Launderette -- is it worth it?

gradel

I'm about to move into my first house with my partner. Its an unfurnished rental place.

There are no white goods included although there is room for them.
My thinking is that our essential item is a fridge and then whatever we can afford after that.

there is a launderette down the road from where we will be living and I am wondering if it would be worth using that for the first month until we can get a new washer or should we just buy a second hand one and hope it holds out?

I've never used a launderette so I'm not sure of how much it costs. does anyone else know if it would be worth it to wait to get a new machine or just buy an old one and hope it works?

SailorSam

If you didn't want to splash out to much until you got sorted you could try asking on Freecycle for a washer, you've nothing to lose then.

Nicki

My experience is that washing machines can be unreliable particularly if moved from one house to another, so personally I wouldn't buy one secondhand as it may only last a few weeks. I might though take a punt on getting one free from freecycle and use it for a few months until it dies, and these do seem to come up very frequently on our local freecycle (but post a wanted ad a few weeks before you move to be on the safe side).

Even with brand new cheaper machines, I find that I need to replace them every 2 years or so with heavy family use, which is why I wouldn't get a used one. That being said my mother, who only had hers on about once a week, had the same hotpoint for 19 years until it died recently, so they aren't all lemons

whiteguineapig

i dry at the launderette
i wash it the day before and put it into carrier bags then go early and dry it
it costs £1.80 ish to dry 2 full loads
it means that i pay as i go and don't don't add it to the electric bill

PlutoinCapricorn

I have never had a washing machine, although I am thinking of getting one. I do hand wash many items, and go to the launderette every 2 weeks.

The price of a wash has gone from £2 to £3 over a few years, and launderettes are slowly disappearing.

I like going there, and they have a big machine (£5) that is good for large items.

I thought launderettes would cost more and that a machine would soon pay for itself, but that may not be the case.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

If you have lots of clothes, bedlinen, towels, that can be washed together (ie, mostly darks), then it's so easy to use a launderette.

If the WM here goes bang, I'm going to do it.

daz378

my mate gave me his old washing machine , think hed had it 5 years and ive had it 2 years , works ok but doesnt drain off well , so i drain it off into a bucket under the sink.... not ideal but it does me

lindseykim13

I would get a second hand one until i could afford a new one. Free would be ideal. We were given an old brown wm when we first moved into our flat and it lasted us 4yrs. When we then had enough money to buy a new one.

I've always found it a great deal of hassle to be without the wm as they aren't always open when you need them, say you need something washed and dried and you only remeber late at night-at least you can put your wm on when you need to.

Austin_Allegro

I lived for 11 years in a flat that had no washing machine, because there was nowhere to put it and no plumbing for it. Initially I used launderettes but these are expensive (my wash cost me £5 and that was about ten years ago; launderette prices seem to go up all the time despite the fact the machines, decor and signage never seem to have been updated since 1973). I got by very well with a spin dryer (cost about £50 on Ebay) and a mini countertop washing machine (cost about £80, various models available online). It can be a bit of an effort as you can't just leave the stuff while you go out, but it's a better option long term than using launderettes.

Honey_Bear

I've never bought a new washing machine, and washing the stuff is less than half of the issue - drying a huge problem unless you use a tumble drier, and domestic ones seem to take forever which is expensive.

I buy reconditioned washing machines with the fastest spin speed possible for the money. I recently paid £145 for a Hotpoint with a spin speed of 1400, and it's guaranteed for 6 months. If I could one of that quality on Freecycle I would, or the small ads in the local paper and on Gumtree.

When the weather is as vile as it has been for months this year, I save up the washing for 2-3 weeks and take it to a laundrette and wash and dry the whole lot in one go. It usually takes a couple of hours, whereas at home it would be four or five hours.

meritaten

I would look on freecycle too.
I would calculate how many loads of washing you need to do per week and the cost - plus the cost of saving a similar amount to buy a new machine when you do move.
not all secondhand washing machines give up so quickly - I had a Candy given me which the previous owner had had for over ten years - and I had it about 6 or 7 years!
my current machine is a Samsung which I bought in Argos for half price over 6 years ago and its worked hard! I find it a good reliable efficient machine, so was the Candy.
my mum paid double the price for her 'Hotpiont' and its been nothing but trouble in the three years she has had it!