Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110

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Girbau washer saves the day at RNLI's busiest lifeboat station

Girbau UK has donated one of its HS-6008 high speed washers to the RNLI's Tower Lifeboat Station, the busiest in the country. The new washer is perfect for coping with the station's large volume of laundry that needs cleaning on a daily basis and crucially provides reliable high-temperature disinfection as well.

"Tower Lifeboat in central London is the busiest station in the RNLI and is manned 24/7 with a crew and boat ready to launch in 90 seconds," says Keith Cima, RNLI Thames Helmsman, (pictured, courtesy of photographer Pierre Maelzer).

"The laundry throughput for both crew and casualties is prodigious, and needs high temperature to deal with river water and other contamination and a robust reliable machine. The donation of a machine from Girbau has revolutionised our laundry arrangements and is massively appreciated by all the crew."

Based next to Waterloo Bridge, the lifeboat station saves lives and responds to emergencies between Woolwich Ferry and Battersea Bridge, nearly 14 miles of River Thames. The station has had over 6,000 call outs since 2002 and saved more than 275 lives. It rescues hundreds from the river each year using its 10.5m E-class Mk 2 In-shore Lifeboat with 850HP of twin-jet drive and a speed of 45 knots, the fastest craft plying the river. The station operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout the year with two full-time and two volunteer crew on every 12-hour shift.

The station's washer was in constant use cleaning the large heavy-duty towels and blankets used to dry and warm people pulled from the water. It is also used to wash the crew's underlayers and thermals. Previously the crew had been using a domestic machine, but this could neither cope with the volume and intensity of use, nor provide the required high temperature disinfection.

Girbau UK donated one of its commercial HS-6008 washers to the station in response to an appeal by Stuart Boyd, the Master of the Worshipful Company of Launderers. Stuart has chosen the RNLI Tower Lifeboat station as the charity the Company will support in his year as Master.

Peter Marsh, managing director of Girbau UK, explains: "When we heard about the tireless work of the RNLI's Tower Lifeboat station, we were only too pleased to be able to offer our support in the form of a Girbau HS-6008 washer."

The 9kg capacity high spin washer has been top-rated for energy efficiency by US body Energy Star. Like all Girbau machines it is very robustly built to ensure years of continuous use with minimal routine maintenance. Among its many wash programs for different materials and types of washing are high temperature disinfection programs needed for healthcare applications. Its intuitive controls also make the machine very easy to use.

Girbau UK is part of the Girbau Group, a world-leading manufacturer of commercial and industrial laundry equipment for washing, finishing and handling textiles. With more than 55 years' experience and a commitment to customer service, Girbau meets the requirements of a wide variety of industries including hotels and guest houses, residential and nursing homes, hospitals, charities, leisure organisations, colleges, schools, sheltered housing, the emergency services, hairdressers, veterinary surgeries, kennels and catteries.

Girbau UK offers a free laundry design service and its service department caters for all makes and models of commercial laundry equipment.

T: 01462 427780
E: [email protected]
W: www.girbau.co.uk

17th November 2016