How a cable-free dry vacuum cleaner offers freedom and flexibility


20.06.2019

Since September 2018, the crew from the facility services provider P. Sonderegger AG has been cleaning the buildings in the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland in Olten with the Monovac Freedom. The cable-free dry vacuum cleaner provides a valuable service in the heavily trafficked and densely furnished buildings. Wetrok had the opportunity to accompany two members of the cleaning crew during a maintenance cleaning.

“Is there a power outlet here for my lighting equipment?” asks the photographer who is with us today. Operations Manager Asiye Sari grins, turns on the Monovac Freedom with a single touch, and answers: “We’re lucky that we don’t have that problem anymore with the new battery-operated vacuum cleaner.” Asiye Sari plans the cleaning assignments at facility services provider P. Sonderegger AG — she has worked in the cleaning sector for 15 years. In addition, she was honoured with the Wetrok Masters Diploma last summer, which certifies her professional abilities and leadership skills in the cleaning field.

No cable, no risk of tripping for students
Row by row, she vacuums the entry area of the modern main building of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) at the Olten campus. Every so often, the sliding doors open and students rush through the door. At a university, a high volume of visitors can be expected from morning to night — after all, working students often attend classes that go late into the evening. “That used to be problematic when we were dry vacuum cleaning. In the entry area, we had to be especially careful that nobody tripped over the cable”, remembers Asiye Sari. With the Monovac Freedom, this isn’t a problem anymore: the dry vacuum cleaner runs on a rechargeable battery, foregoing the inconvenient cable. Without the cable, the cleaning crew can work not only more safely, but with a whole new level of flexibility.

Vacuuming up breadcrumbs in passing with the Touch’n’Clean function
While this is going on, Shyrete Rrustemi is busy dry vacuum cleaning one of the many classrooms. As the coordinator for this property, she is responsible for the cleaning in all five of the FHNW buildings at the Olten campus. Rooms furnished with chairs, desks and standing desks are standard at an institute of higher learning. That used to pose a major challenge for the cleaning crew: “I can’t tell you how often the cable got stuck on a chair leg or wrapped itself around the flip chart while I was vacuuming. With the Monovac Freedom, it’s not only easier to clean heavily furnished rooms; it’s also much faster”, raves Shyrete Rrustemi about her new cleaning assistant. She turns the light out in the classroom and steps into the hallway. On the way to the next room, she notices a few breadcrumbs under the standing desk in the hallway. She immediately touches the handle of the vacuum and the crumbs disappear into the suction tube. This quick reaction is made possible by the special Touch’n’Clean technology: the handle reacts to touch. When she grabs it, the vacuum turns on. When she lets go, it stops. “This feature makes it possible to spot-clean soiled areas almost in passing. And because it’s so easy, we actually do it very consistently, which improves the overall cleanliness of the whole facility”, explains Shyrete Rrustemi. A helpful side effect: the vacuum only runs when it’s really needed. Because idle time can be avoided, the functional battery life is increased by up to 30 percent.

Battery-powered operation improves safety when cleaning lifts
Now it’s time to clean the lift. With an ergonomically correct posture, Shyrete Rrustemi carefully removes the dust between the grooves around the lift doors. With the battery-operated vacuum cleaner, extra caution is no longer called for. Previously, with the traditional vacuum cleaners, they always had to take care that the cable didn’t get compressed between the lift doors. It’s an avoidable mistake, but one that happens far too often during cleaning. Suddenly, the doors of the lift across the way open, and Asiye Sari steps out. She has finished cleaning the lower level of the building. During our conversation, the question of why the Monovac Freedom doesn’t have a “boost” button comes up. Product manager Peter Karlsson points out that a power boost button is less important than choosing the right suction nozzle. “For efficient, impeccable cleaning, you should always choose the ideal suction nozzle for the particular application. Like a brush nozzle or one of the new-generation combination nozzles, for example. These automatically ensure an optimal distance between the floor and the suction nozzles for the particular application”, explains the dry vacuum cleaner expert. “Special applications need special suction nozzles,” he continues.

Area performance of 200 square metres per hour
They continue on to the sitting areas that are located at the end of each hallway on this level. They are furnished with carpets, salon tables and armchairs. The sitting areas are spread far apart from each other. As they clean these areas, it is easy to see how much time the cleaning crew would lose by unplugging and plugging in a vacuum cleaner with a cable. But the lack of a cable isn’t the only thing that improves the vacuum’s efficiency. “The Monovac Freedom boasts an area performance of 200 square metres per hour for spot maintenance cleaning, while a traditional cable vacuum only manages about 140 square metres an hour”, explains Peter Karlsson. The excellent vacuuming performance can be attributed to the lithium iron phosphate battery, which was developed specifically for this vacuum cleaner.

A dry vacuum cleaner in the library
The last stop on the cleaning plan is the library. They usually vacuum there when the students have already left the building. As Shyrete Rrustemi uses the Monovac Freedom to ensure that the floors between the bookshelves are free from dust, she discovers a few students at the desks, still absorbed in their books. But they don’t even raise their heads as she goes by them by with the vacuum. “The Monovac Freedom was developed especially for noise-sensitive environments. It’s so quiet that it doesn’t bother anyone in the immediate area”, Peter Karlsson reports. Asiye Sari can confirm that. The cleaning crew has frequently needed to dry vacuum the rooms immediately before an event — or even quickly during the break. In those cases, there were often already a few early arrivals in the room. But they never made any negative comments about her and the vacuum cleaner. “The low noise emissions of the vacuum cleaner make the work much more pleasant, especially for those of us on the cleaning crew. When you spend a lot of time operating the running vacuum, good noise dampening is essential”, Shyrete Rrustemi says. It’s one of the additional benefits that her cleaning crew frequently mentions.

