Little Falls NJ Laudromat

[mistereric]

Hi everyone!

I was just alerted to a laundromat in a vacant building in Little Falls NJ that is being disasembled and scrapped this upcoming week. It contains some top load machines, some large brown dryers, some stainless steel front loaders and some turquoise norge machines. There is also signage!

I don't have much more information other than that, but I know the owner plans to scrap the machines and is willing to get rid of them to collectors. The signage might go on ebay, or it might be offered to us for reasonable prices if we are nice. I am going to visit the location this afternoon and take some photos of the place. Stay tuned!

 

[mistereric]

the only picture so far

is this one, from 2006. In it is my friend AJ.

 

[askomiele]

OMG what kind of washer is that on the back? I knew a laundromat who had one of those... when my mother went shoe shopping I walked over the laundromat and sat down in front of what I thougt was the AMERICAN WASHING MACHINE... jup the idea of a drum mounted vertically with a stirrer inside had not crossed my mind then....

 

[toploader55]

Ooooohhhh.

Hi Eric.
Eddie here. My Dad lives in Blairstown. If you find out what machines are in there give me a shout. My Dad always loves an unexpected visit with a few machines in my truck LOL.

 

[appnut]

It will be interesting to know wht all the machines are in there. I wonder if any of the Norge frontloaders in the background still work? Oh wait a minit, based upon the signage above, those are the old coin-operated drycleaning machines.

 

[sudsman]

The machines in the background

Are Drycleaners , Perk dry to dry units.. doubt if they run at all ..

 

[mistereric]

Here's the info...

Apparently the place was in use until a few weeks ago. Its very run-down.

There are still two sets of turquoise Norge dry-cleaning machines. All are missing their coin trays and motors. I believe this was part of the decommisioning these machines underwent for their impending removal. A large fluid tank had already been removed. I didn't find out when the machines were decommsioned.

The opposite side of the place had a long row of Maytag top loaders, 3 dexter front loaders, a large Speed Queen unit, and a row of Norge dryers.

I was surprised to find washed laundry in one of the machines and one of the upstairs residents came down and moved it to a dryer. Even tho the machines all seemed to be very worn out and abandoned, several were apparently still usable.

The last dryer had apparently gone on fire at some point recently. Someone had dried something covered in oils and the thing had burst into flames. Yikes. Several of the Maytags had Out-Of-Order signs on them, and a few must have had water sitting in them for eons.

It looks like this place will be dismantled this week. If anyone has any interest, let me know. I am pretty sure you'll be underwhelmed. The only useful thing might be some of the Maytags, but they are commercial and low-capacity. The dryers still work, but qualify for the MOST worn out dryers I have ever seen. Also, they are enourmous.

Pictures are at the link below.

http://www.ericdietrich.com/photos/index.php?album=excursions/Norge+Laundry+Village

 

[toggleswitch2]

ALLZ I CAN SEZ IZ WOWZ!

 

[qsd-dan]

I wonder how those dry cleaning Norges would fare as regular washers? Probably would have to do MANY empty cycles to purge those nasty dry cleaning chemicals.

 

[frontaloadotmy]

Oh get me a Dexter and a big

Speed Queen Please!!!

 

[sudsman]

The drycleaners

Cannot be used as regular washers as they have no water valves nor drain valves.. a overflow fluid trap was used for those machines and their was no actual level of perk in the machine. Fluid was pumped from the filters thru the machine .

 

[Unimatic1140]

Wow cool pictures Eric!!! The solid wash tub on the floor was from a 1960's Norge.

 

[mistereric]

I would have pulled that tub but it was a bit out of reach, and I figured it was probably toast anyway. Its a shame that the original machines were gone - I would imagine the original washers were solid tub Norges.

Are there any of these DIY dry cleaning places left?

 

[jetcone]

I'd love a motor set

from out of those Dexter's they fit right in my Duomatics

jon

 

[launderess]

Norge Dry Cleaning

In case anyone has any bright ideas, pipe:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1961-Norge-Dry-...ryZ73178QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[launderess]

Self-Drycleaners

Unless one counts those "Dryel" packets, are pretty much if not totally gone.

Local and federal regulations regarding safety, health and air pretty much doomed Norge type operations. Indeed dry cleaners in many areas are having a hard time right now regarding their chief solvent "Perc". California is considering banning the substance, and you cannot open a new dry cleaners in many areas if you are going to use Perc, due to landlord fears about the stuff getting into the air and thus traveling to other parts of the building. In places such as NYC, where many dry cleaners are located on the ground floor of apartment buildings, this is a major concern. Oh, it also does not help that there are hundreds of "toxic waste" sites where former dry cleaning stores essentially dumped chemicals into the ground.

L.