Comac Floor Scrubber FAQ: Airplanes, Rentals, and Mistakes I've Made

When I started handling rental and sales orders for Comac in 2018, I figured the job was mostly paperwork: match the customer to a machine, set the delivery date, move on. Fourteen documented mistakes and roughly $38,000 in wasted budget later, I'm the one who maintains our team's pre-sale checklist. This article answers the questions I get asked most — including the airplane one.

What People Actually Ask Me

• Wait — isn't Comac the airplane company?
• What does Comac actually build?
• Is the Tomcat floor sweeper actually good?
• Where can I rent a floor scrubber in Memphis, TN?
• How much does a floor scrubber cost?
• Does the brand of floor scrubber really matter?
• What's the most expensive mistake you've made?
• My rental floor scrubber left streaks. Is that normal?

Wait — isn't Comac the airplane company?

Different companies entirely, and I get this one daily. COMAC — all caps — is the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China. They build the C919 narrow-body jet, the one people are comparing when they search for "COMAC C919 vs Boeing 737 price." They also make the ARJ21 regional jet, which is why you'll see "COMAC ARJ21 price" in search queries. If you landed here looking for jet prices — wrong Comac, and I'm sorry Google played this trick on you. But if you saw "Comac" stamped on a floor scrubber and wondered who we are, you're in the right place.

Comac — the company I work for — is an Italian floor scrubber manufacturer. We've been building industrial cleaning equipment since 1973. The Chinese COMAC was founded in 2008. So if the history geek in me is right, we had the name first, though I doubt they ever think about us at all. (Should mention: the mix-up has cost us a few sales leads over the years, so now our intake form literally has a "did you mean the airplanes?" checkbox.)

What does Comac actually build?

If you're new to this equipment world — like I was in 2018 — here's the lineup in plain language. Comac builds walk-behind scrubber dryers (you walk behind them, and they scrub the floor and vacuum up the dirty water in one pass), ride-on scrubbers for bigger areas, industrial sweepers like the Tomcat, and dust collectors for dusty work environments. We also make robot floor scrubbers and autonomous sweepers now, which still feels like science fiction to me.

Our machines end up in warehouses, distribution centers, manufacturing plants, parking garages, and food processing facilities — basically anywhere with a large hard floor that needs to be cleaned fast and consistently. Have a 5,000 sq ft office? You don't need one. Have a 200,000 sq ft warehouse? You need at least two machines and a plan for battery rotation.

Is the Tomcat floor sweeper actually good?

The Tomcat is one of the compact industrial sweepers in Comac's lineup, and it's the machine I suggest when a facility's main problem is dry debris — dust, wood shavings, general warehouse dirt — rather than liquid spills. In my experience, it does what it's designed to do.

But here's my own mistake with it: back in 2022, I described the Tomcat to a customer as "suitable for most types of debris." That was lazy. It cost them $380 in filter replacements after metal shavings clogged the system. The machine didn't fail — my recommendation did. I hadn't asked exactly what was on their floor.

So, is the Tomcat floor sweeper good? Yes, when it's matched to the job. Fine dust and daily warehouse dirt? Absolutely. Abrasive metal shavings? That needs extra filtration, and I should've said so up front. Per FTC guidelines (ftc.gov), manufacturers have to substantiate performance claims with evidence. But no spec sheet can replace asking the customer a basic question about what they're actually sweeping.

Where can I rent a floor scrubber in Memphis, TN?

If you're typing "where can I rent a floor scrubber Memphis TN" into Google, here's the practical answer. First, check Comac's authorized dealer locator — dealers rent machines, and a dealer in West Tennessee can usually get you a walk-behind scrubber faster than a general rental chain. Second, the national equipment rental companies have Memphis locations and carry floor scrubbers, though inventory varies. Third, local janitorial supply houses sometimes rent to contract customers.

But here's the thing I learned the slow way: the rental location is the least important part. The real trick isn't where you rent — it's what you rent. We get calls from people who rented an undersized walk-behind for a warehouse that needed a ride-on. The machine technically worked; it just took three days instead of one. Before you book, ask yourself: square footage? Aisle width? Floor type? What kind of debris or spill? Send those answers to the rental company. If they don't ask follow-up questions, find someone who does.

How much does a floor scrubber cost?

I'll give you ranges, not a single price, because the spread is genuinely wide. A new walk-behind scrubber dryer, in my experience, sits somewhere in the $8,000 to $25,000 range depending on cleaning width, scrubbing pressure, and battery chemistry. Ride-on machines climb from there, and autonomous models exist in their own universe. I want to say we've quoted some lithium-ion robotic units north of $80,000, but don't quote me on the exact number. For rentals, daily and weekly rates vary, and the fine print matters more than the headline number — ask what's included: charged batteries, chemicals, pads, service calls?

The part people skip is that the purchase price is maybe half the story. Put another way: total cost includes batteries, chemicals, pads, squeegee blades, maintenance, labor hours, and downtime. The lowest quoted price is rarely the lowest total cost. I've watched a facility save $2,000 on a machine and lose $4,000 in labor because the unit was too small for the shift.

Does the brand of floor scrubber really matter?

In my opinion? Yes. Not because "premium" is a magic word, but because consistency is a competitive advantage.

I watched one of our regular customers live through this. They'd rented the cheapest machines they could find for years, and their floors always looked... fine. Not offensive, but not good either: streaks after deep scrubs, scuffs along the baseboards, water spots in the drying lanes. Then they switched to properly maintained ride-on equipment. Their client inspection scores improved by 20-something percent within two months. Same crew, same chemicals, same hours. The only change was the machine.

The quality of your floors is a daily statement about your operation. A streak isn't just a streak — it reads as "we don't maintain our environment," fair or not. And to be clear: I do not mean you need the most expensive machine on the market. I mean the machine should be in good condition and right for the job. Quality, not status.

What's the most expensive mistake you've made?

The most expensive lesson wasn't dramatic, but it was embarrassing. In 2019, a customer asked for a machine to clean a 45,000 sq ft warehouse. I put them in a walk-behind scrubber because it was the cheapest daily rate. The machine did exactly what the spec sheet promised. What I didn't do was calculate how long it would actually take to cover 45,000 square feet. The operator ended up running the floor for nine hours with overtime, and the warehouse lost a full day of operations.

The customer wasn't mad that the machine was "technically correct." They were mad that I'd cost them time and credibility with their own crew. That mistake, plus a few smaller ones, totaled roughly $38,000 in wasted budget over two years. After that, I built our pre-sale checklist: floor area, battery runtime, recharge time, aisle width, surface type, debris type. We've caught 47 potential mismatches in the past 18 months using it — and every one of those would've been a frustrated customer.

My rental floor scrubber left streaks. Is that normal?

It happens more often than it should, but no, it's not acceptable. Streaks are usually one of three things: worn pads, a damaged squeegee blade, or the wrong chemical mix. One of our rental customers called us after a frustrating morning trying to re-clean a parking garage floor. The tech walked over, looked at the machine, and found a nicked squeegee blade plus pads that were basically bald. That machine should never have gone out the door.

The customer told me the whole machine was garbage. That was uncomfortable to hear — and fair. The $60 of parts we'd deferred became a full customer-service incident. That's the quality trap in this industry: a machine that goes out in poor condition doesn't just clean badly, it tells the customer that equipment quality doesn't matter. And their clients notice, too. A poorly cleaned floor is one of the fastest ways to lose a visitor's trust. So if it happens to you: check the pads, check the squeegee, check the dilution. And if the rental company shrugs, find another supplier. The equipment matters — but only when somebody actually maintains it. That's true in Memphis or anywhere else.