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mattywashboy

mattywashboy

Well-known member
Bronze Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2005
Messages
1,135
Location
Perth, Western Australia
Hi Guys,
I am in Melbourne having a fine time at the annual Queer Collaborations, a time for all diverse students to coem together and discuss all the issues related to being queer in todays society and various fun workshops on various topics.
Anyway, clothes have been getting messy so thought i would search out a laundromat close to my back packers, i found one called My Beautiful Laundrette. It has Dexter front loader washers which was veyr exciting as i only ever see Maytag or SPeed Queen toploaders in Perth. HAD to use it, results were good, i don't know if anyone else has any experience with these but it has switches which look added on to select either a Prewash or a Gentle Cycle as oppsed to No Prewash or Normal Cycle. And also four temp selects- Hot-Heavy, Warm-Normal, Warm-P.Press, Cold-Delicate/Wool. QUite fun to watch but only seem to spin at around 500/600 max.
Heres a pic of me enjoying the action.
Matt
 
Hey Matt...

Thats one serious bit of kit- im sure you didnt have 12kg to fill it tho lol!

Looks like theres loadsa sudsy action going on and a decent water level- regarding the sudz were you using a P&G detergent by chance ;)

Hope to catch ya for a chat soon- kinda overdue me thinks!

Seamus
 
Ahh yes, there were solid tub Speed Queens there as well, half of them were out of order and i didn't pay much attention to them operating , but had a really cool stainless steel solid tub. I just remember hearing a lot of loud CLANGS when they shifted cycle, were they common to do this?

Seamus, the detergent they had in the laundrette was Dynamo regular, they have it in a dispenser which seems to water it down some, basically it made for a VERY sudsy wash! Results were great though and the action was awesome, wish we had these in W.A, oh well, home on sunday *sobs sob*. Also these machines filled nearly halfway up the glass for all wash and rinse cycles, very kooool.

Matt
 
Dexter Laundry

I discovered a wonderful 24-hour laundromat here in San Francisco that uses Dexter washers and dryers exclusively. It's not in the best neighborhood, but the machines are new and clean, and the place is immaculate. They have the double load, triple load, maxi load, mega load and even the magnum load washers.
 
Those solid-tub Speed Queen washers likely had the 700 RPM pulley in them, would have been cool to watch a load run in one again, they've been all but extinct around here for a long time.

Those Dexters are impressive looking machines - "Magnum Load" have mercy!
 
We used to have a Mega Load Dexter at my first job working in the YMCA laundry. It cleaned fantastically, hot washes and hot rinses too! After the final spin, I would open the door and a rush of steam would come out! Unfortunately, when they built the new Y facility, they put the laundry on the second floor which caused excessive vibrations of the building when the washer went into its final spin due to its hard-mount bolt-down design. It caused mirrors and pictures all over the building to fall off the walls and shatter, not to mention many members thought there was an earthquake... Anyway, they got rid of it and replaced it with 2 30lb capacity soft-mount high efficiency Continental washers, with a warm wash and 2 cold rinses... YUCK! No bleach, no hot water, no nothin, those towels come out NASTY now! Covered in gobs of hair, large spots of blood, boogers and poo smeared all over them! That's one of the reasons why I quit, they simply refused to change the wash to hot instead of warm, thus no sanitation!

P.S.
For Dexter:
Double Load: 18-20 pounds
Triple Load: 25-30 pounds
Maxi Load: 40-45 pounds
Mega Load: 55-60 pounds
Magnum Load: 75-80 pounds
 
Have always wondered if United States laundromats would take up dispensing systems in great numbers, as the one shown above. While quite common in commercial laundries, and or OPL units, my guess is Americans wouldn't like having their options of laundry products limited. Though judging by those who poor heaps of detergent into laundromat washers to the point of froth spewing out of the door and dispensers, it might not be such a bad thing.

In terms of water savings, many water filter and reuse systems, such as those often found in commercial laundries are being made available for laundromats as well. Problem with those systems is laundry product usage has to be carefully monitored for the filtering system to work properly. Still one would think the savings in water and energy (some systems use water already heated from rinse and or wash cycles for the next wash), would out weigh any consumer loss.

L.
 
Matt - thanks for the picture! Certainly is a good feeling knowing that the hard workers of (the employee owned - thanks Jon) Dexter are producing products that are not just found in the States - but all over the world. Not sure where they source their electronic components - but I used to party at a house 2 blocks away from the foundry in Fairfield. From raw to finish all in a little town in Iowa. Good to know the 'other' washer company of Iowa is still around.

Ooo - super spin Speed Queens. The best of both worlds there!

Ben
 
Dispensing systems have always failed in the retail laundry market. Users prefer to use their own products. Additionally, most commercial grade products have no fragrance to them, leaving the clothes smelling chemically, like at a hotel. P&G is trying to get into the OPL market, but I haven't heard if their new OPL Tide and Downy carry the retail fragrance.

While water recycling is trying to get into the retail laundry market, the systems are majorly COST PROHIBITIVE.

