Preventing Laundry Fires

Keeping your lint exhausts clear is important, but there are other things to know about preventing laundry fires.


Any of our customers who have a laundry operation in their building know that Airways advocates regular cleaning of your laundry exhaust ducts, because lint buildup inside those ducts wastes energy, makes it harder to get clothes dry, and, most importantly, is a fire hazard.


But the lint in the duct is not the only fire hazard associated with a commercial laundry operation.  Improper maintenance of dryers can create sparks which set a fire.  And improper handling of the linens being dried – or trying to dry rubberized materials, or materials with any leftover flammable substances in them such as grease – can lead to fires.


Perhaps surprisingly, under the right circumstances (or maybe we should say under the wrong circumstances), linens can spontaneously combust – even hours after they have been removed from the dryer.


You might find the following articles interesting, and one of them might just save you from a fire.  Airways has no affiliation with the companies that published them.


This article from the Zurich American Insurance Company gives a basic introduction to the various possible causes of laundry fires and offers some best practices to control them.


This article from HK Laundry Equipment is somewhat more technically oriented.  It gives a more detailed description of how spontaneous combustion can happen.  It is primarily aimed at owners of coin-operated laundromats, but its information is applicable to any commercial laundry operation.

We can help on the parts about keeping your exhaust ducts clear.  

Call us at 630-595-4242 if you have any needs.  Have a great summer!