I’m one of those people who tends to see technology as the fix to a lot of things. Sometimes technology is used to fix things that don’t need fixing, and we end up with overarchitected solutions that are just a waste of money. I’m pretty confident, though, that washing machines are a case where technology can make the process a lot better. With washers and dryers, the problem isn’t so much washing clothes, but the awkward dance that goes on when multiple people are vying for washers and dryers.
For one, it drives me crazy that I have to get quarters. Yesterday, I was all set to go, but realized I didn’t have enough quarters. I had cash, several credit cards, a checkbook, and a PayPal account, but not the $6 in quarters that it’d cost me to wash and dry two loads of wash. Today I had to buy a roll of quarters. When I used to work in a bowling alley, we had a lot of coin-operated video games, and the quarters were a huge hassle. Coins moved between a giant cash-to-quarter machine and the games, and we’d periodically have the person leasing us the games come and count all the quarters, and then move them right back into the quarter machine. Besides a colossal waste of time, it was also a frequent headache, because the games or the quarter machine were constantly getting jammed. So quarters are inconvenient for both users and operators.
I think both parties would win if I could get a card and swipe that directly on the washer or dryer. I’d prepay, perhaps in $20 increments, online, and the money would come out of my account when I used it. This would be great for me, but it would also double as a money-maker for the wash operators, because they would be collecting money upfront and holding onto it for a while, earning interest on the float. It’s the same thing that happens with gift certificates. Less likely than with gift certificates, but still possible, is that some people will never redeem the full amount. (Although really, this money is eventually forfeited to the state, apparently, not taken as profit.)
But then another possibility opens up. Since I’m swiping a card that uniquely identifies me, you know who’s using the machine. You can send me an IM / e-mail / text message reminding me when the wash is almost over. (You can also display my name on the washer when I’m using it / before I’ve emptied it, to shame me into actually coming to get my clothes.) I’ve waited an hour for someone to get their clothes out of the dryer. And that always happens when doing wash on shared washers and dryers.
Another nice advantage is that I could hit a web GUI and see if there were any washers or dryers open, rather than trudging downstairs. There could even be a ten-minute reservation feature whereby I could lock a washer or dryer before leaving to go there, to avoid the problem of me getting downstairs and someone having walked in before me, although I’m not sure if that’s actually a good idea.
This isn’t really a very wild idea, either. Things like this have been done for a long time. It’s just that no one has bothered to implement them. It really shouldn’t be that hard.
Or, if I owned the washers, I could keep doing the nothing that I’ve been doing prior, and keep gaining money from it.
Why would I spend money when there’s such limited return? If I’m owning washing machines, I don’t care about making an extra 1 cent per month on the incremental difference between having the cash now, or 5 minutes from now. You assume that everyone will load up $20 and forget about it, while people may just load up $6 right before they do their laundry instead.
As the owner, your incentive is to keep me from posting rambling blog posts about your washing machines. 😉
Seriously, though, it’d be more for people setting up new washers and dryers, or people replacing old ones. If you already have functioning equipment, there’s not much of an incentive.
Plenty of pre-pay sites only allow various increments, so they could make you to do $10 or $20 increments. And it’s kind of like credit cards or gift cards or most anything else — they make money on the whole, even if they don’t make a penny off of some people.
I’ve used washers and dryers that used card systems. They work largely as you have described minus the email/txt updates. That would be a nice addition especially in dorms and appartment buildings where people start a wash and go away.