Cool laundromats and their names

[Cybrvanr]

Around here, we've got some neat names of some of the laundromats in my city.

A rather large one near my house is called the "Suds Emporium", it's name is very fitting due to it's sheer size. Not much special to it other than it's a huge warehouse full of washers & dryers, some of them rather neat looking vintage machines athat are at least 30 or more years old!

There's also "The Spin cycle". The place has sort of a politics theme to it, with TV's on CNN and other news channels. A chalkboard (which can get messy at times) in there is a place where you can write your political rants and peeves.

My favorite is "The Lost Sock" laundromat. It's sort of a bar & grill combined with the laundromat. They sell italian dishes like pizza. On Friday, saturday, or Sundays, they have live performances, like music or comedians.

Any of you all got some cool laundromats in your area?

Here's a neat one that has Tai Chi along with triple sized speed-queens!

http://www.thetoque.net/010925/laundromat.htm

 

[partscounterman]

Laundromat names

My favorite name for a laundry- Clo-Spin

I also liked the name of the laundry in the movie "My Beautiful Launderette" It was called 'Powders"

The laundromat near my house is called the W&F, which stands for Wash and Fold. This laundry is noted in the guidebook "Maui Revealed" as having the best Shave Ice on the island. (This laundry has a snack bar)

 

[maytagbear]

Here in Kent, a college town,

we have lots of coin laundries. Six, to be precise. Their names range all over the map, from the newest, Kent Laundromat (all FL!) to the best named one, Laundry 101.

Laundry 101 obviously goes after our college students, but townies do go there. Laundry 101 has a beer and wine license, and a snack bar. Also has pool tables, and multiple tv's. They had an internet connection for a few years, and an iMac.

My biggest laundromat pet peeve is SMOKING. I don't smoke, never have, and I hate it when I have to go to a laundromat, and my clean items reek of smoke.

Fortunately, my Maytags are in good health (knock wood!) and I won't have to use a laundromat any time soon.

Best development in the field, I think is that more motels have started to have self service laundry rooms.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[partscounterman]

My pet peeve too Lawrence!

Oh, god I hate it when people smoke in Laundromats. The smoke gets sucked into the dryer and stinks up the clothes you just paid to clean. Makes me wanna shove the entire pack of cigs down the offending smokers throat!

One time I got so mad I called the state of Minnesota to complain about smoking in a local laundry (MN had a clean air act). All this did was force the laundromat owner to designate a corner of the laundry as a smoking area. As if smoke stays in one corner-gimme a break!

Look- I don't mean to get the smokers mad at me. I don't care if you want to pave your lungs- Just STAY AWAY from my clean clothes! Please!

 

[partscounterman]

Ok, this isn't a Laundromat

When I was in junior high school, my great uncle passed away. My family travelled to Milwaukee for the funeral. While driving from the church to the cemetary, we passed a beauty shop called "Curl Up and Dye". Well, this was more than I could take! I laughed about that all the way back to St. Paul!

I guess its funnier when you are 12...

 

[SactoTeddyBear]

Re: Laundromats:

With the whole Sacramento and surrounding Community area, I've managed to print out 18-pages of Laundromats here. I will list the ones that I like the names of. If anyone would like to check out all of them, just go onto the Yellow-Pages and set area to Sacramento,CA. Enter Laundromats and it should bring up the listings. It might take a while, but I'm going to try and check out all of the Laundromat's to see how old or new they are and the Types and Brands of Washers and Dryers that they use. I'm going to take a Camera, so I can Photo some of the Washers and Dryers and the outside of the Buildings. The Favorites of mine follow this.

Benson's Launderland, Blue Sky Wash & Dry, City Suds, Continental Wash & Dry, Froggy's Laundry Pond, Happy Coin Laundry, Heu Queen Laundry, Hollywood Park Launderland, Laundry Basket, Laundry Depot, Oasis Laundry & Dry Cleaners, Old Mill Stream, Perky Laundry Plus {have used this one before}, Queen Laundry, Soap City Laundromat, Speed Wash, Spin Cycle, Suds Laundromat, Susie's Washtime, Tidy Wash Coin-Op, Westgate Wash-N-Dry.

