Many aspects of running a hotel are challenging, but extending the life of your linens doesn’t have to be one of them. In fact, a few simple steps in your laundry can yield cleaner, longer-lasting linens, and also save money on utilities.
That’s the word from Josh Steinhardt, national sales director at Laundrylux. Steinhardt offers a few tips that hotel laundries can begin applying immediately to extend the life of their linens: read the care instructions, don’t mix loads, and don’t over-dry.
1. Read the Care Instructions
According the Steinhardt, the most important first step is to read the care instructions on the linen.
“The companies that manufacture linen have done a lot of testing and made big investments into creating products that provide longevity to the user,” Steinhardt said. “It's very important that the person in charge of the laundry operation read the care instructions to learn the specifics on how the item should be washed, at what temperature and which chemicals should be used.”
The instructions will also cover how to dry linens, such as what temperature should be used and if there are any recommendations as to how they should be tumbled.
“No one knows the linen better than the company that made it, so far be it for anyone else to say the best way to launder it,” Steinhardt said.
2. Don't Mix Loads
Stienhardt’s second piece of advice is don’t mix loads. Mixing linens with towels, duvets, curtains, etc., can negatively affect both longevity and wash quality. He noted that most hotel washing machines have wash cycles specific to certain types of fabrics, and those cycles are optimized to control how long the machine agitates, how hard it agitates, water temperature, and chemical introduction.
“When you mix loads, the linen may not get as clean as it should, and you may be mixing two or more fabric types that could be abrasive to each other,” Steinhardt cautioned. “It's possible that some of those other fabrics can rub on the delicate linens and cause abrasion and fraying.”
3. Don't Over-Dry
Steinhardt’s final piece of advice is to use your dryers’ moisture-sensing capability, if they are so equipped. Such systems can be set up so they stop drying at a certain moisture content. Over-drying can damage linen. One sign of over-drying is linting, so if you see a lot of lint on the lint filter or even on the exterior of the building near the dryer vents, it’s a good sign that your laundry operation is over-drying its linens.
“When you're drying longer than you need to, you're also spending more on utilities, ” Steinhardt said. “A moisture-sensing system can save thousands of dollars a year, depending on how many dryers you have and how many cycles a day you do, while also protecting the linens from damage caused by over-drying.”
4. Watch Extraction Speed and Chemicals
Joe Stern, manager, HM Laundry Equipment, said that based on his 30+ years selling commercial laundry equipment, he can offer two pieces of advice to hotel laundry room operators: pay attention to washers’ extraction speed and use laundry room chemicals properly.
“High-extract washers may remove a little more water out of each cycle, but the higher extract speeds can beat the linen up and affect linen life,” Stern said. “Based on my firsthand experience, I’d recommend using a slower extraction speed and always using the proper chemicals in the proper amounts.”
5. Take Advantage of Technology
Manufacturers of commercial laundry equipment are employing new technologies that can help hoteliers preserve the quality and extend the life of their linens.
At Miele, for example, the company’s Honeycomb Care washing drum features a unique convex pattern resembling a honeycomb that creates a thin film of water to minimize contact friction. In Miele’s tumble dryers, the patented Honeycomb Drum™ is designed to create “air cushions” that ensure gentle movement of laundry and minimize contact friction with the drum.
According to Paulo Rocha, Miele’s head of sales, the result is even drying while reducing creasing, wear and lint accumulation.
“This technology has been proven to protect and prolong the life of textiles by up to four times,” Rocha said. “Investing in higher quality textiles, made possible by Miele's technology, translates into a better customer experience.”
The bottom line: a little bit of knowledge and some simple steps can go a long way toward making your linens last a long time.
This article was originally published in the October edition of Hotel Management magazine. Subscribe here.