It happened at the Laund-ro-Mat

[iheartmaytag]

This past Sunday I took my winter comforter to the laundry to use the big-honking machines before putting it up for the summer. My, My there are a lot of people washing their clothes before Noon on Sunday. I took my four-year-old with me as I was sure It would only take about 30 minutes then I would be back home to line dry—WRONG!!!
Every machine in the building was busy upon my arrival, because I know the owner she assured me that the middle Big-Honker was her load and it would be available in about ten minutes.

Meantime, she is arguing with one guy that is attempting to load a double size down sleeping bag into a regular size SQ TL washer. She finally tells him to go on she didn’t need his $1.50 if it is going to cost her $2,000 in washer repairs. Then It happened. Every machine in the middle went into spin/drain at the same time. Since they had been somewhat over-sudsed to begin with the drain itself suds locked and water began running everywhere. I felt so sorry for the owner, she was pushing water out the front door, other patrons were mopping as fast as they could but the puddle still grew. Finally the spin was complete and the flood had ended. I finished my comforter and took it home happy with the thought that I never opened that laundry I always wanted—too many stupid customers to deal with.

OH--and thanks to the Wisk Tube stain pre-treat Roma Mexican detergent, and good ole LCB everything came out spotless. Even the nasty "ring along the binding" where I tuck the comforter under my chin at night was gone.

 

[jeffg]

Yeah, Wichita. Just lovely. The customers were probably too busy planning the assassinations of physicians in their houses of worship to worry about flooding the laundromat.

Nothing personal, and can you tell I'm upset about Dr. Tiller?

 

[laundromat]

Commercial laundromats

People in general have what is known as the "Disney Complex"When they go to use an appliance,all they know is that,for example,you put the bread in a toaster,press it down and,once it is perfectly toasted,it will magicaly pop up.When you place a cup of cold coffee in a microwave,in one minute,it's piping hot again. The same applies to laundry. You open the lid or door,push in as many clothes as you can,as tight as possible,add three times more detergent than its manufacturer recommends,ten times more bleach at the same time,and use only cold water.Put the money in,push the coin slot and leave.Meanwhile,the machine(top loading) fails and smoke billows out after the drive belt snaps off the pully OR the clothes(front loading) get white spots on the colors from the bleach,the suds are so high that the gravity drain drains out all the suds along with the water needed to thoroughly wash and rinse the clothes and the billowed suds stream down the inner window as the machine tries to rev up to spin.The suds in the final rinse are half the way up the window and the final spin gets more water out but the amount of detergent residue left on the clothes is evident because,once they are being unloaded to go into the dryer,you can feel and hear the suds residue left in the clothes.Does this sound familiar???

 

[aquarius1984]

Now on the other side of the pond I witnessed the Launderette assistant load the machines with way too much washing whilst doing service washes whenI went into the only remaining Launderette in Crewe last saturday to wash a duvet I couldnt fit into any of our machines,

The old busy body tried several times to assist me in changing my chosen wash cycle insisting the hottest wash would damage my duvet.
Im sure she went out back and switched off the combi boiler as soon as I dropped my coins in the machine too as the door glass of the washer was stone cold when the water hit it.
Spiteful or what, especially as I was paying £6.20 for the pleasure of the wash.

Those using the launderette to wash clothing seemed to load the machine correctly, choose the right cycles and use sane doses of powder too.
One guy had his small 650g box of Daz and even his blue P&G measuring cup accurately dosing out pre wash and mainwash amounts.

Will be the last time I use the one in Crewe as the machines were filthy inside the powder dispenser and FS compartments.
Not to mention my cold water wash and the insanely slow spin speed costing me £2 to dry the duvet in a dryer when £1's worth would of done it with a few extra RPM's.

Found one in Blackburn around the corner from Pauls folks place with reasonable charges and great vintage Primus machines with a good supply of very hot water!

 

[ptcruiser51]

Don't start me on laundry behavior!

Every so often I run into the "Queen O'Pretreatment" in my laundry room. This wench starts up all seven machines, then does the "lids up" to stop the fill. Then she proceeds to pre-treat EVERY SINGLE ITEM that goes into the machines. Spray-dip-scrub-rinse-blot-brush-swish for a good 30 minutes or so. Every blouse, panty, pajama, sock, bra or towel MUST be individually treated. Is it no wonder she's single? When I'm on my way down the stairs and see Miss Thing through the window I just turn about and go home because I know the laundry is going to be tied-up for the next two hours minimum. Fortunately I often see her heading thataway from my apartment, so I know to put off laundry to another day.

