BY JOHN PEDRIANES

When the management team of The Breakers Palm Beach decided to make additional upgrades to their laundry facilities they only had one problem: space.

With limited access and only 4500 Sq Ft of laundry room space to service 540 guest rooms, there were legitimate challenges in reconfiguring the space. From support pillars and low ceilings to hallways, it appeared at first to be an impossible undertaking… one that could have potentially shut down their laundry operation for weeks, while they expanded to accommodate the dimensions of the new equipment.

As a result of these complex challenges The Breakers Palm Beach turned to their longtime Steiner-Atlantic laundry consultants Ralph Tuccillo and Jimmy Goulet for solutions that would meet the resort’s increased laundry demands and overcome the space restrictions without compromising quality.

“We took a good long look at The Breakers laundry operation, made the necessary calculations and met with our Sizing and Design Team at Steiner-Atlantic headquarters in Miami. In addition to assessing The Breakers current laundry needs, we took into consideration their future plans and came up with a comprehensive package that would meet their goals of increased output and further their environmental initiatives” said Ralph Tuccillo of Steiner-Atlantic.

The Steiner-Atlantic team had to determine how to get the large commercial equipment into the laundry area, instruct The Breakers contractors on the new equipment’s utility requirements and how to connect all utilities and ductwork to the laundry equipment.The Steiner-Atlantic team only took five days to complete the installation -- two full days ahead of schedule. Vice-President of Operations Zach Mangones put it best when asked about the complex challenges that were involved in this project; “this is what we’ve been doing since 1959, just another day at the office.”

To overcome space issues related to the installation, the new equipment was custom designed, shipped in knockdown format and re-assembled onsite.  For example, Steiner-Atlantic’s Sizing and Design Team successfully installed the eco-friendly Chicago Powerhouse Century 5200 II, a self-contained, gas heated, thermal fluid deep chest flatwork ironer with a sealed system that does not require an outside source of energy for heat. “After assembling the custom iron onsite, we actually mounted the entire CHI Microprocessor control panel with full diagnostics on a wall that was 15 feet away from the actual ironer,” said Tuccillo.

The new equipment installed included:

·          1 Chicago Powerhouse Century 5200 II Self Contained Thermal Ironer

·          1 Chicago Skyline 2000 4 Lane Folder

·          2 ADC 310 Gas Fired Dryers

·          1 Energenics Space Saver 15,000 CFM Lint Filter

·          1 Energenics 5000 Lint Scrubber

·          1 Unipress Automatic Legger

·          1 Unipress Auto Pants Topper

·          1 Unipress Utility Press

·          1 Unipress Air Steam Finisher

·          1 Rema Central Vacuum

The Breakers as it stands today was built in 1926 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Over the last decade, the resort has invested $250 million in its ongoing revitalization and expansion.  With the commitment of its original ownership, capital expenditures averaging $20 million a year are reinvested into The Breakers for the long term, to ensure the resort remains appealing to future generations. For more information on laundry design click button below