From Preventive Maintenance to Equipment Repair, Store Owners Share Key Strategies for Keeping Their Laundromats Running Smoothly and Profitably
Houston laundromat owner Rob Maes was still a newcomer to the industry when he received his first wake-up call, as to the critical nature of preventive maintenance.
And it was, quite literally, a call… from one of his attendants.
“I was in California on a family vacation, and one of my employees called me, complaining about how hot it was in the store,” Maes explained. “I contacted an air conditioning repairperson to look at the problem. When the tech called me back, he was in shock: ‘Dude, the coils on your AC unit on the roof are packed full of lint! It’s no wonder your air conditioning doesn’t work!’
“Until that moment, nobody had ever told me I was supposed to routinely climb up on the roof and hose those things off. I underestimated the unique needs for air conditioning a laundromat, due to the lint the dryers produce. I completely dropped the ball on that one.”
These days, Maes likens going into his laundromats to “walking through a minefield.”
“Every time I go in there, I’ll discover three or four maintenance issues to address,” he said. “Or else, an employee or a customer will point out something to me.”
In this article, Maes and other successful store owners discuss the preventive maintenance and equipment repair programs that keep their laundry operations running smoothly and profitably:
Beck Miller
LaundroLab
Charlotte, N.C.
Number of Stores: 2 corporate-owned locations
Percentage of Gross Sales That Repair/Maintenance Represents: Less than 1 percent. We try to always solve issues ourselves first, but if needed, we don’t hesitate to pay for a technician to come out.
We use a combination of our employees and service technicians to handle equipment maintenance. Our general manager and a few of our attendants are handy, so most smaller problems can be solved quickly on-site. For larger issues or anything that may be covered under warranty, we’ll call in a service technician.
Our maintenance program features daily, weekly and monthly routine preventative maintenance checklists that our teams go through regularly. Without our washers and dryers, we don’t have a business, so we want to ensure we have minimal downtime to provide the best customer service possible.
Documentation and routines are key. Documenting when preventive maintenance has been done so you know when it needs to occur again and creating a schedule to follow will help ensure nothing gets overlooked.
At LaundroLab, we have a checklist on site, as well as an online calendar that we use to schedule certain preventative maintenance items. The checklist is maintained on a whiteboard in the office with the list and date it was last completed – while the Google calendar events are used to schedule maintenance that occurs monthly or annually.
Letting preventative maintenance fall behind schedule is a common mistake. Things can snowball quickly if owners let a couple of machines go out of order and repair bills start to pile up. Staying on top of repairs and maintenance is very important.
Acceptable Downtime for Equipment: Less than one week. We never want to be a store where customers see more than 25 percent of the equipment out of order. That’s unfair to our customers and doesn’t deliver on our value proposition. Having all of our machines operating smoothly is a top priority for us.
Best Advice: Hold yourselves and your team accountable. Everyone who works for you should feel a sense of pride regarding your laundromat. It’s everyone’s job to hold one another accountable for ensuring everything is taken care of the way it’s supposed to be for the customers.
Chris Mirisciotta
Canon Coin Laundry
Canonsburg, Pa.
Number of Stores: 6
We do 100 percent of the maintenance, and very seldom am I below 100 percent of my machines running.
I’m maybe a bit more skilled than the average laundromat owner, having built all six of my stores myself. I also handle all of the building maintenance.
We try to keep a good inventory of parts in my warehouse – including parts for changers; extra motors and boards; and parts for building maintenance, such as entrance doors and restrooms.
My son, Gasper, works with me. We have a pickup truck with a utility body, plow and lift gate. We can easily throw a washer onto the truck and take it to the warehouse for a rebuild, and test it there. We also have a van with most parts we need at any given time.
Although I don’t really follow a set maintenance schedule, I’m in my stores enough to see what needs attending to.
Best Advice: Use your senses when you’re in your laundromat. Listen to the machines running and look behind them. They will tell you when something is going wrong.
Bob Frandsen
Maytag Laundry
Rush City, Minn.
Number of Stores: 9 unattended, self-service laundries, spread out over 150 miles
Percentage of Gross Sales That Repair/Maintenance Represents: Approximately 4 percent
My two managers do most of the equipment repairs, except bearing jobs where the machine needs to be removed for service. In those cases, we hire the distributor or a service company.
We’re able to do our own electrical work, as one of the managers is a certified electrician. We hire contractors for carpentry, tile, cement, glass and security system repairs. Also, every spring we hire an AC technician to clean and service every AC/heating unit before we get hot weather. My managers can handle nearly everything else.
We have a spring and fall to-do list that includes cleaning dryers, washer pits and flat roofs, as well as striping the parking lots and replacing batteries.
We replace our equipment with new machines more often than most laundromats – in fact, we get new washers every seven to eight years, and new dryers every 10 to 12 years, which cuts down on our repairs. That’s the timeframe when older equipment starts to require more repairs. When we install new equipment, we raise vend prices and sell off the used equipment that is fully depreciated.
We keep basic items on hand – including belts, valves, seals, door locks and coin mechanisms. Over the past year, we’ve had some minor issues sourcing parts, but nothing too drastic – however, the cost of parts has definitely increased.
