suds overflow

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Cybrvanr

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Jan 23, 2005
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Every year it happens without failure, someone at the school wants to play a prank in the laundry room. It happened last weekend. They go out and buy a giant box of high sudsing detergent. No, they don't dump it in the fountain in front the building, they dump the ENTIRE box into a washer, and then set the thing for hot water. Of course, it doesn't take long before it looks like it snowed in the laundry room, and suds are spilling out the door and onto the carpet and everywhere else. This time, they left the evidence...a "70 loads" box of tide sitting right beside the poor victimized washer. I got pictures of the suds that were about knee deep that were spilling out the machine. That must do wonders for all the electrical & mechanical stuff underneath!
 
That could concievably become an electrocution hazard, if the wet suds contacts a "hot" component and someone tries to walk through it and touches something that's grounded.

Personally I have zero tolerance for that kind of "prank." It should be made clear that anyone who does that kind of thing will henceforth be expelled and possibly prosecuted.
 
Re: Sudz Overflow:

I would suggest that maybe since you or someone found the Detergent Box, get it checked for Fingetprints. Maybe you can catch this "IDIOT" that did this Stupid Prank this time and get others to stop, besides letting everyone know how dangerous as brought out of the possibility of an Electrical Shock to someone, if the Sudz were to come into contact with any Electrical Parts of the Washer.

Why isn't there a Lock on the Door{s} of the Laundry Room? That should be thought of being done as well, to monitor who goes in there and only for the proper purpose of doing Laundry.

"Good-Luck" with this and getting others to realize the serious hazards possibly presented by being so Stupid.

Peace and Happiness, Steve
SactoTeddyBear...
 
I don't think anybody did it purposely, but back in junior high or freshman PE, I ran across the Milnor front-loader in the old gymnasium running suds out the detergent cup. I hit the Oversuds button, and a plume of suds shot up out of the drain vent.
 
Handy!

Quote from DADoES: "I hit the Oversuds button, and a plume of suds shot up out of the drain vent."

Wow! It actually had a button that would make it oversuds? ;)

veg, who should be using his time more wisely
 
Well, there's a lock on the laundromat door that requires you to swipe your apartment cardkey in. You can zero it down to about 100 or so students and maybe some admin that entered the laundry room that day. I think what they have a plan to do now is to install card key access to the washers themselves. The school ID cards are given to both us admin people and the students. Students (or even admin) not assigned to the apartment buildings cannot get into the building's facilities.

Since the card keys are also sort of debit cards for buying stuff on campus, there's a push to install card readers on the washers. So far though, they haven't found a vendor that has card readers instead of coin op's on their washers. If those were installed, finding the culprit of the suds attack would be as simple as looking at the financial record of that particular machine!

Being an audiovisual & telcom tech for the school, I've got one of those special "all access" cards so that I can get into the CATV and telcom rooms of the school. I was over there working on a CATV problem in the apartment building. Maybe I oughta install some security cameras in the laundry room!!!...it's so interesting working at the school I graduated from!!!
 
Hi Cybrvanr,

There are venders that supply i-card access to laundry equipment. I had to do an investigation for that kind of access to printers and copiers for work about 3 years ago and that company had the laundry equipment setup. Where my daughter goes to school they have all the laundries, vending machines, and printers and copiers on campus all setup up for i-card use. Thier laundry at first was all junky Maytags that did not work half the time. out of 8 dryers she said only 3 worked well. When she went back this past August we went down to the laundry and they replacesd all the machines with very nice Speed Queen front loaders and dryers. She said they are great and all the dryers work. They replaced every washer and dryer in the on campus housing. If you need to know the company for the card readers I can find out for you.

Mike
 
lol first suds overflow

I remember when we first got out whirlpool dd. Mom wanted me to add the soap. She used to use cheer. It was a powder. So im adding it and as its poring out through this little tear the lid opens and all of the soap spills into the washer! I stare for 4 secs and then close the lid and leave. Of course this was a small load so i was expecting a sudsy wash!. I come back later. I open the lid and i see suds flowing up to the top. I then panic and close the lid> a few soceonds later suds start spewing out of the lid hanle so i put a paper towel in. Later suds were comming out of the bottom of the machine then the machne quieted down. I cleaned it up as much as i could then i got dad. He drained the machine and blew the suds out with the leaf blowerO.O So later i watched the rinse. The clothes were still loaded with suds. But i walked away. Years later today I found a shirt it smelled sweet of soap so i put it in the sink. it was loaded still with suds after all these years
 
If you put restrictions on those card readers so only people living in a given dorm can use that dorm's laundry rooms, what happens to people who spend the night with their sweetheart and want to wash their clothes the next morning...? Much less, cases like "Come over to my place and let's study together" "I needed to do laundry, can I bring it over?"

Also what about having an extension on the school PBX in the laundry rooms, so the kids can phone someone in the event of an honest "oops, there goes the whole box" accident?

Cameras: Sad day when vandalism makes such things necessary. And would probably be a major deterrent to folks such as many on this list for whom doing the laundry together is at least a social occasion and sometimes a date.

Re. excess detergent in general: Would it be correct to say that the "right amount" of detergent is the amount that can also be rinsed out fairly completely in one or at most two rinse cycles? Or, in normal circumstances does one need to use much more detergent than will rinse out in one or two cycles? Also thinking here about people with sensitive skin, who might get some kind of itch from residual detergent in their clothes.
 
Oh, I don't believe they intend on locking the machines out by use of the card. I believe the way they want to set them up is by letting anyone with a school smartcard use them. What they already do however is keep the door to the laundry room locked. They started doing this when many non-students from the neighboring areas started coming over to the campus apartments and dorms and using the laundry rooms. The washers were always so tied up that the residents of the apartments couldn't ever get to use the machines. Keeping the door locked keeps out the non-students, but allows authorized use of the machines if visiting a resident. When I was a student here, they installed the locks, and suddenly, I could finally get a machine without having to wake up at 3AM. Come to think about it after you mention it, a non-student couldn't do wash and would need to borrow their sweetheart's card not only to get in to do their wash, but to pay for it as well.

Besides, I don't think that the suds event is all that big of a deal, it was nothing that couldn't be cleaned up with a little water and a mop in a few minutes. It was rather funny though looking at all those suds in there! The biggest reason everyone wants the machines to use smartcards is so they don't need to worry about getting quarters every time they want to wash clothes. I don't think a camera is really going to be all that necessary. There was a thought though of putting it on a live web feed, just so one could see if the washers are in use or not. I believe Speedqueen now though makes a washer that will report it's status to an internet server...that would be better than a cam pointed at the machines.

PArunner: I'm not in charge of the laundry department here, but I imagine if I present them with an option of a manufacturer of card readers that will work on our machines, they'll certainly enjoy the suggestion. The proposal was done about 3 years ago, and everyones' wondering why we don't have card boxes on our washers yet.
 
Agreed, a minor suds-meltdown-prank isn't a big deal, though the humor wears off after a few repetitions:-). But when it gets to the point of being an electric shock hazard, that's not cool.

Webcams to watch the washers: If you have FLs with windows in them, maybe; otherwise the students will have to try to zoom in on the cycle lights.

Also beware, those cameras could be used by muggers and robbers, or even by someone who is stalking someone on campus (speaking from experience, I helped send a stalker to prison). Big danger there. Badguys see a likely victim in the laundry room, wait outside to pounce. Though, cameras in the halls etc. that feed a monitor in the laundry room, and a "red phone" so people in there can call for a security escort, would help somewhat.

Whatever technology you use, find a way to restrict access so only actual residents of each dorm get to see what's up in their dorm's laundry room.
 

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