laundry-faqs, A list of recent questions and their answers,

The latest at the top and the old ones at the bottom of the page.

We wish to install a new laundry facility for our 50 room hotel. laundry-faqs 1

from Ninan in Nigeria

We wish to install a laundry facility in our new 50 room hotel under construction. The hotel is in a down town area and would typically be occupied by business travellers.

We need to change the towels, bedsheets, pillow covers and duvets each day. The entire laundry load of 50 rooms + restaurant + guest laundry needs to be washed, dried & ironed within 8 hours. Our estimate of the total laundry load generated per day is 300 kg at full occupancy. Please advise us of the capacity / specification of the washers, driers and ironing units required. Any suggestions on ideal suppliers , their machine model numbers would be welcome.

We prefer to have the capacity required split into 2 units of each machine so that breakdowns of any unit do not incapacitate the entire laundry. Request your urgent help, advice and suggestions.

Hi Ninan,thanks for your interest in my site, you can do all the calculations by using my spread sheets stored on google docs.

I will send you access to them, download them and fill in the amount of products giving the totals and the number of hour work and consumption is calculated for you by the sheet for various sizes of machine. regards Brian

I take my scrubs home, is it safe to wash with my domestic washing? laundry-faqs 2

I just started working in a nursing home that is very lazy with universal precautions (CNA's not gloving, soiled laundry on the floor, not bagging MRSA patient's soiled laundry, ect.)It seems strange to me that there are no restrictions, as far as I know, on taking the scrubs I wear to work home, and trying to disinfect them there. Is there any way I can disinfect my scrubs at home so I don't have to worry about bringing the bacteria from the nursing home back home to my family? I am a CNA and I come into contact with a lot of bodily fluids. Am I just being over paranoid, or should I take extra precautions with the scrubs I bring home?

laundry-faqs 2 Answer from laundry & dishwasher info

The Best way to approach this problem is as follows.

As long as you use a wash programme that has a wash temperature above 60ºC and preferably 85ºC on a front loading machine with a heating cycle included, you should be OK.

BUT if you have a top loading washing machine filled with warm water from your main hot water supply similar to a Maytag or Speed Queen machine then you will need to use a chloride bleach in the penultimate rinse cycle.

It is not possible to wash to a thermal disinfection level with a warm fill top loading machine.

So you may have to wash your gear separately from the household stuff and disinfect chemically with chloride bleach in the rinse. Regards Brian.

Meanwhile have another look at my page on disinfection and what that entails for laundry and dish-washing. Study my disinfection page

Another disinfection question with reference to dishwashers. laundry-faqs 3

I work at a soup-kitchen for the homeless.

We recently switched from the old stand-by, bleach, in a disinfectant rinse for dishes and cutlery to Quaternary Ammonia.

I know some detergents and soap deactivate this agent. How can I tell if the dish soap we're using is okay?

Also, do we have to use cold water for the rinse with this disinfectant? Thanks.

I am not familiar with this particular chemical, but ammonia is a disinfectant.

I prefer to use a dishwasher that has a rinse of 85ºC via a rinse tank boiler with protected temperature that pause the cycle until the temperature have been reached. This will sanitise your dishes and cutlery but not disinfect unless the rinse is held for at least 2 minutes as per the Miele machines, have a look at the disinfection page as well as ..... Miele Professional UK These machines are available in the US and world wide.

Textile student with wash problem., sequins stuck on to it, it also is slightly glittery but not from glitter. HELP ME!! laundry-faqs 4

From Sophie R

I am in school and do a textiles course. I need to produce a care label for my product, but I am not sure which symbols I need to use.

The fabrics that I am using are some sort of silky fabric and another one, which is a sort of woven material with sequins stuck on to it, it also is slightly glittery but not from glitter.

HELP ME!! I no that that they are flammable, but I am not sure if they would shrink in the wash, or if the colour would fade and run. What symbols should I use?? please write back

Dear Sophie,If you go to my how to do laundry pages and the washing silk and woollens pages you will see I mention which wash programme is required for all the different fabrics.

