TULSA, Okla. — I recently celebrated my 40th year in the industrial laundry business.
I was a young veteran of the United States Marine Corps when I went to work for a local laundry.
I was actually involved in building my first laundry as a 16-year-old, but I could tell you virtually none of the specifics that we did because, again, I was 16.
Most of my 40-year career has been centered around the maintenance side of the business. Even though I went on to be a plant manager and general manager, I still spent a lot of time looking at our equipment.
I am a firm believer that you should never get promoted far enough up to not use all your knowledge. Preferably using that knowledge to help the next generation, we should never make someone learn the hard way, what we have already learned the hard way.
I have seen this industry go through a tremendous number of changes in those years.
Most notably the machinery is much more efficient and easier to maintain, from the soil room throughout the washroom and clean floor. We have machines that can easily do the job that we might have several employees performing in the ’80s.
Opening an electrical panel on the side of a washer extractor was quite the sight back in the ’80s with twenty cube relays and auxiliary switches sitting on each contactor.
You sure had to bring your thinking cap to work every day.
Now, you open a panel and there may be 10 boards with the front display saying which board you need to look at. The folks who build laundry machines have certainly brought the industry a long way.
But one area that hasn’t really changed, and yet we seem to not spend as much time looking at or thinking about, is our water treatment.
Yes, I know we now spend a tremendous amount time and money on treating our wastewater.
Wastewater treatment used to be reserved for only industrial uniform laundries or ones that process ink towels. Now, we all seem to be getting into the wastewater treatment business no matter what our business model is.
What I am talking about is the importance of ensuring we have good, clean, zero-grain hardness water for use in our washrooms and boilers.
Our business is still at the core about washing and returning laundry. Ensuring we can consistently clean this linen should be the No. 1 concern of our maintenance departments.
This all starts with treating our incoming water.
Hard water in the boiler causes scaling that will drastically reduce the boiler’s efficiency and capacity.
Hard water in the wash wheel will set stains that only scissors effectively remove and cause untold grief while trying to run items across your flatwork ironers.
And, of course, the dreaded rewash cycle usually starts with bad water.
The main issue I have seen with getting this accomplished is that it is so easy to achieve and monitor that nobody wants to look at it. We seem to like to look for super-complicated issues.
This is a devastating issue, but it isn’t complicated.
A good water softener monitored several times daily to ensure it is working properly isn’t hard to accomplish. It just needs to be scheduled into the daily maintenance tech routine.
There are several automated monitoring systems out there that will alarm if your water is incorrect as well.
Most water softeners offer the ability to automatically switch to another tank when hardness is detected. Paying a little more for these systems can pay major dividends down the road in the form of reducing your energy usage and productive labor.
We all like to look and marvel at the shiny machines that can take a wadded-up sheet and make it pressed and folded with little effort from production employees.
But don’t ever overlook the old ugly boiler room items that start the whole process off.
That’s where the real savings begin.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].
