NFPA 1850 / 1851 turnout-gear wash cycles, dedicated PPE extractors, and the UniMac UTGC drying cabinet — specified, installed, maintained and repaired from Jackson, NJ.
Request a PPE-Room QuoteTurnout gear is not hotel linen. HM Commercial Laundry specifies dedicated washer-extractors with programmable fire-industry cycles, plus purpose-built drying, so a station can meet NFPA 1850 cleaning frequency, temperature and G-force limits, and documentation without sharing a cylinder with station uniforms. We sell and install UniMac equipment and independently repair washer-extractors and dryers of every major brand from 647 Herman Road #3, Jackson, NJ.
Request a quote for a single-station room or a multi-station central gear laundry. For service on a machine already in the bay, contact us or call (732) 681-0500.
Holds 6 full sets of bunker gear plus gloves or boots. H7S control programmed to NFPA drying standards.
20–80 lb UCT machines. Fire configuration (30, 40, 60 and 80 lb) — 100 G extract with programmed NFPA 1850 / 1851 turnout-gear cycles.
45–200 lb UWT institutional extractors. UniLinc Touch packages include fire-industry cycles.
Compact single-phase washers and stacks for amenity rooms and smaller fire stations.
Scheduled inspections of the gear washer, station dryer and exhaust duct — so the PPE washer is not the machine that fails after a working fire, and the dryer is not the next fire.
Emergency dispatch across NJ, NYC, Rockland County and eastern PA when the turnout-gear washer or dryer is down — any brand.
Firehouses know the dryer statistics better than anyone. NFPA's analysis of U.S. home dryer fires (2014–2018) puts the count at roughly 13,800 structure fires a year, and one in three is a failure to clean — lint in the drum, the cabinet and the exhaust duct. A commercial station dryer moves more air, runs hotter and dries heavier loads than anything in a house, and it usually sits in the same building as the apparatus.
A preventive maintenance visit for a fire station covers both halves of the room:
Cadence for a single-station gear room is typically annual; departments running multiple gear washers or a central gear laundry are usually on a semi-annual schedule. PM customers get priority dispatch and reduced after-hours rates when something does fail.
A turnout-gear washer that fails after a working fire is not a convenience problem — gear that was exposed to products of combustion has to be advanced-cleaned, and the cleaning window does not wait for a service appointment. Call (732) 681-0500 for emergency dispatch: an on-call dispatcher takes the machine details and error code, and in most of our core NJ territory a technician is en route within 60–90 minutes. Our trucks carry the parts behind most field failures — door locks, level switches, belts, contactors, heater elements, drain and inlet valves — so most calls close on the first visit.
We repair every major commercial brand a station is likely to have — UniMac, Speed Queen, Huebsch, Milnor, Dexter, Continental Girbau, ADC and Primus — as an independent service company, and we are the authorized UniMac dealer for sales and warranty service in this territory.
Fire department turnout-gear laundering isn't optional, and it isn't ordinary commercial laundry. In 2025 NFPA consolidated NFPA 1851 (protective ensembles) and NFPA 1852 (SCBA) into a single standard, NFPA 1850, Standard on Selection, Care, and Maintenance of Protective Ensembles and Open-Circuit SCBA for Structural and Proximity Fire Fighting. The cleaning, inspection and documentation requirements that drive equipment specification carried forward from the 2020 edition of 1851 — and they are stricter than most stations' current practice. Failure to comply isn't just a regulatory issue — it's a firefighter health and cancer-prevention issue.
Key requirements that drive equipment specification:
UniMac's Fire configuration washer-extractors are built around those constraints: programmed turnout-gear formulas with controlled fill temperature, 100 G extract and cycle logging. We program the formulas at install and verify them on every PM visit.
NFPA 1850, like 1851 before it, prohibits processing turnout gear with general laundry. The reason is contamination — turnout gear absorbs combustion byproducts, hydrocarbons, and (in worst cases) hazardous chemical exposure during structural fires. Cross-contaminating station uniforms or general laundry with this residue is a health risk to anyone wearing the cross-contaminated items. A dedicated washer-extractor for turnout gear is non-negotiable.
