The i-mop is a revolutionary floor cleaning machine

Since 2015, it has continued to revolutionise hygiene standards, cleaning operations and offer savings on usage costs. This helpful blog will tell you everything you need to know about the floor cleaning machine that gives you a clean advantage!

Mopping has long been the traditional way to clean floors, but most mops have a dirt removal rating of only 30-40%. And while conventional walk behind floor scrubbers are great, they still require mops to clean edges, small corridors, lifts and floor spaces in the 50-1500 square metre range.

The i-mop can be used anywhere that you can mop; around tables, tight spaces and without any issues thanks to its 360 degree titanium swivel joint mobility.

It also has twin scrubbing brushes that spin at 350rpm, which make it almost twice as powerful as a comparable size floor scrubber. To compare the cleaning power of a floor scrubber, take the kg’s of pressure on the brushes and multiply it by the revolutions per minute. The resulting figure can be compared against other scrubbers and give you an indication of how effective the floor scrubber will be.

The i-mop has been tested in side-by-side comparisons against regular mopping and conventional walk behind floor scrubbers. It has been proven to clean better, backed up by before and after ATP testing.

An ATP test was carried out between the i-mop and normal mopping methods. Results showed that cleaning the floor with the i-mop reduced the ATP readings by 99.4% vs a reduction of 78.5% in the area cleaned with regular mopping. “After” testing results prove the section of floor cleaned with the i-mop had an ATP reading over 75 times lower than the area clean with regular mopping.

cleaning products

When cleaning with a conventional wringer bucket, the cleaner needs to balance on one foot while wringing the mop. And after mopping, depending on atmospheric conditions, the floor can be wet for 5 to 15 minutes. This wet floor time is called “hazard time” and is the time when slips and falls are the highest risk of occurring. Certainly not ideal in high traffic areas! The typical drying time of a floor when cleaned with the i-mop is 10 to 30 seconds! This reduces the “hazard time” by 95%.

A cleaner can confidently clean at a normal walking speed with the i-mop, due to the unique manoeuvrability. The i-mop XL holds 4 Litres of water, which is enough to clean 400 square metres. A mop bucket holds 10 Litres of water, taking twice as long to fill. A comparable walk behind scrubber would usually require 10 to 15 Litres of water to clean 400 square metres, taking 4 times longer to fill up.

cleaning products

While you do need to rinse out the recovery tank and clean the brushes and squeegee, you don’t need to waste time cleaning your mop out or laundering it.

The i-mop uses the latest lithium-ion technology as its power source, plus less water and chemicals to clean. It is recommended that when you first clean a floor with the i-mop that you clean with just water. Mopping with detergents leaves residue on the floor. The sheer mechanical scrubbing action  of the i-mop is more than enough to dislodge soiling and remove residue. This is why it is recommended to just use water with the i-mop and only introduce chemicals on a periodic basis.

The i-mop releases water into the centre of each brush, not in the middle of the area of the bristles or in front of the brushes like some scrubbers. The bristles of the i-mop are carefully offset to capture the water within the body of the brush and minimize the amount of water that escapes out of the brush. Meaning that less water is dispensed onto the floor per second, than would be required in comparable scrubbers. This is how the i-mop reduces water usage in cleaning operations.

This revolutionary floor cleaning machine was created with user feedback, resulting in a very unique end use. Such as the easy controls with simple images instead of wording. In fact, the only thing the user needs to learn is the black “Eco” button which reduces water usage by 40%.

You don’t need to worry about mixing up batteries or tanks as they are designed to fit the one model and cant be attached to the wrong ones. The i-mop XL and XXL have a battery on the left and right side of the scrubbing deck, so there is no mixing them up, plus they have a colour coded clip and holder. Tanks are designed to be impossible to mount in the water tank, where the recovery tank goes and vice versa. The clean water tank clicks on with a heavy duty metal clip, and the recovery tank uses a powerful magnet in the handle to pull it into place.

floor cleaners

Your hands are free to rest anywhere along the handle grips, and not wedged between side walls like some conventional scrubbers. You can even use single hand operation!

The unique design of the i-mop also allows for easy transporting. When you need to pick it up, there is an integrated handle in the deck for easy lifting. The i-mop XL weighs 23 kilos and can be transported in a car boot or even the back seat.

While the i-mop can be used on virtually any surface that you can mop, its not recommended for cleaning rough surfaces like pavers or rough concrete. As this will wear out your brushes and rubbers faster. Its best used on surfaces such as ceramic tiles, granite, marble, terracotta, slate, vinyl, timber and cork. With the wide range of brushes including soft, regular, hard and natural fibre, its easy to cater to a large range of floor types. It only takes 10 seconds to swap the brushes over and you can keep cleaning.

The i-mop has two specially designed pins that hold the squeegee, which pops off with a gentle pull. Most floor scrubbers require some fittings to be undone to remove the floor squeegee, but with the i-mop floor squeegee, no tools are required. Plus, the suction hose is easy to access if it gets blocked with large particles.

Filling up the tank is easy too, as long as you are near a tap, you can use the inbuilt stretchy hose to fill up.

The vertical position of the i-mop helps minimise maintenance costs by exposing the underside of the machine to allow for easy sighting of the brushes, squeegees and caster wheels.

floor cleaning machine

Single disc scrubbers often have the brush on a very slight angle to make the machine pull forward, which makes it easier for the cleaner to push the machine along. The dual brush on the i-mop are mounted level, ensuring an even brush pressure right across the floor surface. Plus, on floors with grout lines, the separate brushes allow the bristles to contour more easily to the deeper recesses and remove soil build up.

Many conventional walk behind scrubbers do not allow cleaning the floor edge to edge, as bulky parts of the machine get in the way. The lack of scrubbing along edges can leave a dirty line around the edge, this is called a “tide mark”. This isn’t an issue with the i-mop as it cleans edge to edge and corners as well!

The i-mop XL has a run time of around 60 to 90 minutes. But if you need more run time, just purchase a second battery and use the interchangeable batteries to keep running.

colour coded cleaning

Colour coded cleaning is required in many facilities, although its basically non-existent in the world of floor cleaning machines. Except for the i-mop which embraces blue for general areas, green for food preparation, red for bathrooms and yellow for infectious areas. The i-mop can be fitted with colour coded tanks and brush rings so that you can have fully coloured tanks for separate areas.

Did you know that the i-mop not only saves water in the cleaning process, but it also helps support communities around the world that have limited access to clean water. For every i-mop in use, i-team Global contribute the equivalent of 18 Litres of water per day to the Made Blue Foundation. This contribution runs for a period of three years after the i-mop is purchased. Made Blue use contributions in the establishment of conservation of critical water access points and distribution facilities.

Learn more about the i-mop on the i-team website.