Achieving high quality clean linen every wash can often be harder than it sounds. Many elements go into making the perfect wash, so it’s important not to get complacent. However, it can be achieved with little effort and the right know-how. Here’s our guide to achieving high quality clean linen every time.
Know Your Materials
Knowing how different materials react throughout the laundry process is imperative. This will inform the wash cycle to select, the drying time required, and the right chemicals to use. As well, it will mean that linens will be sorted correctly, so that all the same fabric types are washed together.
Know Your Stains
If there are items with known stains, keep these separate from the rest of the dirty laundry so that the stain doesn’t transfer. Pre-spot the stain with specialist spotting chemicals before washing. However, most stains are discovered post-wash. Here’s a helpful list of hard-to-remove stains and how to dissolve them.
Don’t Overload
Overloading the washer can leave the load poorly washed, as well as needing longer drying time. Overloading the dryer will also require longer drying time and will leave the linen heavily wrinkled.
Insufficient Rinse
It’s important to select the right wash cycle. An inefficient rinse can leave linen sticky and yellow spots can appear; it can also cause heavy wrinkling.
Too Much or the Wrong Chemicals
Too much chemicals can make the fabric sticky and yellowed. The wrong chemicals can deteriorate linens. If your machines are auto-dosed, then selecting the correct wash cycle will ensure that the right chemicals and the right amount are used. If you are dosing manually, you will have to be all the more vigilant.
Over-Drying
Nothing good can come from over-drying your linen. It can shorten the life of the fabric, create a lot of static electricity making it hard to separate, and it will set wrinkles that will be hard to remove with ironing.
Retain Moisture for Finishing
If you do iron your linens, most commercial ironers require the linen to have a specified percentage of moisture. Be sure to check your ironer’s manual or speak to a professional about the ideal moisture levels for your ironer, in order to obtain the perfect finish for your linens.
