Laundry innovations increase efficiency, lower costs

A buzzword in hospitality is efficiency, and it pertains to business operations and new environmental practices. In the laundry room, high-efficiency equipment and new cleaning methods can provide both.

Steven Hietpas, national sales manager of commercial laundry for Whirlpool, said the main improvement with high-efficient equipment is the quicker drying time.

“It’s not unusual to see washers working fine, dryers working fine, but two or three carts of wet towels waiting to be dried,” he said. Then, the natural reaction is to buy a bigger, better dryer. In reality, Hietpas said the washer is the issue.

“There are two ways to remove [water]—burn it out in the dryer … or spin it out in the washer,” he said.
A high-efficiency washer will spin faster, partially drying linens. It also reduces lint and linen break down—byproducts of intense burning while in the dryer, Hietpas said. He estimates “a mid-level hotel could save nearly $500 per month in labor and natural gas costs using high-speed washers compared to slow-spin models.”

And these newer models no longer need to be cemented into the ground, making retrofits much less costly.  
Another new laundry system that adds efficiency uses ozone. According to Eric Eitner, GM of the Motel 6 Nothlake-Speedway (Texas), injecting ozone into the wash cycle acts as a bleach. This saves money in chemicals and energy.

“It serves two functions,” Eitner said. “It’s not only making the linens cleaner and in better shape, but also [it is only] using cold water rather than hot, which equals major energy savings.”

In Eitner’s particular setup, a box automatically pumps in ozone and mixes in the proper amount of other cleaning chemicals depending on the cycle. Maintenance staff only needs to clean the ozone filter each day, which is a two-minute process, Eitner said.