NaceCare TGB 817NX 17" Battery Walk-Behind Floor Scrubber

It's 9 p.m. and two custodians are wet mopping 12,000 square feet of VCT, the same hallways they mopped last night. Then one of them calls in sick. With a mop, that floor is still wet when the doors open at 7. With the NaceCare TGB 817NX walk-behind floor scrubber, one operator scrubs, picks up the dirty water and leaves the floor dry in a single pass.

The TGB 817NX is the step up from NaceCare's compact machines. You get a 17-inch (432 mm) cleaning path, 8-gallon solution and recovery tanks and two NX300 lithium-ion batteries that run up to 90 minutes together. The body is only 18.5 inches wide and the machine weighs 108 lbs with batteries, so it still rolls through a standard door and loads into a cargo van.

Charging is quick too. Each NX300 reaches 80% in about an hour and full in two, on the NX300 dual battery charger that charges both packs at once. The batteries pull straight out of the machine, so a spare set can charge while the first set works.

NaceCare calls it a pad-assist scrubber. There's no drive motor, and the turning pad does part of the pushing for you, which keeps the machine simple and the price below the traction-drive walk-behinds.

I like this machine for one reason above the rest: it closes the gap between our small battery scrubbers and the big traction machines without forcing you into a pallet jack and a ramp. The scrub head flips up on its hinge, so changing a pad or brush is a standing job, not a kneeling one. The squeegee pivots side to side, which is what keeps your turns dry at the end of an aisle.

It's a great fit for a school wing, a clinic, a grocery store or a contractor route of mid-size accounts, roughly 5,000 to 20,000 square feet a night. Be honest about two things before you buy. It has no traction drive, so on long ramps or anything steeper than the 2% gradient Numatic lists, you'll feel the weight. And if your floors are mostly restrooms and tight back rooms, a smaller machine will make you happier.

• One pass, dry floor. The brush scrubs and the 31.7-inch squeegee picks up behind it, so nobody walks on a wet floor at 7 a.m.

• Two NX300 lithium batteries, up to 90 minutes. No watering, no acid, and each pack is rated for up to 2,500 charge cycles.

• 8-gallon tanks. Enough water to scrub most mid-size floors on one fill, with fewer trips to the mop sink.

• Patented flip-up head. Swap pads or brushes in seconds without laying the machine down.

• Quick-release squeegee blades. Pull, rinse, reattach. The semi-parabolic squeegee also tears away instead of breaking if it catches a corner.

• Built-in filler hose and adjustable handle. Fill the tank at any sink and set the handle to the operator's height.

• Hour meter, battery gauge and low-voltage shutoff. You can track service hours, and the batteries are protected from deep discharge.

• 67 dB(A). Normal conversation runs around 60 dB, so the 817NX can work in occupied spaces without clearing the room.

• Shares batteries with the fleet. The same NX300 battery powers the 440NX, TGB 516NX and NaceCare's NX vacuums.

NaceCare rates the TGB 817NX at 18,700 square feet an hour. That number assumes nonstop straight lines. After 30% to 50% for turns, refills and edges, plan on roughly 9,350 to 13,090 square feet an hour, or about 14,000 to 19,600 square feet on one charge of both batteries.

Two batteries or four? The standard machine ships with two NX300 batteries, and that covers most single-building night routes. The four-battery package adds a second pair for $1,150 more, so you can swap packs and keep going while the first pair charges. Pick four if the machine runs back to back shifts or moves between several buildings in a day.

Not sure this is the right size? Send us your square footage, floor type and cleaning schedule, or call (855) 601-5678, and we'll tell you which machine fits, including when the answer is a smaller one.

All three run on NX300 batteries, so they can share spares. The difference is how much floor you have and how tight it is.

The NaceCare 440NX is the ultra-compact one, 46 lbs, built for restrooms, kitchens and the spots under tables. It costs $1,800 less than the 817NX. The TGB 516NX is a 16-inch walk-behind with a 5-gallon tank and one battery, and it costs $2,300 less. The TGB 817NX makes sense once your floors are open enough that tank size and runtime start to matter more than squeezing into corners.

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