It is essential to use the right commercial laundry chemicals and detergents in your commercial washing machine. The majority of people, however, only use regular laundry detergent and softeners. Most people do not even know there are more commercial laundry chemicals available that you should know about. Therefore we put together this guide to help you figure out which ones are most suitable for your laundry. Here is the list of commercial laundry chemical products that you want to know (click on chemicals to learn more):
Laundry Detergent
What is the difference between powder and liquid laundry detergent?
Several factors are involved in determining when to use which types of laundry detergent – powder laundry detergent or liquid laundry detergent? These factors include the types of stains you’re dealing with, what kind of water you have, and what kind of washing machine you own. There are some laundry machines that can only handle one type of laundry, so make sure to check your machine. If your machine may be capable of both, you will need to consider what sort of stain you are usually dealing with. In general, powder detergents are better at removing mud or clay stains, while liquid detergents are better at breaking down oil and grease stains. Powders have a tendency to leave a residue on clothes whereas liquid detergents don’t because they dissolve better in water. This is a big factor if your machine can’t handle a clog in the pipeline and drums. Hence, it is recommended to use liquid detergent instead of powder detergent for your daily commercial laundry except if you handle a lot of mud and clay stains. The liquid form is the preferred industrial laundry detergent as quicker to dissolve with the water.
ORAPI RECOMMENDS:
EVALUATE is specifically designed as a heavy-duty alkaline commercial laundry break wash detergent for use where badly soiled and fouled linen is encountered. EVALUATE is suitable for both ringmains and manual dosing generation. It is a concerned blend of alkaline salts to ensure maximum removal of blood, fats, oils etc.
ORAPI RECOMMENDS:
VIPER PLUS is a powerful commercial liquid detergent developed for commercial and or on-premise laundries. It is formulated with sophisticated surfactants, and optical brighteners to provide effective penetration and emulsification of soils from natural and synthetic fabrics while maintaining maximum whiteness.
What is the difference between biological detergent and non-biological detergent?
Basically, biological commercial detergents are weaker than non-biological commercial detergents, and they require certain conditions to be effective. Biological detergents need to contain enzymes to boost cleaning performance and these enzymes have to be at low temperatures (30°C – 50°C) in order to work effectively. While non-biological detergents don’t need enzymes instead they contain powerful cleaning agents that ensure your washing comes out clean and fresh. It depends on your preference if you want to take the biological route, but you will be able to sacrifice some level of efficiency and effectiveness. than you can use biological laundry detergent.
Alkaline Builder Detergent
What is an alkaline builder detergent?
An alkaline builder detergent really isn’t a detergent; it’s more of a foundation for your existing laundry detergent. When combined with laundry detergent, it helps combat hard water and high iron levels. Hard water is a mixture of tough stains that interact with the chemicals in your washing water. This can reduce the performance of your commercial cleaning chemicals. By introducing an alkaline builder into the wash, the pH of the wash solution will increase. This and the special sequestering agents produced by the alkaline builder detergent will attack iron and scale formation. It is particularly helpful if you have blood, heavy grease, oils and stains.
ORAPI RECOMMENDS:
MAGNUM is a concentrated commercial alkali builder developed for Washer Extractors, Tunnel Washers and single dose point machines operating in hard water regions and under broad temperature range. MAGNUM contains special sequestering agents to inhibit against high iron and scale formation.
Laundry Destainer
What is destainer?
Destainer is commonly used in the rewashing process to remove tough metallic stains (iron and copper) that are built up from contaminated water supplies over frequent washes and linens. Metallic stains usually come in a form of blood residues and medical soils. Most people usually associate destainer with bleach which is not. While destainer typically contains acidic properties which usually colour safe, bleach typically contains sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide.
What are the types of destainers?
There are 3 types of destrainer to choose from depending on your needs, either in powder form, liquid form or spray form. For stubborn stains on commercial laundry, it is recommended to use a liquid destainer which can safely remove stubborn stains such as tea, coffee and bodily fluids. To be effective, however, this usually requires high temperatures (50°C and above). If your linens can only be washed at lower temperatures (20°C – 40°C) then make sure you use a low-temperature destainer designed for these temperatures which can be used on all types of fabric. As for powdered laundry destrainer, it is more colour safe as it is not able to penetrate the fibres of the linen.
ORAPI RECOMMENDS:
REFLEX is an acidic salt, formulated for the removal of metallic stains (iron and copper) that are built up from contaminated water supplies over frequent washes.
ORAPI RECOMMENDS:
RENEW is specifically designed for the rewash process to remove blood or iron/metal stains from fabric. It replaces traditional Oxalic Acid powder. It will also remove any residual alkalis and detergents to considerably lift fabric appearance
On the other hand, spray form is used to remove stains on direct contact and should be applied immediately after the stain is being smeared onto the linen. More about the used case for linen destainer spray.
Bleach
What is bleach?
Bleach is also not a detergent and should never use be used as a replacement for detergent. Essentially, bleach is a laundry aid that removes tough stains from clothing by converting soils into colourless, soluble particles that are easily removed by detergents, and then carried away in the wash water.
Why choose bleach?
