Washing at 60 for holiday lets
This may or may not be the wrong forum for this question but....
1. I have been told by someone I know that runs a pub with letting rooms that she must wash all bedlinen for her rooms on a 60 degree cycle. I don't know if this is by law, or because her pub chain demands it, and can't ask her unfortunately. I can't find any HSE guidance on the matter and wondered if anyone here knew? I can only assume this is for control of bacteria.
2. I run a holiday let business and we're expanding with three new shepherd's huts this year. We have decided to do our own laundry as we can't find a reliable, quality linen service locally, which means investing in several washing machines and tumble dryers. If I need to wash at 60 degrees, the cycle time will be a long one and I'd prefer to get the cleaners to come, strip the beds of duvet covers, sheets & pillow cases, gather towels and tea towels and towelling robes, and stick them in the wash so that by the time they've cleaned each hut, re-dressed it with fresh linen from store and so on, they can take the now-clean wash out and stick it in a dryer and leave it for us to retrieve later and send off for ironing (we won't do the ironing as we do have someone reliable for that). Hence:
a) Any recommendations for what drum size I should go for? Perhaps two machines with a 10kg drum, or three with a 6kg drum, or some other setup?
b) Any recommendations for what machine to buy, so that I can get a fast (but effective) wash at 60 degrees? The bigger machines all seem to take hours.
c) I read the article on hot fill versus cold fill. I assume that, if I could find a hot fill machine, I could save significant time by providing water that is already at the correct temperature?
Thanks for your help in advance!
Solution Summary
AI-generated from this discussion
This thread was marked as solved. Here's a summary of the problem and the fix, generated from the discussion below.
Advice on 60°C washing for holiday-let laundry
- The problem
- The poster asked whether bedlinen for holiday lets must be washed at 60°C, and wanted guidance on suitable washing machines, drum sizes and whether hot-fill would reduce cycle times for semi-commercial laundry use.
- Likely cause
- No legal or technical fault was discussed. The accepted reply suggested 60°C is commonly used to kill bacteria and bedbugs, but also noted many bedding items have care labels stating 40°C, so wash-label limits should be checked first.
- What fixed it
- The accepted advice was to check the care labels on all sheets, towels and other laundry items. If the labels allow 60°C, the recommendation was to wash at 60°C. For a holiday-let or semi-commercial setup, the advice was to use a real high-quality washing machine rather than standard domestic models, as lower-quality machines may wear out quickly. No specific machine, drum size or hot-fill solution was confirmed.
- Checks to try
- Checked whether bedding and laundry care labels permit 60°C washing
1 Answer
Hello Peter. Washing at 60° is supposed to kill bacteria and bedbugs. I always used to recommend everybody washed bedlinen and towels at 60°. However, I have recently realised that a lot of sheets and other laundry items have wash labels that state they should be washed at 40°. So the main thing I would do is check all wash labels on everything. If they say they can be washed at 60° then I would definitely do so. Washing at 60° would actually benefit your washing machine in that it will help to keep it free from bacteria and free from grease and grime that can quite quickly destroy any washing machine that is only ever used on low wash cycles.
If you're washing laundry in any semi-commercial capacity you need a real high quality washing machine or you will be constantly replacing them. All washing machines take hours by the way. It's the new method. Caused by machines trying to use as little water as possible whilst trying to achieve good wash label status.
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