Why are we restricted to quarters when using a coin operated washing machine and dryer?

I assume it’s for the sake of simplicity in design. In older, analog designs, quarters act like the ridges of a key in a pin lock. The newer digital versions likely accept only quarters out of (likely correct) assumption that laundromat owners don’t wish to deal with three different kinds of change.

Yeah, most of the machines have a very simply mechanism where the right # of quarters, all pushed in at the same time, automatically starts the machine for a preset amount of time.

My apartment has coin laundry in the basement so I have to deal with this often. I do wish it would change! A wash run is $1.50 and a dryer run is $1.25 and if I have 3 loads and a comforter to wash, that’s a whole bag of quarters that I need to obtain prior.

I agree with @Seek_Kolinahr‘s assessment. It’s probably because it is easier for manufacturers (and therefore for laundromat management) to stay with the older designs that accept only quarters. I have seen newer designs that will accept the $1 coins, and others that can swipe credit/debit cards.

@seekingwolf I also have coin-op laundry. I asked this question because I have a ton of dimes and nickles and only three quarters.

Not that honest Pachy would ever do this. I can barely change a light bulb.

To save yourself from spending valuable minutes feeding the machines?

Real reason: simplicity of design, as @Seek_Kolinahr said. That’s not where the makers of coin operated machines want to spend their money. Obviously, it’s possible to make a machine that accepts different types of coins. Payphones do this, and here in Canada, laundry machines usually accept both quarters and dollar coins.

If your country ever evolves towards larger denomination coins, you will finally see a change – because it’s a great opportunity for them to slightly increase prices. But they’re not going to move backwards to accept smaller denomination coins.

I seem to remember way back in the day some took other coins, but you needed exact change. The coins laid flat and you needed to fill each hole with the correct coin. That is quite annoying. It’s much simpler to get a roll of quarters for the laundry. Maybe it was only quarters even then, my memory might be wrong. Back then a dime was worth more. A phone call on a payphone was a dime and the NY subway was 60¢. Now, a quarter increase isn’t as big of a deal as back then because of what a quarter is worth.

In NY a lot of them use prepaid cards now. You can load the card with your credit card. I don’t remember if the laundry card machine takes cash.

@glacial We do have a fifty cent peice and dollar coin. We have forever, but we just don’t use them. Probably we would need to get rid of the $1 bill to get people to really start using it. I would guess men really wouldn’t want to switch over.

It’s actually sort of surprising that the quarter-fed laundry machine has lasted so long.

It seems that between the retirement of the Susan B. Anthony dollar and the introduction of the Sacagawea dollar, such coins did stay in circulation in transit TVMs. IIRC, the Sacagawea dollars were carefully designed to match the electromagnetic characteristics of the Anthony coins.

So using more elaborate readers isn’t exactly new. However, maybe it’s not worth the extra costs for a small business.

@JLeslie Oh indeed. The dollar bill needs to be phased out for dollar coins to actually be used commonly. But even here, I think that coin-op machines adapted for the loonie didn’t really start to be common until the next higher denomination coin was in common use. It’s almost as if there’s a required perception that you’re inserting “change” instead of “real money”.

@glacial There is talk of a $2 coin in America. Many people want to switch to at minimum the $1 coin for obvious financial reasons for the government. Coins are much cheaper in the long run. I don’t know if it is worth making a big deal of it when so much is done electronically now.

Our paper $1 has George Washingont our first President on it, so I think there is some nastalgia to maybe. But, if they can (watch out here comes my that when ever I get the opportunity I bitch about this a little) change Washingtoon National Airport to Ronald Reagan Airport (pisses me off to no end) then I guess they will change anything. Next thing you know Washington DC will be called Bush DC.

@JLeslie I think everyone resists this kind of change; no one wants to give up things that are familiar, and that they handle on a daily basis. But really… it’s no big deal. People moaned about it here before the change, but they don’t since it happened. No one’s wallets are breaking, and having money in your pocket is rarely a cause for complaint. :P

@glacial Depends on the cash drawer. As long as we still have pennies, some cash drawers won’t have a space for the $1 coin so they will be mixed in with another coin.

@JLeslie All the more reason to get rid of pennies.

I don’t recall one discussion about the grief that getting new cash drawers would cost retail businesses, and I was in retail at the time. I don’t think that was a serious concern at all. Possibly these are very cheap to replace.

@glacial It just matters if the drawer has 4 slots or 5. I never hear them complain about getting new registers, just worrying about cashiers giving wrong change, because we aren’t used the coin and possibly not having a separate slot depending on the drawer.

“Restricted to quarters”...I thought you meant you were forbidden to leave the premises while your laundry was running.

@Jerumba—I thought the same thing!

Check THIS out. I KNEW I’d heard of an alternative.

http://www.laundroworks.com/?gclid=CLv_kImhtboCFW1yQgodUkcAkg

@ibstubro, welcome to Fluther. Here’s a hint on functionality: when you want to address somebody, just type @ and a drop-down list appears. You can then select the name from the list. If the thread’s been very active, you might have to type the first letter or two to get it to show up.

@Jeruba
Thanks! I knew that…just getting back into the swing of things. It’s hard to get used to the live preview being there…it make too much sense compared to where I’m arriving from.