Vintage Laundromat pics

[gansky1]

More great pics - the washers in the King Koin laundromat are also Bendix, a little newer than the first Bendix 'mat picture.

The Edina home Norge laundry is gorgeous but close your eyes and imagine what that shiny new basement will look like in a few short years. Flocked like a x-mas tree!

 

[DADoES]

When I rebuilt RJ's Neppy dryer during a December cold snap, the service literature made reference to a fault code that would be recorded if the target temperature wasn't reached within a certain time, advising this can occur when operating in low ambient temperatures. Sure enough, when running a test load in the garage, the fault triggered. It's a diagnostic fault only, doesn't otherwise affect operation via moisture sensor, except perhaps extending drying time a little.

Dryers with thermostat-controlled autodry cycles CAN be thrown off-kilter by low ambients. Residing in a heated area but pulling in cold outside air may have a similar effect, although it shouldn't affect moisture-sensor autodry.

 

[swestoyz]

Great photos guys! Those later Bendii look like those that were posted not long ago here, also up in Minnesota. Must have been popular; those tombstone Bendix!

The demo HOH dryer is just too cool. Such pride in merchandising back then.

Ben

 

[autowasherfreak]

Big Boys

Do you guys remember "Big Boy" front loaders? When I used to go to the laundromat with my mom we would use those for jeans, sheets, and blankets and regular top loaders for shirts. I remember reading on the label of a "Big Boy" that they were made in Moline, Illinois, but I can't remember the name of the company, I'm wanting to guess Troy, but I'm not positive. When those things would spin, it sounded like a jet engine.

 

[revvinkevin]

Wow... those are some GREAT photos!!! Please keep them coming!

And THANKS for posting them!!!

 

[sudsman]

Big Boy washers

Were made by Troy Laundry Machinery in East Moline Ill. they also made the Mi T boy and chore boy washers As well as up to 600 lb machines.. and flatwork ironers. A well respected company in their time And made VERY good equiptment.. Some of the old Troy speedline flatwork ironers are still running.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Some dryers won't shut off if in a cold room. Their automatic cycles depend on the heater to shut off in order to advance the timer. In a cold place the heater rarely shuts off.

Lady "L"- an exhaust fan above an open the door in a transom means, for the most part, air will be traveling in a circle. In the door up into the fan, then out. It drop and then back in the door. The key is to use the dryers fans to induce the draft one wants by strategically placing the air INLET, say up high near the ceiling.

Actually some laundromats in the south DO have cooling. I have seen this also in Connecticut (north east). This may be to have dry air pulled into the clothes dryer. They will be faster this way. But still, a huge waste fo energy, in that all cooling will be sucked out through the dryers. Of course the siplaced air will be hot humid air from outside.

 

[bobbyderegis]

When I worked in a hotel in NY the laundry room had three Ametek "Troy Laundrites". THese were real tanks. There was a wall of six Huebsch dryers. When it was cold outside any wet laundry left from the day before froze solid in the dryers. Launderess is right- it would get hotter than hell in that laundry room, and it had a wall full of windows that you could open. The screens usually had more lint on them than the dryer filters!
Bobby in Boston

 

[cuffs054]

I think the HVAC system is the much missed and fun to play with, Arkla Servel Sun Valley system. I think this one my be oil.