WASH Rebuild & Parts Facility

 

WASH Multifamily Laundry Systems is the second largest route laundry operator in the United States and #1 in Canada. Route laundry consists of anyplace other than a laundromat that needs washers and dryers. It might be a college, hotel guest laundry, apartment complexes, or other places. This means there are thousands of machines all around that WASH is connected to.
Owners of a location on a route can lease or buy machines and then usually collect any monies.
Sometimes WASH provides the machines and controls the location where they are placed.
The agreements usually include a service plan. Since these machines are usually small chassis machines (not the bigger stainless steel type large machines you often see in laundromats) they wear out a lot faster and are also usually in higher abused areas like apartment basements so they need to be replaced probably more often than most. So what happens to small chassis machines that are traded in from the route side? 

Here in the Midwest they often go to the facility in Grand Rapids:

The rebuild and parts facility in Grand Rapids

Some used machines that came out of a location wait in the triage area

There are several bulkhead areas for washers to be hooked up and tested or repaired

Washers that have been brought off of a route location waiting to be inspected

Typically this is what the condition is of lots of machines coming to the facility

Brands and models that WASH does not service or sell typically get scrapped

Washers waiting to get inspected having just come back from the field

Used washers waiting to get redeployed after being inspected or rebuilt

New machines waiting to be sold or deployed on a route

Parts

The Maytag MAH21 Neptune washer has not been in production for many years. WASH still has many units in the field for customers who like them. This is one model where used Neptune washers come in and are tested and stripped of good parts to be reused and allows other Neptune washers in the fleet to be repaired or rebuilt. Eventually these parts will run out.

Plenty of storage room for new machines

Parts and more parts

transmissions waiting to be rebuilt

Transmissions pulled apart and cleaned up. Worn parts replaced.

New tub going into refurbished top loader

Old top loader tubs

MAH21 Neptune doors waiting to be inspected to see if they can be used on rebuilt machines for the route fleet

Tub Assembly area

More tub assembly

Assembly line for Speed Queen front loaders to be rebult

The end of the assembly line for Speed Queen front loaders

Speed Queen dryers being rebuilt for the route fleet

Speed Queen small chassis stack dryers being rebuilt for the route fleet

Dryer parts for rebuilding 

More dryer rebuild area

Some washers come in with broken coin boxes that need to be drilled out

Parts are carried for all of the brands in the route fleet and Commercial Laundry Sales (what I do)

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy

LG 1st Impressions

My wife loves to do laundry. It is her stress relief. When we got married she told me to skip the big expensive wedding ring and get her a really good washer. I thought she was kidding at first, however when she told me her story about WHY she likes to do laundry then it made sense. When we got our house we went washer shopping and she picked an LG with all the bells and whistles. At the time the LG was on the higher end of the price scale but not terribly so.
She does multiple loads of laundry almost everyday.
15 years and 12,000+ wash cycles ("turns" in laundromat language) and it is still going!

It was with this expectation of quality that I looked forward to LG coming out with their commercial line of small chassis washers. They have been working on this line for several years and some versions have been out in the market for the last couple of years. Two laundromats I know of at this writing have them in their stores and both owners told me they have no problems with them. I also have several hotel owners and general managers that have them for guest laundry and say they are good as well.
With a crowded market of small chassis washers from Maytag, Huebsch, Speed Queen, Wascomat, and others out there I'm curious to see how the LG will fare.
So far I have been cautiously impressed. Recently an LG rep came out to the WASH Commercial Laundry branch I work at to show us the latest model.  Here are some pictures and my random thoughts. I encourage all of you to take a look at these machines and compare to other brands. They are not going to be correct for all situations, but they are are worth looking at.

I like the square design. It makes the washer look bigger.
The door window is large and clear. The plastic around the door has a chrome finish to make it look like metal. I'm curious to see how long that lasts with carts and kids and crates of laundry banging into it.
If it stays shiny and plastic or paint doesn't flake off that is a huge plus making them look more like their stainless steel large chassis cousins in the minds of the customers. 

The door latch looks more like an Alliance design while the door strike is different than other brands and looks like the two pieces hook onto each rather than a post system.

Smaller baffles in the tub than other brands. 

Tub is 3.5 cu/ft so it is a little bigger than Speed Queen, Huebsch, and Maytag and the same size as the Wascomat. There is another version called the LG Titan that has a 5.0 cu/ft tub.

The tub is also tilted down on an angle like the Maytag Neptune (MAH21) which is a feature I've come to find out a lot of people liked.

The control panel is a little wordy to me.

Bigger buttons and less writing would be better in my opinion.

Two features I love are the soap compartment is on top of the machine just like a Maytag Neptune or a large chassis machine. No drawers to break! No soap to drip on the floor! How many times have I had customers tell me that a machine is leaking water only to find out it is because they left the drawer open when the water is running!

LG is also the only brand I know that uses WORDS to tell the customer where the soap and softener goes. No confusing pictures or diagrams! I know you can't have every language printed on the covers but maybe LG can come up with a customizable option that you can have the option to have other languages on the cover when you order the machines?

Need to clean the soap compartment? The trays come out for easy cleaning!

The top panel is not hinged and comes all the way off. Easy access to all the components above.

Need to drain the tub but don't have a bucket? You can use the drain hose.

Drain screen has too many small holes and the posts to me seem like they will trap stuff in it.

Unit is light enough that two guys can lift it! 

If you use chemical injecting or ozone the ports are already built in no need to drill holes in the body panels. Plus clearly labeled hot and cold hook ups.

Direct drive motor. No belts.

Back of the LG "Giant"

Notice the smaller diameter drain hose.

All in all I'm very positive about what I see. 

WASH is the LG Distributor in Wisconsin. Ask your WASH rep if LG is carried in your area.

Maybe I'll get my wife one of these if our other LG unit decides to quit.

Ev

A Heck of A Nice Guy

As an addendum to this post we just installed these LG “Titan” stack washer dryers.  

The Titan version is a bigger capacity small chassis machine compared to the “Giant” that I show above. 

Ev