Hotel Laundry Chemicals: The Complete List

Quick answer: A hotel laundry runs on six chemical jobs: a main wash detergent, an alkali or booster for heavy soil, a bleach for whites (chlorine or oxygen), a sour or neutraliser in the final rinse, a softener for bath and bed linen, and starch for table linen and uniforms. Sort linen into bed, bath, food and beverage, and uniforms, and give each class its own programme.

The hotel laundry chemicals list

An on-premise laundry (OPL) in a hotel or hospital handles a narrow range of fabric, mostly cotton and polycotton, in large volumes. That makes the chemical shelf short and the programme discipline important. Here is the list, in the order the chemicals go into the machine.

1. Main wash detergent. The workhorse. A built commercial Laundry Detergent that handles body soil, food and general grime at 40 to 70 °C. It carries the surfactants and water-conditioning that make the rest of the programme work.
2. Alkali or booster. Used in general terms to raise wash pH and swell cotton fibres so heavy soil releases. Added with the detergent on heavily soiled loads such as kitchen uniforms and food and beverage linen; left out on lightly soiled bed linen. Dosing is by soil level, not by habit.
3. Bleach for whites. Two choices. Bleach (chlorine) is the standard for white cotton sheets, towels and napkins: fast, economical and the usual choice where a hygiene step is wanted. Oxy Bleach is the colour-safe oxygen alternative for coloured towels, polycotton and anywhere chlorine would damage the fibre or the colour.
4. Sour or neutraliser. A mild acid in the final rinse that brings the alkaline wash back to a skin-friendly pH, prevents the yellowing that residual alkali causes under the ironer, and removes any trace of chlorine. In general terms, every programme that uses alkali or chlorine should end with a sour.
5. Softener. A cationic Softener in the final rinse for towels, bathrobes and bed linen. It gives the hand feel guests notice, reduces static on polycotton and makes towels easier to fold.
6. Starch for table linen. A finishing Starch added at the last rinse or on the press for napkins, tablecloths, chef jackets and front-of-house uniforms. It gives the crisp body that food and beverage linen is judged on.

Two more sit beside the machine rather than in it: a Colour Fix for new coloured uniforms on their first few washes, and the spotting bottles described below. For a product-by-product explanation of the wash shelf, read laundry chemicals: names, uses and when to use each.

Linen classes and what each one gets

Mixing linen classes is the most common fault in a hotel laundry. Each class carries a different soil and needs a different programme.

Bed linen

Sheets, pillowcases and duvet covers. Light to medium body soil, mostly white. Programme: detergent, light alkali only if grey, chlorine bleach, sour, light softener. Finished on the flatwork ironer, so keep softener low or sheets slip on the rollers.

Bath linen

Towels, bath mats and robes. Heavy body soil, cosmetics and oil. Programme: detergent with alkali, chlorine bleach for whites or oxygen bleach for coloured, sour, full softener. Tumble dried, never ironed, so softener can run at the full dose.

Food and beverage linen

Napkins, tablecloths, chair covers and kitchen cloths. The heaviest soil in the building: grease, curry, wine, tea and food colour. Programme: detergent with full alkali, a pre-wash on kitchen cloths, chlorine bleach on white, sour, then starch. Turmeric and other food colours that survive the wash go to the spotting board; our guide on removing food stains at scale covers that workflow.

Uniforms

Housekeeping, front office, kitchen and engineering uniforms, mostly polycotton and often coloured. Programme: detergent, oxygen bleach not chlorine, sour, light softener or starch depending on the garment. Chef jackets are the exception: white, heavily greased, and usually run with the food and beverage class. Collar soil on front-office shirts is handled the same way as in a retail laundry; see removing sweat stains from shirt collars.

Dosing by linen weight

Hotel laundries dose by the dry weight of the load, usually in millilitres per kilogram of linen, and vary the dose by soil class rather than by linen class. Keep a written card at the machine for each programme: load weight, detergent, alkali, bleach, sour, softener or starch. A dosing pump with the card beside it removes most of the variation between shifts. Laundry chemical dosing: how much to use per load walks through the arithmetic and the common mistakes.

Hygiene considerations

In general terms, hotel and hospital laundries rely on three things for hygienic linen: wash temperature, a bleach step, and time in the wash. Chlorine bleach on white linen is the usual approach where a hygiene step is wanted, with temperature doing the rest. Beyond the chemicals, keep a clear separation between soiled and clean sides of the laundry, do not let clean linen touch soiled trolleys, and dry and store linen fully before it goes to the floor. Hospital laundries follow their own infection-control protocol, which takes precedence over any general guide, and that protocol typically sets the minimum temperature and bleach step per linen category.

A note on chlorine: it is hard on cotton over many cycles, and it must never meet an acid in the machine or a strong-smelling gas is released. Run the sour only after the bleach rinse has drained, which any standard programme already does.

Stocking the shelf

The whole hotel shelf is eight products: Laundry Detergent, Bleach, Oxy Bleach, Softener, Colour Fix and Starch from the wash and rinse range and finishing range, plus Spot Food and Spot Grease from the spotting system for the napkins and chef jackets that come out of the wash still marked. Alkali and sour are generic commodities that any local chemical trader stocks. Prices for every Purolix product are published per litre or per kg, GST 18% extra, and held till 31 December 2026, so a purchase manager can cost a month of linen without a phone call. For pack sizes and a dosing card for your machines, send us your monthly linen volume.