APARTMENT WASHERS & DRYERS

That notion recently promoted the seven-member board of Museum Tower – a 52-story, 238-unit condo building, built in 1983 atop the Museum of Modern Art – from undertaking the tricky process of rescinding a ban on washers and dryers that had existed for decades.
 
The apartments were designed to accommodate a washer and dryer, and in the building's early years about three dozen unit-owners installed the appliances. It didn't take long for the trouble to start.

Don't Love That Dirty Water 

Drain lines ran to the eighth floor, where water discharged from washing machines was transferred to a line connected to city sewers. But the transfer point was unable to handle great volumes of soapy water cascading down dozens of flights, and the water backed up vent lines. Dirty, soapy water bubbled into toilets, sinks, and tubs on the building's lower floors.
 
To remedy the problem, the board passed House Rule 37 in 1994. It forbade unit-owners from installing new washers and dryers; it allowed owners of existing machines to repair but not replace them; and it required that the machines be removed when an apartment was sold.
 
Peace returned. Time passed. Things changed.
 
"Our board has always been very conscious about trying to add value," says Ted Voss, a marketing consultant who moved into the building when it opened and has served on the board for 15 years, the past six as president. "About five or six years ago, I asked a couple of brokers who have long experience with the building to list what prospective buyers considered to be our pros and cons.  … [T]he first thing on the short list of negatives was the lack of washers and dryers in the apartments."
 
That seemingly trivial item put the building at a distinct disadvantage against many of the new condo buildings that have built-in washers and dryers. Even older co-ops have been joining the trend, amending rules to allow the once-forbidden appliances, provided certain criteria are met.

The First Cycle

And so, two or three years ago, the board asked building manager John Spellmon to compile technical information and make an analysis of how many machines were left in the building." Spellmon, the property manager of the property for the past 15 years, teamed with Lane Engineering to check the pipes and drains "and see if there was a way to bring [the machines] back," he says. "As soon as the low-water-usage washing machines hit the market, I thought that was the answer for us."
 
The new generation of washing machines by such manufacturers as Bosch and LG use as little as 10 gallons of water for an entire wash and rinse cycle — as opposed to about 40 gallons used by 1980s machines. Other technological advances include low-suds detergents that are less likely to clog drain pipes, and "condensing" dryers that don't require an exhaust vent, a major consideration in many city buildings.
 
"We got seven or eight residents who agreed to put them in temporarily, so we could make sure it would work," Spellmon says. "We didn't have any problems."

Follow These Directions

At the board's direction, Spellmon, with the help of the building's lawyer and engineer, drew up the following guidelines that residents would have to follow when installing washers and dryers: "If problems arise, residents must remove the appliances at their own expense; washers have to sit in an overflow pan, and the pan has to be equipped with a leak detector that shuts off the water supply if the pan overflows; water lines have to be braided stainless steel instead of conventional rubber; only 'condensing' dryers are allowed; and washers have to be an approved, low water-usage brand."

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