Laundry equipment - Ask the Vendor

Nursing Homes, April, 1993

Periodically, NURSING HOMES asks the vendors of major product categories for nursing facilities to provide general purchasing guidelines to aid administrators' decisionmaking. For this installment, top manufacturers of laundry equipment were asked: "What are the cost/benefit considerations in evaluating the microtechnology options on the newer equipment?" "What should be evaluated in terms of conserving water and energy?" "What specific features should be looked for to conform with today's regulations on 'contaminated linens?'"

Michael Floyd, National Sales Manager, Speed Queen: "With microtechnology, there are two major areas of consideration. First, how flexible are the controls? Will they enable you to adapt to changing requirements over the years, as with, for example, contaminated linens? Can you adapt the cycle times, the water temperatures, the water levels to the specific loads that your facility handles, using water and energy efficiently?

"That gets to the second question, but first I want to mention another major cost/benefit consideration: Ease of operation. Usually the operators of laundry equipment are not particularly well-versed in computers or computer programming. The controls have to be set up for simple operation -- push 11, you do bedsheets, for example. Staff turnover is always a concern in this area, and the technology has to be such that people can train on it easily.

"Warranty protection is, of course, another very important concern. Today's microelectronics are much more reliable than they used to be and, in our case anyway, justify a two-year warranty.

"As for conserving water and energy, today's microtechnology provides much more flexibility and versatility than ever before. Whereas before you had a selection of only a few cycles with manual controls, today you can select up to 99 cycles, and without a large number of programming steps. Now you can do washing and extraction using the exact water temperatures and levels and extraction cycles necessary, and in the process reduce dryer time. Dryers, too, have microcontrols that adjust to the extraction level required. With proper settings, depending on the type of linen and degree of soiling involved, water and energy waste can be kept to a minimum.

"An important feature to look for in washing contaminated linens is a lockout feature. This prevents the washer door from being opened during the entire washing/extraction cycle, as when, for example, someone might want to throw in another pillow case that they had forgotten. Now they are shielded from unprotected contact with the linen until it is cleaned."

Leroy Trevigne, National Sales/Product Manager, Pellerin-Milnor: "The microtechnology is cost-effective for a number of reasons. There is the variety of washing formulas available which you can adapt to your specific needs. In some cases, there are troubleshooting programs that allow problems to be specifically identified so that the repair person doesn't have to go through the entire wash cycle. And, finally, there is a lot of adaptability built in; even if you have program functions that you never use, they are there if you need them, and at no extra cost. If you have special needs, such as recordkeeping, or a printout on a machine's performance, or creating laundry tags, you can do that with the controls available. Sometimes we add improvements or upgrades that can be set up on the same machine. That is something you never could do with the old relay logic or electromechanical control technology, where you might even have to buy a new machine.

"This technology allow you to conserve hot water, probably the most expensive consumer of energy that a laundry has. Not only can you program different water temperatures and levels for a variety of goods, you can build in intermediate extraction cycles that will reduce the number of rinses you need. Microtechnology can also reduce energy consumption in dryers--the larger ones, anyway--with devices that can measure the dryness of a load and avoid overdrying, that is, resetting the dryer for say, another 15 minutes when all you need is 5. (Of course, the major energy waster in dryers is worn-out, faulty seals, which are unfortunately pretty common.)

"As for the 'contaminated linen' regulations, I don't think that anyone has an exact fix as yet on what the terms 'decontamination' or 'sterilization' mean, although nursing homes and hospitals have been dealing with this problem, by and large successfully, for years. It is basically a function of water temperature. You have to decide whether the hot water supplied to your laundry is hot enough, and if it isn't, whether the machine itself has equipment to make it hotter."

Randy Karn, Commercial Division District Sales Manager, The Maytag Company: "One of the benefits of microtechnology is one-touch selection, which allows users to choose one of several programmable cycles. This is particularly advantageous when there are several people who use the equipment. The programmable cycles allow the person to vary the wash, rinse and extraction cycles, depending on the needs of the items being laundered. It also makes it easier for chemical suppliers to hook up the equipment for precise dispensing. This eliminates the need to alter the manufacturer's wiring and therefore avoids possible service problems.