TLDR: Alsco Lanham commercial laundry replaced their labor-intensive manual lint cleaning (requiring 10-person teams for full-day shutdowns) with SonicAire fans, significantly reducing maintenance labor while maintaining pristine conditions for healthcare clients. The turnkey installation allowed management to focus on core operations while achieving better dust control, brighter facilities, and enhanced safety—their highest priority.
Key Points:
• Previous method: 10-person teams, full-day shutdowns with overtime
• Lint poses fire risk due to steam heat from irons and dryers
• Healthcare clients require pristine, lint-free product
• Turnkey solution eliminated multi-vendor coordination
• Safety identified as highest valued priority
Transcript:
My name is Todd Payne. I’m the Operations Manager for Alsco Lanham. Alsco is a large commercial laundry, providing service to restaurants, healthcare, uniform services. My role here at Alsco Lanham is to coordinate all plant processes, work with our service team to make sure our customers are adequately provided product, and the facility is safe and clean.
Shortly after my arrival, one of the projects I was given was dust control. We were doing it manually with lifts, ladders, air lines. Frequently we had to shut down or bring teams in on the weekend to clean. We would be running overtime with our maintenance team or production staff. So, you get buildup during the week and then a big blowdown, big clean. And it just used a lot of labor.
Lint accumulation with the amount of heat that we generate in the building through the use of steam for the irons and the dryers can pose a big risk. We also like to limit what is on the product. Lint doesn’t look good on product. We also serve a number of healthcare facilities where you need to have clean, pristine product for their clients.
SonicAire presented a fixed fan solution. Once we agreed on where placement should be, we went with it. It’s reduced our labor with our maintenance team significantly. A deep clean of the building would probably take a full day with a team of about 10 people. With the current fan structure that we have and what we’re adding to, that should eliminate most of those hours. We still will have areas that we need to touch that the fans don’t reach, but, significant labor savings.
It’s helped keep our dust well under control and the facility brighter, cleaner. What was nice about the solution that we chose, the turnkey solution, is it took the challenge off of us, having to coordinate multiple vendors to come in and do electric and mounting and installation. It allows my team, the other management teams in the building, to focus on our jobs, our customers. Plus, you get an extra year warranty. (Laughs)
The first phase that we did went seamlessly. The install crew was courteous, worked well with us, very speedy, timely. That honestly played into the decision for the 2nd phase, was the professionalism that was shown by the install team.
Granted, turnkey solution has an added cost, but there’s an added value. And, honestly, since we’re not familiar with it, it’s a better solution. You don’t want to install something and come up with challenges as you’re doing it without knowledge because it will delay the process. It’s a huge value. It allows us to do our job and not be distracted.
Facilities should be clean, bright, free of clutter; all those things lead to safety. Safety is our highest valued priority, it is a driving factor in our facility, and all that ties together with cleanliness.
