Reliability vs Availability
When the owners of restaurants, cafes, and small hotels are faced with the issue of laundry, many make a decision that at first glance is the simplest and most affordable - to buy household washing and drying equipment. The owner thinks something like this: “I’ll take a 6 or 10 kg car from a well-known brand. The manufacturer is good, which means the machine washes well and costs less than a professional one.” But in today’s market conditions, “good” does not always attract the client; everything must be “excellent.”
The permissible service life of household machines usually does not exceed 10 cycles per week, and the main criterion for choosing a washing machine is the difference in cost that the buyer perceives when compared with professional equipment.
But if you more carefully calculate the costs associated with operating such a “laundry”, it turns out that not everything is so “good”.
Let's consider what is the difference between household and professional and industrial laundry equipment . What do we pay extra for when buying professional equipment?
Industrial washers/dryers, as opposed to domestic ones:
- Have a greater margin of safety - can work 8-20 hours in a row. When using a household machine in this mode, its service life is about a year. The service life of industrial machines is up to 25 years.
- Professional washing equipment has a short wash cycle: 40-60 minutes. (2-3 times shorter than the cycle of a regular household machine).
- Household machines used for industrial purposes are not covered by the manufacturer's warranty. Industrial machine warranties range from a 1 year full warranty (labor and parts free) to a 5 year limited warranty (parts only free).
- The presence of a microprocessor and the use of professional detergent dispensers allows for significant savings in laundry chemicals, water and electricity.
- The drying cycle duration of industrial dryers is 1.5-2 times shorter than that of household dryers. The service life is the same as for washing machines.
And now in more detail about each of the differences.
Service life. Household washing machines are designed for several washes per week. If you are lucky, a household washing machine, when used "to the point of wear and tear", will work without serious breakdowns for no more than a year or a little longer. And then the owner will have to spend money on quite expensive repairs or on buying a new machine. For comparison: the resource of professional laundry equipment is at least 30,000 cycles of continuous operation 24 hours a day.
Industrial machines can work up to 20 hours a day, but they also need a technological break of 2 - 4 hours. It is enough just to carry out timely maintenance of the equipment, and the industrial washing machine will work without interruption for more than one year. Therefore, when choosing a supplier company, it is important that it has its own service department and that the necessary spare parts are always available in its warehouse. And if the company’s engineers also regularly undergo internships at manufacturing plants, then you are guaranteed excellent technical service.
The washing cycle in an industrial machine (let’s take cotton bed linen or workwear of the same composition as an example) depends on the program and lasts on average 40-70 minutes for lightly and moderately soiled linen; for heavily soiled laundry and laundry with a large percentage of grease and blood stains – up to 90 minutes.
In household machines, the washing cycle for moderately soiled laundry (for example, bed linen) lasts up to 2 hours. This is because household washing machines use a single heating element for heating. There are several heating elements in professional machines, and they are much more powerful.
Therefore, in one shift, for example 8 hours, an industrial washing machine will complete 10 cycles, and a household one only 4. The laundry owner loses time, and time, as we know, is money.
Warranty obligations. Everything is very clear with household appliances - if they are not at home, but in a cafe or beauty salon, etc. - then they are not used for their intended purpose. You have no warranty. In such cases, you will have to pay the service center both for repairing the machines and for calling a technician (the latter, by the way, starts from 80 UAH). The company that supplies industrial equipment, as a rule, assumes obligations for warranty service of the equipment. Warranty obligations must be clearly spelled out in the purchase and sale agreement. But you must remember that maintenance and warranty repairs are not the same thing. In the absence of maintenance, you may be denied a warranty if the equipment has failed for reasons beyond the control of the manufacturer. Untimely lubrication of the main components, untimely cleaning of filters, etc. can lead to quite serious consequences. So take care of your laundry equipment the same way you take care of your favorite Opel or Honda.
Machine control. Modern professional washing machines are produced with microprocessor control. There are two options: a standard set of factory programs - from 5 to 10 or a fully programmable microprocessor for 99 programs. The latter allows you to create your own washing programs, taking into account the specifics and degree of contamination of the laundry, its composition. Sellers of professional chemicals will select the washing programs necessary specifically for your laundry. By installing an automatic detergent dispenser and programming the microprocessor for a number of necessary programs, the owner of the laundry solves several important issues. Working on such a machine does not require highly qualified personnel (you press the right button, and the machine itself will determine how much and what kind of detergents to add at a particular stage of washing); the issue of personnel control over the use of detergents and unscheduled washing is eliminated; the process of using chemicals is optimized, and with it - resources (water, electricity); and, finally, the washing result is "excellent" (provided that the washing programs for chemicals are correctly selected).
When using a household machine, you have to make do with a set of programs that do not always meet the requirements of the laundry. Sometimes the owner of an expensive household machine proudly declares: "And I also have a 40-minute wash cycle!" I wonder why? Firstly, household machines do have short wash cycles - for synthetics, for delicate fabrics and for lightly soiled items. But we compare machines by the cotton wash cycle. And here - secondly. On expensive machines with a complex microprocessor, you can shorten the wash cycle by removing one or even two rinses, or something similar. Here you have 40 minutes. It doesn't matter that there are detergent residues in the laundry. It looks clean! Only the owner of a mini-laundry forgets about the sanitary and hygienic requirements for washing clothes, as well as about customers (for example, those suffering from allergies) and about the service life of the clothes (residues of detergents are quite aggressive, when ironing, high temperatures provoke a number of chemical reactions - for example, the transformation of chlorine ions under the influence of steam into molecules of hydrochloric acid ...).
It seems that there are enough arguments. And pseudo-savings when buying household appliances are obvious. So always and in everything choose professionalism. And the client will appreciate it.
