There when you need them: the laundromats of Manchester, NH
Friday, November 27, 2009 at 8:18AM Winter is nigh, and with it, snow and ice. And more than anything, the ice storm of 2008 has been on my mind as of late.
On my block, the power was out for nearly a week. In addition to no heat, the missus and I also had no way to wash our clothes.
It was with this in mind that I began scoping out the city's laundromats earlier this week, so that I know where I can get the best value for my money should we find ourselves in a similar situation at any point this winter.
In all, I surveyed 11 Manchester, NH, laundromats. What I found was that there is a relatively wide variety in not just prices for washing and drying, but also washing machine size, which makes an apples-to-apples comparison a bit more difficult.
(A Word document featuring a Manchester, NH, laundromat comparison chart showing prices at all 11 surveyed laundromats can be downloaded here.)
The cheapest prices for wash cycles, for instance, can be found at Shop, Drop and Dry Landromat on the West Side, as well as East Side Drycleaning and Laundromat out near the airport. Both charge $1.50 per load, using machines that have 15-pound loads. (Conventional residential washing machines generally have a load capacity of eight to 10 pounds.)
The standard laundromat washer, however, seems to have a 20-pound capacity, including this one at Granite State Laundry on Union Street:
As noted above, several Manchester, NH, laundromats have washers in various sizes, the biggest, also at Granite State Laundry, capable of washing 75 pounds of clothes at a time:
