Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Glasses washer

This is topic Glasses washer in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Melanie Loggins (Member # 6454) on 11-05-2014, 04:45 PM:

I'm ready to pull my hair out. My theatre is non-profit, and we're fundraising for a few big ticket items. The thing is, we need a dollar amount to attach to each item. The problem? I've called Ushio almost a dozen times to get a price on a 3D glasses washer and nobody will return my call. Does anyone have any experience with them? Is there a better number than the one on their website? And.... how much does one of these washers cost?

Posted by Sam D. Chavez (Member # 1841) on 11-05-2014, 06:41 PM:

I was talking to them in the Show east booth last week and a figure like $15,000 List was mentioned. Seems high to me but it is a washer and a dryer.

Knight makes a nice but big unit recommended by Dolby at closer to $10,000 net. price.

Both are 220 Volt 3 phase.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-05-2014, 07:01 PM:

If space or price is an issue, you can get the undercounter Knight model for under $5000. That's what we got. Takes about a third of the space of the bigger unit. I don't know the exact price because we had to buy a water heat booster with it so it was a package deal. But the whole package was just under 5k.

Posted by Melanie Loggins (Member # 6454) on 11-06-2014, 07:22 PM:

Mike, are you happy with the washer you have? $5k is closer to what we were thinking than the number I got today.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-06-2014, 11:06 PM:

Yes, the only "down side" to it is, it doesn't have the slide-across rack like the big fullsize system does. You have to open the door, pull the finished rack of glasses out and put the next dirty rackful in -- rather than just sliding them in/pushing the clean ones out at the same motion. But that's a minor thing. It works very well -- I think the actual washing action is the same on both machines.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 11-10-2014, 04:54 AM:

I'm just curious, but this Knight dishwasher gets the Dolby glasses clean without leaving a bunch of water stains on the glasses? Or do you still need to give them a good swipe one-by-one?

Also, does anyone have experience with the "Kooptech" brand of dishwashers USHIO seems to peddle around here?

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 11-10-2014, 06:40 AM:

Keeping the spots off seems to be a function of acidity, temperature, proper levels and also blow drying. If the glasses are given a quick blow dry after washing then seem to dry spotless.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 11-10-2014, 07:37 AM:

I'm not really a dishwasher guy, but I often notice the Dolby glasses coming out of the dishwasher with some water stains on them. They are easy enough to wipe off, but it's far from desirable.

First I thought it would be a problem with the water hardness, but after that was fixed by installing a proper filters, the stains remained, although their edges seem to have considerably "softened".

The brand of the detergents was changed twice and the service tech also looked into the possibility of shortening the drying cycle (which was a final suggestion by me). Unfortunately, the stains still remain and someone still has to give them a short rub (which is rather painstakingly boring work and therefore often neglected...).

So if somebody got a magic combo that's available in Europe, it would be interesting to know.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 11-10-2014, 01:28 PM:

Try giving them a quick blow dry after they come out of the washer.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 11-11-2014, 05:54 PM:

The blow-drying might get rid of the remaining water droplets. Although I don't think that's really the problem, I will relay the tip.