Cleaning Machine: Seeing Is Believing

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Every facility manager wants his establishment to have the cleanest restrooms. Every facility manager also wants that cleaning process to consume the least amount of time, energy and cleaning products as possible. Well, the solution to these seemingly disparate goals can be found in one package: a touchless cleaning system that relies on spray-and-squeegee technology.

The benefits of touchless cleaning are many: dirty mops and rags are not used to “move” dirt and bacteria around a surface; concentrated directional spray nozzles apply properly diluted cleaning chemicals and water where they are needed; an appropriate amount of application pressure ensures that ground-in dirt and grime are removed; any excess water or cleaning product is squeegeed into a floor drain, not removed with large, noisy vacuums; and there is none of the physically taxing bending, stooping and scrubbing that can be a job de-motivator for cleaning personnel.

The efficacy of the touchless-cleaning technique’s capabilities is available in a recent report titled “Cleaning Effectiveness of the Spray-and-Squeegee Touchless Cleaning Systems Versus Conventional Mopping.” The report was generated by Advanced Testing Laboratory, an independent laboratory based in Cincinnati, which tested the effectiveness of spray-and-squeegee touchless cleaning technology against the cleaning capabilities of string and flat mops.

The results of the study found that spray-and-squeegee touchless cleaning technology resulted in dramatically cleaner tile and grout surfaces in restrooms when compared to cleaning those surfaces with string or flat mops.

Specific key results show that using spray-and-squeegee touchless cleaning technology:

• Reduced the amount of microbial residue on tile by 99.9 percent (compared to 81 percent when using a string mop and 82.2 percent when using a flat mop)
• Reduced the amount of microbial residue on grout by 98.1 percent (compared to 43.1 percent when using a string mop and 56.8 percent when using a flat mop)
• Reduced the amount of simulated-urine residue on tile by 97.4 percent (compared to 53.1 percent when using a string mop and 57.4 percent when using a flat mop)
• Reduced the amount of simulated-urine residue on grout by 98.3 percent (compared to 38.5 percent when using a string mop and 21.6% when using a flat mop)

In other words, the string mop left 36 times more microbial bacteria on the grout surface, while the flat mop left 40 times more simulated-urine residue on the grout surface when both were compared to spray-and-squeegee touchless cleaning technology.

Bradley Drury is the ICS product manager for Hydro Systems Co., Cincinnati