Winter cleaning cautions

Winter cleaning poses many problems, and one of these has to do with using floor scrubbers. All summer long we may clean with our floor scrubber. Typically when the clean water is empty, then the dirty water is full and it's time to drain our vacuum tank. Winter however can be quite different.

In the course of the day hundreds of people enter our facility and all of them bring in snow, especially on a snowy day. As the day goes on, the snow melts and becomes water. In the evening when we pass our scrubber the recovery (vacuum) tank fills faster then our solution tank empties and sometimes we don't notice. This cause our vacuums to work harder and at times suck foam and water through to the vacuum motor.

Vac motor that has had overflow issues

The other problem can arise at this point. We may take the opportunity of emptying our scrubber, as a time to refill the solution tank. If you are not using a proportioning system then you may add too much chemical causing excessive bubbling in the recovery tank and leaving excess residue on the floor causing the wax to breakdown prematurely.

So here's the tip.
- Fill floor scrubbers using proportioning
- Keep an eye on recovery tank over filling
- At the end of shift after cleaning everything out run the vacuum for 30-60 seconds to help dry moisture in vac
- Consider using a defoamer on occasion to help keep excess foam down

The picture inserted is a vacuum motor from a client who has allowed his tank to over flow and suck water, foam and dust through to his vacuum.

Phil-T
"Nothings too filthy for Phil-T"