This is MEGA annoying!

 

[launderess]

Another Reason Why One Ceased To Use Laundromats

Except for situations when the uber sized SQ front loader is required, and even then try to think of alternatives that would work at home.

Every darn person, or at least 90% of the customers pour heaps ofliquid detergent down BOTH the pre-wash and wash compartment, totally ignoring the directions that the detergent will be washed down the drum during the pre-wash. Now they have a pre-wash so foaming that one cannot see any laundry, just a blip of colour or two from items amoungst the foam. Then what do another 75% of these laundry challenged persons do? Add MORE liquid detergent when the wash cycle begins to fill because "the other detergent went down during the pre-wash".

Either way one has seen machines so over foam that it starts pushing out of every seal and pore of the washing machine. You've not seen anything until you've seen a 50lb SQ front loader gush suds out of it's door seals and dispenser compartment.

Even after the rinses and the machine stops, one can see the laundry is covered in foam. What do these butt-sprung persons do? Plop the lot into the dryers to bake in all that detergent.

Nearly every single washer in the place has marks on the front of the machine leading from the door seal down where excess foaming has left now permanent marking.

Another pet peeve is the local kennel, and animal hospital both bring in tons of laundry fouled by pet hair and pet waste, to chuck into the larger double and triple loading washers. Worse the happless soul sent often uses "warm" or "cold" water, no bleach and too much detergent. Either way the washing results are poor and the tubs are coated in pet hair (and god only knows what else), for the next person's laundry to become contaminated by.

Oh and don't get me started about those who sneak about stealing one's detergent or other laundry products. "Oh was this YOUR fabric softener, bleach, detergent"? "I thought it was left by the laundromat for customer's to use".

They have no shame some people.

 

[yogitunes]

if they treat commercial machines like this, think what they do with a home machine, and why it breaks or wears out too soon...yet they'll blame the machine or the manufacturer for producing a bad product...never ever think it would be them!

I have a sister in law who is like this, wrecks havok at a laundry, and home machines, let's not go there, she buys a new one every two years, and to her their all junk, I told her off one day that it her and not the machine, she is this way with all her appliances and furniture...my mother had the same washer for many years with 7 kids and the damn machine would never give up...i always wanted a new one...but she took care of it as with everything we had.

 

[peterh770]

"...too many stupid customers to deal with."

You don't know... But while stupid customers are bad, it's the public restroom that is worse.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Love laundromats.

Where else can you see kitchen towels (red)with underwear (white at one time, now brownish greyish yellow), jeans (tan and some in blue), bath towels and bathroom rug (black) complete with rubber non-skid backing, all packed tightly into one load.

Above and beyond bad washing and detergent practices, the natives are not happy unless the laundry absolutely REEKS of pungent, greasy, waxy fabric softener.

 

[vintagesearch]

the natives are not happy unless the laundry absolutely REEKS of pungent, greasy, waxy fabric softener.

LMAO thats my number one pet peeve with these morons around here when i *used* to go to the laundromat to just dry clothes i wish i had the cenobites from hellraiser(or something else terrifying) to clear that place out! my god the moment you walk in it reeked of overuse of bleach and fabric softener! and an extremely loud radio played by an over flamboyant attendant who is on there cell phone, the morons who are pouring extreme amounts of detergents and fabric softener in the frontloaders till the foam comes pouring out! my worst experience was when this imbecile, well she decided that for her feather bed that a high temperature and 2 hours drying was what would be great, mind you i was using 2 dryers away from her she came and opened the dryer and guess what? the entire thing blew up in flames!!! it literally looked as if though she opened a door to a fire pit she fell back and it went out a few feet so then 4 sprinklers near the dryer go off im cursing her out along with the other customers and attendents and the sprinkler water angle hit the inside of the dryers! my sheets were all stained with black spots!!!! and she ran off leaving all of us screwed!!!!! but in the end the attendent was extremely nice with me she rewashed my sheets at there expense used there detergent and fabric softener and i brought them home and hanged dried them!!! my final straw was when i found a needle and blade in my dryer!!!! THAT WAS IT i no longer use there dryers thats it no more!!!! im saving hundreds and i can stay home in pjs and not deal with those motherless sons of........

thank god for washers in the home or apartment i commend you those that must go to the laundromat wheel the cart or carry the bag and then deal with those ________ (your choice of words) bye.

