Ironing Services In Germany

[launderess]

Had no idea ironing services were still big in many parts of Europe. Germany especially seems to have a good number of small and large places that do ironing with mangles or by hand.

https://www.heissmangel-bredstedt.de

https://rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/du...n-der-heissmangel-in-duesseldorf_aid-54449553

https://www.heissmangel-rhauderfehn.de





Apparently there is a market in many areas of Germany for this sort of cottage industry. Don't think those who own such establishments are getting rich, but there must be money about.

However with various ironers (mangles) of all sorts long commonly found in German homes (like my Pfaff 858 and 658) one wonders why people are sending things out they can do at home. [this post was last edited: 11/24/2023-12:11]

 

[fisherpaykel]

Ironed and STARCHED

Decades ago in small town Ontario I spent a night at a small hotel, Rene's White House, with both starched and ironed sheets, what a comfortable luxurious bed that was! Launderess, do you have at home starching advice?

 

[launderess]

If you can lay hands on Linit or Faultless liquid starch just add 1/4 cup to about two cups (depending upon type of washer, amount of water used and load size) to final rinse. After extracting (spin drying) get out your iron.....

 

[adam-aussie-vac]

Speaking of ironing in Germany, do many laundromats actually have a large rotary ironer or have people stepped away from that?

 

[richnz]

Oh that video

The tree women in the ironing house. What a delight!

As someone that appreciates ironed clothes and bedding, their comments were hilarious.

Later I saw a Facebook post by Miele Australia. They seem to have a soft spot for insta-nothing types promoting their products.
As someone that likes cooking and cleaning, I take exception to people doing it WRONG.

Something that was mentioned in the video appears in the video below.



Thank you Laundress, that German video was gold.

https://fb.watch/oGr8m_oQpT/

 

[launderess]

Can see how a service that just does ironing would survive in Germany. Households do the washing at home (in their own machines) where they have more control over results. Then send things out to be ironed since those large rotary ironers do better job of flatwork and so forth than many modern ironers sold for domestic use.

https://www.haller-kreisblatt.de/lo...Waschgang-Heissmangel-Queisser-schliesst.html

https://www.wr.de/daten-archiv/josef-joy-eroeffnete-ersten-waschsalon-im-kreis-unna-id7183379.html

https://www.merkur.de/lokales/regio...-riedl-hoert-auf-neuer-paechter-13821226.html

 

[henene4]

Have only lived in a few cities, but these services aren't terribly common.

Don't know of any in a 50km circle around Emden, Würzburg nor Ulm.
It's more that most people just skip ironing all together.

The laundromat down the road from my school in Würzburg had a Miele rotary iron, and have them seen in many laundromats across the country.
Those that still had them usually had pretty old equipment and know of at least 3 cases where they were removed when new equipment was replaced.
It's certainly way less common then it was.

Biggest sector in finishing services is probably for shirts and other "office wear" items.
It's not uncommon for many people in bigger cities who wear shirts on the daily to just bring them all to a dry cleaner and get them done there, while doing the rest of their laundry back home.

However also know of a few cases where full laundry services were town staples with many local people relying on them completely.

 

[launderess]

Seems what remains of these "heissmangel" services are either old cottage industries and or part of something else such as a laundromat/dry cleaners which helps bring in money.

What does seem clear is as older owners of such places die off or retire few remain open. Places seem to close, are sold to new owners who while perhaps keeping laundry services get shot of using big ironers.

Owners of this service sum things up best; one can make a living at it but won't get rich.

https://rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/krefeld/die-drei-von-der-heissmangel_aid-21783215

 

[launderess]

" do many laundromats actually have a large rotary ironer or have people stepped away from that?"

These old heissmangels (rotary ironers) consume vast amounts of electricity and take some time to heat up. It doesn't make much sense to have one any longer in say a laundromat where it may sit drawing current (or burning gas) if it's only seeing occasional use.

Indeed it does seem one reason why so many of these heissmangel services are vanishing is they do not have enough business to justify firing up those ironers with associated (ever rising) energy costs.

If your business is ironing then you've got to fire up that ironer daily regardless whether one has 200 pieces to iron or just 20.

For a laundromat it likely makes more sense nowadays to pull that heissmangel out and use space for something that generates revenue.

https://www.come-on.de/volmetal/hal...-leidet-unter-den-energiekosten-92112479.html

 

[mrboilwash]

I my area even though the business has been declining over the years a "Mangelstube" where you drop off your washed linen like in the video or a coin laundry equipped with a "Heißmangel" is still easy to find.

My mother (she`s in her 80s) uses the drop off service for large items like sheets and duvet covers and sometimes even for some hard to iron curtains.
But it`s a different generation, she wouldn`t even accept a dish towel that hasn`t been hand ironed to perfection because she thinks just wash and fold as I do is a sloppy way of doing laundry.
She says they frequently tell her how nice her things smell when she picks them up again. Huge surprise, she still prefers old fashioned "Universal" powders and boils all her linen.

I have my doubts that high energy cost are to blame for the decline of rotary ironers in coin laundrys in Germany because they have never been wastefully been kept hot when not in use.
You usually pay 1 € for 10 minutes and if no one else has used if before then your first 3-5 minutes are spent on preheating. They heat up quickly, some might even be on a 400V line in a commercial setting.
Suppose the reason for the decline is that even most of my generation (I`m in my 50s) are too Americanized to see the need for ironed sheets.
I dry them to "ironing dry" in the dryer and then finish them partly folded on a drying rack. This way they don`t look too shabby and I don`t have to waste my time with ironing.

 

[launderess]

A push to get laundromats in USA to install ironers so they can take on flatwork laundry.

Who knew?

https://americancoinop.com/articles/flatwork-ironers-expanding-commercial-laundry-services