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Old 08-18-2015, 03:58 AM
 
31,652 posts, read 26,516,377 times
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When it comes to high end and even much lower condo or co-op sales not having a washer & dryer or at least the connections can and often will sink a deal. People see laundry equipment the same as dishwashers, a mandatory part of their homes. Even stuffy "white glove" co-ops have had to come down off their high horses and allow work to be done in order for such installs.

That being said, yes, NYC has some of the oldest housing stock in the country and many older buildings simply cannot accommodate individual washing machines. You also have many apartments with very limited electrical service. Forget about 220v most are lucky to have barely 100amp service at 120v. This usually breaks down to a two 20amp sockets (one for the fridge and another for the AC), the other two are 15amps for the rest of the (limited) plugs.

This goes a long way towards explaining why power strips and extension cords sell like hotcakes here and are found in almost every apartment It also explains electrical fires like the one on the Westside a year or so ago that killed a man.

Interestingly those living in public housing IIRC often have washers and dryers in apartments. Free water and electricity makes such deals even sweeter.
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Old 08-18-2015, 04:20 AM
 
31,652 posts, read 26,516,377 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hairy Guy View Post
this.

i lived in a building for 3.5 years (moved out to brighton beach now few months back) which had a laundry room. it was total GARBAGE. some crap machines from the mid 2000s, overpriced and underperforming. basically a home machine (all top load of course) modified with a coin intake. i walked 10 blocks to do the laundry at 5 am every saturday morning for 3.5 years, and most of that was in the freezing winter time, even with snow. why? the machines. the commercial machines were newer and wash far better. now i stay in a small place which has two laundry facilities about 5 mins. away from me. well one is a 2 min. walk and the other is about 3 min. roughly equidistant. their machines are far superior to what i have seen in buildings before when i rented in mid 2000s that had their own basements of laundry machines.

also i don't think i have seen a single self service laundromat at battery park or lower manhattan (the fidi area). i know families live there and it's not just workers.

also i have never used drop off service in my life. why? they will damage (likelier) or lose your clothing and try not to pay you for it. they also use the worst lowest quality detergents.
If you read the stories I linked above and or comments wash and fold is doing rather well even at the expense of self-serve. As with many other things so much of at least Manhattan dwellers have become lazy. With an seemingly inexhaustible supply of illegals willing to work in laundries for poor wages places can charge $1.25/lb. or whatever and still make money.

Once you get below say roughly 8th Street finding a laundromat becomes difficult. More so south of Canal Street. Many that were there are priced out and new ones cannot afford the rents.

Even small laundry businesses from the Village on down are being squeezed...

Jeremiah's Vanishing New York: Chin's Laundry

Jeremiah's Vanishing New York: Lee's Laundry
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Old 08-18-2015, 04:33 AM
 
6,192 posts, read 7,312,954 times
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Where I live, since store leases aren't insane, we've actually had an increase in laundry places in the last five to ten years. I have noticed a few dry cleaning places close but we had a lot of those anyway.

Quote:
Originally Posted by BugsyPal View Post
When it comes to high end and even much lower condo or co-op sales not having a washer & dryer or at least the connections can and often will sink a deal. People see laundry equipment the same as dishwashers, a mandatory part of their homes. Even stuffy "white glove" co-ops have had to come down off their high horses and allow work to be done in order for such installs.

That being said, yes, NYC has some of the oldest housing stock in the country and many older buildings simply cannot accommodate individual washing machines. You also have many apartments with very limited electrical service. Forget about 220v most are lucky to have barely 100amp service at 120v. This usually breaks down to a two 20amp sockets (one for the fridge and another for the AC), the other two are 15amps for the rest of the (limited) plugs.
Very true. When we were looking to buy a coop, if it didn't have laundry in the basement, we nixed it. And one place we looked at was set-up more like a row of townhouses and they wouldn't let us put laundry in the second floor, which our unit would have been exclusively on. We almost went for it anyway because the unit we liked had it's own (rather large) section of basement and we could have installed it there. But at the end, it was just too much for a place we didn't think we would live in very long.

