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People spending way more than they need to at laundromats


Under-filling washing machines doesn't get your clothes any cleaner than stuffing them full.

Under-filling dryers doesn't make your clothes dry faster by a big enough margin to justify using more than one dryer.

I worked in a laundromat on the weekends when I was in high school (early 1990s) and I saw people spending double, triple, quadruple, etc., what they needed to spend, all the time, especially with dryers. I was in a laundromat today for the first time in years and nothing has changed.

There's a minimum amount of time that it's going to take to dry clothes, even if you're only drying one pair of jeans and nothing else, and that's about 40 minutes. There's also a maximum amount of time that it's going to take to dry clothes, even if the dryer is full, and that's about 50 minutes. That means it's impossible to save money by spreading a load of clothes out among multiple dryers when they could have fit into one dryer. At best you'll save 10 minutes and inevitably pay a lot more (close to double the cost for two dryers, close to triple the cost for 3 dryers, and so on).

There were some people who would spread a big load of clothes over six dryers, spending $9 instead of the $1.75 it would have cost had they used one dryer, and they'd do that every week.

I guess they think that their "wisdom", which may be somewhat valid for pathetic home-use washers and dryers, applies to big commercial coin-op machines as well. It doesn't.

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One observation is too many clothes in one dryer does not allow them to tumble and fluff freely so they appear less rumpled.

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Clothes don't come out wrinkled in coin-op dryers even if you [loosely] fill them up. If you packed them in there like sardines in a can they'd probably come out wrinkled, but that would take a lot of clothes and a lot of effort to do. Coin-op dryers are huge. It would take upwards of 75 pounds of clothes before you'd be packing them tightly in there.

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Yes. When I was in college, we would gather our roomates' dirty clothes together before we dunk them all into the coin-op to the brim. But then again, I'm an Asian so there's that.

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LMAO...THAT CRACKED ME UP.

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Who washes all of their clothes together in just one load? I separate my clothes - whites, colored, darks - so each week I have at least 3 loads for just my husband and myself, sometimes a few more if I'm washing bulky things like throws/blankets.

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"Who washes all of their clothes together in just one load?"

I do, and always have, because I couldn't care less about keeping a $1 T-shirt or pair of underwear perfectly white. There's merit to separating whites so that you can use bleach to keep them white if you're concerned about that sort of thing (bleach doesn't actually make them cleaner, it just breaks down pigmentation, leaving only white, though it causes deterioration which results in the fabric eventually becoming brittle, and, ironically, yellow), but separating "coloreds" from "darks"? There's no merit to that at all. Who told you to do that?

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but separating "coloreds" from "darks"? There's no merit to that at all. Who told you to do that?


I don't recall his name, but people called him The Grand Dragon for some reason.

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I guess I pay a lot more for my clothes than you and I take care of them. I also iron a lot my laundry, including my pillowcases.

I'm a Martha Stewart fan. LOL.

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"I guess I pay a lot more for my clothes than you and I take care of them."

But you're not taking care of them. Did you miss this part?

"[Bleach] causes deterioration which results in the fabric eventually becoming brittle, and, ironically, yellow"

In other words, bleach damages your clothes, and causing damage is the opposite of taking care of something. I assume you are using bleach on your whites, otherwise it's pointless to separate them for washing.

Also, as I said before, separating "colored" from "darks" doesn't accomplish anything either; you're just wasting money.

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Yes, washing is better than dry cleaning for fabrics that can be. Some things I hand wash.

Who said I used chlorine bleach?

Bye......

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"Yes, washing is better than dry cleaning for fabrics that can be. Some things I hand wash."

Who said anything about dry cleaning?

"Who said I used chlorine bleach?"

If you're not using chlorine bleach you're wasting time and money by separating your whites. Non-chlorine bleach (AKA: oxygen bleach, AKA: color-safe bleach) doesn't work as well as real bleach and it's color-safe, so there's no point in separating your whites.

And you still haven't said anything about why you separate "coloreds" from "darks".

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True.. And if you really want to save a few quarters, when you dry, put in one quarter at a time. Once the 7 minutes are over, if you keep them in there, the remaining heat will work for a while, and THEN you can put another quarter.

I used a 50 lb washer a few months ago at the laundromat and got all my clothes done for about $7-8

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"And if you really want to save a few quarters, when you dry, put in one quarter at a time. Once the 7 minutes are over, if you keep them in there, the remaining heat will work for a while, and THEN you can put another quarter."

I've never done an experiment to see if that would save money or not (if taken to the extreme it would definitely save you money, because the clothes will eventually dry even if you don't put in any money at all), but keep in mind that with most, if not all, coin-op dryers, the final minute is a cool-down stage, so if you let the cycle run out e.g., 6 times, the dryer wasn't heating for 6 of the minutes that you paid for.

Do you still get 7 minutes per quarter in your neck of the woods? That was the norm when I worked in a laundromat in the early '90s, but now 5 minutes per quarter seems to be the norm, at least around here.

"I used a 50 lb washer a few months ago at the laundromat and got all my clothes done for about $7-8"

Yeah... it cost me $7.50 yesterday. I used the 35-lb. Milnor washer for $5 and then $2.50 in the dryer (50 minutes). A 35-lb. Milnor is equivalent to a 50-lb. washer from most other companies such as Wascomat, and the old ones (pre digital display) are wicked fast. They take about 20 minutes while the newer Milnors take around an hour, without accomplishing anything that the old ones didn't accomplish in 1/3rd the time. The laundromat in my town has one of each. When I worked in the laundromat, the 35-lb. Milnor (an old one; the newer style didn't exist back then) was the only washer I ever used for my own clothes.

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Yup, still 7 minutes per quarter.. It doesn't stay hot for long, and it wasn't even a conscious decision. I just didn't want to hang out inside, and waited in my friend's car, but I guess this would be better advice for someone who has no money, but some time.

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Also, bring your own laundry detergent rather than buying the packets from the vending machines.

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Definitely.

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I have no knowledge of the containers of the washing and the drying.

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"pathetic home-use washers and dryers" work just great for me and I save tons of money. I also usually hang dry my clothes which makes them smell and feel really nice AND radically prolongs the life of your clothes. When you clean the lint trap of a dryer, you can see just how much of your clothes a dryer removes.

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""pathetic home-use washers and dryers" work just great for me and I save tons of money."

They are pathetic in that they can't handle large loads (like say, 50 pounds or more; most of them will choke on less than half that amount). They clean clothes fine.

"I also usually hang dry my clothes which makes them smell and feel really nice AND radically prolongs the life of your clothes."

I like line dried clothes too, but it's a hassle and it takes a long time for them to dry. Also, unless you have a place inside to hang them, it's weather-dependent. Clothes don't dry too well in the rain for obvious reasons, and they freeze solid in the winter.

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I actually do have a place to hang them indoors. :) Believe it or not, unless it snows, clothes will still dry in sub freezing weather.

I don't do 50 pound loads of laundry, lol.

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"Believe it or not, unless it snows, clothes will still dry in sub freezing weather."

Yes, for the same reason that ice cubes slowly shrink in the freezer (sublimation). I'd expect it to take longer than evaporation, but I've never actually done a test or researched it.

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I have a great place for hanging my clothes inside. I've been hanging them inside all summer as well as there is a lot of construction happening in my area and it's too dusty outside.

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