Preparing Your College Campus Laundry Rooms for the Future

Embrace the Future of Campus Laundry Technology

From getting good grades to juggling demanding schedules, college students have multiple responsibilities, including laundry. While more colleges are reducing this hassle with laundry rooms on campus or in dorm buildings, students still deal with long wait times, payment issues or malfunctions that limit machine availability. With numerous assignments on their to-do list and a busy social calendar to attend to, students need efficient laundry rooms to streamline their campus life.

An Overview of Campus Laundry

Early campus laundry rooms were simple, with few machines and limited technology. You may still find small white laundry machines lined up against the wall on some campuses with only two wash cycles. These appliances may be as old as the students, or older, and often require coins or a student ID card to run.

While university leaders put a lot of effort into the college experience, providing students with comfortable and safe dorm rooms, nutritious meal options and fun extracurricular activities, they have forgotten laundry rooms, which remain dark, unmotivating basement spaces.

The cost of doing laundry has also remained around the $1 mark, costing about $1.50 to wash one load and another $1.50 to dry. Students often do three to four loads of laundry every week, meaning they must budget between $9 and $12 weekly. 

While this cost is manageable, students may spend more because the machines are small and don’t wash and dry effectively. Also, these appliances may break down mid-cycle, forcing students to pay extra. These inefficiencies also impact students’ productivity, taking time away from valuable activities.

Additional laundry concerns that can affect students’ on-campus experience include:

• Broken or faulty machines: Some machines do not wash or dry effectively, while others might be completely out of order. Students often have to pay extra for another cycle due to overloading the machines or faulty, outdated equipment.
• Improper laundry room planning: Another common complaint is the lack of laundry facilities on campus. Dorms may not have enough space, forcing some students to walk to another building to do their laundry or drive to a nearby laundromat.
• Lack of payment options: Students pay for almost everything through apps or debit cards, and they may not carry cash. If your campus still has old, coin-operated machines, it’s inconvenient for students who don’t have enough small change.
• Lost revenue: Students must spend more money to wash or dry their laundry when dorms fail to upgrade to new, energy-efficient machines. Plus, any revenue your campus might earn from the laundry room goes into the expense of running it.
• Long waiting times: Students can experience long wait times due to faulty or broken machines. Some forget to pick up their laundry on time, while others grow impatient and remove someone else’s clothes before the cycle finishes.
• Long repair turnover: Vendors take too long to repair or replace broken machines, leaving laundry rooms with limited capacity for months.

It’s Time to Upgrade University Laundry Rooms

Providing reliable laundry equipment and solutions on campus will streamline matters for your team and students. Instead of adding maintenance to your to-do list, you can partner with a laundry management service provider to stay on top of routine servicing, enabling you and your team to focus on higher-level tasks. 

In addition to streamlining laundry machine maintenance, working with a service provider can help you access the latest industry payment and monitoring technology. They can also recommend suitable machines and payment options for your institution, enabling you to enhance the student experience. When you upgrade university laundry rooms with expert help, you receive the necessary resources, tools and convenience to encourage students to use them. 

You’ll enjoy:

• Smart commercial laundry machines: New, technologically advanced machines can handle high volumes that exceed 15,000 cycles of commercial use.
• Innovative laundry systems: Dorm and campus managers can monitor machines’ performance data, allowing them to make operational adjustments for their individual laundry room spaces.
• Flexible payment options: With the newest laundry models, students choose how they pay, whether they prefer using smartphone apps, bank cards or a jar full of quarters.
• Additional attraction and revenue: Modern washers and dryers have more settings, are more energy-efficient and use less water than conventional machines, which means more students can use the laundry room every day, and you save money over the long run.
• Connected laundry appliances: With laundry apps, students can get real-time updates about machine availability and alerts of complete cycles, eliminating long waiting periods and bottlenecking.
• Service report notifications: Smart laundry machines and apps can notify you and a dedicated tech team when a faulty machine needs service, saving you the effort of contacting vendors while minimizing downtime.

The Future of Washing Machines

Contrary to misconceptions, leasing equipment and technology from a laundry management company can lower your capital expense and offer more support. These lease agreements often come with laundry programs that provide quality, high-efficiency equipment.

There are many other benefits to creating an on-site laundry room and partnering with a laundry management company to fill it with technologically advanced equipment. They include:

• Convenience: Students can access washing machines and dryers in the comfort of their dorms without driving to an off-campus laundromat.
• Cost savings: You spend less on operations and upgrades by leasing your laundry equipment, while students save on out-of-pocket costs with faulty machines or using external laundry services.
• Sustainability: Because younger generations care about their environmental impact, they would rather support energy-efficient on-campus laundry rooms than use gas to drive to and from the laundromat.
• Student experience: A well-laid-out laundry room can build camaraderie among students as they mingle and socialize while doing chores together.
• Safety: Students can do laundry in the safety of their dorm buildings where there are other students, security and resident assistants around instead of traveling to and waiting at off-campus laundromats.
• Customer service: When leasing laundry equipment, you get the latest technology, informational resources for students and staff and industry-leading customer service.
• Streamlined maintenance: Though your leased equipment undergoes routine preventive maintenance, staff and students can send a service request anytime they encounter an issue with the touch of a button on an app.
• Recruitment: Technologically advanced laundry rooms can be an excellent selling point for students looking for campus amenities.
• Academic concentration: Fast and efficient laundry rooms can improve time management, freeing time for students to concentrate on their studies. Students can also book machines in advance on laundry apps, empowering them to better manage their time.
• Campus cleanliness: The easy accessibility of on-site laundry rooms promotes overall hygiene and wellness on the campus.

Future Laundry Technology — Trends to Watch

With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), we may see newer laundry machines featuring this technology. AI-powered appliances will be smarter and ultra energy-efficient. For instance, they may automatically adjust the settings based on soil level and load size while minimizing water and electric use.

In addition to AI, the future of washing machines could also include:

• Microplastic filtering from synthetic fibers.
• Voice control.
• Smart detergent settings that determine the right amount to dispense.
• Shorter, more efficient cycles.

How to Prepare for the Future of Laundry

Modernizing campus laundry rooms is an essential step every institution should consider to improve the student experience. However, it requires proper planning. University and college leaders can prepare themselves for upgrades by:

Building programs to train students on how to use the new laundry payment systems and other advanced features.

Setting aside funds for laundry room renovations or the construction of new ones.

Getting student feedback to build laundry rooms that meet their needs.

Collaborating with a reliable commercial laundry service provider to access all the necessary products and services in one place. This partner must be ready to connect you to the latest laundry technology.

Working with experts to identify suitable laundry room locations and ensure sustainable designs.

Matching the number of machines to the number of students. You could consider having multiple laundry rooms to boost efficiency.

Embrace the Future of Laundry With Caldwell & Gregory

The future of campus laundry is exciting and filled with many technological capabilities, from smart washing machines to laundry apps as the dominant and preferred payment option for college campuses. Caldwell & Gregory provides the resources you need to stay ahead of laundry tech trends and boost laundry tasks for administrators, students and resident assistants.

We have partnered with reputable companies to connect you with the latest payment technology. Our advanced systems can also enable remote performance monitoring, alerting you when machines need servicing. We’ll also support you throughout our partnership and prioritize your needs. We care about helping you reach your goals and are ready to do what we can to make your vision a reality.

Learn more about our higher education programs by getting in touch with us. One of our laundry experts will follow up with you.