NaceCare TBL 1620T 20" Traction Walk-Behind Floor Scrubber, NX1K Lithium Battery

Picture a parking garage ramp, a hospital corridor that slopes down to the loading dock, or a transit concourse that takes forty minutes to cross end to end. Pushing a nearly 300 lb scrubber through that every night wears an operator out. The NaceCare TBL 1620T drives itself. Squeeze the handle trigger and the traction motor carries the machine forward or in reverse at the speed you set, so the operator steers instead of shoving.

You get a 20-inch (508 mm) cleaning path, 16-gallon solution and recovery tanks, 90 lbs of brush pressure and NaceCare's NX1K lithium iron phosphate battery. Pick the TBL 1620/50T with one battery for up to 1 hour 45 minutes of scrubbing, or the TBL 1620/100T with two batteries for up to 3 hours 30 minutes.

The charger is built in. Plug the charging lead into a regular wall outlet and one battery is full in about 2.5 hours, two in about 5. NaceCare rates the NX1K for more than 4,000 charge cycles, and there's no watering, no acid and no equalizing.

The traction drive is the whole reason to buy this machine over the TBL 1120. A 250 W drive motor moves it at up to about 2.5 mph, with a forward and reverse switch and a speed dial on the panel. Numatic's own advice is that the middle of the dial is the best scrubbing speed. Let go of the trigger and the electronic brake stops it, and there's an emergency stop button on the panel. Numatic rates it for slopes up to 11% while scrubbing, against 9% for the push TBL 1120.

It suits long runs and sloped floors: airports and transit stations, parking garage ramps, hospitals, warehouses with dock ramps and big retail floors. Two honest limits. Driving the wheels takes power, so each battery runs about 15 minutes less than in the TBL 1120. And at 270 lbs with one battery, 295 with two, about 57 inches long and with a squeegee around 37 inches wide, it needs a liftgate or a ramp to move between sites and a wide enough doorway to get through.

• Traction drive, forward and reverse. The machine pulls its own weight, so a full shift on a big floor doesn't leave the operator worn out.

• Made for ramps. Rated to scrub on slopes up to 11%, with an electronic brake that holds when you release the trigger.

• 16-gallon tanks. Five more gallons than the TBL 1120, so fewer trips to the mop sink on large floors.

• 90 lbs of brush pressure. Enough bite for grocery aisles, school corridors and sealed concrete, with a brush load pedal for tougher spots.

• NX1K lithium iron phosphate power. Over 4,000 charge cycles, a 5-year battery warranty and nothing to water or clean.

• On-board charger. Plug into any standard outlet and top up at lunch without hurting the battery.

• Tool-free squeegee blades. Change the blades by hand in a couple of minutes, and the floor tool knocks off instead of breaking if it catches a corner.

• Easy to read controls. Speed dial, water and vacuum switches, battery gauge and hour meter on one panel, plus a clear tube that shows how much clean water is left.

NaceCare rates the TBL 1620T at 22,000 square feet an hour. That figure assumes nonstop straight lines. After 30% to 50% for turns, refills and edges, plan on roughly 11,000 to 15,400 square feet an hour. That's about 19,000 to 27,000 square feet on one charge of the TBL 1620/50T, and 38,500 to 54,000 square feet on the TBL 1620/100T.

One battery or two? The TBL 1620/100T costs $1,500 more, the price of one extra NX1K battery, and doubles the runtime to 3 hours 30 minutes. The trade-off is charge time: two batteries take about 5 hours to fill instead of 2.5. Pick the /100T if one machine covers a whole building in a shift or runs back to back shifts with little time to charge.

Not sure this is the right size? Send us your square footage, floor type and how many ramps are on the route, or call (855) 601-5678, and we'll tell you which machine fits, including when the answer is a cheaper one.

The TBL 1120 is the same 20-inch path, the same NX1K battery and the same on-board charger, without the drive motor. It costs $4,000 less than the TBL 1620/50T and runs about 15 minutes longer per battery. On flat floors under roughly 30,000 square feet, it's the better buy.

The TBL 1620T earns the difference when the route has ramps, when shifts are long enough that pushing becomes the problem, or when you want more water on board: 16-gallon tanks against 11, and 90 lbs of brush pressure against 75. For floors big enough to need a wider path, look at the TBL 2228T with its 28-inch twin-brush deck.

No walk-behind replaces edge work. You'll still sweep or dust mop first and hand-detail the corners. Compare every size in our walk-behind floor scrubbers collection.