Is free dry really free?

by JoJo
(St. Louis)

As a laundromat owner I analyze my needs as well as the customers needs on an on-going basis. Free Dry is one of the scams that annoys me most about this industry. It is an insult to the customer! Every laundromat owner has a gas bill to pay. The cost of the dry is handed down to the customer in one way or another...In the case of "free" dry you just pay more for the washers. The customer may see the word "free" and think it is a bargain but it really is not. It is an inconvenience to have to push to Start button on the machine every 6 minutes, too. jojo

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Response from Vicki:

Hello, JoJo,

Thank you for providing your perspective on this issue. My husband and I have only ever encountered one laundromat that offered "free dry" services for customers who used their washing machines.

It has been awhile since we visited this laundromat since it is out of our home area but in the same city as the terminal of Mike's trucking company. However, we seem to recall that the cost to wash clothes or an oversized sleeping bag (the kind that drivers might routinely use as their bedding) was about the same price -- if not a little less expensive -- than the cost of the commercial laundromat in our home town.

For this reason, "free dry" was a good deal for us, especially on Mike's sleeping bag which is quite thick and takes a long time to dry, even in a hot commercial dryer.

Incidentally, the laundromat that we are referencing here does not have the "push the button every 6 minutes" type set-up. When we used it, the customer could set the time up just about as far as he/she wanted and let the machine go from there. Perhaps this is not the standard way that most laundromat owners set their machines, but it is the way that this particular one did.

I completely understand where you're coming from about owners needing to recoup the cost of running the "free" dryers and jacking up the prices of their washers to compensate. And that is certainly something that professional truck drivers need to watch out for.

We recently encountered a professional truck driver in our home laundromat and he said that that was the first and last time he would be using that facility since he could launder his clothes for less in a truck stop. His experience was completely opposite to ours, since we have found that truck stop laundry services cost more than those at our home laundromat. Still, we appreciated his feedback -- as we do yours.

Drivers, we would be interested in learning which laundromats provide the best laundromat cleaning services for the least money.

Sincerely,
Vicki Simons
http://www.truck-drivers-money-saving-tips.com/