Wash with Wally: Pre-Wash Spray Spot Treatment

By Wally Makowsky | Jun 01, 2010

I do a lot of drop-off laundry at my store and was looking for a good spray spotter. Do you have any recommendations?

Yes, I would get Liquid Wisk. This product is good on food stains, some inks and some light oils. It is probably one of the easier products to purchase, because it’s available at most supermarkets or grocery stores.

For general spotting, I would recommend that you mix one part water with one part Liquid Wisk into a spray bottle. This will make a very effective spotter for most wash-dry-fold applications.

Another option is a product called Streetex Spray Spotter, which you can purchase from most drycleaning supply distributors.

I’m planning on building a plant that will need to handle 80,000 pounds of laundry per month and be expandable to 150,000 pounds per month.

Also, do they make commercial washers that can accept an automated soap and softener delivery system?

First of all, if you’re building a plant to handle this amount of laundry, I wouldn’t look at the coin-operated type of machines. You need larger, commercial-type washers – maybe in the 125- to 150-pound range.

Perhaps you could tackle this type of volume with two smaller machines, in the 30-pound class, and maybe one large 125-pound machine. As for drying capacity, it might be best to get three 75-pound dryers and a couple of 50-pound dryers. This is how I would set up the plant, as opposed to a lot of small machines.

All in all, the time required to wash 125 pounds would be the same amount of time required to wash 30 pounds of clothes. As a result, you would have a huge labor savings with the larger equipment.

The reason I recommend a couple of smaller machines is to give you the ability to segregate some loads, enabling you to separate the lights from the darks.

Of course, to wash in the larger machines, you will need net bags to separate the laundry. Your local distributor can tell you how to set up a system where you can successfully and efficiently place multiple bags into larger machines.

As far as folding is concerned, this should be based on approximately what you can wash in an hour. Calculate your dryer capacity and understand that you need three square feet of folding space for every 30 pounds of drying. This will give you an idea as to how much folding space you will require.

Regarding laundry chemical injection systems, these systems can be applied to any size machine, except toploaders. I would recommend this technology for your particular application. It will save you time and give you a better wash.

I would view this more as a commercial application, rather than a coin laundry application. However, perhaps you can put in a separate self-service laundry area in the same facility, and segregate the two.

I own a coin laundry in Iowa and was wondering how to remove the odor of human and/or animal urine.

If you have a drycleaning supplier in your area, ask if they sell an “odor neutralizer.” This is more of a commercial type of product, and it can be a little bit stronger. What’s more, some of them need to be applied directly to the affected area, while some of them can be added into the regular wash cycle.

However, be sure not to purchase an “odor masking agent” by mistake. There is a difference between the two types of products.

If you don’t have access to a drycleaning supplier near you, purchase a product called Febreze. Use eight ounces of it in a 20-pound washer, mixed in with your detergent. Run the garments through a normal wash cycle in warm water, not hot. You may need to repeat this process two or three times to get the odor out completely.