The laundry equipment manufactures have been producing wash programmes for these fabrics and conditions for a long time and are continuously improving on them to protect your garments during the wash and drying process.

The points to watch are

Is it silk?

Is it viscose?

Are the sequins glued with water soluble glue?

are the dyes used colour fast in water.

You will need to do a test wash to see if the garment will be damaged by the wash process, on a delicates cycle. If so it cannot be washed. full stop. I hope this helps with your faqs. Washing silk Page How to do laundry Page Then you will have to go to the wash-care labels guide to see which label would best suit your garment i.e., hand wash with no tumbling, and cool iron, no bleach. I hope this helps with your faqs. Laundry symbol information

Dishwashing poor quality finish laundry-faqs 5

I work for A Golf,Tennis country club, where the dishwashers have a tendency to just run everything through without scrubbing pots pans, and plates, is this permissible.

Answer, from laundry and dishwasher information.

Depending on where you live there should be local laws and bye-laws with regard to the cleanliness of a catering establishment serving the general public.

If these laws are being broken by staff the company can land itself in hot water!

If the dishes are clean after being washed using what ever method then that is normally OK, the method is not the problem but the result.

But if corners are being cut, which means food and detritus is left on crocks and cutlery, then this should be addressed by the management.

There are many ways of addressing the wash process, as long as it is repeatable and capable of being audited to a reasonable degree, then to place them in a dishwasher straight from the table is OK. But not if the dishwasher is unable to cope with the soiling on a regular basis.

Most hood type dishwasher come with a pre rinse arm to wash off all the solid particles prior to being pushed through into the wash cabinet, this seems a pretty good system for most catering establishments.

Dishwashers should not be used as waste disposal machines, the plates should be scraped into a waste bin or food disposal machine that macerates the food with flowing water and sends it into the sewage system.

Are the dishes regularly dirty when the kp's have finished?Are they clean and dry with no food or dirty wash water residue?Have they been subjected to a high temperature rinse cycle.

laundry-faqs 5 I hope this answered your query. Dishwasher an overview

My dryer is outside on my balcony, and I want to seal it with either glass or vynyl? laundry-faqs 6

My dryer is outside on my balcony and I want to seal the balcony with either glass or removable sealable vinyl.

Would I need to put in ventilation for the gas dryer?

Would I die from gas poisoning?

Would it be dangerous and flammable if I seal in the balcony?

My balcony is quite small.

I don't even know what problems to anticipate. Thank you for your time, this site has been invaluable.

cheers, shana

Dear Shana

Urgent Urgent Urgent.

Beware all gas dryer ventilation issues and use a qualified builder and gas fitter.

The good news is that gas dryers pass all the fumes out of the room to fresh air via the vent pipe. And because of the quantitiy of fresh air mixed with the burnt gasses these outflows are benign.

BUT!!! If you reduce the fresh air into the room by sealing the tumble dryer into an enclosed space the burner would fail to operate properly and the result could be carbon monoxide.

a DANGEROUS POISNOUS GAS!! VERY LETHAL!!

So, to answer you query faqs 5.

The balcony can be enlosed as long as there is a permanent vent into the area from outside, at least twice the size of the pipe going out with the hot air from the tumble dryer. Tumble dryer page Laundry room design page

Temperatures within the dishwasher and on the surface of the crockery.laundry-faqs 7

If you place a thermometer probe into the wash basket that normally holds the crockery being washed and run a wash cycle in any typical commercial dishwasher.

The temperature recorded rarely rises above 65 degC yet the machine display will indicate a rinse temperaure of 82degC.

This is obviously the temp. of the water in the tank however the probe would indicate that the contact temp with the crockery is much lower.

What is your opinion of this and should we be concerned that the crockery is not being disinfected. Verg good and informative site by the way! Regards, Louis Ryan

Dear Louis,

I mention this phenomena on my dishwasher page, this is where the rinse tank boiler is supposed to reach 85ºC prior to the start of the rinse cycle.

