What are Beach Cleaners?

Beach cleaners are machines that remove unwanted materials from beaches and make them comfortable and visually pleasing for beach goers. Various beach cleaners can be used to effectively remove litter, sharp shells, glass, rock, and excessive seaweed from the beaches.  
Beach cleaners also come in all shapes and sizes. The most popular kinds are tractor-towed and powered by a tractor's hydraulic PTO shaft. Smaller walk-behind models are also manufactured for private beaches and sandy areas.

Beach Cleaner Methods of Cleaning

Most popular beach cleaning machines today employ one of two prominent methods: mechanical raking or sifting (screening). 

Mechanical Raking Beach Cleaners

Mechanical raking involves having rows of offset tines rake through the sand, combing materials from under the sand's surface. The tines then deflect the materials off a curved deflector shield and onto a moving conveyor, which deposits the materials in the beach cleaner's bucket.

Mechanical Raking's strengths are as follow: 

  • Versatility: Of all available styles of beach cleaners, mechanical raking technology is the most versatile, as it is able to remove large beach debris, in addition to smaller items, like cigarette buts and bottle caps. Driftwood, buckets, large boxes, excessive seaweed, and full garbage bags can easily be removed, as well. It is the best "well-rounded" beach cleaner option available.
  • Speed: Beach cleaners that employ mechanical tine raking are typically able to clean at much faster speeds than sifters or screeners, because they remove the materials directly from the sand instead of first removing the sand from the beach, passing it through screens to filter the materials, and then returning the sand to the beach.
  • Tideline Cleaning: Beach cleaners with mechanical raking function optimally in wet sand. 

Sifting Beach Cleaners

Beach cleaners that employ sifting technology use a cutting edge to lift all the sand on the beach on to a vibrating screen. The screen then sifts the unwanted materials from the sand, while the sand returns to the beach and the remaining debris is deposited in the bucket. 

Sifting Beach Cleaners' Strengths:

  • Oil Cleanup: Due to oil's tendency to separate easily, the "scoop and sift" method involved in screening prevents oil from breaking apart.
  • Beaches with fine sand: While not an advantage over other mechanical rakes, sifters function optimally in dry, fine sand. In these environments, a fine screen can be used to remove small materials effectively. However, wet sand often clogs sifters, so tide-line cleaning is not advised.

Benefits of Using a Beach Cleaner

Municipalities

Beach cleaners make keeping large beaches clean a manageable endeavor. Large, state-run beaches need to be clean and safe for beach-goers. High-volume beach traffic often results in excessive man-made litter, which presents safety and liability threats. Beach cleaners remove glass, cans, cigarette butts, syringes, and other potential hazards. They also make the beaches visually pleasing and increase tourism. Cleaning by hand would be too costly and take too much time to ensure quality beach conditions during peak seasons.

Resorts

Beach cleaners are a necessity for resort owners that thrive on beach-goers. Especially when paying premiums for their stay, visitors demand pristine beaches and amenities. A mechanical beach cleaner ensures that visitors will get the best use out of the beach during their stay and return for more.

Contractors

Beach cleaning can be a lucrative business for contractors. Due to its unique niche market, contracting with a beach cleaner often fetches prices well-worth the effort. Beach cleaner machines minimize manual labor and time while maximizing effectiveness. 

Additionally, some beach cleaners, like mechanical raking machines, can also be used for other common landscaping applications, like stone picking, litter picking, seed-bed prep, litter picking, and de-thatching, which allows for multiple contracting opportunities.

Individuals

Individuals who own private beaches or sandy areas can greatly benefit from a beach cleaner too. Walk-behind, self-propelled sifter units are easy to run, require little maintenance, and can ensure your beach is spotless with minimal effort.

Are you Looking for a Beach Cleaner?

H Barber & Sons offers multiple models of beach cleaners for all kinds of beach cleaning conditions. To view Barber's tractor-towed beach cleaners, visit the SURF RAKE page on our official product-based website. There you can learn about how the mechanical raking technology used by the SURF RAKE effectively works to remove various specific materials from the beach. The SAND MAN is our walk-behind sifting beach cleaner. It is a self-propelled sifting beach cleaner, which is ideal for Resorts, Contractors, and Individuals with small beaches to maintain.

Mechanical Raking Beach Cleaners Explained

Beach Cleaner Mechanical Rake Operation
Mechanical Raking Beach Cleaner Diagram
Beach Cleaner thorough tine beach cleaning
The tines on mechanical raking beach cleaners are offset (A/B/A/B), which results in incredibly thorough coverage and cleaning area. Additionally, a second pass multiplies this coverage two times.
Clean Beach
Tractor-towed mechanical raking beach cleaners are excellent for large municipal beaches.
Beach Cleaner Contractor
Beach cleaners can be convenient mult-application machines for contractors.
Clean private lake shore beach
A private lake beach cleaned with a walk-behind sifter
If you would like to continue learning about how beach cleaners work to effectively remove unwanted materials from beaches, select an application from the "Beach Cleaner Methods" menu at the top of the page. You can also check out our Resources pages for more beach cleaning information. If you are still curious about learning more about beach cleaners, do not hesitate to contact us, and a Barber team member will gladly assist you.
H BARBER & SONS 2011
hbarber@hbarber.com
(203) 729-9000