MIAMI — Reactive: showing a response to a stimulus.
Proactive: acting in anticipation of future problems, needs or changes.
Guess which of these words more often describes commercial and on-premises laundries’ equipment maintenance habits.
“Traditionally in this industry, commercial and on-premises laundries are reactive, not proactive, with routine equipment maintenance,” says Joe Rollar, Southeast regional director of service training for EVI Industries Inc., a distributor of commercial laundry products.
“So as technicians, we’re constantly acting as first responders.”
Rollar — who is responsible for developing technical service training for all EVI business units and distributors — says this is similar to people who skip physicals and checkups. Ultimately, they end up in the emergency room.
“By performing routine maintenance, you can stop problems before they occur — saving money and time,” he points out.
Jeff Large, EVI’s Southeast director of operations and president of Laundry Systems in Sevierville, Tennessee, agrees. He has 29 years of service technician experience.
“Either you take charge of when machines get serviced or the machines will tell you, and you can’t plan for that,” he says. “If you do it the smart way through planned maintenance, you’ll eliminate and prevent the vast majority of breakdowns.”
Moreover, machines will likely perform more robustly and last longer. You might even enjoy lower utility costs.
MAINTENANCE BY EQUIPMENT TYPE
A laundry equipment preventative maintenance schedule is a planned approach for maintaining machines, preventing breakdowns and extending their lifespan. This schedule includes daily, weekly, monthly, and annual tasks, ranging from simple cleaning to more in-depth inspections.
By following a schedule, laundries can minimize downtime, reduce repair costs and ensure customer satisfaction.
Of all the machines in a commercial or on-premises laundry, dryers and finishing equipment need the most love. Washers need less.
Washers chug along with less care, but a complete lack of maintenance will impact their longevity, warns Rollar and Large.
“Typically, in an on-premises setting, we see water and drain valves leaking,” says Rollar, “which leads to extended cycle times and diluted chemistry.”
Dryers, on the other hand, need more maintenance to ensure efficiency and productivity.
“When lint collects in the dryer or venting, it decreases airflow, so dry times can increase from 20 to 40 minutes,” Rollar shares. That’s inefficient. “Plus, it can cause fires to ignite. Most dryer fires are caused by lint buildup and ductwork not being serviced.”
Feeders with servo motors, belts and lots of moving parts also require routine maintenance or product quality suffers. The result? Bed and table linens come out of the ironer with creases and wrinkles.
“Belts must be adjusted, and everything aligned for good quality,” says Large. “Otherwise, items aren’t fed properly into the ironer. When they don’t feed properly, they are rejected or appear wrinkled.”
Like feeders, ironers and folders demand continuous care.
“Good quality is efficiency,” Large points out. “Ironers are like lawn mowers. If your mower is running smoothly and cutting the grass evenly, then you know everything is working. If the mower starts making noise or the lawn is patchy, sharpen the mower blade and do maintenance to get it back to the way it was.”
In other words, make sure you grease the ironer’s bearings, inspect the ribbons to prevent the transfer of stains and maintain wax if required.
“You’re spending a large amount of money to buy the equipment,” says Rollar, “so perform the maintenance to keep it working well and producing a quality product.”
At the end of the day, common sense should prevail. If you have engineers/service technicians employed at your laundry, they’ll likely perform routine maintenance according to the product manufacturer and model type. If not, get in touch with your “support team” for help.
Remember, your distributor is in your corner and wants you to be successful.
Miss part 1 about the benefits of a maintenance schedule and distributor support? Click HERE now to read it.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].