This rinse is only for 15 seconds, which does not leave enough time to disinfect the dishes at 85ºC and as you say if you place a probe on the dishes they rarely go above 65ºC in the time allowed and is frequently much lower still.

And as a matter of interest the inside of the cabinet of a hood washer frequently never gets cleaned and disinfected, unlike the sealed door system as used on the Miele hospital ward end, surgical instrument, and domestic machines.

If you require a full 85ºC thermal disinfection rinse then you will have to go for a Miele machine or similar, which holds the temperature in the rinse for two minutes which is enough time for everything within the cabinet to reach 85ºC.

The rinse tank boiler system with a fifteen second rinse is purely a sanitisation of the dishes with no real medical benefits.

Except that most bugs are killed by the wash and the rinse combined for the purposes of general catering. BUT not for hospital or nursing home situations. faqs 6 Dishwashers an overview Miele Professional pages.

HI, My wedding dress is made of silk with crystals on the bodice. laundry-faqs 8

HI, My wedding dress is made of silk with crystals on the bodice. The bottom of my dress is really dirty (muddy), and I want to try clean it at home.

Dry cleaners want to charge a fortune!!

Do you know how I should do this or what products to use?? Thanks for your help Much appreciated!!!!

Answer from Laundry & Dsihwasher Info faqs page.

I have written a full page of instructions for washing silk on my Washing Silk Page You may not be aware but many of the dry cleaning operations within the UK have a 6kg Miele washing machine at the back of the shop, which is used to wash wedding dresses, and delicate items that would not survive the dry cleaning fluid.

As long as the sequins are stiched on, and not glued on with water soluble glue, washing a wedding dress in a delicate/woollen wash programme should be OK. In a front loading washing machine, not top loading with a nasty abrasive paddle in the middle to tear it to shreds.

Always test with a cloth soaked in warm water and detergent on a part of the dress which is out of site, to see if the item will wash OK. Test for colour fastness, and any construction items glues etc.

Otherwise you may have to unpick the bodice and seperate the garment into its parts, which will not be damaged in the wash and then reassembled after washing drying and ironing.

As a reminder silk is a very strong fibre, which is why it is used in parachutes.

It is a very tough fabric, it is also used for fighter pilots under garments which take a lot of strain when under operational conditions.

But as long as you test for coloured water soluble dyes, you should be OK.

The dress will have to be pressed carefully with a steam iron and a cloth between the hot plate and the fabric to finish the garment and bring it back to its original glory, laundry-faqs 8 brings you all the griff.

The garment should also have a wash care label on it which will guide you....

Here is a question from a new source about the wash care symbol W in a circle...

My wife is trying to get her wedding dress cleaned (originally made in China) and it has a circle with a W in the cntre and the W is underlined - nobody seems to know what this means and the Dry Cleaner is afraid to wash it because of this.

Can you help?

Many thanks

Rob

and here is my reply..

Dear Robert,I'm afraid I do not know of the W sign in the dry cleaning circle sign, but I would assume it means wash wth water at a high dip level (which is the delicate or wool program) in your washing machine.On my site I do discuss wedding dress washing and the most important thing is the presence of glues used to fix sequins etc.If the dress is a simple single white or ivory fabric with no coloured embroidery on the bodice washing should be ok.To test for any dye problems apply a damp cotton wool pad to a part to see if colour is leached, if so danger!

Most modern low temp delicate programs will be OK for this type of garment.But be cautious as I cannot guarantee that damage will not occur, as no mention was made of the type of material i.e silk, cotton, polyester, viscose.Thank you for your enquiry and good luck with the dress.Brian Gable (web master) Wash care labels a quick guide.

Can I convert an electrically heated tumble dryer to gas burners using LPG? Maybe with some difficulty read on.laundry-faqs 9

Question

I found very interesting all your information on this web site.

I have just started a laundry family business at Mazatlan Mexico, west coast.

This is a tourist place, and I have 9 new domestic washing machines 12kgs each, and 2 double stacked dryers from Maytag.

