How much does it cost to do one washing in a self-service laundry?

It depends. Most places I’ve seen you’ll end up spending $1.25 on the wash, and $0.75 for drying. Two bucks all together. It probably varies from place to place.

I just walked down to ours to check since I needed beer and there is a Laundromat next to the beer store. Washing was 2.25 USD. Drying was 25 cents for six minutes. And I took pictures.

I think he’s wondering how much it cost the vendor, not the customer…

Edited: Never mind, my brain skipped over “make use of.”

It also depends on the sze of the machines. The washer dryer combo at my apartment is $1.50 for wash, $1.00 dry for a standard load. At the laundromat it’s $2 for the wash, 25 cents for 6 minute, but the dryer can hold three or four loads.

But the laundromat has 20 lb., 30 lb., and 40 lb washers, at costs roughly proportional (maybe a little less) to the standard loads.

Owning a laundromat is not an absentee owner business, someone has to be there everyday, and it is a lot of work to keep them clean and working.

There are many factors to consider before coming up with a price.

The first is location. Is this a place where personal laundry facilities in the home are uncommon? Are there other existing and established services nearby? If so, what is their reputation, and how can your service be better than theirs?

The next step is to consider the cost involved. It is going to cost a lot to start up a business like this in building rental, equipment, staffing, marketing, maintenance and managing the finances. Once these are estimated, then you can figure out how much it would cost.

Even then, it will take a long time before a profit can put a business like this in the black. My recommendation would be that you and your partner(s) do some research on those that are successful in this line of business. Find out what worked for them and what didn’t.

Around here, a single load of laundry costs $1.25 and drying thoroughly is about $2.

Usually I have seen the standard size laundry loads go for about 1.25/load. There are many of those machines and a couple of the REALLY big washing machines, which may go for as much as $2–3 dollars.

Drying is $.25 for 6 minutes.

If you have the initial startup money and you’re in a good location, I say why not? It’s quite a “safe” business in terms of the future. Why? Because you’ll be in demand. Not everyone can afford a washing machine (esp in this economy) and people will always have dirty clothes to wash!

There was a place i use to go to that would wash my laundry and fold it for me for about twice as much as if I did it myself. that was a value I was willing to pay for as are many people… id say if your going to do it, offer wash dry fold as well :)

Also get some of those super-sized 8 load washers, those are great!

Also (i run a small business group at a bank) invest in a machine that provides your customers with prepaid cards instead of a coin op place. It will cost you more to deposit a bag of coins (bank processing) then to deposit paper money and your customers are more likely to keep coming back because there will be money left over on the card

sorry i know that wasn’t the question :)

Thank you, thank you for your answers, I’ll document them for future use!
Some good advice, especially on the researching and starting costs and i also have an initial idea on how much to charge now.
Thanks a bunch!