[labnetwork] launderable cleanroom clothing

[Jeffrey Salzmann]

Shane,

Cintas was excellent when their services were done out of Columbus, OH…now they’re working out of Syracuse, NY and its about the same as you’ve described- mixed in with garments going to different parts of the university, hairs (!) in the cleanroom garments, non-campus customer’s garments in our bags, billing issues, etc. Cintas was also problematic with my previous employer, located nearby.

Customer service on their end basically means they’ll acknowledge your concerns and take no further action.

If anyone has positive experiences with NY state vendors, please let me know!!


Jeff Salzmann
Assistant Professor of Research
Cleanroom Manager, Shared Instrumentation Laboratories
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
University at Buffalo
114A Davis Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260
Tel: 716.645.2584
Email: jks7 at buffalo.edu<mailto:jks7 at buffalo.edu>
Shared Facilities: http://buffalo.edu/shared-facilities-equip



From: labnetwork <labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu> On Behalf Of N Shane Patrick
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2023 6:39 AM
To: Dennis Schweiger <schweig at umich.edu>
Cc: Fab Network <labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu>
Subject: Re: [labnetwork] launderable cleanroom clothing

Hi Dennis,

And with full knowledge and maybe a slightly vindictive hope that some of these companies are listening - it’s our opinion that there are no good cleanroom laundry vendors.

We went through this process when our contract with Cintas came up for renewal about 2 years ago. In terms of laundry quality we had no particular issues with that, but we did have issues with laundry going missing, laundry from a different group getting sent to us, poor communication, a steady creep in invoiced amounts, and at one point they added a different department here to our billing without confirming with us. To be fair, the managers of their cleanroom division have been promptly communicative and have always tried to work with us to fix the problem of the month. Communication wise I’d probably still prefer them.

And regardless, all of that would still be better that Aramark who never even returned our requests for quotes and the like.

Currently we are in an agreement with Prudential Cleanroom Services. Pricing and laundry quality has been great. I’ve got a couple of items that belong to someone else mixed in, but not too bad. Our biggest complaint with them has been that there was a major disagreement at the start of the contract about what we thought we ordered and what the paperwork said - at least part of that was on us - and it has been nearly impossible to get responses from the sales lead since the original contact negotiations, even if what I want to talk about is potentially giving them more money. I feel like they may have grown too quickly, at least their west coast arm, and are struggling to manage that. But that’s a feeling because no one will speak with me enough to confirm or deny it.

I know some places do their own laundry at this point. That might be best if you have the space and infrastructure.

At the end of the day, it really seems like they all have their problems, sharing many of the same problems even, and that there is no “easy to work with” option. At this point I essentially feel like I need to micromanage the process regardless of who is doing the service. I’ll review my documents and comment on pricing to you separately.

Best of luck. Really curious if this sentiment is general across this list or just us…

-N. Shane Patrick
Manager, Lab Operations and Safety
Washington Nanofabrication Facility
University of Washington
Seattle, WA
Sent from my iPhone


On Sep 19, 2023, at 7:24 PM, Dennis Schweiger <schweig at umich.edu<mailto:schweig at umich.edu>> wrote:

Good afternoon all,

Here at the University of Michigan/LNF we've been using launderable garments for many years (Cintas is the provider).  We've had mostly good success, and our vendor has helped us to incorporate a simple suit modification to allow for better identification of individuals when they are in full garb.  As part of our due diligence for keeping costs under control, we'd be interested in comparing notes with other Universities that are also using an outside company to provide your laundry service.  Currently our laundry costs run us about $52K/year and we're laundering roughly 500 pieces of clothing every week.

Thank you,

Dennis Schweiger
University of Michigan/LNF

734.647.2055 Ofc

"People can be divided into 3 groups - those that make things happen, those that watch things happen, and those that wonder what happened."  Within which group do you belong?
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