Should you be roping your shirts?
What is the best way to wash shirts?
Should they be washed loosely, in nets or should they be tied
with those ropes?
The idea behind washing shirts loosely in
a washer is to improve agitation, also referred to as
mechanical action. The theory is that the shirts will
“drop” as they tumble in the wash wheel.
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When you load a clothes dryer, you never
even think of loading the machine to the point that the drum is
full. A good wet load of fabric that fills the drum about one
quarter or one third full is what we consider to be full to
capacity. I suppose that we figure that the fabric will not be
as compacted when it is dry, thereby taking up more room then.
When we fill a washing machine with dry
clothes, it will appear less full when water soaks the clothes.
If we fill a washer full, we will get something that looks like
a “drop” when the shirts are wet, but it will be
inadequate for the cleanest possible shirts.
In order to get the kind of drop that is
necessary for maximum mechanical action when shirts are washed
loose, the machine must be significantly underloaded – 70
percent of stated capacity. This means 35 pounds of shirts in a
50-pound machine.
There are a couple of serious problems
with mandatory underloading.
First, it is very tough to manage. You
can lay down the law and demand that each of your washers only
be loaded to a certain capacity, but will you or your
subordinates be able to assure that this mandate is followed?
If you put in place a rule that you can
not enforce, you are made a fool of. (“Yeah, the boss
wants us to do this and that, but we ignore him and do what we
want.”)
Additionally, you don’t have the
wash capacity that you think you have. When your
washman’s back is against the wall, he will technically
overload the machines to get the work out.
Laundry nets effectively eliminate the
task of wrestling with shirts when unloading a machine. They
can also aid in sorting a load that is washed together. For
example, you may use different color nets to differentiate
between starch levels, day tags or individual drop stores.
That’s the upside. Nets, however,
will still require you to underload the washer somewhat. The
fact that the shirts won’t tangle like they do when
washing loosely will help the wash quality, but the nets take
up room in the wheel. Arguably, the extra poundage that you can
accommodate by using nets is taken up by the nets themselves.
If that sounds unlikely, it may be that you are overloading
your washers.
The third way to wash shirts is by using
Rope-Ties or similar products. I believe that there are three
of these products out there and I’ll give you my opinions
on them all in a moment. But first, what is this product that
we call Rope-Ties? And is it better than nets or washing
loosely? They are better and I’ll tell you why.
I have been “roping” shirts
for well over 15 years. When the Clean Show was in Dallas in
1989, I stumbled upon a product called No-Knot cords. They were
demonstrated to me and I felt that they were a perfect
alternative to buying several dozen more laundry nets and pins.
This proved to be true. But it was after
years of using these cords that I realized the advantages of
them. I have compiled a list of eight reasons why roping shirts
are the best way to go. I think that each reason is important
enough to stand alone and I would not want to give up any one
of them. The eight reasons are:
• Improved
wash quality. Because the
collars and cuffs are kept together, they can’t get
tangled, plus the collars scrub up against each other to
further improve the wash quality.
•
Increased wash capacity. You
can fill a 50-pound washer with 50 pounds of shirts. This is a
huge advantage. In many cases, you will get better agitation
with more shirts in the wheel. Looked at in the opposite
perspective: Maybe you don’t need an additional washing
machine for $15,000, all you need to do is start using ropes to
increase your total wash capacity by 30 percent!
• Easier
to unload the washer. Instead
of pulling out 70 to 100 tangled shirts when the wash cycle is
completed, all you need to do is remove a dozen or so neatly
bundled “logs.”
• Safer
to unload the washer. The
hazard of ripping off the sleeve of a shirt that is tangled in
the wheel is gone. The shirts are tangled and the bundles
unload easily.
• Easier
to manage the lots in process. Whether
you have a strict lot system like Tailwind or a Neanderthal lot
system like “these 175 orders are my west-side store
lot,” that lot will be much easier to manage because
there are fewer components. For example, instead of having 100
individual shirts to a particular lot, there are merely 12
bundles.
• Lost
tags are such a problem. If a
shirt is found without a tag, it is very likely to belong to
the shirts being pressed right before and right after it
because it was tied with them.
• Help
prevent lost tags. Because
the bundles are tagged right around where the tag is in the
buttonhole, the tags are protected and far less likely to get
caught on something and get torn off.
• No more shaking out shirts. How
cool is that? The shirts are already in a nice neat order.
Simply remove the cord and the shirts are good to go.
Frankly, any one one of these advantages,
by itself, is a good enough reason to switch to roping shirts.
Pick your favorite reason and take the other seven as a bonus.
Now that you’re convinced that
ropes are the way to go, which product is right for you? They
come in three flavors.
The first product is a thick, heavy duty
rubber band with a quick fastener. A client in Milwaukee
switched to these a couple of years ago and gave them rave
reviews. They cost about a dollar each.
Unfortunately, the manufacturer did not
return my calls when I attempted to contact them while
researching this column. I have no personal experience with
this product, but I wish I did.
Next is the product that I have used for
over 10 million shirts, No-Knot Cords. This is a product
originally made by Old Hickory Manufacturing in Old Hickory,
TN, but now is made by a couple of makers. This is a 24-inch
cotton cord with an unusually shaped brass “buckle”
on one end.
The idea is to affix the two ends of the
cord, effectively tying the shirts together, without a knot
(hence the name) or anything complex. The downside to the
No-Knots is that they are somewhat awkward to use — a
little tricky. I have gotten good at training people on how to
use them, but not everyone will acquire that skill.
If you can not enforce the proper use of
these, they will become a pain. This is the least expensive
product, and for me, it is the product of choice because, at 35
cents a piece, you get the advantages of roping shirts without
a significant investment.
No-Knot cords will be a pain to handle
until you get used to them (then, they’re a breeze) and
they do wear out after repeated usage. If you like the
advantages of roping shirts but have difficulty with the
drawbacks, there is another route to follow.
Eventually, you don’t want to drive
your Kia anymore and its time to step up to a Mercedes. Just
like the Mercedes, MBH Rope Ties come at a price but they
effectively solve every problem that the other two products
present, all the while retaining the eight advantages of using
ropes over washing loosely or using nets.
MBH Rope Ties are very easy to train.
When I do a Tailwind Systems conversion using MBH Rope Ties, I
spend one-tenth of the time teaching how to rope shirts versus
No-Knot cords. These are made of poly cord, which means that
they are not susceptible to wear and rot like the cotton cords
on No-Knots are. They appear to be a one-time purchase as I
know of no incidences of these expiring.
The T-handle and the push-button locking
device combine to make these very easy to use.
Furthermore, the spring-loaded push
button is available in several colors to help to identify
different starch levels, different stores or different service.
This is a feature that the other products can only wish for.
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