Yippee A New Machine To Play With

[whirlcool]

As you all know, I volunteer some of my time to the Montgomery County, Texas Animal Shelter.

One of the problems they have had is they have being doing their laundry (pet beds, blankets, towels, etc) with just ONE Whirlpool Duet washer and a mid 90's GE dryer.

Needless to say with over 500+ dogs and 600+ cats the laundry room is overwhelmed! The washer and dryer is always running in a case of trying to catch up. Volunteers use the machines and most of them are teenage girls. They stuff the machines until they can't put anymore in. The actually use their foot to push it all in the drum until you couldn't even fit a handtowel in there. The first time I saw this I gave them instructions on proper machine useage, but it was like telling Paris Hilton how to do her own laundry. Does anyone ever notice that teen girls have plenty of attitude these days?

The shelter is now completing a new addition that will house about an additional 400 dogs and 300 more cats. It's great, nice and clean. I went on a tour today, and what did I see?
A new laundry room complete with storage facilities for detergents and huge stainless wash sinks. It also has a BRAND SPANKING NEW BIG MAC Commercial washer and dryer!
The room opens on Weds. I'll be down there for the maiden run of the machines. Right now they have ONE BOX of a detergent called "Thrifty". It's a white powder in a non descript brown cardboard box (about 10 lbs) with only the word "Thrifty" on it in black print. Of course they have cases and cases of Clorox bleach on hand.
I was going to donate some proper detergent to the shelter. What brand of detergent shall I get? I was thinking of getting a couple of bags of FOCA, or maybe Gain w/Baking Soda.

What do you all think/recommend? Remember, this is DIRTY ANIMAL laundry and we would want to disinfect the items being laundered to prevent the spread of any animal diseases such as Kennel Cough, Distemper, Parvo, etc.

 

[volvoguy87]

Clorox!

Bleach for disinfecting and Foca or Roma detergent to get things clean. One has enzymes, the other does not. Get the one with Enzymes. Just make sure that the detergent and bleach are not added at the same time so they each have time to work. For whatever it's worth, I think this might be a good use for about a 50 foot Maytag E2LPS.

I had a cat while I lived in Savannah. When I moved, I had to leave her with my now former housemate. My cat is well cared for and my former housemate loves her and cares for her well, but I still miss my kitty every day. She was adopted from a shelter and was a very sweet. well-behaved, and affectionate cat.

Keep it clean and ADOPT PETS,
Dave

Sorry about the picture size. I haven't installed the picture shrinking tool on my new computer yet.

 

[sudsman]

Most likely Unimac or Uniwash

unimac

 

[sudsman]

Cabinet models and Round open tub models

both are Alliance machines

 

[whirlcool]

Sudsman:

I was hoping you'd respond to this post.
The machine we have looks similar to the one you have in your image, but it is a lot bigger than that. The door itself must be 30" in diameter and the machine probably stands about 7 feet tall. The door is right about waist level for me, and I am 6 foot tall.

I have no idea how much detergent a machine like this would use.

As a laundry pro what detergent would you recommend and how much to use to start with?
Let me go down there and take a photo of it.

 

[sudsman]

Sounds like it may be a 100 or 125

Would have to know then will give you a starting point.. Would Stay away from high suds those machine are not happy with a lot of suds.. Can you get a chemcial rep to set you up a good formula? There a number of good ones in that area.It also could be a 50 or 85 lb.. Most of the time they put them up on concrete 4 to 6 " and they seem larger than they are. Look at the nameplate in the back or on the side it will tell you the capacity. Be careful to NOT underload them as they will not balance properly and with pads and such can throw the bearings very quickly. As a general rule most of the alliance machines are pretty good machines. Will do all I can to help you, -Mac

 

[whirlcool]

Darned it,
I went down to the shelter today and the laundry room was locked with the lights out (except for those red lights on the washer) and a sign was on the door stating "Laundry Room Personnel Only!".
Sounds like they may have HIRED someone to do the laundry. But with the financial state the shelter is always in, I would find that very unlikely.
You know I forgot, systems I have seen before like this have laundry detergent injector systems on them. I couldn't see if this one has that setup.
But I'll be there for the grand opening day (tomorrow)!

 

[supremewhirlpol]

My Primus machine has terminals on the back for an injection system.

