Energy efficient machines that maximise productivity

Customers in the OPL sector now expect higher performance and more programming options from their washer-extractors. Customers that regularly process large volumes of linen now require washer-extractors that are designed to reduce water, energy and detergent consumption.
For some OPL sectors - smaller care homes, hotels and guest houses, for instance - freestanding, high spin washer-extractors are the most suitable machines according to Armstrong Commercial Laundry Systems - free standing for minimal cost installation and high spin to minimise drying time, which uses the most energy. "It is important that operators opt for proper commercial specification equipment even if they only require small machines," warns Tom Lowes, director of Armstrong. "Trying to cope with domestic or semi-commercial machines will only result in disappointment and frustration."
For the nursing and care sectors, Armstrong recommends its industrial models in the Amazon, Primus and Schulthess ranges, all of which offer thermal disinfect cycles and which are available in a large range of sizes from 6kg (which will fit under a work surface) right up to 77kg.
At the 41-room Abbeyfield Care Home in Clitheroe, all the laundry is done on site in a 14kg Amazon washer-extractor. The laundry operates every day from 7.30-12.30 in the morning, and then the evening care staff does some washing as well, says Clare Browell, premises and administration assistant at Abbeyfield. "We wash all the bedding, towels, kitchen and dining room linen and of course residents' personal items as well. Our assistants are all trained in special handling of any soiled or contaminated items which require bagging and different chemicals."
While initial outlay and water and energy usage are important to all OPL operators, high quality build, reliability, service back-up and longevity matter more. "It's lifetime cost that operators should be considering," said Tom Lowes. "Armstrong's fixed price hire scheme is becoming increasingly popular allowing for fully compliant equipment installation without expensive initial outlay and with full parts and labour cover throughout the lifetime of the machines."

Fixed price hire
The Hollyacre Bungalow Care Home in Sacriston, Co Durham, which provides long term and occasional respite care for 10 younger adults with physical and learning disabilities, upgraded its laundry in 2015. The decision was made to install equipment from Armstrong on the fixed price hire scheme. Equipment selected included a Schulthess 7kg washer-extractor with a sluice programme for soiled items.
Sharon Gilchrist, manager of the home, said the laundry is in use every day, operated by the care staff who are all given training on the special programmes. "This scheme is excellent for us," Sharon explained. "It means that we know exactly what our outlay on laundry is each month, and we know there aren't going to be any nasty surprises if we do have a machine breakdown - all the labour and parts are covered in the monthly payment."
According to Mick Christian, regional training and demonstration manager for laundry at Electrolux Professional UK, an OPL operation can be as varied as the laundry sector, and the requirements for one in the care sector may be very different for a hotel or a gym.
"The care sector, for example, has seen a surge of care home managers looking to install an OPL in order to implement a proper laundry cycle management process and gain complete control over the prevention of infection and spreading diseases, while saving money in the process," said Christian.
Barrier washers have fast become one of the most effective ways to prevent contamination of clean laundry. The barrier laundry solution has been designed so linen is loaded into the machine on the dirty side and then removed on the clean (opposite) side, with a wall providing a barrier between the dirty and clean sides.
For the hospitality industry, OPL solutions can vary dramatically depending on the size of the premises. Speed is a key factor as many establishments are faced with the daily challenge of not only meeting the demands of processing the linen in each room, but the need to clean staff uniforms, towels and other items such as table cloths and napkins.
"Perhaps the biggest requirement from end-users across all sectors for their OPL equipment is hygienic cleanliness, as no customer - be they a hotel guest or gym user - wants to take a seemingly clean item and find it soiled or stained," says Christian. "The Electrolux Professional Efficient Dosing (ED) system, which is available on our Line 5000 and barrier washing ranges, is a unique solution to help laundry managers with sizeable operations maintain hygienic best practice whilst also keeping an eye on costs.

