
The City Dry Clean laundrette in Munich’s Karlstrasse now has nine Primus type “T13-HP” heat pump dryers.
Companies that claim to “care about the environment” in their advertising should back this up with real action. Primus, a major manufacturer of industrial washing machines, finishers and dryers with production based in the Czech Republic, put this motto into practice. The new “T-HP” generation of heat pump laundry dryers saves around two thirds of the primary energy compared to previous models. This is an important sales argument for operators of laundrettes or self-service laundrettes, as energy costs make up a large proportion of the operating costs here.
One of the companies impressed by Primus’s appliances was Firbitex GmbH. The family-owned company from Munich runs twelve laundrettes under the “City Dry Clean” brand. The cleaning specialist is gradually upgrading its laundrettes to Primus dryers and washing machines. Ten have already been upgraded with the remaining two due to follow in 2015. Director of Operations Mario Leitner: “The devices’ potential for saving energy and lowering costs is clear to see.” He was also convinced by the machines’ reliability.
“The devices’ potential for saving energy and lowering costs is clear to see.”
Mario Leitner, Director of Operations FIRBITEX GMBH
Firbitex was therefore ready for a European premiere. The City Dry Clean laundrette in Munich’s Karlstrasse now has nine type “T13-HP” heat pump dryers being used every day, the first to be fitted in a self-service laundrette. Each dryer has a drum volume of 285 litres and can hold 13 kilograms of laundry. The fan drive provides 0.2 kilowatts of power, with the drum motor providing 0.25 kilowatts.

Primus heat pump dryers are more efficient. Especially launderettes could benefit from new devices.
The new dryer design, which Primus calls EVO4 technology, is based on performing the drying process in a closed system, the use of a heat pump and energy-efficient EC fan and a low connected load of less than four kilowatt hours at 16 amps.
Petr Opavsky, chief engineer at Primus: “In standard dryers, the connected load is generally between ten and 25 kilowatt hours, which is significantly higher than our appliance.” In addition to the low consumption values, Primus achieves savings by removing the unnecessary extraction installation and not using a large electrical connection. When looking for the right fan components, Primus found what they were looking for in ebm-papst.
“The use of EC technology was a premiere for us. The fans passed the test with flying colours.”
Mario Leitner, Director of Operations FIRBITEX GMBH
The specifications made some tough requirements. In addition to a high humidity protection class, temperature resistance up to 60 degrees Celsius and an air flow of at least 800 cubic metres per hour at 750 pascals of pressure increase were needed.
ebm-papst had the right fan for the job in the shape of a 250-millimetre, medium-pressure RadiPac centrifugal fan with a power consumption of 490 watts. A test installation in 150 machines of the previous series proved its suitability.
Petr Opavsky from Primus verifies: “The use of EC technology was a premiere for us. The fans passed the test with flying colours.” In addition, the installed RadiPac with the efficiency class 71 also exceeds the specifications of the ErP Directive for 2015.
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