 

[a440]

Good Times!!!
Brent

 

[whirlcool]

Either way one has seen machines so over foam that it starts pushing out of every seal and pore of the washing machine. You've not seen anything until you've seen a 50lb SQ front loader gush suds out of it's door seals and dispenser compartment.

I see this almost every time I go to the washateria. I love the oversudsing Mamacitas. They just go to the nearest gigantic sized Wascomat and put in ALL their laundry in one machine. Towels, denims, sheets, whites, colored all go in the same load together. If you can't pack any more in just use your foot to compact the load to fit more in. Then pour in at least a half a box of Gain Tropical Punch and then go outside to play with your kids. In the meantime you will see what Laundress described. When they remove the clothes at the end of the cycle, there are suds flying through the air and the clothes actually make crinkling sounds from the leftover suds in them.

Or the people who bring in fiberglass curtains to wash in the machines. The next dozen people that use that machine afterwards will have itchy skin for weeks to come!

What it boils down to is that if people don't have a vested financial interest in the equipment they are using, they just don't care. They have the "It's not mine, so why should I care" attitude.

 

[whirlcool]

Toggles,
You have such a way with words, I forgot to mention the black throw rug with the rubber backing. I have seen this too!

 

[launderess]

Which Is One Of The Reasons

Many persons try to avoid laundromats at any cost these days.

Oh we left out people who put two, three or more fabric softener sheets in EACH dryer. As though because the dryer is larger than say a domestic version, it requires more product. Poor drums of those dryers never really stood a chance.

Mind you, the complaints above from myself and other posters is not restricted to laundromats. Have seen and heard some if not much of the same thing going on in various commercial laundries as well.

Workers jamming machines full, over use of product and so forth.

If you truly love your things, do your own laundry at home! *LOL*

L.

 

[ronhic]

If you truly love your things, do your own laundry at home!

Amen!

 

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[toggleswitch2]

Still, I remember the stories of wash-e-teria attendants that tell of 3rd worlders using RAID insecticide in with their clothes to kill crotch-crickets and lice and who-knows-what.

EWWW!

 

[yogitunes]

although...not all laundries are the same....depending on the areas, there are the scrunge type, and the lets say, the upper type...around here its based on the clientelle that it attracts....which side of the tracks your from....

overloaded, abused machines...running, screaming kids...obnoxious people, filthy machines, most machines taped shut and broken, gum chewing, pot smoking low lifes....

OR...

clean machines, nicely painted walls, uncluttered floors, clean folding tables, well behaved kids, actual care for the machine, even for the next person, barely ever a machine broken down, no riff raff allowed....

has alot to do with the area their in!...that determines where you go....if have to use one, i will go out of my way just to have a nice experience, not worry about my clothes getting stolen, and it has happened! if you can, window shop first before you go in, before you consider parking, lock the doors, keep the car running!....lol

 

[cornutt]

Glad I never ran into any of this in my laundromat days. When I was in college, I lived in a large apartment complex that didn't have its own laundry room, but it did have a laundromat next door. (The original owner of the apartment complex also owned the laundromat.) Since most of the laundromat customers were residents of the apartment complex, we all knew each other and there was a lot more respect. Generally the worst thing that would happen is that someone would put their laundry in the washer and then go off to run errands and forget about it. The rule was, if a machine was finished and there were no other machines available, you could take their laundry out and leave it in a basket next to the machine, so you could use the machine. The only trouble we ever had was from first-time customers who didn't realize that the "cool" setting on the Norge dryers was actually hot, the "warm" setting was Hades, and the "hot" setting was not to be used unless you were trying to manufacture carbon fiber. At any given time, there was always at least one dryer out of service because it had had a fire in it.

At an apartment complex I lived at in Florida, we had a hair salon in the building behind us that kept bringing their towels over to wash in our laundry room. That was a big problem because we only had three washers and three dryers, and they kept them tied up all day, and they left the machines full of hair. The manager of the complex had to call the police to get them to stop.