The dirt on laundry services: whether it is notification of an available washing machine or alternative ways to pay for a dryer, technological advancements have enabled property managers and residents alike to get more out of their laundry.

College students once were known for their rumpled appearance and the dirty socks under their beds, probably due to a variety of factors: Every machine in the dorm's laundry room was inevitably tied up, tracking down sufficient change was a major challenge, the washers had one cycle--brutal--and the dryers a single setting--shrink.

Doing the laundry has ceased to be a character-building experience. Today's multifamily housing residents and property managers enjoy advances in laundry services that range from electronic displays and payment systems to equipment that treats the most delicate fabrics with the utmost respect. Rather than jogging back and forth to the laundry room in search of an available machine, residents can actually call or check online to see if there's an opening. And if there's an in-unit hook up, residents can have rental washers and dryers delivered overnight. In the unlikely event of equipment failure, GPS (global positioning satellite) systems zero in on the closest repairman to guarantee speedy service.

A Well-Oiled Machine

The multifamily "vended" laundry service industry operates with the efficiency of a well-oiled machine, thanks to the joint efforts of equipment suppliers and route operators. Manufacturers sell machines that incorporate the latest technology and meet the evolving demands of residents. These companies then pass the hamper to "route operators"--companies that oven, install, service and collect from vended laundry equipment in multifamily communities.

Most community laundry rooms contain washers and dryers made by Speed Queen, Maytag, Whirlpool or GE. Appliance Warehouse of America, operating independently, caters to a parallel market, providing laundry equipment for in unit installation. The company leases and installs residential-quality, washers and dryers to management or to individual residents. Although the company is a subsidiary of route operator Coinmach, in-unit laundry machines do not require collections.

Energy Efficiency

Property managers keep a watchful eye on utility costs, and the machines in the laundry room can be friend or foe. "At Alliance we are especially proud of the energy efficiency and low water use of our newest Speed Queen machines," said Dick Casey, Director of Multi housing Sales for Alliance Laundry Systems.

The U.S. Department of Energy sets an annual suggested standard of energy efficiency in appliances, based on the Modified Energy Factor (MEF), a number that is calculated for each machine based on performance specifications. The MEF allows buyers to compare one model with another. Washers and dryers that meet this suggested standard can be advertised as "Energy Star Qualified."

"We have commercial top- and front-load washers that are Energy Star Qualified," said Casey. "In 2003, the machines had to have a minimum MEF of 1.26. In 2004, the minimum jumps to 1.42 MEF, an increase of 12.7 percent."

From any given model to another, the difference in water consumption is significant. "We have introduced super-efficient, front-load washers, which use only 14.5 gallons of water per cycle, that are vended for use in common laundry rooms. They are much more efficient than the low-end, top-loaders commonly installed in apartment units, which are waterhogs, using up to 55 gallons per cycle," Casey added. The Energy Star Qualified commercial top- and front-loading washers use only 25.5 and 19.2 total gallons per cycle, respectively.

Property owners may qualify for special rebates by installing Energy Star Qualified commercial washers into centralized laundry rooms. The Department of Energy/EPA Web site lists commercial washer models that qualify for Energy Star ratings. To view these qualifying washers, visit www.energystar.gov/index.

Smooth Operators

Property management will probably never deal directly with the manufacturers of vended laundry equipment. More likely, a mutually beneficial relationship will develop between management and route operator. Not only do route operators own, install and maintain the laundry mom's equipment, they also collect the revenue--in whatever form it has been paid--from the machines once or twice a month. Nationally, the four largest multifamily route operators are Automatic Laundry Co., Coinmach, Mac-Gray Corp. and Web Service Co.

"Vended laundry rooms are very much real estate transactions," said Chip Kabrud, Manager of National Accounts at Automatic Laundry. "In simplified terms, the route operator 'leases' the laundry room from property management, which receives 'rent' in the form of a percentage of machine collections."

