FriGEmores at Disney World

[frigilux]

I spent last week at Disney World in Florida and did my laundry at a hotel/resort laundromat. Along with the many Whirlpool TL's, there was a lone front-loading GE, which I, of course, used. I found 75 cents in the pouch of the door seal/boot from a previous cycle; a pleasant surprise.

Wicked pricing scheme: $2.00 to wash/$2.00 for a 30-min. dry/$1.00 for single-serving Tide powder/$1.00 for Downy---someone's making money here, kids!

The cycle must be shorter than the non-commercial models, because I came back within 45 minutes and the machine was already finished. Had the usual dispenser drawer and a cycle progress dial. I believe there were 4 temperature settings.

 

[lavamat_jon]

Apparently both GE and Wascomat offer a commercial variant of this model, which is basically a beefed up Fridgemore, like the commercial Neptune is a beefed up Maytag Neptune. Here's a link to the Wascomat WE16 variant...

BTW if you think that's expensive for a coin op laundry, then you should visit the launderettes over here in the UK . £2 which is $3.75 for a 16lb washer, £2.50 or $4.70 for a toploader, £3 or $5.65 for a 25lber, and £4 or $7.50 for a 35lber. Expensive, huh? Wait for the dryers... £0.20 or $0.37 for 5 mins...

Take care,

Jon

http://www.wascomat.net/docs/sect02/coin_cwetd16.jsp

 

[frigilux]

Yikes! You Brits pay a lot to do your laundry! Interesting you should mention Wascomat, because the cycle progress dial on the GE looked just like the ones on Wascomat machines. Thanks for the info and the link.

 

[zzzzz]

If I have observed it correctly (from an infrequent visit to a mostly-WE-16-equipped coin laundry to wash a comforter in a double-loader), WE-16s accelerate to maximum spin speed rather quickly, unlike civilian FriGEMores (or at least my Y2K Kenmore), which slowly ramp up to peak final spin speeds.

 

[frigilux]

zzzz- My 2003 Frigidaire FL ramps up to max speed gradually, as well. My 1996 (first generation Electrolux-built) would quickly ramp up to 850 rpm, but only during the last 60 seconds of the spin cycle, which I always thought was too brief to make much difference.

It would have been nice if I could have stayed to watch and time the cycle on the commercial GE, but circumstances didn't permit that. The jeans I washed felt pretty dry upon completion of the cycle, but I don't know if it spun at 850 or 1000 rpm.