Clarke Floor Scrubbers: Brand Overview, Boost Technology and Buyer Notes

Key takeaways

• Clarke is a long-established American floor machine brand that is part of the Nilfisk group.
• It is sold mainly through janitorial distributors and is strong in schools, contract cleaning and commercial buildings.
• Clarke Boost is its orbital scrubbing technology, marketed for chemical-free floor finish removal and deep scrubbing.
• Ask the distributor who performs warranty repairs, because sales and service are often separate.

Clarke is a long-established American floor care brand, historically known for floor machines and now part of the Danish Nilfisk group. It sells auto scrubbers, floor machines, burnishers and carpet equipment mainly through janitorial supply distributors, and it is best known among scrubber buyers for its Boost orbital scrubbing technology.

Clarke's natural home is the janitorial supply channel. A school custodial department or a cleaning contractor may buy Clarke scrubbers from the same distributor that delivers its finish, pads and paper products. That relationship is the brand's main strength and its main variable.

Who Clarke is

Clarke built its reputation on rotary floor machines and related floor care equipment for janitorial use over many decades. It became part of Nilfisk through the group's acquisitions in the early 2000s and sits alongside Nilfisk, Advance and Viper in the group's brand portfolio. In practical terms, Clarke serves as the group's janitorial distribution brand in North America. See our Nilfisk overview for how the group's brands relate to each other.

Product range by machine class

Clarke's catalog overlaps with other Nilfisk group brands, so a similar machine may appear under another group name with different features or pricing. Ask the distributor.

Distinctive technology: Clarke Boost

Boost is Clarke's orbital (random-orbit) scrubbing technology. An orbital scrubber moves its pad in small, fast oscillations rather than spinning it like a conventional rotary or disc head. Clarke has marketed Boost machines for removing floor finish without stripping chemicals and for deep scrubbing before recoating.

How that plays out in practice:

• Strengths: orbital heads tend to scrub evenly to the edges, with low splash and a flatter, more uniform cut than rotary machines. Stripping without chemical can reduce chemical cost, odor, and the slip hazards of slurry. Operators commonly find orbital machines easier to control than swing machines.
• Limits: stripping speed depends heavily on the finish (number of coats, age, type) and on the pad. Thick, old build-up may still need chemical or more passes. Pad consumption can be significant, so include pad cost in your comparison.
• Floors: well suited to resilient floors such as VCT. Check suitability before using aggressive pads on softer or more sensitive surfaces. See our VCT guide.

Our orbital vs rotary comparison and orbital floor scrubbers guide go deeper.

A worked example: is chemical-free stripping worth it?

Here is a Scrubber Guide model with stated assumptions, not a measured result. A school strips and recoats 60,000 sq ft (about 5,600 m2) of VCT each summer. The comparison per 1,000 sq ft (about 93 m2) is:

cost = (crew hours x loaded hourly wage) + stripper cost + pad cost

Over 60,000 sq ft, that 0.4 extra hour per 1,000 sq ft adds 24 crew hours, or about $600 at $25/hr. The decision rule: orbital stripping wins when your stripper cost plus slurry handling per 1,000 sq ft exceeds the extra labor plus extra pads. If orbital needs no extra passes on your finish, it usually wins easily; if it needs many, it can lose. Labor is the largest share of floor care cost (industry rule of thumb), so time a 1,000 sq ft test room with each method before you commit, and plug your own numbers into the formula.

Sales and service model

Clarke is sold primarily through janitorial and sanitary supply distributors. Key points:

• Sales and service are often separate. Many janitorial distributors employ salespeople and delivery drivers but few or no equipment technicians. Warranty and repair work may go to an authorized service center elsewhere.
• Bundling is common. Distributors may package machines with chemicals, pads and training, sometimes with pricing tied to supply purchases. That can be good value, but read the terms.
• Cooperative purchasing. Schools and public agencies often buy through cooperative contracts; check which brands and distributors those contracts cover.

Who Clarke typically suits

• K-12 schools and universities with summer strip-and-recoat programs and VCT floors.
• Contract cleaners who want one distributor for supplies and equipment.
• Commercial buildings needing a mix of walk-behind scrubbers, floor machines and burnishers.
• Teams exploring chemical-free stripping, provided they trial it on their own finish build-up.

It is a weaker fit where there is no authorized service center within reasonable distance, or for heavy industrial applications better served by industrial specialists such as Factory Cat.

How to evaluate Clarke against alternatives

Score Clarke and one or two alternatives on the same sheet:

1. Service path: who repairs the machine, where, and how fast. Write it down.
2. Floor fit: demo on your floor, especially if Boost is part of the decision.
3. Consumables: pad cost per 1,000 sq ft for orbital work, brush and squeegee replacement cost for disc work.
4. Operator ease: can a new custodian run it correctly after a 30-minute session?
5. Five-year cost: see our total cost of ownership guide.

Common alternatives in the same channel are Minuteman, Nobles, IPC Eagle and Viper. For orbital machines specifically, compare against other orbital makers' offerings and conventional disc scrubbers with stripping pads.

What to ask a Clarke distributor

• Do you service Clarke equipment in house? If not, who does, and where are they?
• For Boost: can we strip a test room with our own finish, and what pad cost per 1,000 sq ft should we expect?
• Are machine prices tied to a supplies agreement? What happens if we change chemical suppliers?
• Is there a near-equivalent machine under another Nilfisk group brand, and how does it compare?
• What is the warranty on the machine, battery and charger separately?
• Is the model on a cooperative purchasing contract we can use?

Our general questions to ask a dealer list covers the rest.

Verify the current lineup

Clarke updates its models and Boost line over time. Confirm current models, specifications and availability with Clarke, Nilfisk or an authorized distributor.

Frequently asked questions