Route operators can offer property management a variety of products that streamline the laundry process for management and residents, such as specialized payment options, communications systems that enable patrons to monitor and schedule each washer and dryer, and electronic laundry equipment that collects an abundance of statistical data.

Thanks to technological advances and intense industry competition, the future promises more and better multifamily laundry products and services. Adam Coffey, President of Web Service, said that his company is planning to roll out some new technologies later this year. "Part of my strategic vision for Web Service Co. in 2004 includes launching a technological revolution," Coffey said.

Coins and Cards

Coin laundry machines have been around for at least 50 years. Payment methods have evolved from coin slots to coin drops to high-tech card payment systems. The latter were first introduced about 10 years ago in the form of "smart cards." Patrons purchased these cards onsite, adding value as needed, "but this process in turn necessitated the installation of a value transfer system," said Kabrud.

"Card usage has steadily evolved to the point where many machines accept credit and debit cards in addition to the original smart card," said Coinmach President and COO Mitchell Blatt. Automatic Laundry, Kabrud said, can customize machines to accept the universal payment cards of a particular institution. Such a system enables college students, for example, to pay for lunch, lab supplies and laundry with the same piece of plastic.

The card payment system has benefits for property management, patrons mad route operators. Coins are notoriously heavy to transport, and collections per facility have reduced "somewhat," Blatt said, "from about two times per month to an average of 1.2 times."

With Coinmach's client base of 70,000 properties and 153,000 laundry, rooms, however; such improvements are not trivial.

One slight disadvantage of the centralized payment bank is that would-be coin thieves have a single target for break-ins, as opposed to previously, when each machine held its own jackpot. There are no speedy getaways for coin thieves, however, and electronic payments do not offer the same opportunity for theft.

Only about 10 percent of multifamily housing laundry rooms have converted exclusively to card payment systems. And modern vending has dramatically decreased the rejection rate of paying with cash. The tinny "clink" of a rejected coin tends to raise the pulse, and frustration level, of many would-be launderers.

Regardless of payment method, many machines feature an electronic countdown screen that clearly displays how much time remains in the wash or dry cycle. The countdown screen eliminates some of the guesswork, saves the resident money and frees up machines more quickly. Many of Automatic Laundry's electronic dryers, for example, enable residents to "top off" dry time--add a few minutes for, say, 25 cents--rather than having to pay for and tie up a dryer for a whole extra cycle.

Just like rents, the cost of cleanliness is market-driven. "Whether you pay 50 cents or $2.50 per load," Blatt said, "depends on the location's revenue, the rental payment, size of machines and the going rate in your neighborhood." A good example, offered Kabrud, is that people at resort communities will pay substantially more to do their laundry. Time-of-day pricing is a strategy sometimes used to lessen laundry room congestion at peak times.

The number of machines in a facility varies with a property's demographics. "A rule of thumb for sizing common laundry rooms is one washer and dryer for every eight to 10 living units in the property," Casey said, although it's not an exact science. Conventional industry wisdom, according to Kabrud, holds that "families with children do more laundry; seniors do less. Professionals dry clean a greater proportion of their clothes."

Dry Data

Many washer and dryer models with electronic readout also have the capability to produce usage and collection reports. Coinmach, for example, collects data on every one of its 850,000 machines. These reports are monitored for significant changes. A low collection month for a particular machine may signal the need for repair. A low collection month from an entire property, on the other hand, may indicate that occupancy is low or perhaps residents take their wash to an outside laundromat.

Automatic Laundry finds that "the data captured by these machines is invaluable." The information is used, for example, to reconcile collection amounts with recorded machine usage and to provide added security measures, such as recording every time the service doors are opened.

Whereas laundry rooms were once consigned to remote, unsecured, dark and dingy basements, today's multifamily residents can almost universally expect to clean their clothes without risking their comfort, safety, fine washables and precious time. However, for financial reasons, equipment in any given property is unlikely to be upgraded until the end of a lease period or during a major renovation.

