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It Looks Like Fun

But one can only imagine the aching back, legs, feet and arms at the end of a busy day. Not to mention working when it is hot and humid outdoors, which would make it nearly unbearable inside.

Have to say everytime one sees these videos of EU laundries they are so clean you could eat off the floor. Totally opposite of what one often sees on this side of the pond! *LOL*

Am wondering why this laundry has so much advanced automated equipment yet the folding is done by hand.
 
@dj-gabriele:

Using gamma radiation to sterilize surgical instruments isn't as simple as it might seem. It's a lot cheaper, easier and faster to kill bacteria with steam (i.e., heat) than using a gamma emitter.

Using X-rays isn't much better.
 
Is that an Eastern Europe brand?

I wonder why they stuff the machines so extremly and don't control the result for stains etc. Multiple layer things such as bedcloths shouldn't be washed in such an overloaded machine, I think. That is not very hygienic, even if they separate the sides...
 
Primus

Originally begun in Beligum, Primus is now a world-wide producer/seller of commercial laundry equipment.

One assumes laundry workers shown above know how much to load machines for rated capacity. Remember despite their top opening the washers are H-Axis so a good amount of the wash will compact down.

As for sanitation,disenfection etc... that is all carried out by a mixture of chemicals, wash cycles, and temperature. Though one assumes laundry contaminated with serious pathogens (such as from an isolation room or patient with serious disease) would be separated out for special treatment.

Most all commercial laundries, and we're talking everything from service washes at local laundrettes to large scale operations with tunnel washers, rarely if ever pre-treat for stains. It is just too labour intensive which would cut down into profits and or cause a price increase. Rather wash programs are tailored to meet common stains and or special cycles for those most often found.

For instance operating room linens might have a cycle designed to shift blood. Table linens for protein, starch and other food/beverage stains. Kitchen linens grease/fats/oils, etc.

Most common formula for dealing with blood in commercial laundries, going back ages has been to have a first wash in warm water with alkaline substance. However today's modern enzyme and oxygen bleach containing detergents will do an excellent job of shifting most blood and other stains for that matter if the cycles are properly designed and product dosed correctly.

Finally as for the final laundry results concerning sanitation; if an outbreak of disease does occur nursing and or medical staff can and will quickly trace things to their source. In many hospitals it is not uncommon for "infection control" nursing and or medical staff to routinely test samples of "clean" laundry as it comes back from the wash.

 
I would think that commercial laundry equipment designers don't give a whole lot of credit to the machine operators for treating the equipment correctly.

After all, laundry work is really pretty low on the employment totem pole.

If there were a machine that could take the dirty laundry from the bins, and load/unload the machines, there would be such a device commercially available. Probably just a matter of time...
 
Overloading

I suppose the cramming full of the machine is somewhat responsible for typical hotel towels greeting and feeling like sand paper, even though chemical fabric softeners are/were used at the hotel where I worked back in the 80's.

It goes back to the mentality of just get it done, who cares about the results.

Malcolm
 
Well Yes and No

As pointed out in another thread started by a member, overloading and or otherwise abusing even a commerical washing machine will lead to problems inculding break downs. Bearing failures can often be directly pointed to from constant overloading for instance. When a machine is out of order it not only costs money in terms of production lost, but also because it now is a non-revenue producing asset.

Then there is the subject of results in general. Unless one is a bottom fishing customer such as some "knocking shop" motels or others looking just to get the work done as cheaply as possible, anyone else sending their washing out is going to notice the results of poor linen service and sooner or later take their business elsewhere. Maybe back in the day a laundry service could afford to write off customer loses thus and try for new to replace, but in today's world of "Yelp.com" and similar websites it becomes more difficult.
 
Chemical Fabric Softeners

Will only go but so far in dealing with "harsh" feeling laundry if a sour isn't used when high alkaline detergents do the washing.

If you noticed above the Primus washers are hooked up to a chemical injection system where liquid laundry products are used. However there are still plenty of commercial/on premise laundries that use good old fashioned mid to high pH powdered detergents. It's cheap and will blast out most dirt/soils along with providing high enough alkaline conditions for optimal bleaching with chlorine (the preferred method for most American laundries), all at the expense of textile lifespan and hand.
 
I think the primary goal of hotel/motel laundry with respect to towels is to get them white. Softness is probably way down the list.

