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Washing With Polymer Beads  


DANVERS, Mass. — When aging washers at the North Shore Hotel needed to be replaced, General Manager, Chad Hanson saw it as an opportunity reduce the facility’s water usage.

The hotel laundry was processing approximately 30 loads of sheets, towels and meeting room linens for the 134 room hotel in two 65-pound washers daily.

“We were working with 19-year-old machines that had issues requiring a good amount of down time for repairs,” Hanson says. “I received an ad about Xeros and quite honestly, I thought it was too good to be true.”
Xeros washing machines replace most of the water used in wash cycles with polymer beads. Those beads act as ‘magnets’ for dirt in an environmentally friendly process that cuts water usage by up to 80% and dramatically reduces energy and detergent usage, according to the company.

“Everyone here, management and staff were skeptical,” he adds. “So we dropped it and kept searching.”

Regardless, when Hanson received a call from a Xeros sales rep a week or so later, he said wanted to see the machines in action and he wanted to personally inspect the cleaned linens.  So the Xeros rep directed him to a nearby 24/7 laundry that processed restaurant and hotel goods using the polymer technology.

“I made the trip with my Chief Engineer and we were sold,” Hanson says. “The laundry was clean and smelled fantastic. It was also dryer since less water was used in the process so the laundry was saving on energy too.”

So in 2014, Hanson replaced his washers with two Xeros washers – a purchase for which he has no regrets. Recalling the smooth transition from traditional washers to the new technology he says, “English is not the first language for many of our attendants, but Xeros service reps set up key pad touch screens with translations which made things easy. The learning curve was more about how to load the drum to leave space for the beads. After that, you shut the door and press button one for sheets, button two for towels, etc.  It’s that easy.”

According to Hanson, his laundry is now saving time and money.

“With our old machines, depending on the cycle, we were using anywhere from 100-120 gallons of water per cycle.  Now our machines handle approximately 80 pounds and water usage runs between 25-30 gallons per cycle,” he says. “We’re saving over 2,000 gallons of water daily.  Additionally, dry time for towels has been reduced by four minutes per cycle and for sheets approximately 3 minutes are saved per cycle.”

And when the dry cycle ends, Hanson is pleased with the outcome.

Since we’ve had the new machines, we’ve had no issues with stains,” he says. “That may be because when Xeros set up the machines, they tested the water so every cycle is custom programmed.”

Hanson cites additional benefits from the new technology. “The bead process is more gentle on terry and towels so they’re softer longer and you get more cycles out of them,” he says. “We’ve been extremely happy with our Xeros experience. It’s been a great move from our old washers to the new equipment.”

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Image Above:
Back row L to R: Nilson Aponte, Jr., Elizabeth Diaz del Jesus
Front Row L to R: Ysabel Moya, Melania Martinez, Ana Del Jesus Arias, Adriana Ubiera