Most maintainable/reliable equipment?

[sbaker8688]

Hello all,

Serious newbie here.

Have decided to open a coin-op, and am currently looking for a good location, which I am sure is the hardest part and is the #1 "make or break" aspect of the business. Anyway, I have no idea about name brands on equipment, except that my father used to own two mats when I was a kid, and one mat had Norge (which he hated) and the other mat had GE (which he said was easy to work on).

My top priority in equipment, whether I am talking my car or the machines in my mat, is maintainability. How easy is it to work on the darn machine? I hate cars where I cannot get to parts that need maintenance, and where it takes an act of congress just to change the oil. Similarly, if I am going to have to work on these machines (and I will) - I want the easiest machines to work on. Machines that have the easiest access in terms of access panels, accessibility to the parts that need servicing/replacing, etc.

My secondary consideration would be reliability of the equipment. I'd like to stay away from junk.

Anyway, if someone could throw me some name brands that are tops in terms of ease of maintenance and reliability, I'd sure appreciate it.

Thanks so much.
Sam

[Duane]

Before you can ask a broad question like this you need to think about a few other items to narrow down your pick of machines.

How are your local utility rates? If they are extremely high then you will need to go for a more efficient machine to keep utility costs down. If you have low rates then you may lean toward a better model that is more dependable, but not as efficient. Of course rates will always be going up so getting the most efficient models will be beneficial in the short and long term.

What is your demographics? Depending on your mixture your mat may require larger iron or smaller front loading machines.

Will you be using a card system? Some equipment does not work as well as others when using a card system.

Will you be attended or unattended? Depending on the ease of use, some equipment may work better with an attended mat so the customer can ask questions if needed.

How do you like your distributor? Even though you have a machine that is easy to maintain, how easy will it be to get replacement parts? Will your distributor give you assistance when trouble shooting? Sometimes having a great machine doesn't amount to much if your distributor is terrible.

What type of equipment does your competition have? Having the same brand of equipment as your competition will smooth the transition of his customers to becoming your customers. Or having a different brand may be an advantage if your competition doesn't maintain his equipment to keep customers happy.

Cost of equipment along with shipping, installation and taxes. Your budget maybe a big determination of what brand you will go with to get your store up and running to be profitable.

Etc., etc., etc.


Having typed all that this is my preference:

All Maytag washers and dryers.

50# and 35# for big loads
Neptunes for efficiency

30# stacks for efficiency and reduced floor space

5 year parts warranty

Great for unattended mat such as mine.

Works great with card system (CCI).

With the little work that I have done, I have found them extremely easy to work on.

Great distributor. Only need to deal with one for all washers and dryers.


Of course this is my preference, others preferences may and will vary.


Duane.

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

[mrclean]

Wascomat.

[yankee]

wascomat washers and ADC 236 dryers
GOOOOOOOD DISTRIBUTORS

[mrcoinop]

I prefer wascomat as well /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif but your local dealer is important if you have a bad wasco dealer but a great matag dealer go with who you feel is giving best support and when you have a problem how well or quickly they respond in my area the matag dealer I dont feel confortable with but the wasco dealer everyone is very helpfull I go to there shop have coffee and learn how to do little maintenance to drum bearing jobs. They are a great bunch of guys /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif