Why those shirts aren’t clean
ey! My shirts
aren’t getting clean! Many shirt launderers either say
this or should say it. I am amazed at the varying levels of
clean that are accepted as, well, acceptable. In fact, some
laundries have very clean shirts and accept that as normal
while others barely seem to get their shirts clean at all and,
yes, they consider that normal.
If you had a wish list, on that list would
be, I’ll bet, that you could get shirts perfectly clean,
with no pre-scrubbing, no ring-around-the-collar and no stains.
You want this first time, every time.
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Basically, there are two types of
“stains” that need removing from your shirts. Most
common is “ring-around-the-collar.” This needs a
surfactant. It’s in the soap that you buy. Then there are
“stains.” This is what you buy oxygen bleach for.
It is almost true, but not quite, that if
you have soiled collars, you aren’t getting enough
surfactant in your wash wheel and if you have stains, you need
oxygen bleach or more of it. This is not always true, as I
said, but it can be, sometimes. It could be something more
obvious, easier and cheaper.
In order to wash shirts, you need four
things:
1. Time.
2. Temperature.
3. Chemical action.
4. Mechanical action.
It has to be all four things. How much of
each, though, can vary, but it is still scientific. We know
that we can give a little more of one thing and save on
another. But which ones and how much?
The most common example of this is enzyme
detergents. They alter the chemical action and you decrease the
temperature.
Another example would be using rope ties
versus washing shirts loosely. They improve mechanical action.
Consequently, you can save on detergent or cut down on wash
time.
Still, all this has to be done with
professional help. You are only as good as your chemical rep.
If you don’t have one and you have issues with shirt
cleanliness, then the problem is his absence or his
qualifications.
Most brands of detergent have a service
rep that will tour customers in a geographic region for the
sole purpose of making sure that these customers are satisfied
with the products that they are using. Some progressive
distributors offer a similar free service for the same reason.
The coolest thing about being in the shirt
business is that you can make shirt cleanliness their problem
rather than taking it upon your shoulders.
The rep’s job is to satisfy you and
my job is to tell you not to be satisfied unless you get clean
shirts without scrubbing collars and pre-treating minor stains.
Still, you may have quality problems. Your
local chemical rep is not your washman. Or your maintenance
man. He can tell you what you need, but will be unable to make
it happen without your support.
Here are some reasons why you’ll
have cleanliness problems:
1. Overloading the wash wheel. This is probably the number one cause of
inconsistent wash quality. Some days, the shirts look fine,
others, they don’t. It is much easier to maintain the
proper loading capacity with a system like Tailwind, for
example, that has a self-defining lot size rather than a piece
system or a lot system that either has lots that are difficult
to identify or has lots of varying sizes.
In those cases, your wash person is liable
to try to squeeze in more shirts than they should into a given
washer.
Overloading the wash wheel will not allow
for the proper amount of mechanical action — one of the
keys to getting clean shirts. If you wash shirts loosely, you
will need to under-load your machines by quite a bit.
While some people — but not I
— think that washing loosely while under-loading is the
best way, keep in mind that this is very difficult to manage.
It may require weighing every load (and making sure that it
gets done when you aren’t looking) to insure that you
never put in more than 35 pounds in a 50-lb. machine. I think
that this is a problem waiting to happen.
Anyway, whatever your chemical rep has
determined is the correct wash capacity and formula for your
situation is what you need to stick with. Don’t expect
clean shirts if you go against that advice.
2. Low water temperature. This one is a killer. You must have hot
water. Let’s say you need 120° F water for your
particular formula. Many enzyme detergents need this
temperature. Certain oxygen bleaches won’t do a thing
unless you have the required temperature.
The setting on your water heater, or what
the gauge reads at the holding tank, means absolutely nothing
to me. What is the exact temperature of the water five minutes
into the wash cycle? Use a laser trap tester to get this
reading right through the glass.
Do not rely on the washing machine’s
temperature indicator. For some reason that eludes me, they are
notoriously inaccurate.
I have seen a 35° F variance between
the electronic readout on the machine and the actual
temperature. That is the difference between clean shirts and
dirty shirts.
The setting that you select on your water
heater will depend on several factors, such as the distance
between the hot water maker and the wash arena, how (and
whether) the pipes are insulated and the type and condition of
the washing machine.
In some climates “cold” water
can be 35° F in the winter and 80° F in the summer. If
your washing machine calls for a mix of hot and cold water to
arrive at a wash temperature of 130° F, it is incontestable
that your water temperature will not be consistent year round.
The washing machines that have
thermostatically controlled water temperature are far and away
the best. When they are programmed, you simply select a
temperature rather than “hot” or
“cold”. This leaves it up to the microprocessor to
determine whether you need hot water or cold water at any given
moment and will continue to monitor this throughout the wash
cycle.
Still, the wash wheel temperature must be
checked to assure that the electronic reader in the machine is
accurate. Keep in mind, also, that when you inject hot water
into a wash wheel full of fabric and cold metal, you will lose
several degrees due to the relative temperature of these
things.
3. Mechanical/maintenance issues. This is often overlooked as a possible
cause of sub-standard wash quality. Be sure that your washing
machine’s drain valve isn’t leaking.
If your valuable hot water is leaking out
of the wheel a little at a time, you may be doing all of the
right things — the right water temperature and the right
chemicals — but flushing them down the drain.
Again, trust a laser temperature gauge or
a pyrometer, not the setting on the water heater.
You must have hot water to get clean
shirts. If the drive belt that connects the wash wheel to the
drive motor is too loose, it is possible that the drum
doesn’t turn at the proper RPM. If the belt slips, the
shirts will not get good agitation.
One thing that you can do is go to
Sam’s Club and buy a 40-lb. box of El Cheapo detergent
for eight bucks. Just don’t expect it to clean your
shirts. If you think that skimping on supplies here is the way
to stop using all that red ink, I assure that there is
something else that you’ve missed.
Don’t cut corners on proper
chemicals. If you calculate your chemical cost on a per-shirt
basis rather than by the cost per pail or bag, you will see
that the “expensive” stuff barely affects your
supplies cost on a per-shirt basis, but makes your life a whole
lot better.
“If you do what you’ve always
done, you’ll get what you always got.”
Donald Desrosiers has been in the
shirt laundering business since 1978 and is a work-flow systems
engineer who provides services to shirt launderers through
Tailwind Shirt Systems, 867 Spencer St., Fall River, MA. He can
be reached by phone at (508) 965-3163 or by e-mail at tailwind1@comcast.net and he has web sites located at: www.tailwindshirts.com and www.donsway.com
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