Laundromat adventures

[wayupnorth]

Years ago, I had to go to the local Norge Village with 2 loads for 2 top load Speed Queens, not Norge. They only filled up 1/4 of the tub. So I filled up their floor bucket several times and brought both levels up. Waiting there was a pain. Women in curlers, kids just running around. Bought my first Kenmore and installed the next week. Never been in a laundromat since.

 

[appnut]

Timed fill of the SQs caused the improper fill.

 

[launderess]

Soft mounted commercial washers actually often have higher final spin speeds than hard. While many of today's modern laundromat and other hard mounted washers do offer faster final spin speeds, soft still often is higher.

Reason has to do with suspension or rather lack of in hard mount washers.

Lacking a suspension system hard mount washers transmit all forces generated during washing and spinning directly downward into floor to be disbursed throughout building. This works well enough with low rpm spins especially when loads are perfectly balanced. OTOH when things aren't and you've got 20, 50, 80, 100 pounds or more of wet washing being spun it is going to generate some serious forces. Those forces sent down into building can cause issues for even the most reinforced properties. This comes into play even more when laundry isn't located on ground floor or basements.

Have stood several feet away from a fully loaded 50lb SQ hard mount at local laundromat as it was spinning at final high speed. Could easily feel vibrations that were sent down machine into concrete base several feet thick.

Soft mount washers thanks to their suspension systems cope far better with these forces even if a portion still are transmitted down into structure.

http://www.washcycle.com/soft-mount-vs-hard-mount-washer-extractors/

https://americanlaundrynews.com/articles/are-soft-mount-washers-really-great

Case in point:

 

[hobbyapocalypse]

Just in the past few months my local laundromat replaced about 10 top-load Maytags with Huebsch machines. Last month they replaced the remaining 10 or so TL Whirlpools, as well as all the old dryers, with Huebsch brand. The old large machines were recently replaced as well, and the walls were repainted.

The management had quit repairing the old washers so I'd say less than half the Whirlpools were in working order when replaced.

With a fresh coat of paint and shiny new machines the old place is very attractive don't you think?

 

[combo52]

Looks Great

Even though the owners made a large investment in all those new machines their operating costs for water, electricity and gas went way down.

 

It is really neat to see all those Stainless Steel washers and realize that I just bought the same real SS Front Load washer with the SQ name on it and it comes with a very generous 5 Year P&L Warranty, and the one I got costs around $800 less.

 

John L.

 

[gregingotham]

how's this?

My local laundromat in NYC has a Dexter "megaload" (6 baskets) as well as several "maxiloads"....

 

[peterh770]

Soft mount commercial washers

You do not find many soft mount washers in laundromats because they are so expensive to buy, often 2x - 4x the price of the hard mount machines. Plus, the business is built on the washer taking 30 mins for its cycle and the dryer taking 30 mins to dry, so the machines are always in use (if you are lucky) making revenue. With high speed extract washers, the clothes dry quicker, and the owner loses revenue on the shorter dry times and the dryers sitting vacant unused for part of that old 30 mins timing. So washer prices get jacked up and/or minutes per quarter in the dryer goes down to make up the revenue. There is a trend in dryer pricing for "complete cycle" drying, where you have to purchase 30-35 minutes from the get-go which will dry most loads.

 

[launderess]

Local laundromat's modern SQ (hard mount) washers leave laundry wetter than my vintage Miele, and certainly either of the AEG washers. Only slightly better than the Maytag wringer I must say. *LOL*

Things taken out of the Miele or AEG washers are dried within about one hour or so on the lines, often less. Load of linens done at in those SQ washers took several hours and still weren't totally dry.

And yes, this place recently increased prices on washers, and took away one minute for each quarter on dryers (what once was 5 minutes is down to 4....)

 

[cam2s]

The laundromat I frequent has recently installed two Fagor hard mount front load machines. This is a brand I’ve never seen around here before. They are quite large machines, probably 50-60 lbs. I haven’t used one yet since they are priced at 7 dollars per load and other than washing several comforters wouldn’t be able to even come close to filling it. May have to bite the bullet and send something through it to see what the cycle sequence is.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Fagor is from Portugal and quite a huge appliance manufacturer in Europe, making a lot of the commercial induction cooking equipment. We first saw the name here on their pressure cookers.

 

[imperial70]

just googled Fagor

They have been defunct since 2013. Probably just a brand name these days.