plastic plumbing

Wood'nCoal wrote:Many industrial settings with hard water soften all or just the hot water, esp. commercial laundries.

Where I am, the water is extremely soft for washing, yet we are installing a softener because the boiler is still getting too much sediment and other crap. There are HUGE steam loses in a laundry, the makeup water carries a tremendous amount of crap into the boiler. Cleaned once a year, it is not uncommon to find 4-6" of sediment in our 250 HP boiler even when it has a bottom blow down twice a day.

coaledsweat wrote:

Wood'nCoal wrote:Many industrial settings with hard water soften all or just the hot water, esp. commercial laundries.

Where I am, the water is extremely soft for washing, yet we are installing a softener because the boiler is still getting too much sediment and other crap. There are HUGE steam loses in a laundry, the makeup water carries a tremendous amount of crap into the boiler. Cleaned once a year, it is not uncommon to find 4-6" of sediment in our 250 HP boiler even when it has a bottom blow down twice a day.

Do you use steam injection to heat the washers up to temperature or just hot water?

Usually the tempered water (you don't use cold water in an industrial laundry) runs about 100-110*F. The hot water is now at 145*F. This is about 10* cooler than we used to run with powdered surfactants, the liquids used now can clean at lower temps. Some formulas will run up to 190* and the washers will inject steam to bring the temperature up to that. These temps are used with whites and things in a lab or pharmacutical setting. Shop towels also must be steamed up, sometimes 200* or more depending on the soils and contaminents.

So I guess you know what a Mangle is.

av8r wrote:

lincolnmania wrote:you cant get the soap off of you in the shower.....my grandparents had a water softener i hated it! hard water for teh win!
purple power works great for cleaning the bathroom.....removes all the hard water stains

The soap does come off, it just feels (at first) like it's still there. Once you get used to soft water, you'll hate the feeling of hard water. Use much less detergents for everything also. Our front loader washer uses less than 2 tablespoons of detergent for a huge load of oversize towels. A big jug of detergent lasts nearly a year.

We have a water softner as well makes a huge difference , Dave

Wood'nCoal wrote:So I guess you know what a Mangle is.

Yes, you don't see a lot of Mangles in industrial laundries today. Worked for a guy once whose aunt got a breast caught in a Mangle at home (this was back in the day when every home had a Mangle). He said it was never quite right afterward.

coaledsweat wrote:

Flyer5 wrote:is it worth the risk ?

Its never worth it. Sometimes you have to do some things live, make them as few and far between as possible. Its no different than Russian roulette.

Never had the urge to play russian roulett . Besides I think russian roulett would be far less painfull than electricution . Dave

coaledsweat wrote:

Wood'nCoal wrote:So I guess you know what a Mangle is.

Yes, you don't see a lot of Mangles in industrial laundries today. Worked for a guy once whose aunt got a breast caught in a Mangle at home (this was back in the day when every home had a Mangle). He said it was never quite right afterward.

I seem to remember someone having that as their avatar for awhile.
In the 1990's I worked for a chemical company that supplied liquid laundry chemicals. I used to install the pumps and write laundry formulas. We had one account that had an American Cascadex pocket machine that was so old the laundry cards were large hard plastic rectangles that looked like waffles. You almost had to chisel the little tabs out of it to set up the formula. I liked the Milnor machines with the drum the laundry formula attached to. I also programmed the more modern machines, which had microprocessors. We also had one account that was still using separate extractors. Mangles can still be found in hospital laundries, they wash a lot of linens like sheets, if any hospitals still do the laundry in-house.

Wood'nCoal wrote: if any hospitals still do the laundry in-house.

Quite a few do, a guy I know does a lot of ozone equipment installs in hospital laundries.

coaledsweat wrote:

Wood'nCoal wrote: if any hospitals still do the laundry in-house.

Quite a few do, a guy I know does a lot of ozone equipment installs in hospital laundries.

I wasn't sure, I've been out of the commercial laundry loop for a while. Most of the accounts were hospitals, nursing homes and shirt laundries, some hotels here and there. I had a few accounts on the side, but they gradually went to other companies. The business was very competitive, the installs were time consuming, and if someone in a management position wasn't satisfied they'd switch to another company overnight, and all our equipment ended up piled up in a corner. I still have lots of pumps around, mostly Knight Equipment and a couple of Betas, I'm slowly scrapping most of them. I still have one account that has a Uni-Wash, an extended stay hotel for corporate clients.
I was always amazed at tunnel washers. You run any of them in your place?

Wood'nCoal wrote:I was always amazed at tunnel washers. You run any of them in your place?

I find them fascinating too. No we don't run any, I don't think there are any in the corporation to my knowledge.

We had some business at the Brooklyn Central Laundry, which serviced the NYC hospitals. They had tunnel washers there. Quite a big operation. Washers/dryers on one floor, mangles and related equipment on another. I didn't work with them, we had equipment on the regular washers.