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Understanding Commercial Linen
Giving me the sheets
Question
How do you know you’re talking to a textile amatuer?
Answer
The only thing they ask you is the thread count.
There is a retail mythology in buying linen which relates to the quality of a sheet being determined by the thread count. By the time you finish reading this article I hope that you have grasped a greater understanding of linen, and what determines “Commercial Quality”.
The first topic I would like to debunk is the understanding of finer threads. The English language and some trickery on the part of retailers describe a sheet with a higher thread count as being a finer sheet. Understandably most people misconstrue the terminology of finer. For someone who does not understand or is not educated in the area of linen they assume that the word “Finer” means better or improved. However in reality the word finer in regards to thread counts often just means thinner, and is completely unrelated to quality. What sales representatives should really be saying is that sheets with a higher thread count have thinner or smaller threads. Quality is an issue I will get to later.
Most commercial linen has a thread count of about 160 to 200. You really can’t go much higher because commercial linen carries a much thicker thread, you couldn’t pack them in tighter without the linen becoming somewhat like canvas. It is no mistake or error on the part of manufacturers of commercial linen to use a lower thread count with a thicker thread. These sheets need to be comfortable and durable. A hotel sheet can be washed up to 300 times a year. Your average retail quality sheeting with a 350 thread count wouldn’t last the distance, it would wear through very quickly and stretch out of shape.
Understandable, when I refer to a lower thread count in commercial linen, this is supplemented by a thicker thread. Some sheets sold through retail outlets have a lower thread count of 200 but the thread is thin, making the sheet a cheap and nasty. To determine the difference we look towards the weight of a sheet. The weight is very important; a good commercial bed sheet should weigh between 160 to 200 grams per square metre (GSM). Sheets that have a weight under 140 gsm are generally retail sheets and can’t be taken seriously in the commercial market. It’s important to remember that these sheets get a hard workout, and each time a sheet is laundered, some of the fibers can get lost which contributes to the wear and tear factor. The finer the thread, the greater the proportion of surface area per thread which could accelerate the deterioration of the sheet.
A lot of international hotels and hospitals use a 50/50 blend of sheet. This means that the sheet is 50% cotton and 50% polyester. The reason they do this is simple. 100% cotton sheets have a shorter life span and need to be ironed more as their capacity to crease is much greater. Blended sheets still breathe nicely and are far more durable.
In the case of quality of the cotton there are a number of factors to take into consideration. Firstly I would like to state that I don’t believe that the country of origin determines whether it is good cotton. Cotton is a vegetable fibre and is produces by small trees belonging to the Mallow family; this genus also includes hibiscus and hollyhock. India has been growing cotton for at least 5000 years, and was also used by ancient Egyptians and Chinese. Traditionally Egyptian cotton had a fibre that was much longer in length which allowed for the spinning of much finer (thinner) threads.
The best cotton to my knowledge a decade ago was Pima which is a hybrid cotton otherwise known as American-Egyptian cotton and grown on Caribbean Islands off the south eastern coast of America. However in the last 10 years we have had huge leaps in globalization, and I have no doubt that any genus of seed could be quickly incorporated into any countries primary industry. Recently I was told that approximately 70% of the worlds cotton came from Genetically Modified (GM) seed, so it is easy to understand how Indian or Egyptian cotton may now be indistinguishable from each other, in fact it is entirely possible that 2 different countries could be growing the exact same species of cotton, and the determining factor on quality may be more closely related to weather conditions at the time of growing and handling of the harvested produce.
Cotton with a shorter length (Staple) is generally used for coarser textiles, but grading of cotton is based on the characteristics such as diameter, strength, whiteness and uniformity. However when it comes to quality and thread count some people just can’t be told. As my importer says, if they don’t want to listen let them buy the wrong sheets, in a few months when they realise their mistake they will be back, this time with their ears open and you’ll have a client for life
Andrew Kloester – Hotel Products Direct
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