Auto doser meets nursing home’s needs

The Highfield nursing home group is finding that the JonPro Liquid Laundry automatic dosing system improves the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of its laundry.

Highfield owns and manages 73 care homes. All laundry is done in-house and each home has its own OPL. In total, the group handles around 3500 sets of bed-linen, in addition to clothing.

Purchasing manager, Elizabeth Strain was keen to trial this dosing system, produced by Johnson Wax Professional, as it is designed for economy as well as for effective performance “Our clients are particularly conscious of the condition of their clothes”, says Ms Strain. “It’s important that the laundry is of a very high standard.” She added that given the degree of incontinence that homes have to deal with, it was essential that linen and towels were cleaned thoroughly.” JonPro is claimed to be the first automatic liquid dosage system for the care-home sector. It includes three products, detergent, destainer and conditioner, designed to cope with the soilage and stains that occur in care-homes .

Tailored programs

Dosing programs can be tailored individually for each machine. Eight levels are available, so each wash can be set to a dilution level that gives optimum performance without product wastage, taking into account the type of fabrics and degree of staining in the load.

The system is designed to be easy to use with a simple three-button programming system. Built-in safeguards prevent unauthorised changes.

Johnson trains staff to use the doser and provides wall charts as an on-the spot guide.

When trialing the system, Highfield found that not only that it satisfied performance requirements, but also that it gave detailed management information to help with budget control. This included the total number of washes to date, the number of washes per day and the average cost per resident.

Ms Strain also praised Johnson’s support service, commenting: “At one of the trial sites, we found the system was not as cost effective as it could be and the company was happy to come and investigate – we’re now in the process of sorting it out.” The system is supplied on loan with the three laundry products. To qualify for this system, a site would have to have over 40 residents or use a minimum 8kg capacity machine.

Johnson’s technical staff carry out a survey for each installation and programs the system to meet individual requirements. It also makes regular follow-up checks.