What's going on with hotel towels?

[whirlykenmore78]

@mrboilwash

What you say is true. I cannot tell you how many towels and sheets I had come through my laundry that were disgusting with human waste or other foul substances. Normally the SQ washer-extractor could get them clean but some needed a chlorine soak before washing. Most stains I would treat with the Ecolab destaining system and they were good to go. A few would come back so badly stained that I would throw them out. I always THROUGHLY washed my hands with hot water and soap after loading the washer. EVERY load was washed in hot water and dried in dryers reaching at least 160F.
WK78

 

[combo52]

Hotel Impossable reply #12

Hi Barry, I am shocked at the name you used for the Coronavirus I am going to see if I can get Robert to delete or modify your post.

 

John L.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Dear Launderess,
Thank you for sharing that information about Mieles and the disinfectants. With my water heater set at 140F there is no way that I can get a wash of 140F out of my SQ, even with running 140 water to the faucet and then running a pre-rinse through it before loading and starting a load of towels, but my skin is not showing signs of bacterial attack so I guess I am going OK. If I want hotter, I use the Miele.

Best regards,
Tom

 

[superocd]

I always thought that health departments routinely checked wash temperature and/or whether an establishment was using bleach or other sanitizer.

And what's with hotels using residential washers or commercial TLs to wash linens, as a few on here have mentioned? How is that even possible, just by capacity constraints, to say nothing about lower performance and durability? I suppose it's nice to have a cheap residential washer to supplement the commercial washer/extractors, maybe for extra capacity for odds and ends that didn't make it into the washer/extractor load, and have seen residential machines next to the commercial extractors when peeking in hotel laundries, but for a residential machine to be the only machine is unthinkable. I've never seen it myself but hey, if operators are cheapening out on everything else what's to say they pick up a $399 Amana or two at Lowes if/when their $10k bolt down needs expensive repairs? I have to do two loads just for my one queen bed and some towels in my 4.5 cu. ft. KM/LG front load, which is bigger in usable capacity than most toploaders yet still pales in comparison to the usable capacity of the smallest commercial front load machine. Makes the tale of bedspreads/comforters never being washed sound true, since thoat would max out most residential TLs/FLs or commercial toploaders.

 

[launderess]

To best of my knowledge no state or local health department has exact law or regulations regarding hotel/motel laundry about wash temperature and so forth.

From North Carolina:

15A NCAC 18A .1828 LAUNDRY AND LINENS
(a) Except as specified in paragraph
(b) of this Rule, clean bed and bath linen in good repair shall be provided for each guest who is provided accommodations and shall be changed between successive guests. Two sheets shall be provided for each bed. The lower sheet shall be folded under both ends of the mattress. The upper sheet shall be folded under the
mattress at the lower end.

(b If bed covers are not cleaned between successive guests, the upper sheet shall be folded under the mattress at the lower
and folded over the bed cover minimum six inches at the top end.

(c) Clean linen and supplies shall be stored in cabinets, or on shelves in linen and supply storage rooms. Cabinets, shelves,
and storage rooms shall be in good repair and kept clean.

(d) Items on housekeeping carts shall be arranged in a manner to prevent cross-contamination between soiled and cleaned
items. Housekeeping carts shall be kept clean and stored to protect items from contamination.

(e) Soiled laundry shall be handled and stored separately from clean laundry using separate cleanable carts or bags. Carts
used for soiled laundry shall be labeled or identified for soiled laundry use only.

https://ehs.ncpublichealth.com/docs...rningTheSanitationOfLodgingEstablishments.pdf

massachusetts says only that hotel/motel linens must be laundered using "detergents and sanitizers", and laundry equipment must be signed off by state DOH.
https://www.mattapoisett.net/sites/...ploads/2021_hotel_and_motel_regulations_0.pdf

And so it goes...

Yes, for restaurants and places that prepare/serve food have seen requirements that dishware and such either be washed in very high temperatures, or chemicals must be used to ensure proper sanitation.

CDC guidelines for healthcare linen...

https://www.flexp.com/cdc-guidelines-laundry-healthcare-facilities/

As this post makes clear federal guidelines (CDC and OSHA mainly) are just that since states via their departments of health have direct control over this matter.

http://blogs.hcpro.com/osha/2009/01/ask-the-expert—healthcare-laundry-guidelines/

As to why some places use "homestyle" or residential domestic washers as opposed to OPL or commercial, it usually comes down to cost.

Even smallest 18-25lb front loading commercial type washer is going to cost dear. This even if place goes with OPL or other soft mount version.

That being said cannot imagine any but small motel or hotel going with such machines. They just aren't built to handle heavy use...

 

[henene4]

It's really about mentality more than anything with these things.

Good laundry practices regardless of size of operation do cost more than bare basics cold.

But the difference between lowest possible cost and value operations isn't terribly much.

Best example is why many places use homegrade machines in a commercial setting.

Yes the 299$ TL is cheaper upfront compared to the 3k+$ commercial FL of comparable size.
And that FL might last about 10 times longer than the TL.
And let's even assume both use the same (which they don't, but regardless).

So it just comes down how management in charge thinks about things.