Then why do people still choose bleach over destainer if the destainer has the same properties to remove tough stains and is more colour safe to remove stains on linen? While bleach and destainer are often being confused as both used to remove tough stains from linen in a similar way. It is the chemical implementation of how they break down soil differ from each other. While destainer uses oxalic acid, bleach uses sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide which is much more evasive resulting in it also removing the colour from linen. The answer behind why people opt to choose bleach over destainer lies in the whitening and brightening effect that bleach has on white linen or clothing. With this whitening effect, your linen will look as good as new. However, white linen should not be treated with bleach, especially chlorine bleach (sodium hypochlorite). Factors such as the fabric’s fiber content (including silk, wool, mohair and spandex), finishes (such as the flame-retardant finish on children’s nightclothes) and certain trims will affect the item’s suitability for bleach.
Chlorine bleach vs Oxygen bleach?
There are two types of bleach. One is chlorine bleach which contains sodium hypochlorite and another is oxygen bleach which contains hydrogen peroxide. Chlorine bleach usually comes in liquid form, but it can occasionally be found in powdered form. This type of bleach is very powerful as it will wash colour, kill odour and also it disinfects linen. However, it isn’t safe for many fabric types, especially coloured linen. Where else oxygen bleach is safer for use on most fabrics and more colour-safe as it is weaker in strength.
ORAPI RECOMMENDS:
OPINION finds widespread applications in anywhere where anti-bacterial properties are needed to ensure the maintenance of hygienic standards. Other uses include deodorizing of sinks, drains and refuse areas and general purpose stain removal on sinks, toilets, tiles, crockery and white linen.
ORAPI RECOMMENDS:
GAMMA is a concentrated peroxide based bleach, formulated for washer extractors and tunnels washers in all industrial laundry. GAMMA provides a high and extremely stable level of whiteness. Reduces process times and fabric degradation.
Neutraliser
What is a neutraliser and when to use it?
Neutralisers help to neutralise the makeup of the solution in the wash and restore linens to their proper pH even in extremely hard water. For example, after the process of bleaching, the chlorine agent will be baked into the white bed of the sheet and because chlorine is not good for skin, you would need a neutraliser to neutralise the chlorine out before someone can use the bed sheet. At the same time, it will also improve the efficiency of the softeners and starches if it is used in the final rinse and it usually use in commercial laundry. Implementing a neutraliser will also prolong the quality of the linens.
ORAPI RECOMMENDS:
LIQUID CHLOREXIT is an effective bleach neutralizing agent specifically designed to inactivate all traces of chlorine, which may be carried over into the laundry rinse operations.
Starch
What is starch?
Laundry starch usually made from rice or wheat. Starch is often used after the final rinse for adding body to fabrics, creating soil resistance, making soil removal easier, and making ironing easier. It provides crispness when ironed and keeps the linen looking clean and neat.
ORAPI RECOMMENDS:
MONOGRAM is a laundry starch formulated to disperse easily in cold water and form a homogenous paste after cooking. It can be used either cooked or uncooked (raw).
When should I use starch?
Starch is ideal when you are laundering chef whites, table linens or other flatwork. Liquid laundry starch gets deep into the fibres of your fabric for a crisp finish. Additionally. it also makings ironing easier helping reduce turnaround times.
Fabric Softeners
Why and when do you need fabric softeners?
When you do your laundry, especially machine laundry, you are putting stress on your linen, particularly natural fibres such as cotton and wool. This will cause wear and tear on the linen and reduce its quality. What fabric softener does is lightly condition each fibre of the linen to maintain its natural elasticity. When the fibre is more elastic it is able to withstand the pulling and twisting of doing laundry better without tearing the fibre. Fabric softener also helps prevent static and reduce creasing when ironing, thus getting the job done quicker. With more and more retail stores selling fabric softeners. Many people assume that fabric softener is a detergent or should be used together with detergent however they are wrong. Similar to bleach it is a laundry aid and should be used during rinse cycle. Only use fabric softeners if you want the quality of the linen to last longer.
ORAPI RECOMMENDS:
IMPORT is a phosphate-free concentrated liquid fabric softener and conditioner designed for minimal environmental impact. It imparts luxurious fluffiness, smoothness and softness to cotton and cotton/poly fabric blends leaving a fresh and clean scent.
Laundry Emulsifier
What is a laundry emulsifier?
An emulsifier is essential when you are laundering linens that are heavily soiled with grease, fat or oils from environments such as kitchens, spas and sports activities. Rather than breaking down soil like the previous chemical, this chemical solubilizes blood, fats and oils stains by allowing oil and water to mix. This lifts and separates the soil from the linen before they are removed during the Wash cycle. So it will be used during the Pre-wash or Pre-soak cycle and usually used in commercial laundry.
ORAPI RECOMMENDS:
ENZY-SOLV is a low temperature phosphate free emulsifying additive, formulated for pre-soaking and prewashing operations in industrial laundries. ENZY-SOLV reinforces the detergency activity of the washing process.
Disinfectant
Why use disinfectants?
Even since Covid-19, additional measures have been taken to prevent the spreading of viruses, especially in the hospitality industry. One of these measures involves disinfecting properties and assets before they are used by anyone, this includes linen. And it is no brainer, that it now one of the essential products you will need for your laundry. Finding a disinfectant for laundry is not an easy task. Nevertheless, you don’t need to worry, we’ve got you covered. Our disinfectant are tested and certified to disinfect linen to ensure safety to your customers.
ORAPI RECOMMENDS:
DESILINE AF is a wide spectrum disinfectant with fragrance.
DESILINE AF is effective against gram positive and gram negative
organisms. It is used for disinfecting after thorough cleaning and rinsing
