Aftermarket replacement part — not a genuine OEM part. The squeegee blades and rubber parts on this page are aftermarket replacements made to fit Tennant machines. They are not genuine Tennant parts, we are not affiliated with or endorsed by Tennant, and brand names, model names and part numbers are used for fitment reference only. Confirm dimensions against your own sample or drawing before ordering.
The Tennant T5 is one of the most widely installed mid-size walk-behinds in contract cleaning, which is exactly why it gets bought badly. It is common enough that distributors assume the blade is a commodity, order it on part number, and then discover on site that the set does not seat properly or the rear blade is finished in six weeks instead of twelve.
Two things fix most of that, and neither is about the rubber compound. The first is ordering front and rear in the ratio they actually wear. The second is checking three dimensions before anyone cuts steel.
One set is two different parts
A T5 set is one front blade plus one rear blade, and they are not interchangeable. The rear blade does the water pickup under vacuum and sets the service interval. The front blade takes the abrasion — grit, pallet-jack dust, floor debris — and usually looks worse while still working fine.
Here is the part that catches buyers out: on a walk-behind in daily service, the rear blade is typically the first to be condemned, because a rear blade that has lost its edge leaves a trail and the operator notices immediately. A worn front blade is quieter about it. So fleets that reorder “one set” each time end up discarding front blades that still had life in them, or running rear blades past the point where the floor is left dry.
The practical fix is to stop reordering in equal numbers. Many contract operators settle around two rear blades for every one front blade after a couple of cycles, and then adjust to their own floors. We can ship unbalanced sets to that ratio — it just has to be stated on the order, because the default is one-to-one.
If you are mapping a mixed fleet rather than a single model, our cross-reference guide lists the models and brands we already hold tooling for, and is the quickest way to tell whether a profile is stocked or has to be built.
The three checks that prevent a comeback
Blade complaints are overwhelmingly fitment complaints wearing a different hat. An operator reports “bad rubber” when the real problem is that the blade could not be mounted square.
| Check | What to confirm | What goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Profile and thickness | Seats fully in the channel, no rocking | Wrong thickness flexes instead of wiping |
| Hole pitch and slot layout | Matches the worn blade or the frame drawing | Looks identical, will not bolt on |
| Hardness | Agreed range, ±5 Shore A, measured on production pieces | Too hard skips over texture; too soft folds under vacuum |
Hardness is measured by the ASTM D2240 durometer method. Insisting on the method is not pedantry. A quote that says “65 Shore A” with no test method and no tolerance is not a specification, and one that promises ±1 is promising something no production batch will hold. Ask for readings taken off production pieces, not off a compounder’s test coupon — the coupon proves the mixer was right on the day, the production piece proves the tool is right.
On exact length, slot positions and thickness for your particular T5 build, we work from a sample or a drawing rather than from a generic chart. Frame revisions and aftermarket squeegee assemblies vary between production runs, so send the worn blade or a photo of the frame and we will confirm before shipping or cutting tooling. Where we cannot confirm, we say so rather than guess.
Choose the grade by floor, not by price per piece
The same T5 behaves like a different machine on polished retail tile and on a sealed warehouse floor with pallet-jack traffic.
- Natural rubber, 65 ± 5 Shore A — smooth tile, PVC, epoxy. Conforms well to flat floors and gives the cleanest pickup.
- Cast polyurethane, 85 ± 5 Shore A — rough concrete, expansion joints, oily or greasy surfaces where cut and tear resistance is the point.
- Economy gum rubber, 45 ± 5 Shore A — light duty on smooth floors when the decision is price-led.
The full trade-off is laid out in our material comparison. Two errors come up repeatedly. The first is assuming harder is always better — on polished tile a hard blade chatters and streaks, and more down-pressure will not fix it. The second is assuming red rubber means premium. Red is pigment. Performance is formulation, and the comparison belongs on abrasion loss and tensile figures, not colour.
Service life under normal commercial duty is typically two to three months per blade — an industry figure rather than a guarantee, and one that shifts with cleaning frequency, chemicals, temperature and floor condition. Polyurethane generally gives the longest interval on rough or oily floors, but it is also more sensitive to temperature and operating conditions than natural rubber, so it should be sold with that caveat rather than as a flat upgrade.
Replacement timing is worth budgeting rather than reacting to, and we break the arithmetic down in our replacement cycle analysis. The ISSA membership base runs on exactly this kind of planned consumable spend; blades bought on an emergency basis always cost more per piece than blades bought on a schedule.
What the order looks like
- MOQ 20 sets per style on a profile we already tool. Twenty sets is forty blades — enough for a real field trial across several sites, not a warehouse commitment.
- USD 60–120 tooling for a profile we do not hold, waived at 500 sets cumulative.
- Mixed orders allowed, USD 3,000 minimum order value, so a first shipment can cover ten or twelve models instead of betting the whole budget on one part number.
Settle the claim process before you pay
Blade complaints surface at goods-in, which on a long freight lane is weeks after manufacture. Agree the process up front:
- Claims raised within 7 days of receipt, counted from delivery, not dispatch.
- Only the defective pieces are replaced, not the whole batch. Twelve faulty out of two hundred means twelve replacements.
- An unboxing video is required, filmed from before the carton opens and close enough to show the defect.
- Freight on replacement pieces is on the buyer; most importers absorb it by consolidating into the next shipment.
Coverage is for manufacturing defects: damaged or feathered edges, wrong dimensions, defective material, hardness outside the agreed range. It does not cover ordinary wear, fitting damage, or early wear from specifying the wrong compound for the floor.
Samples are chargeable, not free, and take 7–15 days to prepare and ship — worth planning around if you are qualifying a grade ahead of a tender.
Getting a quote
Tell us the machine model, your floor type, and roughly how many units you run. We will confirm the T5 profile against a sample or drawing, recommend a grade, and quote a 20-set trial you can fit before committing to volume. If your fleet eats rear blades faster than fronts, say so and we will quote the unbalanced ratio.
