The Importance Of Washer Spin Speed

If you’re comparing commercial front-load washers, one of the most important features you should be looking out for is “g-force” or spin speed.

Spin speed is about more than washers leaving customers’ clothes too wet—though that’s important, too. Installing 200G or 400G machines over cheaper 100G machines might cost more up front, but long-term, the extra investment can be well worth it for the overall profitability of your laundromat. Why?

G-force is the measure of the centrifugal force that is exerted on laundry during the spin cycle. The higher the G-force, the more water is removed from laundry. The less water in laundry when it goes into the dryer, the shorter the dry time.

Shorter dry times benefit your bottom line in two ways. First, there’s the potential for added revenue from being able to accommodate more turns per day. Second, shorter dry times mean less energy consumed per turn, which can lead to noticeable energy savings.

Let’s look at the difference between a typical 100G machine and a 200G Maytag^® Commercial Laundry multi-load washer.

At the end of a typical cycle, a 100G machine has only removed about 28% of the water that has soaked into the clothes. A 200G machine removes about 40%. That difference in moisture content reduces drying time by 15% to 20% per load.

Over the course of a day, that reduction in dry time can mean 5% to 10% more turns for a laundromat. Over the course of the year, that can mean up to a 16% reduction in a laundromat’s energy costs. And that’s just the difference between 100G and 200G rigid-mount machines. Maytag Commercial Laundry soft-mount washers can reach speeds up to 400G.

What’s the difference between a soft-mount washer and a rigid- or hard-mount washer?

Rigid-mount washers don’t have a suspension system to absorb machine vibrations, so they need to be hard-mounted to a steel or concrete slab foundation to keep them from shaking.

Soft-mount washers don’t need to be bolted down because they are engineered with internal shock absorbers. Rigid-mount have a lower price tag, but higher installation costs; soft-mounts have a higher price tag but are easier to install.

Because built-in shock absorbers can handle more vibration than a concrete slab floor, soft-mount washers can also reach higher spin speeds—in other words, higher G-force—than rigid-mount machines.

The higher the spin speed, the more durable a washer needs to be, so we engineer our multi-load machines with heavy-duty components, from the outside down to the drive system. Talk to your local Maytag Commercial Laundry distributor to learn more about how the dependability and durability we build into our machines can help keep your business moving in the right direction.