A renovation, however, may be just what is called for--and financed by--the route operator. These companies have a vested interest in drawing residents to laundry rooms. For example, Blatt said, "Coinmach may redesign, relocate or reconfigure a property's laundry room to make it brighter, install additional seating and perhaps offer entertainment in the form of a TV."

Reach Out and Touch the Laundry Room

College students will enthusiastically embrace LaundryView[TM], Mac-Gray Corp.'s latest addition to its 21st century software suite known as Intelligent Laundry Solutions[TM]. As the largest laundry service provider to the college and university market, the company is front and center in using communications systems to take the pain out of washing clothes. LaundryView has been installed at two post-secondary schools in Massachusetts.

LaundryView enables students to monitor the status of washers and dryers in campus laundry rooms from any device that has a Web browser. Each machine reports its status to LaundryView sever at times every minute and, from their computers, students can see if the laundry morn is busy. Students can even ask LaundryView to notify them via computer or cell phone when machines become available. Once a student has started a machine, LaundryView sends an alert when the machine completes its cycle.

Philip Clay, Associate Dean of Students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, one of the schools now using LaundryView, said that the software's cutting-edge nature "is a perfect complement to the lifestyle of the technologically savvy WPI student ... It's another great innovation from our friends at Mac-Gray."

Neil F. MacLellan, Executive Vice President and COO of MacGray, said, "Beyond the convenience to the user, LaundryView can identify machines that may need service and automatically notify Mac-Gray. By monitoring the number of cycles that a machine has completed, it will also help us to anticipate required preventive maintenance and possible replacement of equipment." Although Mac Gray uses Maytag equipment for its college accounts, he added, "LaundryView can work with washers and dryers from all major manufacturers." Additionally, LaundryView can be installed into any college laundry facility, regardless of the route operator servicing a particular campus.

Other laundry room monitoring programs are available, such as Alliance Laundry System's proprietary Wash Alert[TM] system, which is in use on three college campuses. With Wash Alert, residents can reserve machines by e-mail, receive notifications by cell phone and even view a diagram showing the exact location of the available machine. "At Ohio University," Casey said, "there are laundry rooms with 75 or more machines, so you can see the value of this graphic depiction." Because Wash Alert is networked rather than Web based, it can be used in apartment buildings on dedicated cable channels, too.

At Your Service

"Our goal is to perform preventive maintenance so that breakdowns do not occur," Blatt said. To that end, the readout provided by electronic machines is studied carefully "every day; every month." Kabrud pointed out that Automatic Laundry's high-efficiency, front load Maytags contain soap sensors to analyze over- or under-use of detergents and their effect on the machines.

Route operators respond to service requests speedily, sometimes within a few hours, and no later than the next business day. Blatt, however, makes a distinction between the arrival of the technician and the actual completion of the repair. "Because there are so many models that require so many different parts," he said, "service technicians often must leave the premises to get a particular part. At Coinmach, we have determined which parts are most frequently needed and have expanded the scope of parts the technician carries. Our service teams were redesigned to include roving vans that deliver the parts to the site, thereby reducing equipment downtime."

For many route operators, the sky is literally the limit when it comes to providing service. "At Web Service Company, we plan to utilize satellite GPS-guided vehicles and new routing software to increase service response capabilities. In addition, we will equip all of our vehicles with on-board computers that will further improve our ability to increase customer support and collect and service equipment," Coffey said. GPS is coming in some form to several other route operators as well, although how it will be applied varies somewhat from vendor to vendor.

Laundry Room v. In-Unit Hookups

Some potential residents demand in unit laundry equipment or hook-ups. What the resident sees as an amenity, and what property managers consider realistic utility costs don't always jibe, however. On the one hand, in-unit washers and dryers or at least washer/dryer hookups-are becoming more common, especially in new construction. On the other hand, centrally located laundry rooms are more cost-effective.