To cover a demand I need to wash quilts, eiderdowns, blankets king size ,single and queen size.

I have a used Wascomat tumble dryer in very good condition, but is electric power, I would like to convert it to gas burners, due to the electricity supply in Mexico being more expensive than gas (liquid petroleum gas). The model of the tumble dryer is Wascomat tt310 (old model).

My question is, is it possible to convert it from an electrical supply to a gas supply. perhaps by installing another brand name gas burner adapted without too many major problems?

Do you have any comments or suggestion?

Can you also give me information as to where I may purchase a good washing machine 18-20 kgs?

Second hand and refurbished with a suggested price retail.

Appreciate all your comments best regards C.Iriarte

Answer. Laundry and dishwasher information dot com.

All things are possible, but the cost may be prohibitive.

The dryer will require all sorts of modifications that would have to be performed by a qualified engineer, and depending on his hourly rate, plus all the parts, it may become too expensive.

As explained on my "tumble dryer page" the heat from the flame from the gas burner goes directly into the drum, through the clothes and out to fresh air via the ducting.

A flue is not required due to the large quantity of air in ratio to the small amount of burnt and un-burnt gasses.

Most machines are built on a chassis, which contain all the blank holes for the different heating configurations, so that it should be possible to buy all the spare parts for the gas burner.

You will have to remove the electric heater and replace it with the gas heated burners, with all the control circuitry being used for the control of the burners.

You may need one or two extra sensors for safety placing in the outlet duct to ensure the air leaving the tumble dryer never goes above a safe level.

With regard to your King size quilts/duvets/eiderdowns you will require a drum volume of at least 140 litres and mroe if possible, in the washing machine as a minimum, and 350litres drum volume in the tumble dryer. So it looks like you will need to buy a bigger dryer anyway to offer this service.

All these figures are available on my "how to do it" pages of the website. Laundry Calculations page Tumble dryer page Washer Help dot Co UK I do have a spread sheet available for anyone who wishes to work out how many washers and dryers are required for a particular job.

Just go to my good News page and send your request and I will arrange to email it to you asap.

laundry-faqs 9

all the best in insider laundry and dishwasher information.

Hello, I have a strange question as a lazy American: Can I use laundry detergent in the dishwasher safely? laundry-faqs 10

Hello, I have a strange question as a lazy American:

Can I use laundry detergent in the dishwasher safely (Ours is a Bosch)?

From what I understand, they are both low-sudsing to protect the mechanisms. It seems to me that the laundry detergent would have more enzymes and other fancy chemicals to break down fat and protein.

And lets face it, laundry detergent is cheaper per use because I'm buying in bulk. Thanks for the response. I appreciate your help. Joe.

ANSWER laundry-faqs 10Hi Joe, The common dishwasher detergent is a lot more caustic than laundry detergent and I would give the benefit of the doubt to the chemists and designers of dishwashers to come up with the best detergent for the job.

Seeing as it is a very competitive industry I think we would have heard if there was a cheaper way.

I have in the past used commercial dishwasher detergent in my domestic machine, but because commercial detergent has to get the dishes clean in about two minutes of washing I found it too harsh in a machine which washes for about 10 minutes. See my the sinners diagram on my how to do laundry page which describes the washing process with regard to all the different factors, temperature, time, mechanical action and chemical action. There has to be a balance between all four elements of the cleaning process or there will be problems of damageto items being cleaned, or poor quality cleaning.

Also the rinsing could be a major headache getting rid of the suds and smell. The very strong alkaline content in a dishwasher detergent would do serious damage to your clothes if used the other way round.

With the environmental issues these days it behoves everyone to use the least amount of chemicals in clothes or crock washing; and let the people who design the machines give you the best advice when it comes to how you use their machines.

Best regards Brian.

Hi I am an architecture student. laundry-faqs 11

hi

I am an architecture student. the project I am busy with is the design of a home for the profoundly mentally and physically disabled.