On a related note, our business has been up this past year, partially due to the fact that some residents in our area who don’t normally use the laundromat have suffered broken washers and/or dryers at home, and they couldn’t get these residential machines repaired quickly because the parts haven’t been readily available. So, they’ve been using the laundromat.
Acceptable Downtime for Equipment: We don’t like to see any equipment out of service for more than a few days. But sometimes we get caught without the part we need, and then a machine may be down for longer than we’d prefer.
Chris Mullen
Laundry Smart
Oradell, N.J.
Number of Stores: 1
Percentage of Gross Sales That Repair/Maintenance Represents: 2.5 percent
I’m currently using an independent technician to handle my maintenance and repairs, but I’m planning on bringing some of the work in-house as I acquire more stores in the future.
In addition, the repairperson I’m currently using has more than 30 years in the business and has been showing me how to take care of some of the easier fixes on my own, such as changing out water valves.
I purchased this laundromat two years ago. And, fortunately, the equipment is only seven years old, so other than cleaning the machines on a daily basis, there isn’t much else we’re doing at this time.
Probable the biggest mistake an owner can make is waiting until there are enough machines “broken” to justify having a service person come to make the repairs. It’s much better to get those machines up and running ASAP. Machines that are down don’t generate revenue, and too many machines out of service is not a good look for the store.
Acceptable Downtime for Equipment: We try to keep downtime to a minimum, which is dependent on the service person’s availability, as well as the availability of the parts needed. One week would be ideal, but lately that has been difficult.
Best Advice: Learn how to fix and maintain as much as possible yourself, and get your machines back into service as soon as you can.
Bruce Rocha Sr.
Mattapoisett Laundromat
Mattapoisett, Mass.
Number of Stores: 1
Percentage of Gross Sales That Repair/Maintenance Represents: About 3 percent
With equipment maintenance, my staff will tackle the simple issues. For anything technical or requiring more than basic skills, we utilize our distributor, which has an expertly trained staff and a large inventory of parts – and they warranty their work.
I suggest owners develop a strong relationship with their distributors – this will create a partnership where both parties benefit, and your equipment will receive top priority when you need it.
As far as preventive maintenance, we keep a “baby book” on each machine in the laundromat, and we log everything that occurs in the life of that machine. We maintain a master plan showing the dates the machines were purchased and use it to plan future replacements, based on the number of uses of each machine.
In addition, we keep a number of spare parts in stock – including belts, hoses, spare card readers and coin slide units. Whenever we replace a part, we buy one to put on the shelf, such as pumps. Also, we recondition motors, as well as mother and daughter boards, and always have spares on the shelf.
A common mistake many owners make is believing it’s too expensive to have an expert repair person fix their equipment. They don’t realize that it’s more expensive to have a non-producing piece of equipment taking up space, when ultimately they’ll still end up paying to have it fixed, but only after losing the revenue that machine could have earned over the extended period it was out of service.
Acceptable Downtime for Equipment: We try to not have any machines down for more than a week.
Best Advice: Accept the fact that you must budget for repairs. Set your prices 3 percent higher to cover normal wear and tear on your machines. Remember that you shouldn’t have to pay for your equipment repairs. If you price your service appropriately, your customers will cover the cost of any repairs.
Bo McKenzie
BBM Coin Laundry
Rome, Ga.
Number of Stores: 2
Percentage of Gross Sales That Repair/Maintenance Represents: 5 percent to 15 percent
I try to complete all equipment maintenance myself. The one task I prefer to call a service tech for is changing a dryer trunnion. With my laundry equipment almost everything is a simple fix, and my manufacturer’s service videos are helpful as well.
My laundromats are small compared to most others. I have 17 total machines in one location and 32 in the other. In addition, we’re located 60 miles from Atlanta, so just getting a service technician to my town costs $80.
We try to turn each dryer and washer every day to listen for any sounds it shouldn’t be making. Most of the time a nail, a screw or a bra wire is caught in the drum. Although one time, I actually had a wrench make its way through the tub of a washer and lock up the machine; it’s the only time I’ve had to take the entire front and washer drum out to fix a machine.
Over the years, I’ve found it’s best to have the following parts on hand in the event that a machine isn’t working properly:
- Water valve diaphragms
- Water valves
- Two- and three-inch drain valves
- Spare computer boards for a washer and a dryer
- Belts for washers and dryers
- Electrodes and igniters for dryers
We keep a journal of all the maintenance we conduct on our machines, and we’ve found that the parts listed above are the ones we have replaced most often over the last 10 years.
When I visit other laundromats, I listen to the machines that are running – and I listen for clicking or scrapping sounds. Typically, ignoring those types of sounds for too long will cause unnecessary damage to the machine.
Acceptable Downtime for Equipment: I don’t like to have any piece of equipment down more than a few days. We strive to keep customers from coming in and seeing the same machine out of order from a previous visit.
Best Advice: Always listen to complaints with an open mind. Even if you know a machine works properly, give that customer a refund. A few dollars isn’t worth a negative online review or the loss of that customer.
