Every new multi-family community built in the past 20 years has featured in-unit laundry.  Nobody builds “laundry room” communities because nobody wants to live in them.  For those making housing decisions it is a matter of safety, sanitation, convenience and status.

For the apartment owner, it is a matter of money.  Apartments with in-unit laundry generate $50 to $100 higher rent than comparable units without this feature.   This increased rent revenue raises the capitalization rate by $7,000 to $17,000 per unit.  More importantly, in-unit laundry reduces turnover of apartments and attracts a better class of resident.  Turnover rates are much more significant than vacancy rates in determining profitability for most communities.

The estimated cost of turnover ranges from $1,500 to $3,000 per apartment, depending on the market.  This includes normal turnover expenses like painting and carpet shampooing as well as marketing expense, administrative expense, lost rents, and major repairs/upgrades.    Today, we have a strong rental market, particularly in the Class A buildings, but that will change.

Sooner or later, every community will have to convert to in-unit laundry in order to remain economically viable.  In the past the major obstacles to conversion have been the inability to vent the dryers to the outside and the capacity of the drain lines.  

Recent developments in condensing dryer technology and washer efficiency now make it feasible for almost all older communities to install in-unit laundry. Some can do it with relatively little expense.  Others will have to upgrade the electrical and plumbing systems.  It has become a simple question of cost effectiveness and financing.

Front-loading Washers
Front loading washers use half the water (15 vs. 32 gallons) and a fraction of the detergent (1 – 2 tablespoons) used by conventional top loaders.  They also discharge the water at a much slower rate (5 gpm vs. 17 gpm).  These features minimize the impact on plumbing systems. 

The biggest plumbing problem in multi-story communities is suds back-up.  The soapy water from a typical washer has a 15 to 1 expansion ratio.  Front loading washers require a low sudsing detergent that minimizes the problem. 

All front loaders clean better and more gently because there is no agitator abrading the clothes.  Consequently, they generate less lint and the clothes last longer.

Condensing Dryers
A conventional dryer is tremendously inefficient.  This air is heated and circulated through the clothes where it picks up lint and moisture.  All this energy is then thrown away along with the energy needed to heat/cool the original room air. 
 
Condensing dryers utilize a unique system to remove moisture, which saves energy and eliminates the need for outside venting.  Condensing dryers circulate the hot moist air, picked up from the clothes, through a condensing chamber.  A portion of the moisture is removed and the hot dry air is recirculated through the clothes where the process is repeated.   The bulk of the heat energy is recirculated.  Since it is a closed system, no lint, moisture or odor is discharged into the room or to the outside. 
 
The greatest problem with conventional dryers is not energy use but make-up air.  A conventional dryer pulls 200 to 250 cubic feet of conditioned air out of a room each minute. This totals almost 10,000 cubic feet of heated or air conditioned air per unit per dry cycle.  In a 100 unit building, that amounts to 1,000.000 cubic feet of air per day.  This make-up air imbalance can cause big problems.  It is critical to maintain a positive air pressure in the lobbies and hallways of multi-family buildings.  This is foremost a safety issue.  In the event of a fire, negative pressure would draw smoke and fire into the common areas.  It is also a quality of life issue.  Negative air will also draw cooking and household odors into the halls.   Therefore an equal amount of fresh air must be introduced into the building to balance the discharge. 

This air must be also heated or air-conditioned.  Most of these communities were built before 1980 and had the old single pane windows installed during construction.  The developers were able to install undersized HVAC systems by allowing a 40% infiltration factor around the old windows.  In the intervening years, they have installed new double pane windows and sealed the building envelope to save energy.  The result is buildings with negative air pressure that has been created with just the existing kitchen/bath fans and the exhaust from the common laundry rooms. 

This makes it extremely expensive to add vented dryers to each unit.  Consolidated Engineering has estimated that it would cost a minimum of one million dollars per building for their Crystal City projects to increase the HVAC capacity to handle the increased airflow.  That figure does not include the increased operating costs.  Condensing dryers solve these problems and save significantly on the installation and re-engineering costs.