There are several factors to take into consideration, just to toss out a few...

Is the amount that the current facility taking in enough to sustain and warrant the aquisitino and maitenance of new machines?

Who will perform the ongoing maintenance?
Who will be responsible for the finances on a monthly basis?
Coin / card system?
Change machine... more maintenance... card machine…. same

Another option is to add a few dollars onto everyone’s maintenance per month and make it a "free" amenity

You can call speed queen or some other vendors who also sell refurbished machines already with the coin/card setup and with a warrantee for less money

~AR

My building (115 apartments) switched in 2006. We bought new, water-conserving machines ($25,000), operated by a plastic card; you pay for time on the card by inserting cash into a wall-mounted gizmo. It won't accept a credit card; for that, I think you need a phone line. We retained Coinmach to provide repairs when needed and pick up the cash monthly(our managing agent doesn't allow its employees to handle cash,and we didn't want to put that responsibility on our super).

Coinmach is slow in remitting the receipts to us and sometimes slow in responding to service requests. It is also charging us something like $280 a month, which seems very high to me. There was a lower cost service provider (about $180/month, I think) called Mac Gray (I think) and I don't know why we kept Coinmach. After deducting these costs, we are clearing about the same as or a little more than the amount we used to get when Coinmach owned the machines and paid us a monthly fee, namely $900-1,000 a month. It took us a little more than 2 years to amortize the cost of the new machines.

Residents are happy with the switch.

6

I've lived in two co-ops. One owned and serviced its own machines, the other had machines owned and serviced by an outside company.

The co-op that owned its own machines rarely repaired them (I don't know if that's because mgt couldn't be bothered, or the board was too cheap, or some other reason). I didn't get a refund for months until I finally got the property maganer on the phone (he didn't return calls).

In the other co-op, repair calls were made directly to the company that owned them; I got an e-mail back within 12 hours and the repair was nearly always made the next business day. Refunds took a few weeks.

Hey Scrub-a-bud,

Thanks for your reply. Do you recall the name of the vendor (Coinmach, Herclues, etc..) that was used in the "other Coop" that seemed to be responsive to repair issues?

Thanks,
Dom

Hi, Dom,
Sorry for the delay. Hercules was the reliable and quick-responding firm.

There are some high-tech options available from two or three companies, including Coinmach.

Check out this Habitat article:

http://www.habitatmag.com/publication_content/2009_february/web_exclusive_adaptations/getting_linked_with_building_web_apps

My best advice is NEVER go in house. There are more problems than you can imagine and it is not worth it at all. The cooperative will not make more money doing this. The laundry room should not be looked upon as a source of income but rather an amenity that should not cost the cooperative to operate. Should one machine needs replacement it will take at least several months to make up the expense of buying a new one. When you have a vendor doing it it will not cost the building a penny. Think of all the complaints that you will receive, and who will collect the money and make deposits to the bank, not the management company, it's not their job. I could go on and on but I think you get the idea.

Dom - You didn't mention the size of your building. How many apartments does your coop have? Also, how many washers & dryers would you need if you went in-house with your laundry facilities?

Our building has 64 units and 2 laundry room. We currently have 3 washers and 4 dryers in each room.

Dom: I agree with other posters that going in-house with laundry facilities isn't worth it financially and will create more work and give you a lot of problems you don't need.

Also, why 2 laundry rooms with 3 washers and 4 dryers in each room for 64 apts? We have 1 laundry room with 3 washers and 4 dryers for 60 apts, and that's enough. Why not use the second room for bldg equipment - or put storage units/bike racks in that room and make some money for the coop by charging residents a reasonable fee to use it?

Our building with 23 units per floor on 22 floors has two washing machines and two dryers per floor. And our house rules prohibit washer/dryers in any apartment.

We have a maintenance staff – our own employees.

We have porters who clean the rooms – our own employees.

We do collect a sum of money each month, from the outside staff.

We would not consider bringing the function in house – we don’t need the headaches and the burden of answering queries and trouble calls on a daily basis.

For us we see value in the existing proposition.

12345

make sure whatever company you bring in pays to paint the laundry room, puts in floortiles, etc. they will also usually give you a few pieces of furniture as well as thousand up front as the contract is invaluable to them. also they must give you a monthly statement of exactly how much money the machine is making so you get your correct percentage. very very important to use side loading machines (use less water costing the coop less) and also have one large machines so people can do comforters, etc.

bargain with all companies very carefully.