I'd bet the towels hotels/motels buy are selected for durability/washability first, and everything else later, unless you're lucky enough to stay in a really 5-star kind of place. A Comfort Inn or Days Inn towel probably wouldn't be comfy-soft even if washed in our home equipment. People use those motel towels for everything from windshield cleaning to butt-floss to shoe-shining.
 
Whiteness

Going by the dingy dull offerings I've seen in some hotels, not bloodly likely! *LOL*

Commercial/hospitality linens are priced several ways and the costs also come down to replacement. You can purchase a bulk lot of cheap towels and swap them out as they wear out, or you can spend lots for fine Turkish type and pay a premium for careful but good laundering so they last.

Since most commercial laundry set out is priced by the pound, linens for that trade (usually labeled "hotel quality) are a mix between threads per inch/weight and a weave that will withstand often harsh commercial laundering process frequently.

Hotels, motels, and gyms, also must factor in loss of linen/towels from theft and or improper use.
You can keep linens white and bright by chlorine bleaching the heck out of it and or using boiling hot water temps, however the stuff won't last long. Hence see above. You'll notice thick and plush towels are rarely seen in gyms, and healthclubs or even hospitals.
 
Sorry, you lost me.

Are motel towels dingy because the motel owner was too cheap to buy good ones, or because of what the guests do to them? My guess is the latter, but feel free to disagree.

We're not talking about the swanky "W" hotels, just your basic Travelodge type of place. Yeah, the ones with housekeeping staff of questionable citizenship status that are running OPL equipment with no training. The same staff that can't read the "Do Not Disturb" hang tag on the guest room doors. The same ones that when you say, "More Cheerios, por favor" they look at you funny when the cereal machine is empty in the breakfast room.
 
The glasses that are marked "Sanitized" and wrapped may have been cleaned with the same rag that was used to clean the toilet with previously. There have been several television shows about how hotel/motel maids don't know nuttin' about proper cleaning protocol or methods. They'll use one cloth to clean EVERYTHING!

As for one who has stayed in more motel/hotel rooms than I care to think about this is something that is very important to me. I used to carry my own glass around with me in my suitcase. And NEVER walk around the room barefoot or lay on the bedspread.
And use "wet wipes" on the phone and television remote control. When I started doing all this I was sick way less often.
 
@Lowegian

It's a mixture of both.

Cheap goods cannot withstand harsh or even some case what many would consider normal "hot" laundry practices, thus after a period begin to look dull and dingy.

Case in point modern offerings of "linens" including everything from men's shirts to bed/table linens that state "wash in cold water no bleach". Well how is anyone supposed to keep a white shirt of sheet clean with that sort of routine treatment. Mind you if the things are changed frequently and barely soiled it might work, but if used heavily items are another story.

The other fly in the ointment is that most hotel/commercial linens are now a blend of cotton/polyester. The latter holds onto oils/soils and is nearly impossible to keep white and bright without a good hot water wash, but being a thermoplastic fiber too much heat will destroy, so compromises have to be made.

Finally and totally off topic but without meaning to give offense just have to get this little ditty off my chest: "10,000 Swedes ran through the weeds, chased by one Norwegian".

There, had to say it as evertime your screen name comes up it reminds one of the song the old drunkard uncle from the film "I remember Mama" teaches his nephew. *LOL*
 
Oh Laundress, you got me down on the floor. "I Remember Mama". Poor old dirty times, but they tried.

Those women crammin' that laundry in those machines. When exactly did people loose their minds? We know that fabric ain't clean. And they got to show all the steps to prove that their wash is clean. I like that!

I want a triple dose of chloroform before I have to head off to the home. Boils and goin' septic. No way.

B.
 
shouldn't the operators loading the dirty items in the machines wear gloves?The unload side wouldn't be a worry so much-unless an operator had an infected sore or something on their hands.Hotels--SCARY-seen hidden camera films on both TV and YouTube about what hotel housekeepers do-yes wipe the drinking cup wrapped in the "sanitized" wrapper with the same rag for cleaning the sink and potty-or even the shower,too!when you visit a hotel-motel these days bring your UV light with you-you may be SHOCKED what you see under the light!!!Human and rodent Pee-Human semen stains!and so on!!Esp on the "clean" looking bedspread-makes for a spectacular UV display!You can buy portable battery powered LED and flourescent bulb UV lamps-all kinds od suppliers have them.Easy to find from companies on the "Web" that sell flashlights and portable lights.
 

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