Commercial cleaning equipment, explained by people who have actually used it.
Buying guides, real cost breakdowns, and repair help for floor scrubbers, pressure washers, carpet extractors, industrial vacuums and sweepers. No paid rankings. No fake reviews.
Start with your equipment
Each category covers what to buy, what it really costs, and how to fix it when it stops working.
Start here
Three ways in, depending on what you need right now.
Something is broken
Fix the machine
It will not pick up water. The brush has stopped turning. It is streaking the floor. Diagnostic guides written by a service technician and ordered by how often each cause actually turns out to be the culprit, not by how hard it is to check.
Troubleshooting guides › 02You are budgeting
Know the real cost
What a machine costs to own, not just to buy. Batteries, pads, blades, and the service call in year three. Dated pricing and honest ranges, because commercial equipment is negotiated and nobody sells it at one fixed number.
Cost guides › 03You are ready to buy
Choose the right one
Comparisons between the machines genuinely worth considering. No manufacturer can buy a ranking here. If only four machines are worth recommending in a category, the guide lists four, not ten.
Buying guides ›Latest guides
Troubleshooting, costs, and buying advice for commercial cleaning equipment.
Equipment Buying Guides
Commercial Cleaning Equipment List for a Cleaning Business (Starter Kit to Machines)
The starter kit a commercial cleaning crew needs (about $900 to $1,200), the chemicals and OSHA…
Equipment Buying Guides
Commercial Floor Cleaning Machines: 8 Types and Which One You Need
Scrubbers, sweepers, sweeper-scrubbers, buffers, burnishers, vacuums, carpet extractors and pressure washers: what each does, what it…
Floor Scrubbers
How to Clean a Warehouse Floor: Step-by-Step, With a Cleaning Schedule
Pick up debris, sweep with dust control, treat oil spills, then scrub with the right pad…
Equipment Buying Guides
Floor Sweeper vs Floor Scrubber: Which One Do You Need?
A sweeper picks up dry debris; a scrubber washes hard floors and vacuums up the water.…
Floor Scrubbers
How Long Do Floor Scrubber Batteries Last? Lithium vs Lead-Acid
How long floor scrubber batteries last per charge and in years, lithium vs flooded and AGM…
Carpet Extractors
Carpet Extractor Not Spraying: Causes and Fixes in the Order to Check Them
Why a carpet extractor is not spraying and how to fix it: tank and pump switch,…
Floor scrubbers & sweepers
Walk-behind and ride-on machines. Why the squeegee is streaking, what a rebuild really costs, and whether that used unit at half price is a bargain or a trap. Written by a technician who has torn these machines down and rebuilt them.
Explore floor scrubbers ›
Pressure washers & carpet extractors
Hot water versus cold. PSI versus GPM. Unloader valve failures and pump rebuilds. What a contractor-grade rig actually costs to own over five years, not just what it costs to buy.
Explore pressure washers ›How we work
No manufacturer can buy a place in a guide. Placement is editorial and is not for sale at any price.
Dated pricing, and honest ranges rather than a single made-up number. Commercial equipment is negotiated, and we say so.
Twelve years buying fleets. Nine years repairing them. Every article is bylined. We do not publish anonymously.
If we have not used a machine or seen field data on it, we say so rather than padding a list to reach ten.