The Power of Washing

[sudsmaster]

At work we are given shop coast to wear. Every Thursday a laundry service comes by to pick up soiled shop rags and the shop coats, and to deliver laundered articles of same.

I got new shop coats about 1/2 year ago. Lately I've been noticing that they haven't been coming back clean. So I took home one of mine that had just been to the commercial laundry, and one from my boss that showed years of wear and was even less clean.

I washed both in the Miele 1918 with a pre-wash setting. I watched as the lukewarm prewash water drained after 15 minutes... it was jet black, with a fine sediment left in the white laundry tub. Wish I had thought to take a photo, it was so dramatic. This is from articles that were supposed to have been cleaned already! After a full program at 160F, the shop coats came out dramatically cleaner.

So now I'm taking my own shop coats home every weekend to launder myself.

 

[westingman123]

laundry services "ain't what they used to be"

I've noticed a comparable change in our aprons and meat coats at the grocery. Sometimes they come back in such condition you'd think they never left the store! Stiff, though, as if they were starched right over the dirt. ugh

 

[appnut]

Well Rich, maybe you should start taking in shop coat laundry. That's pretty disgusting actually. At least you'll have the cleanest shop coats around at the start of each new work week. Kinda like my best friend in high school, he had the cleanest football uniforms on the team thanks to his mom's very picky laundry ways. She took pride in how well her laundry came clean. I hope our resident commercial laundry sudsman will chime in here!!!

 

[sudsman]

Not a lot of time but will say just a bit for now and more l

Shop coats ect were always done on what is know as a Dual Process most of the time. First they are drycleaned to get the oils out and then laundred to get the heavier soils out.. The problem now is that most of the citys have just all but outlawed drycleaning, And now most of the plants can only launder the items. Unless a very long forumla is followed ( and most will not do it) the work will NOT come clean. this is only a part of the reason there are several which I will get back later with sorry to be so rushed..

 

[sudsmaster]

Thanks, I was unaware that they might be using a dual process, and it makes sense that they might be skipping the dry cleaning part now.

I also thought perhaps they are using cold water, and perhaps they don't want to get the stuff clean because that would mean more metals and pollutants in the used wash/rinse water, which is probably regulated these days, at least for commercial laundries.

In any case we'll be having a word with the guy who picks up the laundry each week. I'll be letting him know that I'll be washing my shop coats myself until they can show they can get them as clean as I can.

 

[sudsman]

A bit more

As a general rule uniform plants do not process linen or flatwork and vice versa. The reason being is equiptment for such work is VERY different. And the same washers used for kitchen linen shop towels ect CANNOT be used for linen supply work. So unless the plant is large enough to justify decicated equiptment one will not process the same type work.Also productions standards are VERY different for uniform and linen plants. In most cases uniform plants pressers must pass at the very least 200 to 400 shirts per hour depending on the type machine they have. And pants must be pressed @ a rate of 100 pr per hour. In most plants or you are replaced. Some plants use steam tunnels and the work goes thru on hangers a is never touched by a person. Quality is NOT a watchword in most uniform plants. And most uniform plants work is done by contract only and lowest contract price get the account.. Quality work is NOT at the top of the list.
Beacuse of the huge investment in uniforms most plants will not run the loads any longer than necessary to get heavier soils out. the loads are run for a med soil content to expidite movement of the work thru the plant. keep in mind most uniform plants process in the thousands of shirts and pants each hour. speed thru the plant is the only way they make money. Most of the uniform plants in this area now only use temps of around `120 at the most to add as much useable life to the garments as they possibly can. I know of 1 plant in Dallas that has a 100 degree temp limit and nothing is ever run higher. And before all you germ bugs start getting out the clorox , You need not fear, the steam in the finishing process KILLS most all bacteria, AS much as can be anyway. there are several other factors that enter in also but these are the main reasons your coats are most likely not as clean as they should be nor so as they once were.

