Today’s Laundromat

This is my final straw with this laundromat! I usually go to Clay and Hyde st. laundry because I feel like the washers are better there, but I needed to take care of a few sheets and shirts so I decided to go here today. I use the dryer, and when I take out my clothes, there’s blue stuff all over! Seemed like it was caked on the side of the dryer. And just my luck, it was my white clothes and high thread count sheets!!! You trust that the machines are kept clean and are functioning properly, so basically you feel violated when your clothes come out messed up. Who knows how many people this has happen to before. There was no number listed so, I can’t call to at least get my money back… Never going here again.

What an absolute nightmare.
The environment: dirty and full of old machines
Prices: $ 2.50 per wash load and recently increased to $ 2.75 in the «new» washing machines
Experience 1: The first time I came here I put money in to get laundry detergent and the machine ate my money.
Experience 2: The one time I decide to wash my expensive white sheets, the machine leaves brown RUST STAINS all over the place. I ended up paying to hand wash my own laundry! Absolutely unacceptable. I couldn’t even find a number to report the machine number to the owner because is no number posted anywhere. What if it a machine broke or there was something seriously wrong? Absolutely unacceptable. With many alternate laundry places in the area, I recommend avoiding this dive.

Your dryer sucks. It is either too hot OR not hot enough. WTF!!!
The one time the dryer was too HOT ALL of my undies elasticity got melted.
A LOT of times the dryer doesn’t even dry my clothes even if I select HOT.

I do NOT recommend this place. It is the closest laundromat to where I live, so I decided to give it a try. Some green liquid crap from their washer stained my load of whites (see photos). Go a few blocks down to San Francisco Rinse, pay 50 cents more per load for a CLEAN, nice place with new equipment and fee wi-​fi. Don’t bother with this hole.

Here’s the scoop: The owner is named Steve. He is not there when the laundromat is in operation so when a dryer or washer breaks down — good luck! You lose your money and there’s no phone number published anywhere in the laundromat to call.
Some kid comes by around Noon and later in the evening to clean up and close. If you are one who has lost money in the dryer or washer, you can catch him when he suddenly shows up, if you’re lucky, and then he’ll contact Steve, the owner, who may call you in a day or two or three and he will offer to give you your money back on broken machines. Make sure when you arrive and he hands you the money you lost in a broken machine that you count the money he gives you. He’s not honest.
He makes extra money by leaving people financially stranded — when there is no definite way of getting a return on your money should something go wrong with any machine in the laundromat. A quarter here, a quarter there, $ 2.25 here and there can add up!
The change machine does not always give you exact change. The detergent machine does not always give you detergent. A washer or dryer will break down and take your money.
The change machines eventually do get repaired (after taking your money). The dryer and washer machines eventually do get repaired (after taking your money), so you have to be wary — and lucky.
There are ten orange chairs in the laundromat to sit on, but five of them are cracked and broken and they do not get repaired.
If you feel safe in the laundromat because you’re alone, you can have a book lifted or money lifted if you get too comfortable and trusting. Without a manager on site, you’re pretty much left to fend for yourself.
On the brighter side, it is not a dirty place, the machines work most of the time, and the usual homeless people that once liked to hang out there for some reason no longer return to bother customers so people can use the laundry and get out in a minimum amount of time.
There are only two mobile baskets for the whole laundry, so it’s best if you bring your own laundry basket to move your wet clothes to the dryer and then to the folding table because the place can get very crowded, particularly in the evening.
I am very tempted to publish Steve’s telephone number here so that at least other customers might benefit from having it when they find themselves stranded and having to pay more money to use another machine that hasn’t broken down in the middle of operation. But since Steve is a kind of slum owner, proud of his penuriousness, he would likely change the telephone number so once more nobody will know how to reach him while he once more counts the extra coins he captured when someone once more mistook a broken machine for a serviceable one.

I have been using this place for a couple of years — out of necessity, not choice — as it is the closest to me. There is very rarely anyone on site in the late afternoon, evening time which is frustrating because there are frequent mechanical problems with machines. I have also frequently lost quarters in both washing and drying machines and it all adds up!
They used to have a guy that lived next door who would come down and try and help if anything went wrong but you had to call the ‘emergency #’ which is posted up on a sign that is tacked up high on a wall — tough if you have eyesight problems. He has since apparently left.
So this brings me to a recent problem. Put the clothes in machine, put money in and I knew instantly there was a problem because I did not hear the machine ‘kick in to churning mode’. I waited for about ten minutes, opened the machine and it was full of water but that was it. Another patron tried to help but my clothes were evenly distributed and not overloaded. So I took out all my soggy clothes and put them in the next machine which ‘kicked in’ straight after putting my money in. Annoyed, I wrote on a piece of paper that I wanted my $ 2.25 back and gave my name and telephone # and stuck the paper through the mailbox on the locked wooden inside office door. The frustrating thing is that the first machine started to ‘churn’ about 20 minutes after I put the original money in!
No courtesy of a telephone call, an apology or sight of my money back. It is not very much and a cheap amount to pay for a lesson learned which is I will not be using Todays Laundromat again. I will take my dirty clothes elsewhere to be washed.
Lesson to owner (s). If you are going to operate a business, make sure someone is either on site to help customers or have someone that speaks English to help when you call the emergency # provided. I have often called and got someone who did not speak English. At least when I got the guy next door he did but he was not always at home.

Chillll and easy… Forgot soap? No worries they got some.

Seems like every other time I go there one of the dryers doesn’t heat up, which wastes my money and time. The latest time I was there a washing machine conked out, taking $ 2.25. The teenaged boy who came in to fix the thing refused to give me a refund, telling me I’d «waited too long». Very poor attitude.

Ok so i have been going here for a while. I have had a few times where residue from the washers is left on my clothes but today was far worse than before. I ran a load of brand new shirts with liquid soap and when they came out they were COVERED in white residue. I immediately ran them again in a different washer. After that they came out with more crap like before. I searched for a phone number to call but of course they dont have a phone number in the place nor online. Cleanliness=FAIL customer care=FAIL

Haven’t had a problem with this place. the owner is really helpful and friendly. I’ve been going here for over a year and have never had to wait for machines, except 1 time but after seeing roaches crawling on the floor, I had to stop going there :(
Edited this to 2 stars after going to much nicer laundromats. Polk Street crazies and other people come here pretty regularly and either stare at you creepily or ask for money. I rarely sit in here for longer than a minute.

You really can’t go wrong with this place, I’ve thrown some filthy clothes in these washers and they always come out clean. It’s not terribly expensive ($ 2.25 per wash, $.25 per 7 minutes of drying) but I could use a little more water to run through the wash, sometimes my clothes just come out damp when I prefer they be soaked. The dryers are great, I’ve never had any clothes faded or shrank (shrank? shrunkened? strinked?). And the guy that runs the place is very friendly and attentive to the machines.

Okay so maybe it’s not today’s laundry mat. It’s more like the laundry mat from the 70s. But they keep it clean and the guy running the place is friendly. Old maytag washing machines and industrial size dryers. $ 2.25 to wash, dryers in 25 cent increments. Its basic not fancy but gets the job done.