 

[whirlcool]

I finally got into the laundry room, and the washer is a UniMac. It only comes up to my chest in height, and it's mounted on the floor, rather than being raised up. The dryer is the thing that's almost 7 feet tall.
I did a load in the UniMac, which doesn't have a detergent injection system and I'll tell you, that UniMac seems to use quite a bit of water. I used 1/4 cup of FOCA, it sudsed up some, but it rinsed clean of suds.
When the cycle was finished it said "Done" in the little cycle window, but the door wouldn't open. I pressed the little red button on the latch first as the machine has a placard for this. But it wouldn't open the door. The latch handle seemed stuck. So I asked one of the laundry room people about it and believe it or not, this was the reply:

When that machine does that it is telling you it is done for the day. Come back in the morning and the latch will open the door very easily. But it is NOT going to let you open it until an overnight has occured.
Has anyone ever heard such nonsense? I think the machine door is broken and needs repairing. After all the washer has only been in use for 4 days!

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Wowww!!! never heard such a thing

Is it possible that the machine has a usage or operating hours counter, in which it will cease to function when the machine has exceeded the preset value?

 

[whirlcool]

I thought about that too, maybe it is set up to do only X number of wash loads per day. Maybe it's rented and the rental fee is based on how many washes you do in it?

I am not that familiar with the UniMac machine. But you would think that it would at least let you inside to remove the last load laundered.....

I tried to look at the capacity label on the back of the machine, and it's close to the wall and not much light gets back there so I couldn't get to it to read it.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Whirlcool...

I'm not familiar with Unimac machines either, just Wascomat and Primus so far. There is a web site called coinwash.com that specializes in commercial machines. They have a forum that you can create an account on and ask questions. They may be able to help you.

 

[whirlcool]

I was able to download the UniMac Users Guide from Alliance Laundry Systems. Nowhere in the manual do they discuss the door locking issue. So I am going to have them call the vendor tomorrow. A 4 day old machine shouldn't be doing this.
BTW, the machine is a 60lb capacity.

 

[sudsman]

Allen, That is pure BS

All of my machines display the "DONE" light when finished with the cycle and has nothing to do with being finished for the day. It the worker is that stupid they dont need to be there. That or they dont want you there. There is a load counter on the machines but it has nothing to do with the done signal. They CANNOT be set for a certain number of loads and then allow no more.. Pure BS I would be in someones face so now.

 

[sudsman]

Allen. To open the door you must press and HOLD in the butto

at the same time you are opening the door. Or it will not open/ It takes both hands A safety feature. Or on some of the machine the button is on the door and you must press it and turn the door latch at the same time..
The UniMac Cabinet model is the Alliance BTL machine is usually sold on low bids. But they are not really a bad machine at all. They almost always pair them with a 75/80 lb Dryers. so the entire wash load will go into the dryer. Most of the newer tumblers reverse too. great for large items but will increase drying time on small items as much as 10 mins. The tumbler will have a switch on the front reverse or non reverse. I changed all mine to say large pcs and small pcs .. Much esiser for the wash man to learn and remember.. Our washers and Tumblers are too large for most the women to handle and most of the time thermals take 2 of us to unload from the washer and tumblers.. The women can handle machines up to 75 lbs with out a lot of problems but any larger and I have found they have back problems. I have one 75/80 tumbler the rest are 150/175s .. In a enviroment as you are in the lint traps MUST be cleaned every 8 hours or you run a huge risk of fire. Some places have even been told every 4 hours.

 

[whirlcool]

Sudsman:
Thanks for the reply. I don't know if anyone knows about the lint traps on the dryers. Where is it located?

I did push the red button while turning the handle. Kinda like an old fashioned car door handle.

I will be back home tomorrow afternoon and I will take a look at it again. I hope Sunday's load is still not in the machine.

It turns out that the laundry room "Personnel" are just volunteers assigned to the task, mainly teenage girls, but also a few middle aged ladies too.

Somebody just donated 4 buckets of Tide HE powder for this machine. So far, the things that have been washed have come out very clean. And let me tell you, the things going into that washer are really dirty. The laundry room is right between the main kennel areas and the animal surgical suite. You can only imagine what is on the items being washed! Well, it's probably not any different than hospital laundry.

 

[launderess]

Push Red Button.....

Same set-up for the Unimac/SQ front loaders at local laundromat

 

[sudsman]

Allen

The lint trap on on the bottom 1/3 of the tumbler and the panel should just pull out. Just below the loading door.

on the washer There is most likely a switch on the control panel and on the door. you will need to push them both at the same time to open the door. The one on the control panel is normally white ( or it is on the ones here) and then the red button and turn the door latch. You will hear a "click" sound as the door unlocks.

 

[whirlcool]

Finally!

Here is the photo of the washer.

Sudsman, you were absolutely correct, the white button must be pressed at the same time as the red button and held until you hear the lock open. It's a two handed operation. The white button isn't really marked, just a circle next to it.

 

[whirlcool]

And here is the dryer. Sure enough, nobody checked the lint filter, it was totally clogged! The location is marked by a label and a warning to frequently clean it!