Australia's Science Forum

For those of you that use cloths instead of/ as well as paper towel in the lab for cleaning - how do you get them laundered? Do you use an outside company, use a common work washing machine, a laboratory specific washing machine, or tkae them home and do them .

I use chux and toss them when they get too dirty

I have a washing machine and dryer only for Science use.

We use chux and toss. Although we do use the home ec. washing machine to launder our spare lab coats and the like.

I buy the really big rolls (I think of 100?) cheap chux from the warehouse, crazy clarks etc. Only costs about $5 and lasts for ages. Then they just get thrown out. We don't have a washing machine and our lab coats get washed at the end of each term (or earlier if needed - I've built up a supply so we have 'dissection lab coats' which can get washed straight away without affecting other classes).

I have about 6 "cloths" in each lab that came from Q stores many years ago that are made of recycled "stuff".

These are tossed if they get too disintergrated and otherwise washed periodically in the washing machine in the "IO support classroom" which has a machine in case of "accidents".

We use both cloths and paper towel and I have supplied chux, but it has run out I think. The cloths are washed in the Home Ec laundry once a term or more if needed. I used to take them home, but not for years now, and wouldn't do it again.

I wash our towels, lab coats and cloths in the home Ec washing machine, then pop into drier afterwards.
How do you manage without a washing machine? One place I worked in didnt have a washing machine, it was stressful, and towels hanging everywhere

Ocean Breeze wrote:How do you manage without a washing machine?

I asked for one once - I was even going to supply it!! (An old one that was still going strong) But nothing eventuated... Nowhere to put it I guess.

I ask because up till now they have been washed in the machine in the home ec laundry (Seperatly from the home ec cloths) but apparently home ec are getting narky that their cloths are somehow going to be contaminated by the highly diluted mLs of chemical on the science cloths, and are pushing to get a washing machine up here - I don't have any space to put the thing for one.

Maybe you could suggest that they do an empty cycle once a week or after you do your washing to remove any 'contaminants' and then have them read the ingredients for laundry detergent and see if they are still worried...

I mentioned to home ec about the laundry powder MSDS and the fact that they are diluted in about 200L of water and not in the same wash as home ec stuff. The response was" That's for the principal to decide "

my home ec people are also a bit precious and didnt even want the rep sports uniforms from PE to be washed in their machine. they now have a new machine and gave me the old machine (that has nothing wrong with it I might add) and I am happy to wash whatever in it for anyone but I dont have a dryer so everything I wash still has to go to home ec to go in their dryer. maybe they will buy a new dryer and I can have the old one.