“We’re in a business where we accomplish our tasks quickly and accurately,” said Nick Determan, assistant athletic director for equipment operations at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (West Point), N.Y. In his role, Determan oversees eight full-time staff who manage the equipment and laundry for 28 NCAA Division I teams and 1,200 athletes. Of his staff’s duties, laundry processing is the most time consuming — taking upwards of 6 hours per day, per person.
Retools Laundry with Sports Laundry Systems
Seeking a solution to reduce laundry processing time and improve wash quality, West Point upgraded one of four athletic laundry facilities on campus. In April 2019, technicians at Americare Systems (Americare), a commercial cleaning equipment distributor in West Orange, N.J., went to work. They unbolted and removed West Point’s lower performing hard-mount equipment in favor of Sports Laundry Systems (SLS) soft-mount washers and complementing dryers.
Same-Day Installation Slashes Laundry Time The installation — made within the same footprint of the old machines — included one 40- and four 70-pound capacity freestanding SLS Washer-Extractors and four 75- and two 85-pound capacity dryers with moisture sensing. “Once we connected on the equipment mix, the Americare team worked around my time frame and got it all done in 24 hours,” said Determan. “That was huge, because we are very reliant on that laundry.”
Immediately, the laundry gained 150 pounds of capacity, better wash quality and superior programmability for washing and sanitizing a huge array of items — from loops and delicate uniforms to towels, warm-ups, coaches’ attire, and more. Most critically, laundry productivity catapulted — slimming six hours of processing time to four.
Determan worked with Americare President Linda Burgos and Installation Manager Jeff Caffrey on the laundry redo, as well as SLS National Sales Manager Steve Leib and Terry Hammond, National Sales Manager at chemical provider UNX Industries Inc.
“I wanted to do more laundry than ever and get it done faster,” said Determan. “The Americare team, Terry and Steve answered my questions and provided great customer service and communication,” he said.
Benefits of Soft-Mount Washers Over Hard-Mount Washers
At the end of the day, the decision to go with soft- over hard-mount washers was a no-brainer. Unlike hard-mount washers, soft-mount machines are simple to install without bolt-down. This made for a quick, no-impact and less costly installation process, according to Leib. Soft-mount washers also produce considerably higher extract speeds — up to 405 G-force. This ensures more water is removed from every load, which cuts resulting dry time by up to 50 percent — launching productivity. Because the dryers run less often, due to lower dry times, West Point expects to also save on natural gas and uniform replacement costs.
“Wash time on a 60 pound load of workout gear decreased from 55 to 40 minutes and dry time decreased from 55 to 35 minutes,” said Determan. “Items are nearly dry coming out of the washer. We dry almost everything on low, so washer extract speed is crucial.”
Programmability Essential to Properly Washing a Variety of Items
Once installed, the washers were programmed by Hammond to automatically combine the perfect type and quantity of detergents, softeners and sanitizers with the right water temperature, mechanical action and cycle time. The SLS Washers offer complete programmable control over every variable of the wash process, according to Leib. Operators simply load, enter a program number and press start.
“We are so happy with the increase in productivity, wash quality and dependability, plans are in the works to also replace the equipment in our three other laundries,” said Determan. “The upgrade will free up our staff for other critical responsibilities.”