A floor scrubber can be differentiated into two types:

The first would be a rotary floor scrubber with a built in single disk rotary motor that spins the brush or pad on the floor, creating constant agitation and pressure that removes any dirt, grout and stubborn stains in a short amount of time. It has a lever on its handle that releases detergent solution from its water tank whenever pulled.

The other is called an orbital floor scrubber. The machine is similar to the rotary floor scrubber but has single disk orbital motor that goes in multi directions instead. Can only be used with a pad and does not have a water tank installed.