anybody make a coin-op dishwasher?

[frontloaderfan]

What about a commercial-style Hobart set up to do one cycle on (quarters, debit card) what have you? There is always the chance that stupid people may try to bathe their children in them, of course, but one runs that risk in an ordinary laundry mat...

 

[laundromat]

A few years ago, I had a wildass dream that I opened a nationwide chain of "Dish O Rama" Dishomats where you had the choice of drop off or self serve. We also had step vans to go pick up and/or drop off. Drop off clean dishes to use while your dirty ones go get done. Some of my SAve also Had generators to run the six machines on board to get plenty of business. We did extremely well and Ellen had us on to demonstrate and loved it. Her remark, "My God! That sounds "dish custing, /made me laugh so hard, it woke me up. What a dishaster!! LOL.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tomturbomatic]

Into the 1950s, there were appliance stores that would put a coin meter on a washing machine before delivering it and send someone around on a regular basis to empty the coin box. It was a form of installment payment.

As for coin-op dishwashers, they could find a place in vacation cabins/apartments as a way of charging guests for the utility costs of operating a dishwasher, although it would be a pretty cheap-ass place to do something like that. They don't need to be located outside of the unit like in a wash house; they can be in the kitchen and still be coin-op.

At the turn of the century in apartments in the immigrant areas of big cities, the gas meter had a coin slot. When you wanted to use the lights, you dropped a coin then lit the light.

 

[jkbff]

A coin operated timer power supply.

A few of the property managers tried putting them on household laundry units. The customer puts money in and the timer runs for however long you program it. Me being me, I helped a 'friend' rewire the washer to plug directly into an outlet ;-)

If I might add my two cents to this, if it were me, I'd find a restaurant supply or local auction or something and pick up a low temp commercial warewasher. The control box could be re-wired to where a coin-op/bill acceptor would be the trigger after the door is closed. It wouldn't be hard to wire into one of the safety lines.

You could install the unit, have the chemical dispenser set up, have all the workings out of users reach, behind cages etc, they load the rack, slide the rack into the warewasher, close the door and place their money in the vending unit. When there are sufficient funds, the relay clicks and starts the washer. Since its low temp, the chemicals dispense as needed, the cycle runs, completes and user pulls dishes out the other side.

If you were to set something like that up, ecolab gives you the dispensing equipment as long as you buy the chemical from them.

Someone would just need to pop in throughout the day and check the filters etc make sure there isn't stuff stuck in the sump etc.

*edit: Ugh, I didn't realize ... the age of this thread... there needs to be a way to keep people from reviving posts older than two years.... .......*

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Coin-operat...133?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a6e0b821d

 

[happycamper]

New machines

New machines on market.
http://www.coindishwasher.com/distributors.html
http://www.coindishwasher.com/distributors.html

 

[chachp]

I'm shocked...

 

<span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; font-size: 14pt;">That really is a surprise.  Seems it would be more work to lug them down there but I guess if people do it already there could be a market for this.  If it were me I'd just make sure I had a camper equipped with a dishwasher.  Mamma don't do outdoors.</span>

 

[lowefficiency]

There is a zero percent chance I would use a public coin-op dishwasher.
Absolutely not. No way. Wouldn't even think about it.

Might sound good on paper, but people will use them to wash anything and everything they can fit in it.

Just no.

 

[chachp]

Me too..

 

<span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; font-size: 14pt;">Now the you mention it, I'm thinking of all the times over the years I took a blanket or comforter to the laundromat because the dog or cat did something on them.  Yeah, not me either.  I don't want that in my washer even though I often run the Sanitize cycle.</span>

 

<span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; font-size: large;">For the archive.</span>

 

[gelaundry4ever]

warm damp smell

I would also enjoy the warm damp smell of Cascade products, including cascade complete citrus breeze and cascade platinum power dry rinse aid.

 

[bradfordwhite]

Back when this post originated 15  years ago, I don't think portable countertop dws existed and if they did, I doubt they were so affordable.

 

It's more common now for RVs to have dishwashers compared to 15 year ago.

 

No struggling RV park is going to waste money with another potential maintenance issue.

 

The last RV park I stayed at in Vermont, attendance was dropping like flies as their older clientele base was also..... 

 

[foraloysius]

Overhere in the NL compact dishwashers from Asian makers have been sold for many years. You saw them mostly on home shows. They were even smaller than the Bosch compact and would have a glass door. There was always one on a demo mode, it would run constantly. Don't remember the make, perhaps Sanyo.