At first glance, with comparable equipment, fitting each unit with its own washer and dryer seems like all even trade for a centralized laundry morn. A load is a load is a load, no? Not necessarily, said Coinmach's Blatt. "When people have washers and dryers in their apartments," he said, "they tend to do laundry more frequently rather than waiting until they have a full load. This translates into more laundry cycles per resident." Centralized laundry rooms also enable residents to do multiple loads simultaneously.

Properties that provide in unit machines as opposed to in unit hook-ups, however, can retain some control over utility costs. When residents supply their own washers and dryers, they tend to buy less expensive, less efficient models. But Ramon Norniella, President of Appliance Warehouse of America, said his firm offers multifamily management a choice of models and lower-cost contracts in return for exclusive agreements for providing and servicing in unit laundry equipment. These partnerships, along with guaranteed revenue sharing for property managers, help offset higher utility costs.

"Within any particular apartment community," Norniella said, "residents will have various preferences. Some people will he adamant about having their own equipment and others, who may not wish to assume the added cost, will prefer the central laundry room. There is definitely a market for both."

NSC Members Who Provide Laundry Services

Appliance Warehouse of America 800/693-4343

Automatic Laundry Co. 800/332-0149

Coinmach Corp. 516/349-8555 www.coinmach.com

Mac-Gray Corp. 800/298-1022 www.macgray.com

Speed Queen 800/345-5649 www.speedqueen.com

Web Service Co. 800/421-6897 www.weblaundry.com

RELATED ARTICLE: It's more than a wash.

Rob Johnstons, President of First Communities in Atlanta, which manages 60 properties, recently joined Coinmach in making apartment history with a re-do of one property's laundry facilities.

"We were considering buying a property with 290 apartments, 170 of which were one-bedrooms units without washer/dryer hookups," Johnston said. The 20-year-old property was suffering low occupancy, which Johnston attributed to inadequate laundry facilities. "We wouldn't have bought the building if Coinmach hadn't worked with us to come up with a new take on laundry facilities."

"Laundry facilities" is something of an understatement. The first floor of the clubhouse was transformed into a "clothes care center" that features a separate sitting area, a coffee bar, professional exercise equipment, a high-speed Internet connection, TV and a full-time attendant.

"I've been in the business for 25 years," said Johnston, "and this is the most innovative and customer-oriented facility I've ever seen." The average resident of this now fully leased property is between 22 and 32 years of age, single or married without children.

RELATED ARTICLE: Research shows common-area laundry rooms use less water than in-unit facilities; HUD study recommends submetering.

National Research Center Inc., an independent research firm, was contracted by Multi-Housing Laundry Association (MLA) to conduct a national study comparing laundry-water use rates of apartment residents whose buildings have common area laundry rooms with use rates of apartment residents whose buildings have laundry facilities in each unit.

From September to December 2000, laundry-water use was calculated in part using water meters attached to 191 in-unit washing machines and 50 common area washing machines in eight apartment buildings matched for quality and size in four cities in the United States.

Results were adjusted to reflect residents' self-reports of off-site use during the study period. After adjusting for self-reported off-site laundry use and averaging figures for all four national sites, the study revealed that residents of apartments with in-unit laundry facilities used 3.3 times more water for laundry than residents in apartments using common area laundry facilities.

Further analysis revealed that residents with in-unit laundry facilities used 5 times more energy than residents in apartments using common area laundry facilities.

The communities with in-unit laundry machines included in the study are master metered.

For details on the MLA study, visit www.mhla.com.

For water conservation and financial savings, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) encourages the use of water efficient toilets, and low-flow shower heads and faucets.

To reduce water consumption, a HUD study recommended common laundry rooms and submetering. For a complete copy of the HUD study, visit www.laundrywise.com.

Janice Myers is a freelance writer based in Albuquerque, N.M.