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January 9, 2013

WASHINGTON — The longer stains sit on a fabric, the more difficult they may be to remove: American Cleaning Institute

WASHINGTON — With your coin laundry customers no doubt bringing in clothes containing holiday stains, Nancy Bock, senior vice president of education for the American Cleaning Institute, offers these stain-removal tips that you may want to post in your store:

Turkey, Gravy, Butter, and Salad Dressing (oil-based stains)

Pretreat with a prewash stain remover. Launder in the hottest water that’s safe for the fabric.

Cranberry Sauce, Apple Cider, and Pumpkin Pie (fruit-based stains)

Treat these stains promptly. Remove excess fruit and run the fabric under cold water. Wash the item as soon as possible using the warmest water and bleach that are safe for the fabric.

Coffee, Tea, Wine, and Soft Drinks (beverage stains)

Soak or sponge stain in cool water. Pretreat with a prewash stain remover or liquid laundry detergent. Launder using oxygen bleach or chlorine bleach, if safe for fabric.

Colorful Cakes and Desserts (food-coloring stains)

Sponge stain promptly with cool water. If this doesn’t remove stain, soak stain in cool water for at least 30 minutes. After soaking, pretreat with a prewash stain remover or liquid laundry detergent, then launder.

Wax Stains

Use a dull knife to scrape off surface wax. Place stain between paper towels and press with a warm iron, transferring the wax to the towels. Continue, using clean towels, until the wax no longer transfers. Then, place stain facedown on another clean paper towel and sponge with a prewash stain remover; blot with paper towels. Let dry, then launder.

Soot Stains

Shake out garment. Don’t rub, as this may make the stain worse. Launder washable garments using laundry detergent and the hottest water suitable for the garments. Continue laundering garments until soot and/or smoke odor are removed. Garment may have to be laundered as many as five times.

December 13, 2012

Colorful Single-Dose Detergent Packs Pose Threat to Young Children

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Coin laundries can assist by reminding patrons about safe use and storage of these products

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The American Association of Poison Control Centers and the experts at America’s 57 poison centers are urging the public, especially parents, to keep highly concentrated “single dose packs” of laundry detergent up and away from children, according to Debbie Carr, AAPCC executive director.

Coin laundry owners and operators can assist by reminding their patrons about the safe use and storage of these products.

As of Nov. 29, more than 5,000 children age 5 or younger have been exposed to single-dose laundry packets in the United States this year, according to the AAPCC, which is charting reported exposures with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some children who swallowed the packets have become ill and required hospitalization. Other children have gotten the detergent in their eyes.

The AAPCC recommends the following steps:

Always keep detergents out of the reach of children
Follow specific disposal instructions on the label
If you believe a child has been exposed to the contents of a laundry detergent packet, call the local poison center at 800-222-1222 immediately

February 9, 2012

Consumer Reports Finds Laundry Detergent Dosing ‘Confusing’

YONKERS, N.Y. — Using too much concentrated laundry detergent can wash its benefits away, says Consumer Reports, which recently looked closely at products from All, Era, Purex, Tide and Xtra and uncovered unclear instructions and inconsistent cap measurements that can drive up laundry costs.

The independent, non-profit organization says it found that it’s often unclear how much detergent is needed to get the job done right, and it can be easy to use too much. It blamed cap fill lines that testers found were difficult to see or too close together to produce accurate dosing.

Concentrated laundry detergents—2X, 3X and even 8X—have less water and other nonessential ingredients than conventional products, Consumer Reports says. Most consumers don’t realize that the “X” is often tied to a previous formulation of the same detergent, so 2X would give equal performance as the previous detergent while using half the dose.

Also, the “X” does not apply to different models of the same brand or for comparisons across brands. For example, a 50-ounce bottle from one maker doses 32 loads while 32 ounces from another does 28 loads.

Consumer Reports recommends following label directions until the measuring lines on laundry detergent caps are well defined. Also, it recommends using HE detergents in a front loader or high-efficiency top loader, because other detergents may produce too much suds.

The full report on concentrated laundry detergents can be found here.

June 19, 2009

At Clean, Extra-Profit Centers Come in All Sizes, Shapes