Ready for the future

When Electrolux set out to create a new and truly comprehensive range of products and services for the laundry industry’s future, the company’s customers had the biggest say. In some cases, launderettes for instance, we consulted not just our own customers but their customers too.

This major consultation process gave us the data to produce an exhaustive list of current and future requirements: capacity and performance, operating cost expectations, and reliability and maintenance needs. Not surprisingly, the outcome was wide-ranging. Not only are the requirements of hotels different from those of care homes, for instance, but different hotels have differing priorities, even when they are the same size. Every laundry is different.

The outcome has been the design and production of the most comprehensive and integrated product range the industry has seen. Generation 3000 includes dozens of basic models of washer-extractors, tumble dryers and finishing equipment. With the range of options available, dozens of basic models become many thousands. The choices cover not only fuel, payment and control systems, but an almost endless list of extras. These include DBS, a Dynamic Balancing System for particularly noise sensitive locations, and heat-recovery systems for maximum fuel efficiency.

Launderettes

For launderettes, the big news is that Generation 3000 provides not just the right range of capacities and performances for the job, such as stacking dryers where space is limited, but the range of payment systems and control systems that operators need for the future.

The cashless launderette is here. Secure, cost-efficient chipcard systems give you money up-front and eliminate all the problems that go with cash. They allow immense pricing flexibility. You can charge different amounts for different programs, or increase prices in small amounts that are rarely noticed.

Your cards can be used only in your laundry so your customers are more loyal - and it’s easy to reward their loyalty if you want to.

The card can even be used for access, ideal for campuses as well as for high street sites. The Emerald microprocessor control system allows you to control the price for each type of cycle and change it by the hour or the day to boost traffic in quiet times.

Of course, the full range of coin systems, electro-mechanical and electronic controls is still available.

Hotels and guest houses

The range of equipment and options needed by the hospitality industry is fully covered by the Generation 3000 range.

At one end of the scale are the high-turnover large hotels. A laundry might be operating washer-extractors up to 40kg capacity with dryers to match and ironers for the flatwork.

Many large hotel laundries also have further degrees of sophistication, such as automatic dosing of chemicals, and Clarus Control.

Clarus Control allows hoteliers to completely customise wash programs to suit their needs. Every step of every program is electronically controlled with great precision.

Timing, levels, temperatures and other parameters are combined to optimise the use of water, detergents and energy and produce the highest washing quality. Literally hundreds of programs can be created easily and quickly and Clarus Control is extremely easy for the operator.

At the other end of the hospitality sector, a laundry might be based on a 5kg washer-extractor with its dryer stacked on top. But the future for hotels lies in providing more services for demanding guests. A duvet laundry might call for a 20kg washer-extractor and a dryer with a 350 litre drum. A full-service guest laundry could need shirt, trouser and coat finishers. Many hotels now provide a spa. This needs lots of clean towel support which might be provided by 7.5kg or 10.5kg washer-extractors and a matching dryer. Towel laundries in particular can consume large volumes of energy and to minimise operating costs, Generation 3000 dryers can incorporate Residual Moisture Control. This ensures that the dryer is stopped as soon as the load reaches the pre-determined moisture level. Additionally, the moisture level in the drum can be displayed throughout the cycle.

The current requirements of most care home laundries are met from the range of Generation 3000 high spin washer-extractors (with the correct programs for the work) and tumble dryers. In looking to the future, however, operators would do well to look at developing trends at home and abroad.

There is gathering controversy and increasing public awareness of infections in hospitals. Given the risks in residential and nursing homes, it must make sense to adopt some of the hospitals’ procedures. In France barrier washers are becoming increasingly common, and in Germany they are a legal requirement.

Generation 3000 includes a range of suitable barrier washers.

Future generation

The equipment has been conceived and developed so that each model is the best in its sector for build quality, reliability, water and energy efficiency and ease of operation.

Features such as automatic weighing systems, chemical dosing and superior sound insulation all provide tangible benefits to the owner and the environment.

The company’s programme of continuous improvement will ensure that Generation 3000 will continue to set the standards for the industry’s future.

Increasingly our customers need not only the most advanced technology, engineering quality and wash results, they are looking for continuous, economic, long term support.

Generation 3000 comes with a range of service contracts to suit every user’s requirements. These include extended warranties, contracts with special agreed rates for parts and labour, performance test options and even comprehensive arrangements on equipment up to 10 years old.

Finance products are tailored to every need. They include interest-free credit and extremely cost- and tax-efficient lease rentals.

Lease purchase schemes offer the option to purchase the equipment and there are special operating leases for the public sector which are also suitable for housing associations and local authorities.

The range of maintenance programmes, service contracts, staff training schemes and finance options will make Electrolux the industry’s ideal partner.