Cost-effective floor cleaning in care homes 12 Oct, 2017

Cleaning in care homes is often difficult, with patients’ needs hindering opportunities to clean and spillages adding further cleaning to the mix. Care homes require versatile floorcare solutions that fully accommodate their requirements. There are three major trends featured in products throughout the floor care industry that are a great asset to care homes.

1. Battery power

A major focus across all cleaning industries is battery power. With no trailing cables, battery machines offer minimised trip hazards and are ideal for daytime cleaning in care homes.

Battery runtime is under constant development and the NEW Valet Battery Upright (VBU) offers a highly productive runtime of 50 minutes. This powerful battery upright vacuum is the first commercial battery vacuum in the UK market, and is ideal for cleaning around patients and staff.

Also, battery status indicators provide clear instructions for charging requirements; ensuring the use of battery power has never been easier to implement. Quick charge times are a further focus in the industry and can be a key purchasing factor for care homes. Thanks to the innovations of lithium ion batteries, machines like the Valet Battery Upright have fast charge times, with the VBU requiring only 2.5 hours.

For a deeper clean of floors, battery scrubber dryers can be an effective solution for care homes. The Multiwash 340/Pump Battery makes light work of virtually every floor type and features interchangeable batteries, allowing you to double the 50 minute runtime.

2. Lightweight machines

For care homes, equipment needs to be versatile and easily manoeuvrable to effectively tackle their floor cleaning requirements and new product development has developed machines that cope with every demand.

A main area of development has been to ensure machines are lightweight, providing care homes and other applications with solutions that are simple to use when undertaking daytime cleaning. The Valet Battery Upright weighs only 4.5kg, making this vacuum easy to carry and move between cleaning areas.

Intertwined with this is the ability for increased transportability. The VBU features a convenient carry handle, and the Multiwash 340/Pump Battery features transport wheels, with an optional trolley available for ultimate manoeuvrability.

3. Versatility features e.g. self-adjusting nozzles

Increasingly, product features are being designed to increase ease of use, versatility and cost-effectiveness, all key areas for care homes. For example, a self-adjusting nozzle is featured on the Valet Battery Upright, which automatically adjusts for hard floors or carpets, no manual adjustments are required, providing an all-in-one effective and simple to operate solution for vacuuming hard floors and carpets.

Further features to improve pick-up on hard floors includes; a squeegee fitted at the bottom of the VBU and an up to the edge cleaning feature to ensure no area is missed.

With a wide range of cleaning applications in care homes, the Valet Battery Upright can help tackle more cluttered cleaning areas, such as dining areas and bedrooms, with the ability to lay flat on the floor whilst vacuuming, easily and effectively cleaning under tables and beds.

Cylindrical cleaning is another feature that adds increased productivity to floorcare machines, and is featured with the Multiwash 340/Pump Battery. This scrubber dryer will wash; scrub and dry all in one pass and leaves floors ready to walk on in minutes. It cleans virtually every floor type including low pile carpets and entrance matting, and is an effective solution for routine and deep cleaning in care homes, providing a more cost-effective and hygienic solution than mopping.

Hygiene is of major importance in care homes, and the Multiwash 340/Pump Battery helps to prevent cross-contamination between cleaning areas such as kitchens and toilets, with the ability to colour code brushes. Stick the coloured buttons to the brushes, to indicate a set of brushes for a particular room and use the quick change brush system for simple brush changes between cleaning areas.

Care homes can create the ultimate cost-effective floorcare routine without compromising on quality cleaning results. Bearing these features in mind when investing in floorcare machines can ensure you’re choosing the right machine for your cleaning requirements.

For more information about the products mentioned, click the links: Valet Battery Upright, Multiwash 340/Pump Battery.

Want to see these machines in action? Click onto the videos below.