Laundry's Future: Convenience and Value-Added on Top.

By almost anyone's admission, doing laundry is a chore. There's little joy in getting your whites as white as possible or rescuing those cotton khakis from the dryer before the onset of wrinkles. It has to be done and apartment residents, like everyone else, want to do it quickly and with the least amount of hassle.

By the same token, property owners hope their laundry facilities will run smoothly, with as few service calls as possible. In an age of increasingly affluent and choosy renters, that means putting some time and effort into laundry-room planning.

Understanding these trends, laundry services providers have revamped the way they think about their products and are putting more effort into making doing laundry less of a chore and more time-efficient for everyone. More resident-friendly features, less down time and maintenance cost, better reliability, and higher profit, they say, will spell success for apartment community laundry rooms for years to come.

Stress convenience

"We're focusing on making laundry rooms friendlier," says Fred Restum of Automatic Apartment Laundries, Inc., of Livonia, Michigan. "We're adding more resident-friendly features all the time."

Mitchell Blatt, president of Coinmach Corporation, Roslyn, New York, agrees, saying that technology is at the forefront of laundry facility improvements. "Coinmach's state-of-the-art cashless/smart card/debit card systems bring increased security and flexibility to the laundry room," he says. "Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, ATM cards, and personalized property debit cards can all be used right at the machine."

"Smart cards," which are already in use on many properties across the country, are a big trend for the future, laundry services suppliers say. Using a credit card, ATM card, or debit card, residents need to only swipe a reader and enter a personal identification number (PIN) to use laundry facilities. That means the end of hauling pocketfuls of quarters to the laundry room and the need to collect change throughout the week for laundry day.

"Cashless laundry rooms using smart cards with a full microprocessor are becoming the most popular innovation," says Rick Reynolds, vice president of sales and marketing with WEB Service Company, Inc., of Redondo Beach, California. Under WEB's system, residents are issued debit cards for use with washers and dryers. Funds are transferred to the debit cards either through a major credit card or an ATM card, and residents control how much they keep on the laundry cards.

"Because the add-value station does not hold cash, all security issues are eliminated," Reynolds says. "Residents like the system because they don't have to search for quarters to do their laundry."

Blatt says the smart cards can be used property-wide, to make life simpler for residents. "These systems can be integrated throughout the property, providing access to apartments, business centers, vending machines, and loyalty programs," he says. "It's really coming on heavier and heavier." Restum added, "We're seeing it a lot on college campuses, where students use the cards campus-wide."

Laundry monitoring is another innovation designed to make laundry day less of a chore. Coinmach, for example, provides residents with status updates while in their apartments via their LaundriMate monitoring system. "LaundriMate provides residents, in their homes, with up-to-the-minute information on machine availability, and notifies them via telephone when their laundry is complete," Blatt says.

"The system creates improved traffic flow in the laundry room and, thus, reduces user complaints to management," says Reynolds, whose company has also introduced the system with success.

Restum says that screens on the machines providing information on cycle progression and the time remaining is already a big hit on rental properties, and promises to become more prominent as time goes on.

Efficiency

Property owners, service providers say, are always on the lookout for more energy-efficient machines. Today's laundry equipment is designed with that need in mind. Washers are designed to use less water while providing the same quality cycles as their older counterparts, and dryers do their jobs more quickly than ever. Part of the responsibility for efficiency, say laundry professionals, lies with property owners and their space designers. In designing laundry rooms, consideration should be given to issues such as venting and water supply to help keep costs low and efficiency high.

"It's best if a laundry room can have at least one outside wall," Restum says. That wall is then lined with dryers, which can easily vent directly outdoors instead of pushing hot air through more ducts than necessary. Less effort means higher efficiency. He also advises owners to choose bright, dean colors for laundry rooms and make use of those outside walls to install windows that allow lots of natural light to enter during the day. Bright rooms, he says, make for a more pleasant environment for residents.

Reynolds says that laundry rooms need to be central to all residents. "Preferably, no resident should have to walk farther than 200 feet from his or her door to the nearest laundry room," he says.

Others agree. "The laundry room should be near other common areas, not secluded areas that could pose security problems," Blatt says. "The room should not be so close to the living units that the noise of the machines or residents using the machines would be a factor." In other words, it's probably not a good idea to place a row of machines up against a wall that separates a laundry room and a master bedroom.

Restum says his company is seeing laundry rooms being placed next door to resident fitness centers or other common areas. "It's convenient," he says. "You know you've got 30 minutes so you can go work out during that time."

Machine-to-resident ratio is another important variable in the design of laundry rooms. While each property's needs are different, suppliers agree that there are a few guidelines to follow when deciding how many washers and dryers a property requires:

* Where families make up most of the rental population, owners should invest in one washer and dryer for every eight to 10 apartments.

* When most residents are single, one washer and dryer for every 12 apartments is a general guideline.

* For senior communities, property owners should plan on one washer and dryer for every 22 to 35 apartments.

Above all, suppliers agree, each washer should be paired with at least one dryer. "You won't need all of them all the time," Restum says, "but at certain times, there will never be enough equipment."

Finally, property owners are advised to involve their laundry services supplier in the design or renovation of their laundry facilities. "They will have valuable insight into design and layout," Reynolds says. "Adequate lighting, windows, folding tables, and proper venting for dryers are often overlooked."

In-unit washers vs. laundry rooms

A few years ago, washers and dryers inside apartments seemed all the rage. Residents, particularly of upscale properties, demanded them and property owners frequently bought into the concept and arranged installations.

Today, though, laundry rooms are back in vogue among owners of all kinds of communities. The numbers speak for themselves, Reynolds says. "On average, an apartment community with in-unit washers will use 3.5 times more water than an identical property with common area laundry rooms and machines not provided in units," he says.

In some cases, Restum adds, even residents prefer central laundry facilities. "If an in-unit machine leaks, it's really an inconvenience," he says. "You get disturbances at night from neighbors using their machines at all hours, and it doesn't always work out."

By designing convenient, pleasant laundry rooms, Reynolds says, property owners can negate some demand for in-unit machines. "Residents complain about inconvenient locations, poorly-designed rooms, and high vend pricing," he says. "If more attention is paid to treating the laundry room as an amenity to the property, we believe the demand for in-unit machines would be lessened."

Blatt says that, like many laundry vendors, his company will work with property owners to provide the best solution for an individual property, and frequently installs both laundry rooms and in-unit machines. "Our goal," he says, "is to provide laundry equipment for the owner's every need."

Kim Fernandez is a freelance writer for trade and consumer publications. A former managing editor of Units, she has written about the multifamily industry since 1994.