Please could you send me the spreadsheet for working out the laundry room requirements.

Could you also let me know what the dimensions of the laundry equipment should be?

If you know of a similar website on kithcen design please let me know. thank you for such a helpful website!

Kind Regards Danielle

Thank you for your question Danielle,

Answer laundry-faqs 11

All these questions can be answered by going around my website to the various pages such as; laundry room design, how to do laundry, and laundry calculations or choosing machines.

I'm sure if you were to approach a company like the Miele company direct, they would give you the latest models with dimensions, throughput, and prices etc.,

When I was involved I would always approach this type of establishment as a large family house with lots of individuals that need feeding, washing, and laundry.

Most of the staff and charitable organisations that run these houses like to treat the residents as normal people.

Which means using a few commercial washing machines which are of the 6kg size , i.e., they sit on a 600 x 600mm footprint maybe gravity drain on a plinth with matching tumble dryers.

This is very similar to all sheltered housing schemes, where personal laundry is done separately, but on a commercial scale.

If you have to go down the road of large machines then you will need to mark the clothes and sort them after the wash, so that they can be returned to their owners, clean, dry and finished.

Most residents with learning difficulties enjoy wearing normal fashionable clothing, and the laundry process is often part of their training and rehabilitation programme.

If you were to take up my advice and approach a company like Miele, they will help in any way they can to get you thinking their way for the future; as you are a 100% potential Miele customer of the future and a potential mover and a shaker in the world of architecture of the future.

So don't hesitate, drop them a line now, explain your needs, they have staff waiting to deal with your enquiry. you can now go direct to my spreadsheets for the laundry calculation at My laundry and dishwasher calculation page

Concerning Hotel Laundry, 3 similar questions laundry-faqs 12

Hi, thank you very much for creating this wonderful web site with so many useful information.

As I am not familiar with a laundry business, I would be grateful for your help in creating a spreadsheet and providing me with the guide to the number of machines of different drum sizes and the amount of power and water used for the job.

This laundry will be operating in a hotel with 150 rooms and an average of 3 beds per room.

It will be operating everyday. Ironing services are included as well. The laundry includes all the bed spread, pillow case, blankets and towels.

As for the number of staff, I would like to know your recommendation. Thank You for your help.

laundry-faqs 12B

i have one question;do we need to wash the new polycoton bed sheets befor use.and also one kg of bed sheets how may sheets would be(king size) THANKS

laundry-faqs 12C

i would like to ask ....what do you think how many peaces of items of bed sheet can make a kg

laundry-faqs 12 Answer.

All these questions again can be answered by following the links around the site to How to do Laundry, choosing a machine and laundry calculations page plus laundry design.

In a normal two star bedroom two sheets two pillowcases, one hand towell, one bath towell would add up to about 3.5kg or 7lb of laundry per room per change.

You would have to add weight for extra items such as tablecloths, napkins, dish cloths, kitchen towells chefs whites etc., etc.

If you know how many sheets, pillow cases, towels etc., you want to process, and how long you have to do it, then allowing and hour per cycle for washing, drying, loading and finishing.

You know how much per hour so you can work out how much space and power you have plus how much you wish to spend and you come up with the laundry machine sizes.

Remember FACT the biggest cost in Laundry is labour costs.

Always buy the largest and best laundry machines you can afford because over the next twenty years you will pay handsomely for any under funding, by labour costs running over every day of the week.

Control of infection in a care home with domestic washing machines. What is safe? laundry-faqs 13

I work in a Long Term Care facility where the residents' clothing is laundered by the staff in "domestic" washing machines.

Our facility is subject to nosocomial infections such as ESBL, staph aureus, MRSA, VRE and C-difficile.

There is controversy over the water temperature required to kill infectious organisms.

My question, therefore: what is the ideal/safe water temperature setting for washing personal clothing?

Answer faq 12

You should be using the boil wash programme on domestic washing machines, or the highest temperature over 82ºC held for at least 10 minutes.