The favorite of Names I've seen, not only where I live, but in Portland, Oregon where my Brother lives is; "Sudz-Yur-Dudz" I'm not sure about the Portland Laundromat, but the one here has 3 or 4 various sized FL Washers, including a "bank" of Fridgemores. They range from $1.50 to $3.00 per load. The Dryers are grouped in 2-sizes and all are $.25 per 7 1/2 minutes Drying Time. Actually the Laundromat that I wrote about the Machines is called; City Suds and it is located in our Mid-Town area.

City-Suds has a couple of TV's Sets on Wall Mounts and they also have optional "in-house" Paid Laundry Service, but since I'm like everyone else on the Club Site that I like to do Launday, I've not checked into what they Charge, possibly by Weight of the Laundry being done and if any extra needs "stain treatment" before Washing and Drying.

One of the Laundromats of the Mid-1960s that I asked my Mother to take our Laundry to Wash was called Peterson's Laundromat and it had Speed Queen Washers. I'm not able to remember the Dryer Brands at any of the Laundromats but they are the more popular Brands that have been mentioned on these Thread Postings lately.

Peace and Happiness, Steve
SactoTeddyBear...

 

[joeekaitis]

The nearest laundromat to me is Pacific Coin. . .

. . .but I don't think they'll let you wash your pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters in their IPSO front loaders.

 

[jmirawm]

Passing by

I go by a laundromat on my drive home. I was just thinking today I ought to go in and see what machines they have in there. It is a old building. With Large letters- "QUEENS PALACE" I bet the have Speed Queens! Ill check it out one of these days and take my camera.

 

[laundromat]

coin laundries

Of all the many coin laundries I ventured from my childhood thru my adolesence,my fondest memories were those in three of the 15 I would visit regularly.
My favorite was the one at a strip mall in Middle River,Maryland.They took 3 seperate stores and made them into 3 differnt sets of FRIGIDAIRE washers.One room had all white,the other,all pink and the last,all turquoise.the dryers were the original Huebsch with an arm to the right of the coin box to adjust the tumble speed according to the load size.There were also 3 sets of the dry cleaning centers by FRIGIDAIRE there too as well as 4 Big Boy front loaders and 3 seperate FRIGIDAIRE washers to use for tinting.All 3 rooms were decorated according to the color sceam of the washers there.Each room had 40 washers and 20 dryers.On saturday and sunday,you were lucky to get a washer before 1pm.
My second favorite coin laundry was in Dundalk,Md.It too had the FRIGIDAIRE JET ACTION WASHERS.North Point Laundry was equiped with 45 FRIGIDAIRE washers and 25 Cissle gas dryers.They also had 3 Big Boys and 6 signs from FRIGIDAIRE with instructions on how to use the washers and how they worked and saved you money with their Rapidry spin and 18 minute cycle.
Last but not least,The Westinghouse Laundromat on Belair Rd.(US RT 1)in Baltimore City off Hamilton Ave.This place was so cool!!! It was an original and had the old style blue,round porcelain body Laundromat commercial washers!4 rows of 25.Then they had the larger capacity reverse tumble models that had the push button opening on a wall of 10 in a row.There were 2 Bock extracters and at the end of each row,there was a sink to pre treat stains or soak clothes in.There were also 3 Laundromat drycleaning machines there and the original instruction signs on how to use the commercial Laundromats.They opened their doors in 1951 and closed in 1990 but the place was opened 24/7 and somebody was always there.I realy miss that place because the owner was nice and never minded me coming there just to hang out.

 

[westytoploader]

Cool laundromats! Here in Bellville the two laundromats are called "Washaterias". Both are, for the most part unimpressive, except for one which still uses Helical Drive Maytags. Needless to say I've been there many times, carrying my "lidswitch stuffer" with me ;-) I use the Huebsch/Wascomat triple-loaders at the other laundromat for the comforters once every two weeks. The Dexter double-loaders at the Maytag-equipped laundromat are interesting to watch, but can't wash a comforter like the triple-loaders can!

Chuck, were the large Westinghouse "reverse tumble" machines at the Baltimore City laundromat the kind that could reverse instantly during wash, without having to pause?

 

[davenp]

Movie..

Partscounterman...

FINALLY!!! Someone knows the movie "My Beautiful Launderette"! My wife thinks I'm nuts when I try to explain there is such a movie (and it's got a laundromats name in the title).

Actually, was just inspired to order it off Amazon.

Now... unique names?...

