Laundry Machines on Campus
Sophomore student, Spencer Pigman, saves his laundry every two weeks due to the expense of the laundry machines.
“[I dislike] it when the washers and dryers are broken and it is really extensive,” Pigman said.
He said the laundry machines in his dorm complex are constantly out of order. And as a result causes stress, especially with midterms coming up in the semester.
Cody Burggraff, Interim Director of Housing, said the most common reason why machines break is from students misusing them. He said that overloading the machines can throw off the balance, and by opening the machines before they are done with their cycles.
Within the school year, housing staff conduct daily inspections of laundry machines to decrease the chances of machines breaking. And, when a machine is not working properly the floor resident assistants will submit a work order to fix the problem.
“Nearly 80% of our issues are from the machines being overloaded and throwing the machine off balance which requires the machine to go out of order,” Burggraff said.
Another issue students have is that their clothes are not dried in one cycle and they often pay for more time to dry them.
“This is because the load in the washer was too large. If you make a smaller load in the washer that can wash more efficiently, then they will dry more efficiently as well,” Burggraff said. “With the large loads of laundry, I have witnessed, there is no way those clothes are getting clean either. Just because they were in the washer doesn’t mean they are clean if they cannot move around in the washer.”
He also stated that the machines cost $1.25 because they use up electricity and energy that the university pays for. Although the laundromats charge two dollars per round for the washers and a $1.75 cents for roughly 60 minutes on the dryers.
Pigman said that he understands why laundry machines cost a lot, but it is not beneficial for a student who constantly spends money. He also wishes that they could use flex instead of money out of his wallet.
Burggraff said that the machines cannot use flex because flex is used for campus dining only.
“We also must pay for fixing the machines when they break, so we need to make sure there is funding for that,” Burggraff said.
Despite these challenges, Burggraff said there are minor issues with the laundry machines each week regarding the ratio of students living on campus.
“We have two-to-three issues a week on average, which is pretty good considering the amount of people using them plus, the number of machines we have to maintain which is nearly over 100,” Burggraff said.
Burggraff also said that the best way to prevent broken laundry machines is to not fill the machine too much and use less detergent.
