Originally posted – Oct 08, 2012
I recently landed a commercial laundry account, which involves cleaning closed-loop mop heads for a large nursing home in my area. Can you suggest the most efficient way to wash and dry these mop heads?
The good news is that you don’t need a lot of sophisticated chemicals to handle this account. The best way to clean these mop heads is with a built detergent that contains di-limonene, which is a citrus-based oil and grease remover. This will easily tackle the solid and solvent-type stains on the mop heads.
If these mop heads are white, you also can add chlorine bleach to the wash cycle. Wash the mop heads in warm to hot water, and then dry them as you would any typical dryer load.
I need advice on how to remove smoke odors, as well as smoke stains, from some of my customers’ clothes.
Smoke odors can be easily eliminated in a regular wash cycle by using an odor eliminator, such as Febreze, along with your normal detergent. When using an odor eliminator, be sure to wash the garments in warm water, not hot. The lower water temperature will prevent the product from evaporating before it can complete its job.
When dealing with smoke odors, it always a good idea to add a non-chlorine, oxygen bleach to the wash cycle.
To combat smoke stains, I would recommend using a high-quality detergent and oxygen bleach in a normal wash cycle. Then, follow up with a liquid fabric softener, and the smoke stains should come off.
If the items are white and made of cotton, perhaps try using chlorine bleach in a soak cycle at about a 1-percent level to remove the stains.
Keep in mind that smoke stains are much different than burn stains. You can have burn stains that look a lot like smoke stains; however, if you’re dealing with a burn stain, that’s a completely different matter – burn marks won’t come out of clothing.
I do a lot of drop-off laundry at my store and was looking for a good spray spotter. Do you have any recommendations?
Yes, I would get Liquid Wisk. This product is good on food stains, some inks and some light oils. It is probably one of the easier products to purchase, because it’s available at most supermarkets or grocery stores.
For general spotting, I would recommend that you mix one part water with one part Liquid Wisk into a spray bottle. This will make a very effective spotter for most wash-dry-fold applications.
Another option is a product called Streetex Spray Spotter, which you can purchase from most drycleaning supply distributors.
I own a coin laundry in the Midwest and was wondering how to remove the odor of human and/or animal urine.
If you have a drycleaning supplier in your area, ask if they sell an “odor neutralizer.” This is more of a commercial type of product, and it can be a little bit stronger. What’s more, some of them need to be applied directly to the affected area, while some of them can be added into the regular wash cycle.
However, be sure not to purchase an “odor masking agent”by mistake. There is a difference between the two types of products.
If you don’t have access to a drycleaning supplier near you, purchase a product called Febreze. Use eight ounces of it in a 20-pound washer, mixed in with your detergent. Run the garments through a normal wash cycle in warm water, not hot. You may need to repeat this process two or three times to get the odor out completely.
