Wash with Wally: Solving 'Mystery' Stains

By Wally Makowsky | Nov 19, 2010

From time to time, customers will bring in garments that have stains on them I simply cannot identify. How would you suggest I go about laundering these “mystery” stains?

Typically, if a stain is brown, it’s protein-based. If a stain is gray, it’s in the oil or grease family. Of course, oils could be in the form of an ink stain – anything that contains oil.

That’s about as close as you can get to identifying a stain, without testing the spot.

If the stain is dark, perhaps soak the effected garment for two to three hours in a solution of oxygen bleach and warm water. Afterward, run the garment through a normal wash cycle.

If it is a white cotton garment, soak the item for an hour or two in a solution of chlorine bleach and warm water; the chlorine bleach should be at about one-half percent per volume. Next, run the item through a normal wash cycle.

I’m considering expanding my coin laundry staff beyond just my wife and me. Can you give me any tips about locating and attracting potential employees?

As long as you and your wife are still attending the store, you’re probably not in a great hurry to find attendants. This is an advantage because it enables you to wait for the right type of people to hire.

The most effective method for attracting attendants is in-store signage. Hang attractive, legible signs in your coin laundry’s front window. Be sure your signage can be read from the inside of your store, as well as outside.

This is the best way to attract people who live in the area, especially those who are already customers of yours and, as such, are already familiar with your business. You probably have a number of customers who are looking for either part-time or full-time work. Typically, in such cases, you’re getting a person from the neighborhood who already knows many of your customers and potential customers. In addition, such a person will tend to be more reliable, because she won’t have to travel a long distance to get to work.

I have an opportunity to pick up a lucrative commercial account. The client is a bathtub manufacturer who uses auto buffing pads to finish off his marble tubs. Washing the pads is not a problem. However, because of an adhesive backing on these items, I’m don’t think I can put them in a dryer. Do you know other coin laundry operators who have serviced such buffing pads? Any advice as to how to approach the servicing of these pads would be greatly appreciated.

You’re right that it would be unwise to dry anything with a glued or adhesive-type of backing. But you can put these buffing pads into your dryers – “dry” them with no heat, simply tumble and air-dry the items.

Use as large of a dryer as possible. I’m not sure how many pads you’ll be handling at any one time, but I would recommend using a 50-pound-capacity dryer or larger. Again, the trick is to dry the items with no heat. Turn off the gas and let the blower do all of the work. This type of procedure will not affect the adhesive portion of the buffing pads.

I’ve noticed an odor coming from my frontload washing machines. I’ve used all kinds of deodorizers, but nothing seems to work. What can the problem be?

First of all, check your p-traps. Be sure that they’re not clogged. If they are, the odor most likely is coming from there. Frontload washers are gravity-drained, and there is an opening that is constant after the wash cycle is complete. As a result, if there are any bacterial-type odors present, they’ll definitely come up through your frontload washers.

If the problem is not with your p-traps, check your vent. Each bulkhead should have a vent pipe that extends to the roof. This vent pipe can clog with lint and other particles. When this occurs, the proper air passage that would normally rise and exit through your roof will begin to back up through your washing machines. And deodorizers won’t work; they’re only a temporary fix.

To keep your vent pipes clear, they should be rodded out every five years. What’s more, I recommend that you rod them from the roof down, because they are extremely difficult to rod from ground level up.

As a general rule, these are the two main causes of continuous washer odor.