Newbie needs help

[Mel]

I just in the last month I purchased my first mat in a small community that was basically a start up. It is the only one in town and the next nearest one is 15 miles away. This community is about 7000 poeple. The laundromat is breaking even and naturally I want to change that. Now how do I do that is the question.

Let me give you some information to digest. This mat is totally electric. Has 12 washers and 11 dryers. The washers are all top load and the dryers like the washers are commercial grade whirlpool with coin boxes and slides. So basically they are the domestic type. I am considering the following. Switch to gas for the hot water heater and dryers and add 2 front load machines or leave it electric and add 2 front load machines. The thought behind switching to gas is to lower the electric bill but after reviewing the cost of gas I think it is a wash. The vend for the the wash is a dollar and the dryer is a dollar for one hour. If anyone has any advise I would like to have it.

Thanks in advance!

[Duane]

Mel,

Put in about 5 Maytag Neptunes, 2 35lb and 1 50lb washer (Thats 210 lbs of capacity compared to your 144lbs of capacity) then 4 30lb stack Maytag gas dryers. You should be charging $1.75 to $2.00 per Neptune, but you will only use 1/3 of the utilities per load. The Neptune is also 50% larger than a top loader. My average dry time is 20 minutes per 1.5 loads from a Neptune.

Believe it or not, but the above equipment will probably take up less space than what you currently have now.

You need the larger machines for people with comforters.

Go with gas, still cheaper and better than electric.

You will be able to charge around $3.50 for the 35lb machine and $5.00 for the 50lb machine.

With a small store like this you might be able to put in an on demand gas water heater that will save you money and space.

Total cost of equipment would be around $40,000 - $50,000. If there is anything else that needs to be done to the store, do it now and have a totally new store.

Depending on your utilities costs now, your utilities savings can off set a percentage of the renovation costs.

If it is taking an hour to dry then your customers can still drive the 15 miles, do their laundry and be back faster than using your dryers.


Duane.

www.LMARIES.com (http://www.LMARIES.com)

[bdskyangel]

when you switch to gas you will need to verify you have the correct amount of make up air for efficient operation. That may answer your question.