Dexter has a fairly new hard-mounted "Express" line that spin out at 200G's.
 
Have Some Tide "Pro-Line" In Wash Stain Remover

Which one uses as regular detergent (stuff is labeled "HE", and the MSDS says it is a version of plain ole Tide), and the scent is different than Tide HE powder. Mind you, haven't smelled the later recently, but the scent I remember is different. If one gets the dosage correct, (and it takes very little to get the job done), by the time laundry is air dried, scent is almost gone, faster with tumble drying.

L.
 
Can she have one?

Sure, if she's got 6" (of concrete, that is) and a floor drain. Oh, the good news it that these "Express" Dexters will take single phase 220. Yaaay!

I am amused about how Dexter crows about the 750 rpm final spin speed. Good for 200G. Heck, the Neptune clocks in at 1,000 rpm and 300G. But I bet these Dexters clean quite nicely - if you also have piping hot water on tap.
 
It's more noteworthy that they can get the G's up without a suspension. Meanwhile, almost every other manufacturer is releasing machines with suspensions and 300+ G's -- and a price tag to match. Dexter gets the G's up, but doesn't change the footprint, so they are easier to upgrade from the standard 90G to the 200G.
 
Not To Hijack A Thread

But, sooner or later laundromat washers are going to have to address rather poor extraction results, if for nothing else due to rising energy costs and mandates on usage.

One does realise many laundromats make their money on the dryers, which obviously when pooly extracted laundry is dried, things take longer. Previously many laundromats, at least from my experience used very hot heat settings to compensate for the above. However rising prices for natural gas and other forms of energy have started to put a damper on this practice. Our local laundromat recently raised the cost of a dryer, AND lowered the heat settings. So where one or two quarters got one almost 20 minutes of drying time, and when set on "HIGH" or even "Medium" a full load was dry, now the same cost gets 10 minutes and laundry is for the most part very damp to almost wet in areas.

Energy use could be brought down by using high air flow dryers, such as those offered now by Miele.

Think in the past many laundromat users had Bock extractors to help ease drying times, but due to liability and insurance issues less and less laundromats offer that service.

L.
 
My biggest complaint about using a laundromat in the 70's and 80's was how long it took to dry the loads. I did notice at one point the laundromat management had turned down the heat on the dryers, so it took a lot longer. Plus the machines only took dimes (at the time) and it would take a fistful of them to get the load dry.

What might make more sense if for a laundromat to charge by the pound. You walk in, put your laundry on a scale, and pay per lb. The washers and dryers after that point are not charged. You can bet the laundromat would get the most energy efficient machines in at that point.
 
Well Actually

Service laundry is charged by the pound, at least in NYC. Think some places still do the "by the bag" thing, but that leaves lots of creative interpation.......

Local laundromat has received lots of complaints about their recent change of policy. Indeed last time I was there (using their dryers to dry some large coverlets and such that are beyond my small Whirlpool), a customer called the attendant over and loudly complained that she had put over three quarters in the dryer and even on high her laundry was not dry. Attendant told her that the dryer was too full (it wasn't really, IMHO), and that she should divide the load for better results.

What is happening is at times there is a bottleneck with many customers waiting for dryers. Since this is the only laundromat in the area, (well there is another self serve, but it is unattended 24/7 and often quite dirty), guess owner figures he can do as he wishes.
 
Heres the rest of the pics

I have two other pics to share of this machine. I'm now back in Perth, wish i was back there but its back to the grindstone to rebuild my dwindled finances lol *curse u attractive melbourne nightlife*!
In terms of extraction, it says in the online manuals that they have two spin speeds, i did not monitor any difference at all and the extraction results were well below a high standard, but the clothes were nice and clean and dried ok eventually.

Heres some more pics...
 
and lastly one featured my good friend sarah who came with me. She got to see how excited i was and so got a barrage of laundry related trivia and me going on and on about how cool it was and how there should be low suds soap for front loaders available blah blah lol.

Thats it for now,
so happy i got to see these beasts in action, nice to have a touch of the U.S in our humble land of Oz.
Matt
 
the 

Dexters are my absolute favorite comercial machines. Here in Hilo, theres a great,huge Dexter equipped coin laundry. All are front loading on four different sizes. They take cards bought via vending machine. Detrrgents and additives,food,drinks,even visiting the restroom is all done by the card. They also have different size dryers. All stainless steel, 1,000 to 1,200 rpm spins,and 24 minute cycles. Yheir hot water is scolding hot,not warm. They're open daily from 5AM to midnight and always packed. They continue to keep all the machines shiny,the store clean and have two flat screan tvs on to watch. Scott,the owner and his wife,Noreen run and maintain the place and welcome me to hang out whenever.
 
I forgot to mention, Around the time Ford bought Philco, Dexter got the old Bendix comercial line. Some of the earlier Dexters were identical but had a stainless steel drum not porcelain. Same design,jjst stainless steel. They also revesed in tumbling. Not long afterwards, they redesigned them to the current design. Their turbulant tumble pattern mezmorizes me when I  watch.
 

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