Back to the Lab
Maytag® Commercial Laundry narrows in on product testing
Reliability, as those in commercial laundry are keenly aware of, is a critical element when it comes to evaluating commercial products. With heavy-duty loads and continual cycles and usage, a washer or dryer’s ability to withstand the extraordinary demands placed on them is paramount. And from a design and manufacturing perspective, ensuring that reliability is built into each machine entails that advanced technologies and innovations are being utilized throughout the entire research process and product development.
At Maytag® Commercial Laundry, product testing is an important step in ensuring our customer’s expectations are met. In speaking with Maytag representatives, conversations revolve around ensuring components and products are reliable and dependable. In an industry where laundry equipment needs to be up to the task on a daily basis, Maytag® Commercial Laundry engineers understand the importance of every test they perform, both inside and outside of the lab.
Senior Product Development Manager, Eric DeJong, works closely with Maytag® Commercial Laundry engineers and staff at manufacturing facilities – giving him an inside perspective at what the current testing situation looks like. And when describing what the team’s focus is in the lab, he simply stated, “We’re never satisfied.” He explains that Maytag has set out to raise the bar on the performance of all of their products, with improvements in reliability, serviceability, and durability leading the charge. From real-life testing scenarios in the lab to placing machines in the market for consumers and end users to run, DeJong sees firsthand how Maytag is working to ensure their products are making the grade.
“We put them in the marketplace to be run by customers and end users,” DeJong said. “We want real-life feedback from the environment they would live in.”
He explains it’s these processes that help Maytag make claims like, “the DuraCore Drive System is designed and tested to run 15,000 cycles,*” for their MHN33 washer. “The MHN33 is such a prize story for our engineers,” DeJong said, “and they’re still testing it to learn and grow from its success rate.”
With a washer’s drive system being one of the most difficult and expensive components to service, DeJong firmly believes that this machine’s reliability will help give Maytag® Commercial Laundry customers confidence in the brand. “We had an expectation to make a great drive system,” he said, “and we ended up making something spectacular.”
The MHN33 and MAT20 are recent products from Maytag® Commercial Laundry that have only been available for the last couple of years. In addition to their reliable drives and durable construction, engineers have designed these machines to be more aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly. “We’ve added more cycle options, improved spin-out performances to be more consistent, and provided more flexible, revenue-generating controls,” DeJong explained. “And on the MHN33, we’ve made incremental enhancements to the accelerometer and pump routine that have had a tremendous impact on our cycle accuracies and overall drive system performance.”
In an industry that’s becoming more competitive with every advancement in technology, DeJong trusts that Maytag® Commercial Laundry's ability to do the little things right is what will give them success into the future. “By listening to customers and having a working relationship with the people who are using our products, our engineers and designers are making the changes needed to continue to build better, more dependable machines,” he said. “We’re a world-class organization with a lot of resources, and we’re taking advantage of that by gathering insights, using customer feedback, and analyzing testing results to make dependable products that can go through the rigors required in the commercial laundry industry.”
*Based on 11-lb load, 34 min. timed cycle, Heavy Soil
