I'd like to see more commercial machines.

[ingliscanada]

I love reading all the threads on washers and dryers, but I'm also interested in those big boys you see in the laundromats. In Canada, Huebsch has stood the test of time for over 50 years, even though their Speed Queen parents have left us. Wascomats are gaining on popularity, and are part of the Electrolux group. Dexter is another popular make, which I understand has some roots from Philco/Bendix. And Maytag commercial machines continue on as the Canadian counterpart to American Dryer Company. We don't have as many commercial makes here in Canada as in the USA. I do remember bygone makes we once had; including Ald (a Westinghouse product I understand), Hoyt-Windsor (and sister make Cook Washelette/Tumblette) and Monarch. I remember the Aldwash and Aldry from many years ago. In the 80's, the Speed Queen name in Canada became Econ-O-Wash. Now, it wears the Huebsch badge in top-loader models and all across the line. And if I guess right, the Cook Washelette top-loaders might have been made by Norge, whereas the large front loaders and dryers were made by Hoyt. For years we got the Wascomat washers, but I don't think we had the Wasco-Dry dryers that were available in the States. And looking closely, the Wasco-Dry's were identical to Huebsch. That's until the Electrolux Wascomat Dryers came over. I've also seen many house-sized commercial washers and dryers made by Maytag, Inglis (now Whirlpool), GE, Westinghouse and Frigidaire. I wonder, did the old Franklin Kelvinators have an entry in the commercial market back in the 60's? Does anybody have any info on commercial coin-laundry machines to share with me?

 

[peterh770]

Wascomat/Electrolux washers originate in Sweden. They branded Huebsch dryers originally, then American Dryers (ADC) until coming out with their own (problem-fraught) dryers a few years ago.

Speed Queen/Raytheon spun off their commercial line first to Goodman Manufacturing and then to Alliance Laundry Systems. Topload washers made by Goodman were slightly different from the toploaders made by Alliance (or so I have been told, where Goodman cheapened the design for home use while Alliance beefed it up for the commercial market). Alliance also snatched up Huebsch dryers, and Unimac washers, rebranding these also as SQ. Most recently, they snatched up Ipso (Belgium) who had shortly previously snatched up the limping Cissell Dryer Corp. Just before the big merger, SQ branded Continental-Girbau (Spain) washers before branding the Unimacs as SQ (their premium brand) and Huebsch (their economy brand). Ipso pretty much stands alone, but with a very small market share here in the States. Cissell I think is gone, or is geared to the drycleaning business. They were the ones who originally came out with a 75 pound stacked dryer which never caught on. Huebsch dryers were also branded as Norge dryers back in the day.

Maytag commercial machines were originally sourced from Unimac and later switched to Primus (Belgium). Commercial Maytag dryers were originally Huebsch but then went to ADC.

Dexter has always been Dexter. They stopped making the Philco-Bendix style machine about 1998. I've never seen them, but they are exactly the same, but stainless steel with the Dexter blue control panel.

Continental-Girbau (Spain), the newest contender, originally sourced their dryers from Dexter, then ADC and now Huebsch. Continental also sells the Alliance "Econ-o-mat" topload washers.

Pellerin-Milnor (Louisiana) has always made their own washers and VERY LARGE dryers, but source their smaller dryers from ADC.

ADC has made dryers for Maytag, Wascomat and Milnor.

Primus (Belgium) tried to make it in the States in the late 1990's but never took hold. The "Lucy's" chain in California were their only customers. They finally took hold when they partnered with Maytag.

Hoyt hasn't made coin-op dryers in years, but still does make large OPL dryers. Every now and then you can find their "Windsor" dryers in old laundromats.

 

[launderess]

Cissell Manufacturing Company was bought by Alliance Laundry Systems (the SQ people) a year or so ago.

As one stated awhile ago in another thread, the commercial laundry market has undergone many changes, and in some ways is shrinking. This in turn as lead to many companies chasing the few remaining players.

Driving this trend is the increasing number of places that formerly did laundry on premises (hospitals, hotels, motels, nursing homes, etc), that now send their laundry out. In the that area (linen, hospitality, hotel, hospital, etc) laundries economies of scale allow a large or HUGE laundry to offer lower rates, thus driving the rest out of business. While there are many places that still do laundry in house, the trend is towards hiring it out. This is based upon the model of "what business am I in"? Hospitals for instance decided they were in the business of caring for the sick (naturally), and got shot of departments that did not fit that core business, but drained cash outflows.

Also consider various new federal and local laws and regulations regarding "contaminated" waste water. The cost of refitting a commercial laundry to meet those rules versus ROI probably means it is cheaper to send laundry out. Not to mention costs savings by having less employees.

On the other end of the scale you have the dry cleaning/residential laundry business that is getting hammered.

People aren't wearing as much formal "dry clean only" clothing as they used to. Inexpensive home washing machines and dryers mean laundry can be done at home, saving the expense of sending things out.

Even shirt laundries have changed in that truly the large wholesale places are killing local "Hand Laundries". People won't pay more than a buck or two per shirt. At that rate large wholesale laundries that can process hundreds of shirts per hour are the only way to go.