Guide
Commercial laundry equipment: sizing, gas or electric, buy or lease
Updated
Machines get chosen on capacity and bought on price. The costs that hurt later are throughput, drying energy and the services the room does not have yet.
Size on the peak day, not the average
Weekly kilos tell a supplier which machine family to quote. The peak day tells you whether the laundry actually works. Take your busiest realistic day, divide by the machine capacity, multiply by the cycle time and see whether that fits in the hours somebody is there to load it. Then ask the same question with one machine out of service, because that is the day that decides whether you needed two smaller machines instead of one big one.
- Washer-extractor capacity is quoted in kilograms of dry load. Real loads run below the rated figure once you allow for bulky items.
- Spin speed matters more than it sounds. A higher G-force extract takes more water out, which cuts dryer time, which cuts the biggest energy line in the room.
- Match dryer capacity to washer capacity. An undersized dryer turns into the bottleneck the moment volume rises.
- Stacked machines save floor area and cost more per kilo of capacity.
- Ironing and finishing is a separate decision and a separate machine. Flatwork ironers are the usual reason a hotel keeps laundry in-house or sends it out.
Gas or electric drying, the running-cost fork
Drying dominates the energy bill in an on-premises laundry. Gas dryers generally cost less per cycle to run than electric ones at UK commercial tariffs, and cost more to install because they need a gas supply, a flue and a competent installer. Work in gas fittings and appliances is subject to the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, and HSE explains the duties on businesses and landlords in its gas safety guidance. Do not let a supplier quote a gas dryer without also quoting the pipework, flue and commissioning.
- Ask for cost per cycle at your tariffs, not at a generic national rate, for both options.
- Ask for the installation delta, gas supply and flue included, so you can see the payback period.
- Heat pump dryers cut electricity dramatically but run longer cycles, which trades energy for throughput. Model that against your peak day.
- Ventilation and make-up air are part of the job. A dryer starved of air is slow, expensive and a fire risk, and lint management is a maintenance task, not an optional one.
What the room needs before the machines arrive
- Water. Flow and pressure to fill machines in the time the cycle assumes. Extending or altering a water system in premises other than a house is notifiable in advance to your water undertaker under regulation 5 of the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999, and all fittings must comply with those Regulations. Your installer should confirm the backflow protection appropriate to the risk with the water undertaker.
- Drainage. A washer-extractor dumps a lot of water very fast. A drain that copes with a domestic machine may not cope with this.
- Power. Three-phase supply is common for larger machines and is a real cost if the building does not have it.
- Floor and access. Loaded machine weight, vibration and getting the thing through the door.
- Layout. A clean flow from dirty in to clean out, which in care settings is a requirement, not a nicety.
Buy, lease or rent
| Route | Best for | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Buy outright | Long ownership, steady volume, available capital | Worst for cash flow, and servicing and replacement are on you |
| Lease or hire purchase | Spreading capital cost while ending up owning the machine | Total paid exceeds the purchase price; check the end-of-term position |
| Rental with service included | Predictable monthly cost, no maintenance risk, easy exit at term | Highest total cost, and you own nothing at the end |
Whichever route, ask for the same three numbers: total paid over the full term, what happens at the end of the term, and what leaving early costs. A rental quote that looks cheap monthly and a purchase quote that looks expensive today are the same decision viewed over different periods.
We do not publish machine prices. Capacity, specification, disinfection capability, finance term and installation scope move them too far for a figure on a web page to help. Get quotes against your peak-day volume and your actual room.