Floor Scrubber Battery: Everything You Want Know

The energy source of the floor scrubber is the battery. At present, the two most used are lead-acid batteries and lithium batteries. What is the difference between these two batteries? Now let’s sort out the difference between lithium battery and lead acid battery in the floor scrubber.

Floor Scrubber Lead Acid Batteries

Floor Scrubber lead-acid batteries are usually divided into VRLA battery, GEL batteries, and AGM batteries.

VRLA Batteries

VRLA batteryis the oldest types of lead acid batteries. These have been around for decades and evolved from wooden box models into the plastic valve regulated models on the market today. VRLA batteries generate and vent dangerous explosive gases through their valve regulation and must be vented to the outside world. These batteries also acid “mist” during charging and discharging. This leads to the corrosion of their terminals, and often-acid damage to surrounding surfaces. (look at your car battery for an example) VRLA Flooded batteries must be installed upright, can leak that acid, and require regular watering. Should they fail to be watered, they will not perform to spec. but they are also the least expensive type and therefore are the choice of many renewable and RV owners.

GEL Batteries

The next types of batteries are gelled acid (Electrolyte) designs. Their acid is immobilized by adding “fumed” silica to the sulfuric acid solution and then sealing the battery. They internally recombine most of the gases (hydrogen and oxygen) generated during charging and are maintenance free due to this.

Gel electrolyte is highly viscous and during charge and discharge the gel can develop voids (pockets) or cracks when the amperage is increased. These pockets impede acid flow and result in the loss of battery capacity.

Also the gelled mixture can liquefy upon charge due to the shearing action of gassing (this property is called “thixotropic”). After termination of charge, it can take an hour for the acid to gel again. During this time liquid is moving and the battery can leak if any opening has developed. Last, gel batteries may store hydrogen gas that has not recombined. When overcharging causes a gel battery’s vent caps to open, explosive gasses may be vented into the battery compartment. This vented hydrogen has caused a number of “fast failures” or battery explosions.

AGM Batteries

In Advanced AGM batteries the acid is absorbed into a very fine glass mat and held in place by capillary action. This construction technique, in coordination with double wall design, and sealing has many advantages.

There is never a way to make the acid free to slosh around. This allows for installation at any angle, and has lead to DOT exemption for USPS, UPS, and Fedex.

This leads to fewer incidents of exploding batteries than either of the 2 types above.

Advanced AGM batteries offer exceptional life cycles by far better than either gel or flooded batteries. This leads to longer battery life and increases your ROI.

Floor Scrubber Lithium Batteries

Lithium batteries mainly rely on the movement of lithium ions between the positive and negative electrodes to work. During the charging and discharging process, Li+ intercalates and deintercalates back and forth between the two electrodes: during charging, Li+ is deintercalated from the positive electrode, intercalated into the negative electrode through the electrolyte, and the negative electrode is in a lithium-rich state; during discharge, the opposite is true.

Advantage Of Floor Scrubber Lithium Batteries

Durability: Floor Scrubber Lithium battery has strong durability, slow consumption, more than 500 times of charge and discharge, and no memory, and the general life span is 5-10 years. Lead-acid batteries generally have a deep charge and deep discharge within 400 times, have memory, and have a lifespan of about two years;

In terms of volume and quality: Lithium batteries are generally 2-6 kilograms, relatively small in size and easy to handle; general lead-acid battery packs weigh 16-30 kilograms and are relatively large;

In terms of price and warranty period: lithium batteries are relatively expensive, costing about 1,200 yuan, but the warranty period can be 3 years; lead-acid batteries are about 700 yuan, and the warranty period is 1 year;

Battery capacity: Lithium battery capacity can be arbitrarily configured; lead-acid battery capacity is about 20Ah (20Ah means 1A discharge for 20 hours, or 5A discharge for 4 hours, or 10A discharge for 2 hours);

Environmental protection: Lithium batteries are relatively greener in terms of production and recycling, and lead-acid batteries may pollute the environment if they are not recycled properly;

Charging time: Lithium batteries can be fully charged in 3-5 hours, and lead-acid batteries can be fully charged in 8-12 hours;

Service life: lithium batteries can last up to 6-8 years, and lead-acid batteries are generally only 1-2 years old;

Charge and discharge memory : Lithium batteries have no memory when charged, do not need to be fully charged, and can be used at any time. The lead-acid battery must be fully charged each time before it can be used, otherwise the battery life will be seriously damaged. Lithium batteries only need to be fully charged 2-3 times a month;

Continuous working time for charging: Lithium batteries can work 40-60% longer than lead-acid batteries when fully charged;

Working efficiency: 1 floor scrubber equipped with lithium battery, its working efficiency is equivalent to 2 floor scrubber machines equipped with lead-acid battery.