Many will think they might not even be there in 10 years, so short term operations count more than long term goals.
To those thinking like this, the 20$ cost a day more for proper commercial grade detergent and the 0.3$ for hot water per load will always count more than the fact that a year from starting that practice their ratings online will have gone down a star or 2.

A good, future proof and confident management will always look at the long term goals.
They know that one dirty sheet can ruin a customer's entire review.
Thus they know that spending the greater amount on proper machinery and practices might not improve their bottom line in a measurable way.
But they know that 10 years from now, their bottom line will be the same if not better than that.

It's something that actually has been found similarly in the last great depression in the 1920s.

First something new came (electricity in the late 1800s).
That improved things at first.
Then the normal folk got less and less of the pie.
Quality of products declined as the people in charge got greedy and tried to go from value production to Purley maximizing profits.
Then some huge cultural reset point came.
And quality and equality was once again achievable.

I think pretty much the same is happening now.
Difference this time around is that the new thing is computers/automatisation and the huge reset will be climate change.

So by 2050 we're either dead or we'll have clean towels once more...

 

[mrsalvo]

I agree with Henrik, climate change is definitely going to factor in laundering practices in the future, both domestic and commercial, though I would freak out staying somewhere that they are laundering linens and towels in cold water using cheap Dollar store detergents, and paying good money for accommodations to boot. (It was bad enough 4 years ago visiting relatives overnight and having to use smelly “clean” towels and linens that smelled like sour vomit.)
A few years ago we were in a sever drought one year and water restrictions were bad, like only 6,000 gallons per household for the month, $500 fines were imposed anything over that. Have wondered how hotels managed any restrictions.

Barry

 

[perc-o-prince]

Lower washing temperatures...

I cringe every time I hear the radio commercial where Ice-T and Stone Cold Steve Austin are hawking Tide because it cleans better in cold than bargain detergents in hot, and washing in cold saves something like $130 a year so it's good for the environment. Hot washes are there for a reason!

 

Chuck 

 

[launderess]

It's no use hating on detergent & washing machine people

They're just doing what EU and North American government policies are pushing, lowering wash temperatures to save energy.

Laundry either domestic, commercial or institutional has always been a labor and energy intensive thing. You can probably throw in heavy impact on environment as well.

Message for a decade or more has been lower energy use as a nation or local area for many reasons. First and foremost is lower demand means less pollution and or need to build more power plants.

Tide Coldwater failed horribly first time it was introduced. P&G keeps trying to their credit to get people to wash at lower temps.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/17/business/cold-water-detergents-get-a-chilly-reception.html

Across the pond in places like Germany where boil wash long as been seen as a god given right, old habits die hard.

https://www.electroluxgroup.com/en/...ices-out-of-step-with-climate-concerns-32373/

https://www.ariel.co.uk/en-gb/how-to-wash/how-to-do-laundry/cold-water-wash-guide

 

[henene4]

Saving energy and getting stingy is 2 things.

I think that modern batch tunnel washers are the way to go.
Getting as low as 2-3l of water is great. Results are great - hospital grade, actually.

Or even modern FL industrial washers.
Using hot water in these situations should be possible then.

As I said, problem Starts when you save on all fronts.

You can't wash in cold water, with close to no water with terrible detergent.

Washing lightly soiled non-specific laundry in cool water with good detergent covers 75% of all household items.

Washing heavy soil hotel whites in overfilled washers with cold water and bad chemicals - yeah no, it won't work.

There is a balance to that all.
It's not all hot good cold bad.

 

[launderess]

No small motel or hotel is going to be installing batch/tunnel washers. Forget where the break even line is drawn, but below a certain number of hundred pounds per hour being processed washer/extractors are better than tunnel washers.

There is a world of difference between what an independent small hotel or motel does for laundering of linens, versus say a mid-sized to large establishment.

 

[appnut]

As long as I can still find a front loader with an onboard heater, I will push buttons and extend cycle times so that I can have as hot a water as is possible when needed. I don't believe in washing in cold or cool water except for minimal exceptions. And I'll choose cool over tap cold any day.

 

[DADoES]

Tricking water temps

 
I have three washers connected to a bathtub faucet so can feed any of them water at whatever temp I want to the limit of what the water heater can output (or the limit of summertime cold-tap temp, LOL).

The Neppy TL doesn't outwardly fuss, it silently electrically-swaps the hot and cold solenoids if it's unable to attain the temp it expects/wants (on the premise that the supply hoses are wrongly connected), which has no effect on what the tub faucet feeds to it.

The two F&Ps tweet a complaint but don't stop filling.  They're both plenty reasonable on their ATC target temps, although the "eco" aspect comes into play with cold-fill top-offs on some cycles but there are other cycle choices and options that are less or non-eco.

I have other washers that can be swapped-in.

 

[henene4]

@Laundress

But even in a small hotel, a modern FL can run highly efficently while running hot washes.

Or you outsource you laundry to larger establishments that in turn can provide that value and efficiency.
That further gives you the ability to set standards and push for them being maintained as you pay for them.
But then you are again at the point where you can't just go lowest bidder if quality isn't right.