Buying a Used Warehouse Floor Scrubber in Jackson, MS: What 'Comac C919 Price Per Unit' Taught Me About Old Floor Scrubbers

The Day I Became a Floor Scrubber Buyer

Back in March, my boss dropped his phone on my desk. The photo showed our old floor scrubber stopped in the middle of aisle 4, battery light flashing. "We need a replacement," he said. "Used. Try to keep it under eight grand."

I'm the office administrator for a distribution company in Jackson, MS. I manage purchasing for around 60 employees, and I handle somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 orders a year. (Should mention: roughly $40,000 annually across five vendors, not including the warehouse equipment fund.) I report to both operations and finance, so a purchase like this needs to make sense on the floor and on a spreadsheet.

That's how I ended up spending six weeks thinking about floor scrubbers more than I've ever thought about any machine in my life. Here's what happened.

Why We Needed a Used Warehouse Floor Scrubber in Jackson, MS

Our old floor scrubber was an 8-year-old lease return that we bought used in 2021. For the first two years it was fine. Then the squeegee started wearing unevenly, the brush deck started chattering, and the battery—well, the battery was a 2017 date code that we should have replaced before buying. We got one more season out of it, then it gave up on a Tuesday.

We rented a backup scrubber for $350 a week while I figured out a longer-term solution. That's $1,400 a month of pure cost. Finance didn't like it. Operations didn't like it either, because the rental machine was slower.

So the goal was simple: find a used warehouse floor scrubber in Jackson, MS, that could handle a 28,000-square-foot facility, with a realistic budget of $6,000-$8,500. Maybe $10,000 if it came with good batteries and a warranty. At least, that's been my experience with the used equipment market in the Southeast—your area may be different.

It's Not a Commodity (I Learned That the Hard Way)

When I first started searching, I assumed a used scrubber was basically a commodity. Four wheels, a tank, a brush, a squeegee. "Just find the cheapest one with low hours," I told myself.

That assumption lasted about a month.

A week before the dealer visits, I bought a machine from an online auction. It looked great in the photos. The bid ended at $2,200, which felt like a steal. I paid $650 to ship it to Jackson, and it arrived with a cracked squeegee mounting bracket, a charger that didn't match the battery pack, and a hydraulic leak on the lift arm. It died completely in three weeks. We still use it for parts.

Everyone had warned me about this. My ops manager said, "Buy from a local dealer, even if it costs more." I didn't listen. That $2,850 mistake taught me the difference between price and total cost of ownership (i.e., the machine plus batteries, freight, repairs, and downtime).

The Confusing Part: Comac C919 Price Per Unit and Comac C909 Price

During my search, one name kept coming up: Comac. I kept seeing "Comac scrubber dryer" on dealer sites, and I wanted to know what a new one cost. So I typed what felt like the logical search: "Comac C919 price per unit."

Big mistake.

The screen filled with Chinese aviation news. For anyone who has been living under a rock, Comac is also the name of the Chinese aircraft manufacturer that makes the C919 jet. I then tried "Comac C909 price" and got the same thing—airline range charts and delivery schedules. (Should mention: the C909 is the regional jet formerly known as the ARJ21.)

I spent an embarrassing amount of time thinking I was looking at the wrong industry. But once I searched for "Comac floor scrubber price" or "Comac C 90 scrubber dryer," the real equipment started showing up.

Here's the insider part: What most people don't realize is that the "C" naming on Comac cleaning machines doesn't mean one model is a direct equivalent of another. There are walk-behind scrubbers, ride-on scrubbers, and sweeper-scrubbers in the lineup. A price for "Comac C909" in an ad might be a typo or a seller using a model number that doesn't exist as a floor scrubber. You have to verify the model plate in person.

Based on MachineryTrader dealer listings from April 2025, used Comac walk-behind scrubbers run anywhere from $3,500 to $12,000 depending on age, hours, battery condition, and whether it's been serviced or rebuilt. (Verify current pricing with a dealer.)

But the bigger lesson was this: the search phrase that opened the useful results wasn't "comac c919 price per unit." It was "used warehouse floor scrubber jackson ms" plus "Comac scrubber dryer" and "old floor scrubber near me."

The Renown Floor Scrubber Trap

At one local dealer, the ad in the window said "renown floor scrubber for sale." I remember laughing at the grammar—renown is a noun, not an adjective. But the phrase stuck with me because "renown" is how the used market sells equipment. A machine gets that label when the brand has enough of a reputation that the seller doesn't have to explain it.

We looked at two machines at that dealer:

• The old floor scrubber — a 4,000-hour unit with original batteries and no maintenance records. Price: $4,500. It worked, but the battery date code was 2016, and the brush deck looked like it had been over-tightened by someone who didn't own a torque wrench.
• The "renown" Comac — a 900-hour unit with newer batteries, a new squeegee blade, and a folder of service invoices. Price: $8,200. It was $3,700 more, but the service records showed the brush deck motor had been replaced 90 days earlier.

I almost bought the cheaper old floor scrubber. My spreadsheets said the $4,500 machine would pay for itself in three months. But then I remembered how quickly the auction machine died. With the 2016 battery pack, the old floor scrubber would need $1,800-$2,500 in new batteries probably within the first year. That would put the total above the Comac's price, without the dealer warranty.

The Turning Point

The turning point was when the dealer opened the service folder for the Comac and showed me the battery date code. It was 2023. The batteries were barely two years old. He also pulled up the service history: regular brush changes, squeegee adjustments, and shop documentation after every 500 hours.

That changed my thinking. I wasn't paying an extra $3,700 for a name. I was paying for data—proof that someone had maintained the machine.

I still kick myself for not applying that same logic to the auction machine. If I'd asked for the battery date code before placing the bid, I'd have seen it was from 2018. One photo of the battery terminal would have told me everything.

What I'd Tell Someone Else Looking for a Used Warehouse Floor Scrubber

The fundamentals of buying a used floor scrubber haven't changed in 20 years. You still need a machine that scrubs, picks up water, and can be serviced without waiting a month for parts. But the execution has transformed—batteries, electronics, and brush deck diagnostics are all better now than they were in 2020. That means a 2020 used machine can be a much better value than a 2015 "classic" at the same price.

Three things I wish I had known at the start:

1. Price per unit means nothing if you have to buy twice. A cheap old floor scrubber is only cheap when you factor in batteries, repairs, and downtime.
2. Always ask for the battery date code. It's a five-minute check that can save you thousands. Battery Council International publishes the date code format, and most reputable dealers will send you a photo.
3. Buy the dealer as much as you buy the machine. A "renown floor scrubber" in an ad doesn't tell you how the seller will handle a problem after the sale. Our local dealer gave us a 90-day parts-and-labor warranty, which is basically unheard of in the used market.

Oh, and if you're searching for "comac c919 price per unit" because you want a floor scrubber? Add "scrubber dryer" to your search. You'll save yourself half an hour of reading about airplanes.

The Comac we bought has been running four shifts a week for the past month. The floor is cleaner, the warehouse crew stopped complaining, and the rental charges are gone. That felt like a good outcome. Maybe not the cheapest, but the right one.