There was also a building that I liked but it had restricted usage (in terms of the hours you could do your laundry) and I didn't like that because I work nights and on my nights off, I'm often up doing laundry at said "odd" hours.
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Old 08-18-2015, 04:45 AM
 
31,652 posts, read 26,516,377 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by city living View Post
Where I live, since store leases aren't insane, we've actually had an increase in laundry places in the last five to ten years. I have noticed a few dry cleaning places close but we had a lot of those anyway.



Very true. When we were looking to buy a coop, if it didn't have laundry in the basement, we nixed it. And one place we looked at was set-up more like a row of townhouses and they wouldn't let us put laundry in the second floor, which our unit would have been exclusively on. We almost went for it anyway because the unit we liked had it's own (rather large) section of basement and we could have installed it there. But at the end, it was just too much for a place we didn't think we would live in very long.

There was also a building that I liked but it had restricted usage (in terms of the hours you could do your laundry) and I didn't like that because I work nights and on my nights off, I'm often up doing laundry at said "odd" hours.
Dry cleaners are dying due to changes in work attire; think "business casual". *LOL*

Kids and young adults come to work today looking as if they rolled out of bed and put on anything they could find. In many of the new industries like the tech sector you can roll into work in jeans and a shirt, tucked or not.
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Old 08-18-2015, 05:24 AM
 
Location: Bronx, New York
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This is not much of an issue in the outer boroughs, especially the Boogie Down!
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Old 08-18-2015, 08:14 AM
 
Location: Manhattan
25,343 posts, read 36,870,490 times
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Quote:

Self-service laundromats appear to be a vanishing amenity in some New York
City neighborhoods even as their numbers overall in the city have slightly
increased.
So, vanishing and INCREASING at the same time. I guess this means dragging your dirty laundry on a bus.
My first apartment in the area had no W/D's so I would accumulate clothes until I had a back-seat-full and then drive to the Best/Cheapest Laundromat I could find and spend the afternoon. About every 6 weeks.

That got old REAL fast.

Now we have copious machines in the building at a low price and laundry is very easy.

Gotta wonder how a landlord can get rent for an apartment without at least a couple washer dryers in the basement?

Last edited by Kefir King; 08-18-2015 at 08:29 AM..
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Old 08-18-2015, 09:42 AM
 
5,288 posts, read 6,100,073 times
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When I lived in Alphabet City in the late 60's, I started out bringing my dirty clothes and such to one of the Chinese hand laundries that dotted the area. Then I was told that the Chinese have a habit of spitting on the clothes while ironing. I used a full service commercial laundry after hearing that.
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Old 08-18-2015, 10:26 AM
 
Location: Eric Forman's basement
4,739 posts, read 6,436,529 times
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There was a really nice new laundry (I think opened within the past three years) on First Avenue across the street from Peter Cooper Village. I liked it because it was clean and new, and I would bring my comforters and bath mats there every so often and do a load or two. But it closed down very suddenly, and I don't know what happened! It seemed to be doing a decent business. I really miss the place.
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Old 08-18-2015, 11:03 AM
 
6,680 posts, read 8,189,051 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scatman View Post
This is not much of an issue in the outer boroughs, especially the Boogie Down!
Really? We only have one in our immediante neighborhood and last wash is early so if you are not home till 6pm forget it. Weekends they open at 7 and I once got there at 730am and there was a 2 hr wait. My building has machines but they aren't great. I prefer the laundry mat if I can make their hours.
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Old 08-18-2015, 11:33 AM
 
Location: Lower East Side, NYC
2,970 posts, read 2,595,159 times
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I like using the Chinese laundromat on roughly Allen and Rivington. Though I could use the machines, I pay for drop off/pick up which is 80 cents/lb. The person who runs it is very fun to talk to.
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