TLDR: Multiple laundry operators report transformative results with SonicAire fans: GI-RO eliminated twice-yearly 22-foot ceiling cleanings, Hospital Laundry Service manages 10,000 sq ft lint-free with 32 units running 2 hours nightly, and JPS Hospital replaced complex scissor-lift operations with 45-minute automated cleanings.
Key Points:
• GI-RO: No ceiling cleaning in 2 years (previously twice yearly)
• Hospital Laundry: 32 fans manage 10,000 sq ft, running 2 hours nightly
• JPS Hospital: 45-minute automated cleaning replaces scissor lift operations
• 10+ years with minimal maintenance reported across facilities
• Unanimous strong recommendations from all operators interviewed
Transcript:
David: Dave Giansante from GI-RO Dry Cleaners in Lockport, NY.
Jordan: And you’ve got how many SonicAire fans?
David: Two.
Jordan: And how long have you had them?
David: Three years.
Jordan: And what do you think about them?
David: I would highly recommend these to anybody. We used to clean our ceilings at least two times a year — 22 foot high ceilings. Now we haven’t cleaned them in two years.
Jordan: Wow, so what is that savings like for you?
David: I haven’t calculated it out, but it was a job nobody wanted to do before. It’s a great product; I recommend it to anybody.
Jordan: So where does the lint go now?
David: Once they’ve been in operation, we hardly ever see lint. It’s minute: a little dust on the floor. It takes care of the whole system. It’s up there running for an hour and a half each night. You don’t see lint anywhere.
Scott: My name is Scott Steen. I’m Chief Engineer at Hospital Laundry Service in Fort Wayne, IN.
Betsie: Great! And tell us about your experience with SonicAire fans.
Scott: Well, we had a building expansion back in 2012. In that time we had the Sonic[Aire] fans installed, we have about 32 units in our plant. It’s a little over 10,000 square feet. And they do a fantastic job of keeping the lint knocked down out of the rafters.
Betsie: Excellent. Did you look at any other options when you were looking at the fans for purchase?
Scott: No.
Betsie: What does your normal use of the fans look like?
Scott: We have our fans programmed to come on about 8 o’clock at night. They run for two hours every day during the week.
Betsie: And when you come in in the morning, what does that look like?
Scott: We have dust bunnies on the floor. We have a crew come in to dust-mop them up. It’s very easy to keep clean.
Betsie: Have you had to do any maintenance on the fans at all over the ten years?
Scott: No, just routine maintenance: lubricating joints, etc. But haven’t really had any service issues with them at all.
Betsie: Do you have any words for anybody who’s thinking about purchasing a fan?
Scott: I would highly recommend them. In the past, we would have to cover up all the machinery and the linen, come in on the weekend and blow all the lint down out of the rafters. Then you have a really big mess to clean up. With the Sonic[Aire] fans, it keeps everything clean, and what it does knock down is more manageable because there’s less of it.
Bill: I’m Bill Bell with Steiner Atlantic, and we sell industrial laundry equipment in the laundry industry. I have about four or five customers that I have put SonicAire in. And they love it, and it keeps the dust off their ceiling – there’s a lot of lint in a laundry. It creates a safe working environment and keeps us (hopefully) from having fires.
Jordan: And without the fans, what would they be doing?
Bill: Blowing it down every six months, if they’re lucky, and spending thousands of dollars to do that.
Jordan: What’s your experience been working with SonicAire?
Bill: It’s been great. We’re a distributor, so we send the CAD file to you all, you all lay it in for us, we go to the customer to present the project. We get the order, you all ship it, we put it in – turnkey job.
Brandon: My name’s Brandon Alexander. I work in Fort Worth at JPS Hospital. I run the onsite laundry there. At that laundry we have SonicAire fans. They were already installed when I got there. The beauty of it is: the previous facility I was at, we had to get a scissor lift, our maintenance team was going through there, and it was really intricate as we have to feed through the plant trying to get it blown down. Whereas with SonicAire, every night I have them turn on for about 45 minutes or so, and it actually blows everything down for us. It’s way better than what I had to deal with previously.
Betsie: You run them every night, just for a couple hours, or all night?
Brandon: We run them for 45 minutes every night. Sometimes we’ll end up shutting them down because we have to run a little bit over because we’re behind schedule or whatnot. But, for the most part, every single night.
Betsie: And what do you do with what gets blown down? How do you clean it up?
Brandon: Whenever we have everything blown down, we just blow it to the back of the facility, and over there we pick it up manually. If you run them every night, it’s not going to be too big of a mess that you have, but predominantly we have a team that’ll actually clean everything up for us.
Betsie: I know you weren’t the one who purchased the fans, but have you ever had any issues with them, or had to do any maintenance?
Brandon: Very little maintenance, and it’s only because of user error to be honest with you – it wasn’t attributed to the actual product. But no, we’re thrilled with it.
Betsie: What problems were you having that caused you to look at dust control fans as a solution?
Guy: Lint, dust. And since I started using it I have no issues at all.
Betsie: Did you look at other options or use other methods of cleaning?
Guy: I did, but I came up with a solution 20 years ago: this is the only thing to use.
Betsie: So, you got in right at the ground floor; you’ve been using SonicAire fans for a long time.
Guy: Yeah, I actually bought two units from one of the shows at the last minute, and love them. Won’t replace it.
Betsie: Have you ever had any issues with SonicAire fans running or had to send them in for maintenance?
Guy: No.
Betsie: What would you say to someone who’s thinking about purchasing a SonicAire fan?
Guy: Don’t hesitate one second. It’s the best thing that can happen to a cleaners.
