In recent years, the prices of various energy sources have continued to rise. The costs of steam and gas, the core resources of production in laundry factories, continue to increase. Hotel linen and healthcare laundry are among the energy-intensive laundry formats. In the production process, a large amount of steam and gas is required. The stubbornly high costs of energy sources impose a heavy pressure on the operation of laundry industries.
In order to control the energy consumption and operating costs, a wide range of low-temperature laundry chemicals has emerged in the market. These products can lower the washing temperature and significantly reduce the steam and gas consumption. With their core advantages, many laundry factories try to use low-temperature laundry chemicals. They are widely used for tunnel washers and automatic washing machines, especially in professional laundry scenarios such as hotel linen and healthcare laundry.
However, various quality problems after washing have been discovered by laundry companies, including decreased whiteness of white linens, graying, yellowing, dull appearance of some fabrics, and noticeable color differences between different batches of linen. These problems have become a major challenge for laundry factories. They not only impact the appearance of linen, but also reduce customer satisfaction.
Through mass on-site sampling, laboratory analysis, and field investigation, senior washing technology engineers conclude three root causes of fabric whiteness deterioration, graying, and yellowing. They also provide relevant corrective solutions and product selection advice for laundry plants to improve both quality and efficiency.
Causes
● Substandard water quality
The laundry industry has strict standards for water quality. The total water hardness is no more than 100ppm. The iron content is below 0.1ppm. The manganese content should be controlled within 0.05ppm. The soluble salt content is less than 500ppm. Substandard water quality can severely affect washing results.
- Firstly, inappropriate equipment may fail to meet the water demand and raw water quality, which cannot produce standardized water for washing fundamentally.
- Secondly, laundry plants neglect daily maintenance for equipment, including not replacing filter cartridges and rinsing resins in time. Or they operate faulty equipment, causing the failure of water purification performance and water quality exceeding standards.
- Thirdly, water treatment equipment with insufficient capacity cannot meet the water demand in production. Laundry plants have to mix untreated raw water, lowering the water quality.
- Lastly, raw water in some areas has poor quality. Laundry plants lower the water quality standards in order to control the purification costs. Washing linen with over-standard water for a long time lead to problems such as fabric graying, yellowing, harsh hand feel, and whiteness deterioration, severely lowering the entire laundry quality.
● Unreasonable washing parameters
An entire washing process includes many key parameters, including chemical dosage, chemical dosing sequence, main wash temperature, wash cycle duration, and rinse cycles. Any improper parameter setting will impact the washing results.
When using low-temperature chemicals, some factories don’t implement process optimization. This causes many problems, including overdosing or underdosing, incorrect dosing sequence, and improper wash time allocation. Insufficient rinsing time and cycles significantly reduce rinse exchange efficiency. Dissolved minerals deposit within textile fibers. Various soil residues cannot be cleaned completely, causing dull linen, fabric yellowing, and graying.
● Uneven chemical quality
There are many different types of laundry chemicals on the market. Some factories select low-cost, inferior chemicals with incomplete technical specifications and performance deficiencies to control their costs. These products have poor stain removal performance and efficiency. They cannot remove oil stains and mineral deposits adhered to fabrics. This leads to fabric whiteness deterioration and graying, and shortens their service time over time.
Solutions
Based on actual operation, Kingstar recommends rectifying the water quality treatment, washing techniques, and chemical selection to stabilize the washing quality in hotel and healthcare laundry.
● Multi-advantage chemicals
For fabrics with whiteness deterioration, graying, and yellowing, factories can use whitening products for restorative treatment. Then they can conduct daily production with optimized washing plans to restore fabric whiteness and softness, improving washing quality fundamentally.
In the choice of degraying and whitening products, prioritize the specified chemicals with multiple advantages.
- The products are colorless, transparent, and free from pungent odor. They can dissolve and disperse fast. It is convenient to use them.
- They apply to both low- and high-temperature wash processes, which meet different production needs in hotel and healthcare laundry.
- They are compatible with various mainstream laundry machines, including tunnel washers and automatic washing machines.
- They are cost-effective. Whitening and brightening performance will be significantly improved with low dosage.
- They have low viscosity, which are suitable for automatic feeders to ensure smooth delivery.
● Disinfection performance
Under the 70/80℃ main wash temperature, the traditional high-temperature washing process can help achieve thermal disinfection and meet the hygiene standards of healthcare and hotel linen. However, the low-temperature washing process cannot guarantee disinfection. While saving energy and costs, laundry plants should add disinfection procedures and select specified disinfectants to ensure laundry quality and hygiene safety.
Q&A
Q1: Is room-temperature water needed during low-temperature chemical washing?
A1: The temperature is generally controlled at 10℃~50℃ according to different formulations.
Q2: Does Kingstar tunnel washer have a compatible low-temperature chemical procedure?
A2: The procedure can be adjusted according to chemicals formulation.
Q3: Why should linen be disinfected separately since the ironing temperature of Kingstar ironer is high?
A3: Linen is ironed in a short time. The main wash time of traditional high-temperature laundry is about 15 minutes. Combined with high-temperature ironing, they can achieve better disinfection performance.
Post time: May-27-2026