Best/Worst Laundromat you have ever been to?

[dustin92]

I was just wondering, what are your best/worst laundromat experiences? My Best experience was at Pocket change coin laundry in Kalkaska Michigan (where we just moved from) it was built about 8 or so years ago, they had various sizes of IPSO front load machines, the machines were always kept clean and working, and they kept the lint filters clean in the dryers. The laundromat was always clean, my only complaint was that it was a bit pricy, but not too bad. My worst experience was when I went with a friend of mine when she had to do laundry ( I dont remember the name of the place, and will not be visiting in the future) The laundromat was old, dirty, and was super expensive ($2.75 for a standard capacity maytag top loader). There were multiple broken machines, one of which had just flooded the floor about an hour before before we got there. We used 3 Maytag toploaders (one had the hot/cold switched) and all 3 should have been retired; one was making horrible noises and had to be held down during the spin, the next one started out fine, but then started smelling like something burning and emitting smoke, and thee last one got unbalanced several times during the wash cycle (suspension was allowing the tub to go to one side) and left grease stains and smell on the clothes. There was a mixture of Maytag toploaders $2.75 each, Maytag neptune frontloaders which smelled mildewy and had mold in the door boots $3.50 each, and various large front load washers mega $$$. The dryers were large, but were just as expensive as the washers. We divided 3 washers onto 2 dryers, and one didnt work at all, started heating and air flow, but no tumbling. We asked the attendant if we could use another dryer and she gave us the $ back. They were 25¢ to start and for 4 minutes, the took about 50 minutes each to dry. I was not impressed at all.

 

[whirlcool]

In college the Washateria (southern for coin laundry) went to had Frigidaire washers. The place was pretty clean however not air conditioned or heated.

The local coin op here is run by a Chinese couple and their family. It has a mixture or Wascomat machines of various sizes, Maytag top loaders, Speed Queen dryers.
It's kept sparkling clean by the owners. Somebody is always on hand. If you mess up or make a mess a member of the family will come scream at you in Chinese while cleaning the mess up. Same if you get an oversudsing mamacita with the Wascomat machines. They will reward you by pouring in 1/2 a gallon of "the pink stuff" fabric softener to your washload to knock the suds down while lecturing you in Chinese.

It's usually an entertaining trip/

 

[strongenough78]

One of the best ones I frequent is just 2 streets down from me. It's not the best as far as decor but the equipment works good. They have Whirlpool direct drives. And 4 of them have the lid switches disabled so I just leave the lids open to watch them work and keep an eye on the progress. All of the dryers are pretty new and I can usually dry a full load in 28 minutes or sometimes less even on the medium heat setting. It's kept pretty clean and when the maintenance guys are there, they are very nice and will converse with you. The only downfalls are there is no restroom to use and no sink to use if you need to clean up spilled detergent or fabric softener.

The worst one I've been to a couple of times has a lot of potential, but it needs owners who will fix it up. They have GE filter flows but about half of them don't work and had stagnant water still sitting in them. About half of the front loaders don't work and most of the doors are missing. I'm not sure what brand they are though. And the dryers are horrible. A few had no heat but weren't marked out of service. And a few more would put out an extreme amount of heat no matter how low you had the heat setting. Almost all of them would allow shirt cuffs or buttons to get wedged between the drum and casing. If you're not paying close attention, you could find a shirt twisted badly. And then some of them would keep rotating after the cycle had ended. You would have to hold up a basket when you opened the door to keep your clothes from falling to the filthy floor. And long after you've removed your clothes the drum would still spin. There were times when I saw doors pop open while drying and someones wet clothes were spilled right to the floor.

And last there is a very nice laundromat right up the street. Very clean, very hospitible staff, they'll even offer you a free beverage from the soda machine. The major downfall with this place is they have the newer Speed Queen top loaders that only fill 3/4 of the way up and spin out only half the wash water before going into the rinse cycle :-( if it wasn't for the fact that they use those Speed Queens instead of the better ones with the full water fill and full first spin cycle, I would make this my regular place to do my laundry.

 

[rinso]

Best: Norge coin-op dry cleaning and laudry center in Pocatello Idaho in the 60's. Very clean and an attendant on duty during the day and evening. Machines were Norge top loaders with good extraction, huge dryers, and a hydrauic press ironer for 25 cents for 30 minutes or operation.

Worst: Salt Lake City, 2nd south and about 5th east. Bendix washers, six of which were out of order. The working ones would fill with vastly differnt water levels from one machine to another. Two Bosch extractors, one of which had to have the lid held closed to work, there were 5 dryers for 20 machines. No attendant, and the place was beyond filthy.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Sorriest one was in Miami in 1957. Decrepit & deserted with Blackstone washers. Nicest, at the same time, was the coin-op laundry that was part of a grocery institution in Miami by the name of The Little Farmer's Market. The laundromat, like most in FL was open air, but it had an air conditioned waiting room with a TV. Those were the first Frigidaire coin-ops I ever saw. One had a round window in the lid.