Ask people to list the chores they dislike most, and doing laundry consistently ranks among the top ten. The need and appreciation for clean clothes gets overshadowed by the inconvenience of constantly having to wash and dry them.

So, when it comes to laundry, “people want flexibility,” says John Sellier, the regional director of sales for Mac-Gray Laundry Services in Waltham, Massachusetts. “They want the convenience of being able to do their laundry when they want, how they want.”

A Necessary Amenity

That is why, according to Andrew Raynor, owner and president of Shawmut Property Management in Haverhill, Massachusetts, “It’s a foregone conclusion that new condominiums will have washers and dryers in each unit.”

Jim Toscano, president of Property Management of Andover in Andover, Massachusetts, agrees. “Property builders know that in-unit washers and dryers are a better-selling item because they’re more convenient for people to use.”

As a result, there has been a decrease over the past ten years in the number of new condominiums being built with community laundry facilities. While it is true that new construction touts space for individual laundry amenities, community laundry facilities still continue to be utilized in older condominium complexes and newer condominiums which have been converted from apartment buildings, where the plumbing will not allow for in-unit machines.

Forget the Quarters

In fact, community laundry rooms as we know them have changed dramatically for residents of many multifamily buildings. Some associations these days are going really high-tech, with laundry rooms that do everything except put your clothes in the machine and fold them when they’re done.

Gone are the days of the “dank, old rooms in the basement next to the furnace,” says Scott Scarpato, president of Automatic Laundry Services Company Inc. in Newton, Massachusetts. “Our family has been in the laundry business all my life, and I’ve seen the transition from basement operations to above-ground facilities. Community laundry rooms now have amenities such as nice floors, good lighting, special folding areas, TVs and monitors.” In fact, community laundry as we know it has changed dramatically for residents of many condominiums.

No longer do some condominium residents leave forgotten laundry in the washing machine. With the advent of apps—software applications for smart phones and mobile devices like Blackberries and iPads—people can receive notification via text, email or phone call that their laundry is done.

According to Raynor, “iPhone notification service is extremely well liked by the residents.” The reminders come as soon as the clothes are done, which allows residents to complete their laundry more quickly and helps to reduce any inconvenience to other residents who might be waiting to use the machines. “And now smart machines are typically available at most size properties, “says Sellier. “There are various types of card-operated machines, and cost effective programs can be designed for individual associations.”

Running the Numbers

When it comes to the financial side of community laundry facilities, though, people hold differing opinions about what “cost effective” means. Toscano recommends that condominium associations own rather than lease their washers and dryers. “It’s more profitable for the associations. The cost of maintenance is well below a fifty-fifty or sixty-forty split with the laundry vendor. The machines last for a long time, and if a plumber is needed, often parts can be swapped out from older machines which have been kept for such a purpose. In addition, board members can collect the coins (if coins are still used) and bring the money to the bank office where there is no charge for counting, or they can count it on a coin counter that the association owns which saves them the fee they’d pay to a laundry vendor for collection services.”

Scarpato touts another avenue for “cost effectiveness,” however. “We take a lease interest,” he says. “We pay rent to the associations with long-term leases where we take care of all the upfront costs so no money is spent on the part of the condominium community. Then we’re responsible for maintaining and servicing the machines and collecting the money, which relieves the association of additional costs and duties.”

According to Sellier, “Condo associations can certainly purchase the equipment from us and own it, and we walk away, but in my experience condominium associations rarely do this. They don’t want to be responsible for collecting and handling money and calling up Joe’s Service down the street when a machine isn’t working.” Raynor says it all depends on the vendors. “I recommend a legal review of contracts. Does the contract benefit the vendor versus the client?”

Lisa Anderson, an attorney with the law firm of Bender, Anderson & Barba in Hamden, Connecticut, affirms that “companies generally have form contracts which favor them,” and she advises condominium associations against automatic renewal provisions. Mac-Gray’s Sellier says automatic renewal provisions are not as great an issue these days, though.