 

[sudsmaster]

These shop coats are 65% poly 35% cotton and permanent press, so they don't need steam pressing. And from the looks of them, they don't get it.

Again, I was able to get an amazing amount of dirt out of two shop coats in my Miele at 160F with Sears plus STPP. And most of the dirt came out in the 15 minute pre-wash, which was just lukewarm (that was the wash water that I observed coming out of the machine jet black with a generous layer of silt). There really is no excuse for such lousy performance from our laundry contractor. They are either getting greedy or lazy, or both.

 

[launderess]

Read On A Professional Laundry Website

That textiles of poly/cotton blend really ought not to be ironed or pressed if one can help it. Which makes sense as polyester is extremely thermoplastic. One mistake with an iron or press will at best make a new crease that will never come out, or at worse scorch or burn the fabric. Of course this will depend upon the ratio of polyester to cotton.

Have some poly/cotton bed covers (it is nearly impossible to find them of pure cotton these days), and despite my love of hot washing in my Miele, have learned to use warm or cool water, minimal spins between cycles, and then a short final spin, tumble dried just until barely damp. Items are removed from the dryer and smoothed flat to finish drying. This leaves little or no ironing/pressing required.

 

[sudsmaster]

I haven't seen that polyester takes a crease more easily than cotton. If anything, poly/cotton blends, even the 65% poly ones, seem to be more resistant to new creases.

Perhaps it's the resins used to make these fabrics "permanent press" that are resisting creasing. I have noticed that it can be a problem when trying to modify a hem, such as the length of a pants leg, on a perm press article. The old crease wants to stay there, inside out, not matter what one does.

 

[panthera]

linen and polyester

Both have different characteristics to cotton when it comes to pressing.

You can permanently set wrinkles and creases into polyester, I have done so both by accident and intentionally. As Laundress wrote, the thermoplastic characteristics of this fiber group very much affect it's care.

Somewhere, we have that delightful Whirlpool film on the subject from the 1950's, it explains everything just beautifully.

Linen, of course, is wonderful to wear and sleep on. But the fibers are not all that great at flexing and fray very quickly compared to cotton.

One thing I learned to do as a kid was to take the nonsense about only using a dry iron on silk and synthetics and through it into the stinking pail of fish-heads where it belonged. Steam makes a big difference in how fast I can iron the wrinkles out of something, there is far more going on here than just the affect of water on cotton fibers which, obviously, doesn't apply here.

 

[panthera]

When I was working front desk

at a hotel chain, we were required to wear uniforms. Supposedly, these white shirts, ties and suit jackets made us look professional. They really just looked trashy.

I had a little money in those days, so paid a seamstress to knock me up three white shirts in exactly the same pattern, but of really good cotton, not the 65% polyester trash-bags. The trousers were a very good design, so of those I had five done, in wool, not the 100% dull-poly "looks just like wool" recycled car mats.

The jacket was over my budget, but a rule permitted supervisors, and I had just been promoted to asst. manager status (more responsibility, smallest raise possible on union scale), to wear vests. The seamstress had her cousin, a tailor, run up several for me, in a wool-mohair blend.

Ties had to be grey, no pattern, sigh, but grey silk was in - I think American Gigolo saved the tie industry - and there we had it.

I always got top marks for my appearance and fellow workers asked me how I kept stuff so clean. The hotel had just outsourced laundry and uniforms were no longer pressed and cleaned as they once were, to put it mildly.

I never told, just said I washed 'em and ironed 'em myself.

I hate synthetics with a passion. Sure, a few fibers have now been produced which are suited to the purpose of being worn by a human. Given a choice, I'll stick with wool, linen, cotton, silk. You can get them clean.

 

[sudsman]

In a steam tunnel

Garments are heated to the point they gently relax the fibers and then vibration helps remove any wrinkles , Temperatures are VERY carefully maintained; In this type machine thousands of garments can be processed in a hour.