Full thermal disinfection
Connecting via an interface directly to a washing machine's detergent pump, the ED system can regulate the chemical dose in line with the exact quantity of water in the drum, as the washing machine would have already weighed the load and added in the appropriate amount of water. In other words, if the machine is 70% full, then only 70% of a full load of water will be used as well as 70% of the required detergent. Importantly, Electrolux Professional washers can be programmed to achieve full thermal disinfection, with cycles being held at 71C for three minutes, or 65C for at least ten minutes, in order to satisfy the requirements in the section Disinfection of linen in the Management and Provision Volume of CFPP 01-04.
Strong laundry procedures are key to achieving hygienic and effective Laundry Cycle Management best practice, but Christian points out that has become clear that maintenance involves much more than the touch of a button.
"Comprehensive training is therefore vital for all users, and all aspects of the process should be explained to staff - from the basics of washing, drying and finishing, through to the intricacies of each piece of equipment they will be expected to use," he says. "Training needs to be tailored not just to the equipment in question but to the individual industry, as marrying the intricacies of the equipment to those of the respective industry is the key to achieving the best return on investment." He adds that the Electrolux Professional Centre of Excellence, for example, is a fully-equipped training and demonstration centre which has been designed specifically to welcome laundry operators, providing immediate, hands-on experience of different types of equipment. "Of course, if training can be delivered on-site, then this will mean that operators are able to receive the same level of training while minimising the amount of time taken off work. As such, our advisors are only too keen to visit customers on the road and roll their sleeves up and work through every stage of the laundry process with end-users in the comfort of their own workplace."
For businesses with a high volume of laundry than needs to be quickly processed each day, such as large hotels, Electrolux Professional has the Line 5000 series with washer-extractors and tumble dryers. The Line 5000 washers and dryers are manufactured to process a set number of kilograms of laundry every hour, and built-in features such as Compass Pro can provide operators with greater control and help streamline utility costs. Economy, time and performance functions can be selected by the operator and a dedicated economy setting can also be utilised, with up to 50% water savings to be made on half loads, with the Automatic Saving System.
The range's Efficient Dosing System automatically doses the correct amount of detergent based on the weight of each load of laundry. This can lead to savings of up to 20% on detergent usage, as well as providing a safer working environment.
Growing demand from smaller business for compact yet professional OPL solutions, has led the development of the Electrolux myPRO washer and dryer range. The myPRO range presents an opportunity for small businesses to bring their laundry in house, or for those which may be struggling to keep up with the constant demand for clean linen, towels, mops and cloths while working with domestic washers and dryers, to improve the quality of their output, says Christian. "This type of equipment offers significant benefits over domestic appliances as it completes a wash cycle in half the time, thanks to a host of professional programs.
OPL market customers typically choose energy efficient high-speed machines with advanced and easy-to-use programming, says Peter Marsh, managing director, Girbau UK. These maximise efficiency and successful cleaning of a wide variety of fabrics with reduced cycle times, lower temperature washes and reduced consumption of energy, water and chemicals.
Girbau's INTELI and LOGI controls on its HS Series high speed washers feature easily adapted programming to meet the varying and specialist needs of different OPL applications.
In the care sector the ability to disinfect by washing at higher temperatures is also an important consideration. Here, machines typically range from 8 to 17kg in capacity. Smaller hotels and guesthouses often prefer to use stackable machines because space is at a premium, while larger hotels may use washers up to 27kg.

