How do Building Personnel Clean the Escalator Steps?

The escalator is one of the first things visitors will see upon entering a hotel, airport or shopping center.  Regardless of how sanitary the other areas of an establishment are, if the escalator is not clean visitors immediately can get a bad impression of the facility.

Just like any complex piece of machinery, escalators break down and they require routine maintenance that can keep them out of service for a considerable length of time, days or a lot longer if there is an issue in getting the right replacement parts.  Escalators get dirty pretty fast. Considering hundreds or thousands of feet come and go in an escalator within the day, it is imperative to clean it every single day.  When the steps get all gritty, it is not only an unpleasant sight to view, but it diminishes the life span of the escalator and leads to more frequent malfunctioning when all that dirt builds up in the machine.  escalator step cleaning an escalator can seem like somewhat an overwhelming task to personnel like the building service contractors and in-house escalator step cleaning professionals.  However, cleaning an escalator does not have to be a hard task if there is a plan and the right equipment is utilized.  The steps are solid, one piece, die-cast aluminum or steel.  Yellow boundary lines could be added to unmistakably highlight their edges.  Consistently, escalators must be cleaned late at night after an establishment is closed and be tidy and operational when the facility reopens the next day. 

Escalators are not flat.  Some cleaning employees have tried to clean escalators by dust or moist, mopping them just like it is a flat floor.  While this may actually work to eliminate a spill or some staining, it will not work to completely clean the escalator.  Grooves on the steps of an escalator help promote safety.  Unfortunately, soil and dust are accumulated in these areas.  Similar to the sealant surrounding tile, soil and moisture can get stuck in the grooves, and the longer they stay there, in many cases, the difficult they are to remove.  The grooves can vary in size, meaning each single escalator may have its own unique cleaning tasks.  At one time, escalators were cleaned by detaching the steps, taking them off the area for pressure washing, waiting for them to dry, and then reinstalling them.  This was effective but a tedious job and expensive as a result.  Some escalators are cleaned by cleaning every single step.  This is not as effective, and it is a time-consuming process as well. 

In the present times, many cleaning professionals use what is frequently referred to as an automatic escalator cleaning system.  These are considered “hands-off” cleaning systems because everything that is necessary is appropriately installing the unit.  From there, operators of these types of cleaning machines typically do the following: Begin with the escalator turned off and connect the cleaning system at the base of the escalator.  Put a safety warning cone at the base of the escalator.  Lower the cleaning head onto the escalator and operate the escalator.  The steps should be moving away from the machine and not towards it.  The built-in vacuum of the system gathers dirt and debris on the steps, which is the first stage in the cleaning process.  Brushes and pads loosen and remove soils inserted in the steps, which are then vacuumed up.  There is no set time period to operate the machine; cleaning time is dependent on how dirty the escalator is and its length.  The final stage is to lower the buffing pads and let the machine to further remove soiling and finish the process.  Cleaning personnel should ensure they are fully aware of how escalator cleaning apparatus is positioned, operated, and maintained before starting the cleaning process to avoid injury to the personnel or to the machine itself.