Ideally you should have a commercial machine with a built in sluice machine which will thermally disinfect laundry safely.

The main difficulty lies with the type of material being washed, as foul laundry has to be disinfected it should be made of cotton or a material capable of being washed at high temperatures with high levels of mechanical action.

All these things are made clear in the pages of my web site checkout http://www.laundry-and-dishwasher-info.com/index.html and follow the pages to sluice and how to do laundry etc. read all the pages and you will get the idea.

Check out the link to the Miele company which supplies the machines for the job to fit in where your domestic machine comes out.

There are rules in the UK, which govern the homes, so that they must have this type of machine in care homes etc.

A domestic machine is not considered adequate for the job in the UK and if you have a look at the other pages mentioned you will find the relavent subjects. Laundry calculations page Laundry room design page

Condenser tumble dryers causing too much heat and moisture in block of flats. laundry-faqs 14

I received this question today from a a worried son.

Thanks for your great site. My mum is 77 and lives in a residential development and unfortunately her apartment is right next to the laundry and people keep leaving the door open all the time because they say it gets so hot, but that just spreads heat and smell into the hallway and does not reduce the heat in the laundry room.

Those dryers are condenser dryers but they get terribly hot. Is that normal?

There is only a small extractor fan in the ceiling but that should be enough i would have thought if the machines were efficient.

But maybe they are just running too hot for the ventilation to keep up. There are three washers and 3 dryers, Miele T5205c.

Do you have any ideas? It is causing problems with my mum and the other residents because they just want to keep the door open. And the managing agents are saying the only other thing is to put ducting which would be expensive.

Thanks if you can suggest if this seems a normal situation or maybe the ventilation is inadequate, or the machines are not working right? Marcus

My response laundry-faqs 14 Below.

Thank you for showing interest in my website.

The Problem can only be resolved by much more ventilation into the room, or by changing the dryers for vented models and selling the condenser machines second hand..

It all stems from a badly designed laundry room, and bad advice from the person/persons who sold the machines in the first place.

The condenser machines are only suitable for use where there is plenty of fresh cool air available into the room.

As you say if the door into the laundry room is kept closed the temperature in the room builds up until the condensers fail to work and you are left with the building filling up with wet hot air.

This is well explained in the handbook and sales literature from Miele.

It is up to the building owners or managing agents to cure this problem otherwise damage could (will be) be done to the fabric of the rest of the property as well as spoiling the enjoyment of the property.

Your terms of lease will almost certainly include words and phrases to the effect that for the rent you are paying you are entitled to enjoyment of the property with out hindrance or disturbance.

This unwanted heat and dampness is a curtailment of your rights under the lease, and it is the agents responsibility to put things right, even if it means closing the laundry temporarily until the work is completed.

Check with your C.A.B Citizens Advice Bureau for further help with your rights and enforcement actions against your agents.

There is no answer for the existing layout and installation of the machines without some serious money being spent. If you have a look at my pages at Laundry room design Tumble dryers and avoiding the pitfalls You will find the guidelines for the best way to design a laundry room to provide a good service and safe comfortable environment for users there.

You could try one of the local Miele Co Ltd dealers to see if they would do a part-exchange for conventionally vented tumble dryers for you which would just slot in where the old one came out.

Write to your agents "Without Prejudice" with the terms "Time is of the essence" giving them seven days to reply or you will apply to the courts for a court order for the abatement of the nuisance.

Give them fourteen days to act on the nuisance or you will apply for damages incurred to your peaceful enjoyment of the property according to the lease.

This reply is only meant as a guide as to how to proceed, and it is best that legal advice is sought before proceeding, to ascertain the rights in your own lease.

laundry-faqs 14

I accept no legal responsibility for the advice given, it is based on a layman's view of your citizens rights and no more.

A really usefull site from another SBI site builder www.home appliance kitchen aids

This is a super site with lots of links to other places of interest to those with problems with their washing machines and dishwashers. A fault guide for home repairs of all types of machine from an engineer. http://www.home-appliance-kitchen-aids.com

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