Anyone who ever tried cleaning a hardwood or tile floor would know how tough that job is. You need to put in a lot of physical strain to get a shining floor. Depending on its size, you may be required to spend one full day for a successful execution of this activity, which just can’t be avoided for long.
That’s what prompted the development and manufacturing of floor buffers. Now, you can have a machine for cleaning any kind of floor. Not only cleaning, you can employ these machines for waxing and polishing of floors to keep them shining. There are different kinds of machines, with different applications and varying output and capacity. The smaller ones find application for domestic use, whereas the larger variety is needed for maintaining larger floors. Your choice of an appropriate machine is decided by the area to be cleaned and the kind of floor you have.
The utility of floor buffers lies in surface scrubbing, stripping and buffing of floors. A factor that determines the capacity of the machine is its speed of operation, and you get them working on low speed, high speed or dual speed. Further, such a machine may operate on batteries or may use propane as fuel that makes it more powerful. Like any other equipment, here too the price would depend on the capacity of the machine and the features it has to offer. You may get one for just about $500 or one of the expensive models that costs $4,000 or even more.
The features and the specifications of a machine determine its price. An important feature of any machine is its diameter because that defines the length of stroke a machine can have. In simpler words it conveys the area that the machine is capable of cleaning in one round. The diameter varies from 12” to 27”, depending on the model. For a small or an average sized home the smaller machine generally solves the purpose and is empowered to clean kitchens and bathrooms. Large commercial buildings need bigger machines and are generally patronized by companies that undertake contracts for cleaning of such buildings or big commercial establishments.
There are a whole lot of features and specifications that one has to choose from. However, some of the important ones would naturally include the power of the machine that to a good extent is indicated by the horsepower of the motor installed, the capacity of its cleaning tank and the pressure applies to the pads for cleaning and other actions.
The buyer has to interpret his requirements as per these factors. For domestic applications a basic model would generally suffice. However, for larger area you need a bigger machine that can cover more floor area in a given time and may have the capacity to deal with stubborn stains.
Here are some of the manufacturing companies: Eagle, Hawk, Kent Euroclean, Oreck, Onyx NuSource, and Sanitaire. All of them have a few models to offer, making it a large selection to choose from. You can get more information about any of these machines as all can be viewed online. You will also find it worthwhile to read the reviews of these machines and compare the features and performance. That should prove helpful in zeroing your selection of a suitable machine that answers your requirements.

