Making the decision to handle laundry in-house isn’t easy. But, according to laundry industry experts, most health clubs operating on-premise laundries not only save money, they gain control – control over wash quality and inventory. In this Q&A, two experts, who have dedicated their careers to equipping industrial laundries, share their insight into why handling your own laundry makes good sense.
Tom Brittle, president of Commercial Laundry Equipment in Richmond, VA., has dedicated nearly 20 years to helping laundry operations run more efficiently and effectively. Ralph Darling, president of Darling Sales and Service in Blaine, MN, has equipped more than 80 health club laundries in his 47 years in the industry.
Q: What are the typical costs associated with renting towels and sending laundry out?
Darling: “Most of the time, health clubs rent towels because most commercial laundries don’t want to launder someone else’s towels. It is not uncommon for a health club to pay 25 cents per towel. If you rent 2,000 towels per day, pretty soon costs are astronomical.”
Q: What are the primary benefits of an on-premise laundry over using a service?
Brittle: “It’s generally cheaper and you control the process. You aren’t running out of towels, waiting on a delivery guy, and you can decide when towels are old and ratty and throw them away.”
Darling: “If you’re on a rental system, many times they run out of towels because it’s hard to determine how many towels you need every day of the week. If towels are lost, you have to buy them.”
Q: Why is quality control important?
Brittle: “If you’re a member of a health club and you get a towel that is threadbare, dingy, grey, yellowed or damp, you won’t be impressed. By handling laundry inhouse, clubs have total control over the number and quality of towels provided. They are never left waiting for a delivery that’s delayed because of a storm.”
Q: At what point should a health club consider installing an on-premise laundry?
Darling: “If they get to the point where they’re using 100 towels per day. Or, if they are paying 25 cents each, they can afford to do their own laundry. The equipment would pay for itself quickly, within 24 months or so.”
Brittle: “The way we approach it is to total-up the costs of doing it in-house and compare it with sending it out. By installing high-speed soft-mount washers, an onpremise laundry is much more efficient because more water is removed per load than by using a traditional washer.”
Q: Is there a difference when selecting equipment? What is the difference between a soft-mount and hard-mount washer?
Darling: “Health clubs use nothing but towels, and by using a soft-mount washer they can cut the dry time in half over using a traditional washer. In any commercial washer you compare extract speeds in G-force. The faster it goes, the higher the G-force and the less moisture left in a load of laundry. It isn’t the spinning that’s hard on fabric, but the tumbling and heat in the dryer. The higher the G-force, the better the washer spins out residues. By spinning at a fast speed, the washer throws out more residues so you won’t have the yellowing. What yellows linens and towels is the combination of residues left in the fabric and the heat from drying. So the faster the spin, the less chance of yellowing, graying or browning.”
Brittle: “More and more people are recognizing the benefits of soft-mount washers, and I think rising gas prices have played a role in that. They see why it makes sense to pay more for a washer that extracts at high speeds because it saves you money in the long run. Especially in a health club, where you are washing terry cloth, a fabric that holds more water than any other. The lint you pull out of the dryer is the fabric that’s wearing off of your towel. So, the more water you remove in the washer, instead of the dryer, the more life your towels will have because they experience much less abuse.”
Q: What role does a laundry equipment distributor play?
Brittle: “We figure out how feasible it is to install an on-premise laundry. Does the club have the space and utilities needed? Then, we determine the right size and type of laundry equipment needed to meet production and labor goals. We look at the number of towels they are doing per day, and how many hours per day they want to process towels. Rather than just pricing a machine, it’s important to select a machine that fits the space and production, and then show the club why that cost makes sense.”
More questions? Contact Brittle at 804- 231-9668 or Darling at 763-786-1803.
Haley Jorgensen is a writer for Continental Girbau, a leading manufacturer of commercial and industrial laundry equipment. She can be contacted at 920.748.2449, or by email at haley@public-imagepr.com, or visit www.public-imagepr.com.
