New Shirt Finishing Equipment vs. Used Shirt Finishing Equipment 7/12/2018

Several years ago, the shirt unit evolved from the traditional 3-piece unit (body, collar & cuff, and sleever) to the 2-piece tensioning body and collar & cuff.  Over time, manufacturers perfected the tensioning body with sleeve pleat presses, rear shirt body tensioning, and larger side expansion for bigger shirts.  In fact, the early tensioning units do better than most top-of-the-line 3-piece units, in my opinion, because the shirts aren’t handled as much, which leads to wrinkling of the pressed part of the shirt while it’s waiting for the next step. 

A unit from 2005 that doesn’t have the tail body tensioning feature or the sleeve pleat pressing option will do a beautiful shirt, and if your customers demand a pressed sleeve pleat (I think we as operators want this more than customers), then you can touch it with an iron.  Bottom line, a tensioning shirt unit operating as it should doesn’t do a better shirt than a 1992 3-piece, unless of course you’re in Texas doing Cowboy shirts.  (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

So, you’re reading this and thinking you might need to upgrade.  Well, a new single buck from Unipress or Sankosha lists at $40,000 plus, depending on your negotiating skills, and a double buck lists in the mid to upper 50’s.  How can you justify that kind of money?  It really depends on your shirt volume, cost, and return on investment.  If you’re doing 2,000 – 4,000 shirts a week, the first question you should ask is do I need a single buck or a double buck?  But if your business is small and shirt volume is less than 1,500 per week, then going with a good-quality used unit makes sense.  

You can purchase a refurbished single buck tensioning unit with steam blown sleeves, rebuilt valves, replaced hoses, re-padded to factory padding, and checked for wear issues for $7,500 to $17,000 and a double from $7,500 to $25,000, with a 6 month parts-only warranty from Tri-State Laundry Equipment.

Now that makes a much faster return on investment while still putting you in the realm of new technology with parts availability, machine reliability, quality product, and customer happiness…..sounds pretty good, huh?  To check out Tri-State’s inventory of used finishing equipment, call us at 866-885-5218 or click the link below:

http://tristatelaundryequipment.com/c-7-dry-cleaning-used-equipment.aspx