Clarke® Focus® II Mid-Size Walk-Behind Floor Scrubber, 26 to 34 Inch

Which Focus II Scrub Head Fits Your Floor?

All six heads share the same tanks, battery pack, charger and urethane squeegee blades. What changes is how the head scrubs, and that matters more than the width.

Disc 26, 28 or 34 inch: everyday scrubbing

Two round pads or brushes spin at 200 RPM and press down at 80 or 150 lb, and gimbal mounts let them follow dips in the floor. This is the right fit for nightly scrubbing of sealed VCT, LVT, sealed concrete and sealed tile. It can strip floors too, the conventional way, with a stripper chemical.

Size it by your narrowest doors as well as your square footage. The 34-inch deck covers the most floor per pass, but the head is almost 36 inches wide and the squeegee is 41 inches. Measure your doorways and aisles before you pick it. The 26-inch deck keeps the squeegee at 32.5 inches for tighter buildings.

Cylindrical 28: grout, rough and uneven floors

Two counter-rotating cylindrical brushes spin at 613 RPM and reach into grout lines and textured tile that a flat pad rides over. While it scrubs, it also sweeps light debris into a removable tray, so the odd bit of grit or paper doesn't end up under the squeegee. Heavy debris still needs a sweep first. Brushes change without tools. It is the loudest head of the six at 71 dB(A), so it suits after-hours shifts more than occupied spaces.

BOOST 28 or 32: deeper scrubbing and stripping with water

Instead of spinning, the rectangular pad moves in tight orbits at 2,250 RPM, working the floor from every direction at once. The whole pad stays flat on the floor, so the clean is even across the path. It gets into corners and along baseboards where a round pad leaves a strip. Clarke rates it at 50% to 70% less water and chemical than a disc scrubber, so you refill less often.

Put on a maroon prep pad, fill the tank with plain water and slow down, and it removes floor finish at up to 8,400 square feet an hour on the 28. There's no stripper and no fumes in the building the next morning. It's also the quietest of the six at 63 dB(A), close to normal conversation.

The limits are real. A flat pad can't reach low spots, so on uneven floors some finish stays in the dips; the cylindrical head is the better fit there. Floors with heavy buildup, more than about three coats, may still need one chemical strip first. BOOST costs about $620 more than the matching disc deck, and it runs its own rectangular pads, not the round pads or brushes you may already stock. If you don't strip floors and a disc already gets them clean, the disc model is the better buy.

Battery: 242 Ah Wet or 312 Ah AGM

Both packs are four 6-volt batteries making 24 volts, and the onboard charger is set for either type. The 242 Ah wet pack costs less but needs topping up with distilled water after charging. The 312 Ah AGM pack is sealed and maintenance-free, holds about 29% more capacity and costs about $3,820 more. Clarke doesn't publish a runtime for either. Our guide to floor scrubber batteries compares the types in more depth.

Standard or Chemical Mixing

On a standard machine, you pour detergent into the solution tank. With the chemical mixing system (about $740 more), the tank holds only clean water and a pump draws detergent straight from the manufacturer's container. A knob on the control panel sets the ratio at 0.5, 1, 2 or 3 oz per gallon. It stops the guesswork when several people run the machine, and leftover tank water is just water.

Not sure which setup fits? Send us your square footage, floor type and cleaning schedule, or call (855) 601-5678, and we'll tell you, including when the answer is a smaller machine. You can also compare every model in our walk-behind floor scrubbers collection.

The Owner's Insights on the Clarke Focus II

Most people shop the Focus II by width. I'd shop it by floor first, then by door. The Disc 34 clears floor fastest, but a 41-inch squeegee that won't fit through your classroom doors is a very expensive lesson.

If you strip floors in-house, the BOOST 28 is the one I'd look at hardest. No stripper to buy, no fumes in a school or clinic, and a floor that's ready to recoat sooner. Budget for the details, though: Clarke has you run a red pad under the maroon prep pad for stripping, and the BOOST head's isolators need replacing about every 250 hours or once a year.

If you only scrub sealed VCT at night and never strip, the Disc 26 at $15,860 is the value pick. Stepping up to the Disc 28 costs $311 for two more inches of path. On batteries, if your crew already waters them every week, the wet pack is fine. If nobody will, AGM takes away the most common way wet batteries die early.

One honest note on size. Fully loaded, this machine weighs about 800 lb, and it's built for big runs of floor. For restrooms and small rooms, the Clarke CA30 20B costs about $9,900 less. If you want orbital scrubbing in a smaller machine, the Clarke CA60 20B ($9,002) and the Tornado OB 20/14 ($9,099) both run a 14 x 20 inch orbital pad.

What Customers Say About the Clarke Focus II

Public owner reviews of the walk-behind Focus II are scarce, so here's an honest read of what we found. The one detailed review, on FloorScrubbers for the BOOST 28, is five stars from a buyer who now keeps over 100,000 square feet clean with it.

Why You'll Love the Clarke Focus II

• Six scrub heads on one proven chassis. Disc, cylindrical or BOOST orbital, so the machine matches your floor instead of the other way around.

• 23-gallon solution and recovery tanks. Fewer trips to the janitor's closet to refill and drain, and a large recovery tank opening that's easy to rinse.

• Traction drive, forward and reverse. Up to 260 feet a minute forward, and reverse at two thirds of that for backing out of tight spots.

• One-touch scrubbing. One button lowers the head and starts the vacuum. Yellow palm buttons on both sides start the brushes, and solution only flows while the machine moves.

• Onboard 24 V charger. Plugs into a standard 120 V wall outlet on a 15 amp circuit, so the machine charges wherever it's parked.

• Quiet enough for occupied spaces. 63 dB(A) on BOOST models and 65 dB(A) on the Disc 26 and 28.

• Electronic float shut-off. The vacuum turns off when the recovery tank is full, so dirty water can't be pulled into the vacuum motor.

What's in the Box, Pads, Brushes and Running Costs

Every Focus II ships with four 6 V batteries and cables, the onboard charger and the operator manual. Disc models include two pad drivers, BOOST models include the pad holder and the Cylindrical 28 includes two brushes. Pads are sized by head: two 13-inch pads on the Disc 26, two 14-inch on the Disc 28, two 17-inch on the Disc 34, and one 14 x 28 or 14 x 32 inch rectangular pad on the BOOST models.

Plan for a few wear items. The urethane squeegee blades can be turned to a fresh edge before you replace them, and the cylindrical brushes should be swapped end for end now and then so they wear evenly. Clarke asks for a carbon brush check by an authorized service center once a year, or every 300 hours on the vacuum motor and 500 hours on the drive and brush motors. Nilfisk treats pads, scrub brushes, pad holders and squeegee blades as wear items outside the warranty.

Why You Should Consider a Clarke Floor Scrubber

Clarke is one of Nilfisk's commercial floor care brands, so parts and service run through Nilfisk's own network of authorized service centers. Nilfisk covers battery walk-behind scrubbers for 3 years parts, 3 years labor and 1 year travel, and covers wet and AGM batteries for 12 months against manufacturer defects. We're an authorized Clarke retailer, so that warranty is yours from day one. See all our Clarke floor scrubbers.

Clarke Focus II Specifications by Scrub Head

*Weight with batteries and a full solution tank, as listed in Clarke's operator manual. Width is the widest point of the scrub head; the squeegee is wider on every model.