment