Hotel Laundry Newsletter March 2023

 

Everet's Hotel Laundry Newsletter Sent out roughly every six weeks, this email newsletter is meant to provide you with useful tips to help ease any laundry headaches you might have.

Tips from the Wash Basket: As winter turns to spring I hope your business is also getting warmer. If I can help with an issue let me know.  There are lots of interesting laundry, hiring, and sales tips on my blog. You can search by category, search bar, or scrolling. Below are three of them. Just click on the link to open an article. Thanks for looking! Everet A Heck of A Nice Guy Featured Articles this Month 5 things Hotel Owners and Managers can fix to save money and time: 5-guest-laundry-repairs   What is the difference in G Force? 400g-vs-200g-vs-100g   5 more repairs Hotel Owners and Managers can fix to save time and money: 5 more-guest-laundry-repairs

You Have to Clean Lint Traps!

I went to an apartment laundry room for a meeting with a landlord, and then to a laundromat to meet the owner because both of them said their dryers weren't working well.

First thing I found upon opening the lint drawers at both locations was this...

I won't indicate which ones were at the apartment or the laundromat, but you get the idea that both were filthy!

The cleaner of the laundromat was there and said he cleaned the lint traps the previous day. 

Was the cleaner telling the truth?

In my opinion (I'm going to quote Colonel Potter from MASH)

"Horse Hockey!"

By not cleaning lint traps you:

• increase the chances of fire
• your dryers work harder using more gas and electricity cost you more money
• dryers have to work harder to move air around decreasing their efficiency and life span
• customers have to wait longer for dry clothes
• customers have to spend more money

You have to clean your lint traps every day!
The last impression people have of your laundry room is from the dryers. If they don't work well you just lost a customer! How much money over a years time have left with them?
Can you afford that?

Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy

 

Screws in Dryers

 

Have you ever heard a loud scraping sound when your dryers are running?

If you have heard a pocket scraping, one of the things that could be causing it is a screw that got stuck in the circulation holes in the basket/tub.

People leave things in their pockets and even if they try and check them screws sometimes get stuck in the fabric of the pockets and fall out during tumbling.

The screw scrapes on the shild piece of metal that surrounds the basket and bangs into the leading edge of the pocket where the lint tray sits.

You need to remove these screws, or any other objects sticking through the holes, as soon as they are discovered:

• eliminates the loud noise that bothers customers and makes them wonder what is wrong with the dryer
• screws and other objects can snag on the edge of the lint drawer, lint drawer seating area, or the edge of the shield around the basket. These edges can bend or break which causes more noise as the basket rotates over that spot causing noise
• the screw and other object can snag customers clothes causing damage
• the hole where the screw gets stuck in gets broken or warped and that can snag a customers clothes causing damage

Getting the screws out can be really simple. Often times just rotate the drum in the opposite direction and the screw will fall so the head is flat on the inside of the basket making it easy to grab with your finger nails.

Sometimes you will need a needle nose pliers to pull or wrench the screw out (be sure not to damage the hole the screw is going through).

You can also rotate the basket sometimes so the screw is inside the lint drawer area (take the lint drawer out) and you can push the screw upwards with a pliers or hammer and that will pop it out.

Screws can be large or small

Screws can get stuck under the baffles inside the dryer

Damage to the leading edge of the metal shield around the basket causes more noise and can damage the basket and customers clothes

Ev

A Heck of A Nice Guy

Venting for Dryers

I received an email from someone who was looking into dryers.
They wanted to know how venting works.

Since I wrote a long response, I decided to publish it here.

This is basic venting 101 for any laundry room or laundromat.

For more absolute specifics, take my information to your HVAC company to double check for your specific building.

Good morning Everet!
How the venting through the outside wall should go for your dryer vents. And also how the intake for fresh air should be cut into that wall. Placement, size, etc...
Thank you very much!



(Everet response)
Here is another long answer email.
I know everyone hates math, but I had to include it for this one.
Feel free to give me a call for more explanations on this.
There is make up air and exhaust air.

As for makeup air the rule of thumb is 1sq inch of make up air per 1,000 BTUs for the dryer.
Lets pretend a 30lb stack dryer is 144,000 BTUs and 

it is 190,000 BTUs for 50lb stack dryers.

You want to install three of the 30lb stack dryers and four of the 50lb stack dryers.
How big of an opening do you need for make up air?
For the 35lb dryers:
144,000 BTUs x 3 stacks = 432,000 BTUs
432,000 BTUs/1,000 BTUs =432 BTUs x 1sq inch =432sq in of make up air
To get the square of something it is the Length x Width
Pick standard number for width (lets say 24 inches but it can be whatever you want)
432sq inch/24 inches = 18 inches
So the make up air opening needed is 18 inches by 24 inches for the three 35lb stack dryers. More air is better so I like to go a little bigger so say 24 inches by 24 inches. 

For the 50lb dryers
190,000 BTUs x 4 stacks = 760,000 BTUs
760,000 BTUs/1,000 BTUs = 760 BTUs x 1 sq inch = 760 sq in of make up air needed for the four 50lb stacks
760 sq inch/24 inches = 31.66 inches (round to 32 inches)
Opening needed 32 inches by 24 inch or to go a little bigger
36 inches by 30 inches. For bigger dryers I like to add a little extra.

The larger the dryer the more air it needs.

The numbers above are minimums and general guidelines.

Your specific dryers are going to be different so check the labels.

For exhaust air are you planning to have the dryers vented individually or run the exhaust into a common duct and then the duct goes outside?
Pretend the dryer exhaust duct is 8 inches, What size hole in the wall do you need?

1. The dryer exhaust venting in this case is 8 inches in diameter. Typically the hole in the wall is just a smidge over 8 inches in diameter and that accounts for the width of the sheet metal of the duct going out of the wall. Usually there is a little vent hood over the outside opening to keep wind, rain, birds out. It is best if each dryer can be vented individually, however that isn't always possible. So if each dryer cannot have its own exhaust opening...

2. The dryer duct work inside the building connects to a common "box" of "take off" and that take off covers a hole in the wall roughly the same size. Up to four dryers (preferably less) have the exhaust venting connected to this take off. No matter how many connections to the take off, be sure to stagger or offset the holes cut into the takeoff a little bit so air coming out of dryer A doesn't get blown back down into the exhaust of dryer B.
The more dryers you vent into the take off, the larger in diameter the takeoff and hole in the wall has to be to move the air through it

Exhaust air vents should be above the height of the make up air intakes. You don't want exhaust vents to be below make up air otherwise your dryers will be sucking in exhaust air. Exhaust air vents usually have some sort of vent cover to keep rain and wind and animals out.

Make up air intakes sometimes do and sometimes if it is a bigger opening, they are just flush with the side of the building with no hood over them. Once you put louvers or some sort of covering over the air intake you need to make your intake hole bigger to accommodate for the air blockage caused by the louvers. Check with your HVAC contractor for local codes.

Usually they want to see two openings for make up air behind the dryer line (in this case one that is 24in x 24in and one that is 36inx 30in but some will let you have one big opening.

The make up air vents can be lower in the wall closer to the ground (just don't make them level with the ground because snow will pile up and block air), mid way up the wall, or in the ceiling of the area behind the dryers, wherever you want them to be within code. You can put louvers over the make up air opening that you can close to block out the air on the coldest of days, but when you do that you need a bigger opening because louvers can block up to 50% of the air depending on what you use. Your HVAC company can suggest several types. There are systems that when your dryers are running the louvers open and close when the dryers are idle saving you some of the cold air behind the dryers.

Notice all of the combination of 45 degree and 90 degree elbows in the vent lines in the pictures below. When installing dryers try to keep the venting as straight as possible coming out of the dryer to the outside of the building. Every elbow that is included you lose efficiency of your dryers and your dryers have to work harder and it takes longer for items to dry.

I hope this helps your understanding of venting and planning for your new or replacement dryers.

Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy

Everet's Laundromat Newsletter March 2023

 

Everet's Laundry Newsletter March 2023 Hoping you have Spring in your sales!

Tidbits from the Washtub As winter turns to spring and customers come to your stores to wash their winter clothes and bedding one more time before putting them away, if I can help with an issue let me know.  There are lots of interesting laundry, hiring, and sales tips on my blog. You can search by category, search bar, or scrolling. Below are three of them. Just click on the link to open an article. Happy New Year and thanks for looking! Everet A Heck of A Nice Guy Featured Articles this Month Ever have a Maytag MFR washer give you repeated door lock errors? Here is the probable cause: MFR-door-lock-error-cause- and fix   What is the difference in G Force? 400g-vs-200g-vs-100g   F70 error quick fix for Maytag front load washers: F70-error-quick-fix