wastewater recycling

[tomsinfo]

As an engineer, I'm trying to help a young friend (who owns a laundromat) to save money on his water/sewer costs. Can anyone give me any information about the use of water recycling equipment? His water & sewer costs are around $2400/mo and they're eating his lunch. Thanks for any help.

[Howard]

As an engineer I thought the same thing when I got into the business. I later learned to just forget about it, for two reasons - on technical one not. From a technical point of view you would be hard pressed to get it to work in a laundromat - and OPL is an entirely different story. In a laundromat you cannot control the amount of chlorine bleech and fabric softeners and other mystery chemicals that people dump into the mix all of which will play havoc on any recycle system. Not to mention that you may be considered a hazmat site due to the concentration of waste products. That is all on the technical side.

On the other side as soon as your competitors find out that will start telling customers that you use one customers dirty water to wash their clothing. True what you recycle may be cleaner than tap water - but the perception will kill your business.

[Duane]

Double ditto on what Howard said....


The best way to save on utilities is to replace water hog top loaders with high efficiency front loaders such as the Maytag Neptune.

You will then be able to charge more for the Neptunes since they are larger.

And have faster dry times due to the high extract spin cycle.



More income, less utility expenses.



Also check that he does not have any water leaks. When the store is closed (or no washers are running) check the water meter to see that it is not turning. If it is, a washer may have a stuck valve or a water line may have a hole in it somewhere.