“Now most laundry companies have longer fixed term leases—5, 7, or 10 years—with no renewals, because the previous documents were onerous. Property management is so volatile that you may have multiple managers over the term of the lease. If you didn’t cancel one year prior, the contract would simply renew under the same terms without the new manager knowing. Now the industry standard lease document is one that is friendly to the companies and to the condo owners,” says Sellier.

“We have a revenue sharing program,” adds Scarpato, “where the association gets a percentage. The needs vary, though, from property to property. So for each property, both sides have to come to an arrangement about the investment up front and the terms of agreement about how the revenue sharing will work.”

Toscano notes that there is more to the laundry decision, however, than just whether to lease or own, including whether to stick with familiar coin-op machines, or to go high-tech on the payment end.

Many condominium boards, he says, have made the decision to continue using coin-operated machines. “There are layers of services and costs associated with credit or smart cards. There’s an administrative expense, a percentage you have to give to the card companies, and also fees associated with processing credit. That’s all money the association has to pay out instead keeping for other uses.”

He tells the story of an association that was able to put the money earned from their laundry facilities into an account earmarked for capital replacement items. “The condo association was able to purchase a new heating unit for a 24-unit building. If they had been paying the credit card fees, that purchase may have taken longer to acquire.”

Debit It

Scarpato, however, points to changes in society as an argument in favor of card-based machines. “Younger people in their twenties and thirties pay for everything with their debit card. They don’t use cash to buy a cup of coffee. Our internal studies and analysis have revealed that residents can’t find quarters anymore. It’s a cashless society. So having a card for the machines makes it easier for the residents to do their laundry.” He explains that today, residents can use their credit or debit cards to add value to what he calls “resident advantage cards,” which are stored-value, chip-based cards. Residents can use a box similar to an ATM (for larger properties) or go online (for smaller properties) to add value to their cards. Either way, when the residents need to wash their clothes, they no longer have to knock on a neighbor’s door to ask for quarters.

Vendors and property managers alike agree, though, that coin-operated machines are no less safe than card-using machines. “You can’t get to the coin boxes,” Toscano says. “The machines have very strong coin mechanisms. Someone tried once but couldn’t get into the coin box because of the way it’s built.” Raynor concurs. “It’s the responsibility of the association to maintain security, but rarely is there an issue with laundry room facilities.”

Clean Green Machines

Another area of agreement among property managers and vendors is the need for community laundry facilities to be more energy efficient. “Energy efficiency has become paramount for all large manufacturers,” says Sellier. “We now use front-loading washing machines which extract the water at a faster rate, which shortens the dry time, which uses less energy and also makes the whole process move faster for the consumer.”

In 2007, the Department of Energy set standards for regulating energy and water factors for commercial machines, restricting the amount of water in a cycle and how much energy could be used to wash and dry clothes. The result was that condominium associations received a huge savings to their water, sewer and electrical bills and added a greater environmental benefit to the community.

“They restricted how much water in a cycle and how much energy could be used to wash and dry people’s clothes,” Scarpato says. He added that “condominium associations received a huge savings to their water, sewer and electrical bills and added a greater environmental benefit to the community” as a result of the new standards.

For condominium associations looking to install these more energy-efficient machines, leasing rather than owning allows for a speedier transition. As Toscano explains, “Associations who own their machines purchase new machines as the old ones are ready to be replaced. It’s as needed.” If the machines are leased from a vendor, though, then according to Scarpato, “We replace the machines in compliance with Department of Energy standards at no cost to the association.”

The other advantage to vendors replacing the machines is that residents are more quickly able to make use of the “bells and whistles” of newer manufactured machines. Gone are the days of simply choosing the size of a load and the temperature of water. As both vendors and property managers explain, now machines provide residents with more choices and flexibility. The type of clothing is separate from water temperature which is, in turn, separate from cycle choices such as a newer “hand wash” cycle. Also, residents have a choice of more dryer settings, including “fluff,” which is equivalent to line-drying clothes, only much faster—and, obviously, indoors.

So, for condominium residents who have ranked doing laundry as one of their top ten most-hated chores, the good news is that laundry vendors, the Department of Energy, and property developers, owners, managers, and associations are all working together to make that particular chore a little more palatable.    

Paula Castner is a freelance writer and a frequent contributor to New England Condominium.