HM Commercial Laundry serves career and volunteer fire departments across all 21 NJ counties plus eastern PA, NYC, and Delaware. We understand the operational, NFPA, and budget constraints fire departments work within, and we structure equipment proposals, PM programs, and emergency response to match. For multi-station and district-level installations, we coordinate with the chief, the safety officer, and the equipment officer to ensure the install supports both day-one operations and long-term NFPA compliance.
Common questions from fire departments specifying, maintaining and repairing turnout-gear laundry equipment with HM Commercial Laundry.
Yes. NFPA 1850 (carrying forward NFPA 1851) requires that turnout gear not be processed in the same machine as station uniforms, household laundry, or other items. Cross-contamination from absorbed combustion byproducts and hazardous chemical exposure is the reason. A dedicated programmable front-load washer-extractor is required for compliance.
NFPA 1850 took effect in 2025 and consolidates NFPA 1851 (turnout gear) and NFPA 1852 (SCBA) into one care-and-maintenance standard. For the laundry room, the requirements that matter carried forward from the 2020 edition of 1851: advanced cleaning at least twice a year and after any exposure to products of combustion, a programmable front-load washer-extractor, extract capped at 100 G, a wash-temperature ceiling, and documented cleaning of both the gear and the machine. If your washer was set up under the older once-a-year rule, its cycles and your documentation likely need updating.
For most single-station departments, a 30–60 lb dedicated gear washer handles the inventory comfortably — a UCT040 Fire holds several full sets per load. Multi-station or district operations typically need 60–80 lb units or larger pocket hardmounts with redundancy. We do detailed sizing based on your gear inventory, station count, and incident frequency.
Yes. The UniMac UCT cabinet hardmount Fire configuration is available in 30, 40, 60 and 80 lb capacities, with 100 G extract and programmed NFPA 1850 / 1851 turnout-gear cycles. Larger UWT pocket hardmounts with UniLinc Touch controls also carry fire-industry cycles for central gear laundries. Live prices are on the cabinet hardmount page; we size the room from gear inventory and station count, not a catalog page.
The UniMac UTGC PPE drying cabinet holds 6 full sets of turnout gear plus 15 boot/glove holders, with programmable drying cycles and a variable temperature range of 100–150°F set to your department's NFPA drying limits. HM Commercial Laundry specifies the UTGC with dedicated PPE washer-extractors for fire department rooms.
If you have a UniMac or other commercial front-load washer-extractor with programmable controls and verifiable temperature and extract limits, often yes — we can build compliant turnout-gear formulas into the machine's program. Top-load machines, and general commercial washers without programmable controls, cannot be made compliant; replacement is required.
Yes. A fire-station preventive maintenance visit covers the station dryer — lint screen, cabinet, blower and exhaust duct cleaning, heat section and airflow check — as well as the gear washer mechanicals and its NFPA cycle programming. NFPA data attributes about one in three dryer fires to a failure to clean; the station dryer should not be the next fire.
Call (732) 681-0500 for emergency dispatch. An on-call dispatcher takes the machine details and error code; in most of our core NJ territory a technician is en route within 60–90 minutes, with a truck stocked for first-visit repair. We repair every major commercial brand as an independent service company, and preventive maintenance customers get priority dispatch and reduced after-hours rates.
Yes. New equipment installs include site survey, delivery and installation by our technicians, programming of the NFPA turnout-gear formulas, full operator training for your equipment officer and gear handlers, and documentation handoff for your NFPA 1850 program.
We can help you identify FEMA AFG (Assistance to Firefighters Grant) and similar federal and state grant opportunities that fund turnout-gear cleaning equipment, supply the equipment specifications and quotes an application needs, and coordinate UniMac financing for departments that prefer to spread the capital cost.
Download official UniMac brochures and spec sheets for this product line. For specific delivered-and-installed pricing in NJ, eastern PA, NYC, or Delaware, call HM Commercial Laundry at (732) 681-0500.
