OELWEIN, Iowa — CITY Laundering Co., which offers rental uniforms, mats, towels, restroom supplies and corporate image wear throughout Iowa, recently spent two four-day weekends completely replacing washroom equipment and upgrading its original dryers.
The company says it upgraded its original 1993 dryers to two 15,000-pound dryers and installed three new 10,000-pound washers.
The installation took place over a four-day weekend in November and another in December.
To meet the company’s unique needs, CITY says it worked with commercial laundry equipment manufacturer Pellerin Milnor Corp. to build the custom equipment.
“We have had significant growth in the past couple of years, and we expect that trend to continue,” says Colin Wetlaufer, vice president and general manager of CITY. “We knew we needed larger-capacity washers, and you can’t install larger washers without having equally large dryers.”
Milnor worked alongside CITY’s Maintenance Engineer Jamie Randall to work out the specifics of each piece of equipment.
“Our washer-extractor is a 700-pound rated capacity machine, whereas CITY’s older washers were 500-pound rated capacity machines,” says Brock Pellerin, Milnor’s regional sales manager.
According to Pellerin, the new equipment will increase CITY’s processing capacity while lowering its carbon footprint by increasing the airflow, drying each load more effectively in less time and using less energy overall.
“As our volume increases, we don’t just want to be able to process the garments, but we want our plant to be as efficient as possible,” Wetlaufer says.
He also says that everyone at the plant had to alter their schedules to make the installation work.
“Production had to come in at odd hours and our entire service department had to change their workweek, but we have a great team and everyone knew what needed to be done,” says Wetlaufer.
Overall, he says, the installation on both projects went as well as possible.
“We are already seeing the benefits,” Wetlaufer says. “The new equipment has already paid off based on a quality and speed standpoint. It was the right move at the right time.”
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