We have:
Mr. Suds (my all time favorite since I was a kid)
The Washboard
Spin Cycle
Aunt May's (Featuring only Maytag Machines)
Tid-E-Up (and on the sign TID-E looks like the TIDE logo)

There was a great all Norge laundrymat that use to be downtown where I college (undergrad). A few years ago a good friend of mine bought the place to be a satellite clinic for his neurosurgical practice; gutted and sent every one of those wonderful, beautiful and WORKING Norge tops and FL's to the crusher.

Lesson my friends, DO NOT, repeat DO NOT keep your laundry addiction in the closet! Had I told Rich about my obsession I would be basking in Norgedom.

I still remember those wonderful deep tub, slime green tops with the huge black agitator.

Dave

 

[goatfarmer]

We also had a Roberts Norge Laundramatt years ago.Long gone...

 

[spiralactivator]

When I was a kid we used to drive by a laundromat called the EconoWash, but we never went inside. On a laundry excursion in Allentown I found the Orange Blossom Launderette and the Scrubbing Board.

I used to go to a place called Saucony Cleaners (not much of a name, I know). This 'mat has white and gold perf-tub Speed Queens, Wascomat FLs, and big '60s Norge dryers. While I approved of the machines and the cat food can ashtrays (economy AND convenience!), the prices are obscenely high. So I use a no-name place with late '80s Maytags.

My favorite 'mat is a no-namer I patronized one summer when we had problems with our hot water. This place was really run down, but it had '70s Maytag washers in avocado and gold. Best of all, the lid switches were broken, permitting me to watch every cycle! The dryers had no nameplates but they were super efficient, despite smelling like kerosene.

 

[lavamat_jon]

I wish I lived in America with the superstore sized launderettes!!! It must be great to be in a shop with 100s of washers and dryers all working and doing their job! I can just imagine the sounds right now... whereas here in the UK the biggest launderette around here is about 20' x 15'...

Theres five that I can think of around me. However here in the UK I bet most of our launderettes are probably the size of some of your laundry rooms! The "biggest" one here has 14 washers, whilst the smallest one only has 7. Anyway, here are the ones in Lincoln, England:

Castle Laundries - This is the only launderette around me that has topload washers - has about 6 Maytag TLs, 2 Neptunes, and a 30lb Ipso washer, with 6 ADC 30lb dryers. This is a very petite launderette and is right next to the walls of the 1000 year old castle.

Fresh as a Daisy - This launderette has 3 16lb Ipsos, 2 25lb Ipsos and 1 35lb Ipsos, with 6 ADC 30lb dryers. This is located at the end of what you would call a strip mall in America. The unit itself is large, however a large proportion of this launderette is the commercial laundry/dry cleaners out the back.

Abbey Washerteria - Never been in this launderette - only seen it from the outside, but appears to have Ipso washers and Speed Queen dryers. This is located next to the ruins of an 8th century abbey - maybe all the monks and knights long ago had a lot of laundry!

Marshall of Lincoln - Another favourite of mine - recently refurbished and the only launderette in town to have a 50lb Ipso, along with a few 35, 30, 25, and 16lb Ipsos. It also has a variety of 30 lb single and stack dryers, and I think a 50lb version to match the washer aswell. Instead of machines being coin operated here, the machines are actual commercial machines, and you pay the vend price to the attendant and they activate a starting switch for the machine(s) you're using.

and finally, my favourite:

Moor Lane Coin Wash. This launderette is located just down the road from me, and has a combination of old and new washers. Until a year or so ago, the launderette consisted all of washers from the late 60s/70s, it had 2 sky blue 1970s Primus 16lb washers (if anybody watches EastEnders, they are the same as the yellow machines they had in the launderette about 10 years ago), 4 Duplex 25lb washers in avocado green (these washers didn't actually reverse, they just kept turning clockwise, adding/draining water, and switching between wash/spin), and 4 Schulthess 16lb washers in avocado green. The Schulthess washers are by far the most exciting, for they start spinning with a tub 3/4 full of water. Very dramatic! Unfortunately, last year they replaced the Duplex washers with 35lb Ipsos (I think the parts were becoming obsolete for the Duplex washers), which is a shame really because every other launderette in the area has Ipso washers, this "vintage" launderette used to stick out of the crowd as such. Ironically, this vintage launderette also has 70s vintage Speed Queen dryers, that until recently someone had altered on one dryer to Drag Queen!

Will take photos when I next visit it,

Take care

Jon

BTW have attached a photo of myself using a Speed Queen launderette whilst on holiday in 2003. (OMG look how short my hair was then!!!)