Towels and robes
Fitness clubs and spa hotels that process large quantities of towels and robes may use even larger machines up to 57kg capacity.
Cost has long been and remains a key factor for all OPL customers. What is changing today is that more and more customers are looking for machines that are cost-effective to buy and to operate. Customers are looking at total cost of ownership including everything from utilities to maintenance. This means they want to maximise machine productivity and throughput as well as to tightly control the consumption and cost of energy, water and detergents. Long term equipment reliability is therefore also becoming a very important factor in purchasing decisions, as is the speed and efficiency of the manufacturer's service support team.
Girbau's new Smart Load technology on its latest HS Series washer-extractors offers on-premise laundries even greater savings in energy, water and detergent use. Smart Load automatically adjusts water consumption and chemical dosing in accordance with load weight, fabric and chosen wash program to save energy, water and detergent without users needing to do anything.
HS Series washers are already among the most energy and water-efficient models available and the new Smart Load function offers additional in-use economies, especially for on-premise laundries that operate machines at less than full capacity on some washes.
All models in the Girbau HS 6 Series washers have Water Technology List (WTL) approval, which means that businesses investing in new machines can benefit from 100% tax relief. To be included on the Water Technology List, strict criteria regarding a washing machine's water usage have to be achieved. For washers up to 15kg in capacity, the maximum water usage per kg permitted is 9.4 litres.
Girbau's HS-6008 washer uses a maximum of just 7.8 litres per kg, with larger models using even less, making them some of the most water-efficient washers available today.
Girbau recently added the HS-6024, a 27kg capacity washer to its HS 6 Series range. Designed to replace the HS-6023, the new HS-6024 is expected to be most popular among larger hotel OPL laundries. While offering all the benefits of the HS range including energy and water efficiency, versatile programming, easy to use controls and reliability, the HS-6024 has an increased capacity and smaller overall external dimensions than the model it replaces. It has also been priced very competitively for OPL markets in the UK. It is available with the choice of Girbau's LOGI or INTELI controls. The INTELI model includes the new Girbau Smart Load feature.
The laundry at Brentford Football Club's training ground operates seven days a week throughout the 10-month season, catering for 120 players with three sets of kit each. Its old laundry was cramped and its machines were getting old, so. Girbau worked closely with the club on the design of the new laundry. The laundry has two Girbau HS-6013 (14kg capacity) high speed washers and a single HS-6008 (9kg capacity) machine.
"We are getting everything washed and dried much more quickly than before, which has made us more efficient and reduced the man-hours needed as well," says the club's Bob Oteng. "Typically a wash is taking just 30 minutes now."
"Investing in technology is helping us to further improve the responsiveness of our service operation to keep ahead of customer demand. Using paperless systems and equipping our growing team of engineers with the latest handheld devices enables us to quickly reroute them in cases of urgent customer need. As a manufacturer we have been able to improve parts availability with all commonly required parts on the van to ensure the highest first time fix rates," adds Marsh.
Miele Professional sales and marketing director Les Marshall says that on-premise laundries allow care and residential homes to manage their own laundry. Because they often handle infectious linen, care professionals need to ensure that linen is appropriately handled, tagged and processed in machines that adhere to Department of Health guidelines, so having an on-premise laundry suits this purpose.

WRAS category 5 approved
For these type of environments, washer-extractors with thermal disinfection cycles which meet the Department of Health CfPP 01-04 guidelines in order to prevent the spread of infection are suitable. Washers also need to be WRAS (Water Regulatory Advisory Scheme) category 5 approved, to prevent backfilling of soiled or contaminated water from the washer into the water mains supply.
Miele Professional washing machines have thermal disinfection cycles which meet the guidelines and can be independently verified to do so, and are also approved to WRAS category 5 for mains connection in any high-risk establishment,such as care homes.
In addition, the Little Giants range of models (PW6055 and PW6065) are an appropriate choice due to their small size, ability to manage 6.5kg loads and the dump valve drainage systems. Miele Professional also has a range of Barrier Washers (models PW6163, PW6243 and PW6323) to separate clean and unclean laundry in different rooms.
Marshall says n the case of the CfPP 01-04 guidelines, Miele Professional washer-extractors were already compliant before the rules came in, and can be validated using the NeQis independent validation system to show that the disinfection temperatures can be met and held as per the best practice guidelines.
For hotels, guesthouses, fitness clubs and gyms, quality is crucial. Customers often measure these facilities by how soft the towels are and the cleanliness of the linen. By sending these items into a communal laundry, they cannot fully manage the process to ensure that they receive quality results. The size of these sites may mean it is not possible to wash everything on-premises; however bringing towel laundries in-house can cut costs.
Miele Professional's Little Giants washer-dryer PWT 6089 is a stackable unit that offers high-performance laundry on a one square metre footprint.
Reliability of machines remains a key factor across all sectors. In these sites, machines run for long periods of time continuously throughout the day and any downtime has to be minimised. Of course, cost effectiveness does play a key factor but businesses are interested in looking at lifetime costs and purchasing machines that last longer and are more reliable in the long run.