After making a full business plan to confirm the viability of your project comes one of the most decisive moments: choosing the machinery for your vended laundry.
Finding professional laundry equipment
The machines for your laundry represent a considerable investment, so you need to make sure you are getting quality, efficiency and durability.
But how can you be sure?
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By conducting a detailed analysis of the types of washing machine and dryer for vended laundries that exist on the market.
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Pay careful attention to their features and advantages.
This kind of knowledge will enable you to be demanding when you assess the different laundry machinery suppliers and to make the right choice.
Industrial laundry equipment: everything you need to know
When you are looking to buy laundry equipment, you must take into account:
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The type of client you will have
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What services you want to offer
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The location of your laundry.
However, there are some factors that are common to any vended laundry.
Optimised operation
You will want to find washing machines and dryers that do their job in the shortest time and use as little water, electricity and detergent as possible.
Simple to use
You should also look for washing machines that are easy and convenient to use. Pay attention to details like the width of the door and controlling washing and drying programmes.
Range of programmes
You must see whether the machines you choose offer enough programmes to meet your clients' different needs. It is useful if they also feature disinfection processes for each cycle and client to enhance safety.
Robustness and durability
This is essential, especially in the long term. Don't worry about investing more in the machinery if this means robust equipment that lasts many years working flat out with minimum maintenance.
Which washing machines should you choose for a vended laundry?
To open a vended laundry, it is essential to have professional washing machines that stand out for their robustness and high performance.
These professional washing machines have a load capacity ranging from 8 kg to 110 kg, and can work for 14 hours a day under ideal conditions.
The machines in a vended laundry must also be connectible to a payment station or work using tokens.
This said, you will see that there are two broad groups of washing machines on the market for laundries:
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Hard-mount washing machines
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Soft-mount washing machines.
The difference between them is explained below.
Hard-mount washing machines
These washing machines, also referred to as solid-mount machines, have no internal shock absorbers. For this reason it is essential that they be fixed to a concrete base and also be installed on a ground floor with no basement underneath.
If not, the washing machine could transmit all its extraction power into the floor, causing serious structural problems, as well as to the different components of the machine, leading to breakdowns very soon.
Consequently, if you cannot fix these washing machines according to the necessary specifications, you must opt for soft-mount machines but, if you have the option of installing hard-mount machines, you should be aware that they have some worthwhile advantages in that they require very little maintenance and stand out for their extreme robustness and durability.
Soft-mount washing machines
These washing machines have shock absorbers inside. This means the machine absorbs its own mechanical action without needing any special fixing to achieve this, allowing them to be installed anywhere, both on the upper floors of buildings and on top of other machines. Another advantage is that they are easier to install than hard-mount machines.
On the other hand, they are rather more expensive than hard-mount machines and require a little more maintenance, as the shock absorber system can deteriorate with time and need repairing.
Which dryers should you choose for a vended laundry?
With regard to professional dryers for vended laundries, you must know what aspects to consider to make the right choice.
Bear in mind that drying linen is the most energy-intensive process in a vended laundry, and therefore it is advisable to make a choice that offers:
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efficiency in cutting energy costs and the time taken
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as well as assuring quality drying
Bearing all this in mind, the dryers in your laundry should have a humidity monitoring system able to detect when the linen is dry, which will shorten cycle time and avoid over-drying of linen.
In this respect, it is also a good idea to use dryers that cut down wear and tear on linen. They can do this not only by avoiding over-drying, but also by using a drum with pressed out rather than drilled openings. Like this the absence of sharp edges will ensure delicate treatment of linen.
It is also highly advisable for the dryer to combine a radial air flow with another axial one, so that the air penetrates among the linen and cycle time is shortened thanks to the cross drying that results from these different flows.
Finally, it is a good idea to get dryers that work quietly. This is achieved, among other factors, by supporting the drum on a line of bearings instead of using support wheels.
Types of washing machines and dryers for a vended laundry
With all this information, it is time to review different catalogues of washing machines and dryers for vended laundries.
As a sample, you can take a look at the Girbau catalogue. The machines you will find in it meet all the requirements mentioned above and ensure that your laundry will work at top performance with maximum efficiency.
But as we are aware that it can be a little overwhelming to choose the machinery you need for a laundry, the most practical thing is to ask for personalised information to clear up your doubts and get advice.
In the end, every vended laundry is unique. This is why the laundry equipment in each establishment can be very different.
Choose a market-leading supplier
The final step in confirming that the machinery chosen is ideal for your laundry is to make sure the manufacturer is reputable and is one of the most popular choices for vended laundries.
In this respect, Girbau stands out for the quality of its machines and for the support it offers the owner throughout the project.
Moreover, Girbau offers owners a remote control package for their laundries: Sapphire. Thanks to this software it is possible to monitor all the activity of the washing machines and dryers from a mobile phone or computer. Something that without a doubt makes remote management of the laundry much easier and allows detailed supervision of turnover and the meeting of targets.
