commercial machines

[dpr1974]

Hello all and happy Easter, i have a few launderette near me (who hasn’t) and was thinking about learning about these machines for future work, can anyone offer any help/advice on this? things like how different they are compared to domestic machines and also names of parts suppliers. thanks

David

Edit: i said launderettes but with hundreds of caravan sites where i am it would also be the freestanding commercial machines that i’m interested in.

[spimps]

Re: commercial machines

The free standing commercials.top loaders like the Maytag’s,Speedqueens are a very simple machine,no heaters and a direct drive gearbox and would be a relatively simple job for a competent white goods engineer.Same style as Whirlpool top loaders but a heavier build,usually token operated.
Rigid mount top loaders are different in that they are on 30amp or 3 phase supply and are bolted down to a concrete bed.
Again easier than you think,earlier stuff using similar timers to domestic but the timer operaters contactors which switch motors and heaters etc,current ones are on pcb’s but still operating contactors.Manuals are usually more readily available than the domestic ones.

[dpr1974]

Re: commercial machines

Thanks Spimps, any ideas where i could get some technical reading material from as i’ve been trawling the web with no luck. I will be contacting some manufactures for info regarding their machines after the Easter hoilday so might get some joy there.

David

[spimps]

Re: commercial machines

You could ring JLA who are near Halifax and supply their own brand, Ipso’s and Maytags.
http://www.jla.com/?gclid=CJCpyaKz6JkCFYQH3wod-A6sPg
Armstrong’s
http://www.armstrong-laundry.co.uk/
supply,Speedqueens,Hubesch and one or two others.
I’m sure if you contact both hey will help you,ask for their techinical bod who will point you in the right direction.

[Specialist01269]

Re: commercial machines

Just 1 question before you get too far down this road: Are you a qualified & registered Commercial Gas fitter? If not then you need to get this before you start, the Majority of these machines are GAS & Corgi registration for Domestic just wont cut it.
Andy

[dpr1974]

Re: commercial machines

Hi Andy, no i’m not but i knew that beforehand, i have been checking locally and around here i’ve only found one caravan site that uses gas appliances.

David

[Specialist01269]

Re: commercial machines

Hi David: In your post regarding this it seemed you were talking about Commercial Launderettes as well & as far as I know from past experience the majority of these used a lot of Gas stuff so didn’t want to see you get caught out.
Have you given any thought to Electric Catering equipment? I don’t know what area of west wales youre in but this can often be quite profitable.
Andy.

[dpr1974]

Re: commercial machines

No i hadn’t thought of the catering side Andy, it’s certainly worth looking into as regards to the extra income that i was looking for. You were right in your post that i was talking about Commercial Launderettes, around here the launderettes have machines that are older than i am that’s probably why there are electric instead of gas.
Do you deal with catering equipment? if so could you recommend any parts suppliers because as it happens i have a bartlett oven that needs a new element fitted.

David

[spimps]

Re: commercial machines

The other thing to think about is that commercial laundry parts are really expensive,if you have an account most suppliers will give you 30 days,unfortunately it’s more difficult to get customers paying within 30 days you can end up with a lot of money out. Best to collect straight away but not always easy as businesses often expect to be invoiced afterwards.You can do decent business as the manufacture’s cost a lot to call so a cheaper option will aleays be popular.
A lot of the laundertte owners seem to do a repairs themselves,I haven’t done laundrettes, mostly nursing homes and liesure places although not so many nursing homes around now but more liesure facilities.
If you can mange to sales and installations too it’s a decent return plus you usually do the warranty stuff yourself.
Another decent area to go for if you have a good holiday trade around are commercial glasswashers and dishwashers,commercial ones are arguably simpler than domestic.

[Author]

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