Laundromats in Europe

 

You can go on vacation but you can't always take the work out of your travels.

Recently I visited Normandy in France along with Belgium and Germany.

In past trips to Europe I didn't see any laundromats as we know them so this time I tried to pay particular attention. 

In Cologne, Germany I saw this particular laundromat.

It was small, about 1,000 square feet.

It had Primus washers and dryers. Primus has been the best selling brand of commercial washer in Europe for years, and was bought by Alliance about 10 years ago.

I checked the data plates and the dryers were made in Rippon Wisconsin!

I've used Primus equipment in several locations and Primus used to make washers for Maytag.

It did cross my mind to go into the computers and see what settings they had for all of the cycles in terms of water levels, temperatures, times, etc. however I'm not going to mess with others stuff without them knowing me so I didn't. 

Seven kilograms is about 15lbs. At the time I was in Europe it was $1.10 per Euro, so a 15lb wash was $4.40. This same machine we would call a 20lb washer in the US. If you figure 15 cents per pound price that makes this washer $3.00 in the US, so quite a bit more expensive in Europe.

Bigger washers said 15 kilograms which is about 33lbs. Those vended at seven Euros or about $7.70 US. I would guess a common price on a 30lb washer in the US is $4.00 so again Europe was a bit more.

Dryers were set for full cycle drying approximately 45 minutes for three Euros. That is pretty close to prices I have seen in the US.

The laundromat was clean, bright, seemed safe, and all of the machines were working so it followed the four rules of owning a successful laundromat!

In Brussels, Belgium I saw this laundromat.

It was smaller than the one in Cologne. This store had Wascomat in it for washers and dryers.

Again I was tempted to check the settings but held off!

Prices were the same and the sizes were the same as the one in Cologne.

Normandy region in France has a bunch of small towns. I didn't see any laundromats, however at some of the grocery stores and hardware/home goods stores (kind of the equivalent of Menards), they had these outdoor laundry kiosks.

Most had three machines and some had six. You got your choice of two differnet sizes of washers and one or two dryers. All of the equipment in these kiosks that I saw was Wascomat (to be fair they could have also been the sister brand of Electrolux) but I wasn't sure since the name plates were covered by the kiosk panels. The controls were Wascomat like. 

The one thing that baffled me about the kiosks was they all had a 20 kilogram washer (about 45lbs), however the largest dryer was only 18 kilograms (approximately 40lbs). How can someone stuff a full washer of 20 kilos into a smaller dryer of 18 kilos? I asked two people using the kiosks. Fortunately both spoke English and both agreed you can't stuff a full washer into the dryer. They told me it only took someone using the kiosk one time to learn that. Afterwards you made sure not to stuff the washer and to leave space so you could put the entire washer load into the dryer.

If you travel anywhere let me know what kinds of laundromat facilities you see.

Ev

A Heck of A Nice Guy