While the photographer is busy rolling up her cables, we ask the two cleaning experts if they would recommend the Monovac Freedom. “Absolutely”, the two ladies agree. Asiye Sari continues: “once you’ve become accustomed to this level of convenience, you’ll never want to use a different vacuum cleaner again.”

A short interview with Björn Sonderegger, CEO and head of maintenance

“When cleaning the university campus in Olten, the Monovac Freedom saves us around one working hour per day”

How long have your employees been using the Monovac Freedom?
We first tested the dry vacuum cleaner in the summer of 2018. We tested it in all possible facilities and areas of application to see if it met our needs. Our main requirement was improved efficiency. We had previously worked with traditional vacuum cleaners and lost a lot of time because the cables were so cumbersome to work with. Since September 2018, we have used the Monovac Freedom to clean all the facilities of our largest customer, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland in Olten.

What convinced you to choose the Monovac Freedom?
Because there is no cable to deal with, the vacuum is ideal for large areas that are heavily furnished and have a lot of traffic. The cable used to frequently get wrapped around the chairs while we were vacuuming. It would get tied in knots, tangled up, trapped under the threshold, and even pull small objects to the ground. That’s all over now. And there’s also no danger of a student — or the cleaning crew — tripping over a cable anymore. But the greatest improvement in efficiency is this: our employees don’t need to spend time walking back and forth to move the cable from one socket to another — or to get an extension cable, in some cases. By eliminating all these time-wasters, we are now noticeably more efficient when dry vacuum cleaning.

Can you put a number on this efficiency?
Not down to the exact Swiss franc, but we were able to drastically reduce our idle time (in the literal sense of the word). Even if our employees only waste one minute per room by moving cables around, that quickly adds up to an hour per day in a university facility.

Were there aspects of the Monovac Freedom that you were sceptical about?
Of course. I initially had concerns about the 45-minute battery life. On the one hand, I had doubts as to whether the vacuum would actually manage that; on the other hand, I wasn’t sure if it would actually be enough for the large facilities we were cleaning. But two things really dispelled any doubts I had. In comparison with competitors, it became clear that the Monovac Freedom was really the most powerful vacuum cleaner in its class Additionally — and this is really the most important thing for me — my employees gave me the green light. They confirmed that the vacuum operated at full power during the entire 45-minute battery life.

How did your employees react to the switch?
To be honest, there were actually a few discussions about the automatic sensor on the handle. The vacuum starts as soon as you touch it and stops when you take your hand away from the handle. It’s a phenomenal, resource-saving technology but, at first, some of our employees had trouble holding the handle so that the sensor reacted. It took some practice before they all got the hang of grabbing it at the right angle. After that happened, their initial scepticism took a 180-degree turn. Now the employees love this special feature and can’t imagine life without their vacuums with the touch handle.

What role do employees play in a family-owned business like yours?
A very big role. After all, as a service provider, our employees are the most important factor in our success. That’s why it is extremely important to me that the employees are comfortable with their tools and machines. We purchased the Monovac Freedom to provide our employees with the most powerful tool, the best ergonomics and the most cutting-edge technology on the market. That’s our way of showing our appreciation for them.

“With the Monovac Freedom, our cleaning crew spends significantly less time vacuuming. It has been a clear step forward for us — in our daily cleaning operations and in the use of cutting edge technology.”

Asiye Sari
Operations Manager, facility cleaning at P. Sonderegger AG

“If I’m on my way from one room to another with the Monovac Freedom, I can spontaneously vacuum up any crumbs that I happen to spot in the hallway. All I need to do is touch the handle of the vacuum and it starts up. When it’s easy, you do it consistently.”

Shyrete Rrustemi, Property Coordinator for the FHNW facility at P. Sonderegger AG

Sonderegger values modern cleaning methods for all their maintenance cleaning
In autumn of 2018, P. Sonderegger AG switched to modern cleaning methods for not only their dry vacuum cleaning, but for many other areas as well. For example, cleaning of sanitary areas is now done with running cleaning foam. The water and cleaning product are mixed together in a bottle; when the bottle is squeezed, it produces a foam which is then spread on a microfibre cloth. P Sonderegger AG decided to make the change for the sake of user safety. The foam means that no chemicals are sprayed into the air which could then be inhaled. And rather than lugging around a heavy bucket of water, only a small, lightweight foam bottle needs to be carried. P. Sonderegger AG is also using new methods of floor cleaning. They have switched from the bucket method to pre-moistened textiles. The mops and cleaning cloths are placed in a box and doused with cleaning solution. After a short contact time, they are optimally moist (but not wet, as would be the case with the bucket method) and can be used. The switch results in more laundry to be washed, but overall the advantages win out.

About P. Sonderegger AG
Since it was founded in 1965, the facility cleaning company P. Sonderegger has developed into an integral facility services provider. The family-owned company is based in Wangen bei Olten and provides cleaning and maintenance services with a team of 300 employees.

About the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW)
The FHNW is one of the leading universities of applied sciences in Switzerland. It operates nine universities in various locations. At the Olten campus, around 4000 people study, research and work in the fields of economics, applied psychology and social work.