My First Time Using A Laundromat in Germany
I usually prefer to travel light when possible, however during my recent business trip (which is about 6 weeks) I had no choice but to bring in a lot of clothes which was still not enough given the length of my stay, so I had no choice but to do laundry at one point. The apartment/hotel that I was staying in does not offer laundry service, they do however have a coin operated washing machine which will cost you 6 euro for the wash and 4 euro for the dry, now that is very expensive! So I turned to my trusty friend Google and searched for a laundromat near my hotel and I found eco-express. They charge 3 euro from 6:00 - 10:00 and 3.50 euro from 10:00 - 23:00 for the wash, 1 euro for dryer, and, 0.50 euro for the detergent that is if you didn't bring your own. It was my first time to use a laundromat and boy was I intimidated, not so much by the act of doing laundry itself but by the fact that everything in the shop is in German! Below are the instructions/steps for using the washing machines.
1. Choose your machine. Each one has a number on the upper right corner. Load your clothes and close the hatch. Make sure that it is locked otherwise you might end up like me waiting for the cycle to start only to realize that I d not close it properly.
2. Pay. There is a panel labeled "kassenautomat" and this is where you insert the coins or bills for payment, it only accept 5 and 10 euro bills. Press the number of your machine from the number selection. You can collect your change on the bottom left part of the panel with the label "Geldrückgabe".
3. If the washing machine is off, just press the on/off button labeled "ein - Aus".
4. Select your water temperature,the options are 30, 60, and 90 degrees.
5. Put the detergent. The detergent panel is located on the upper left part of the machine, just pull out the small drawer. the left side is for the detergent itself while the right side is for the fabric softener. You can select vollwaschelmittel or colorwaschelmittel from the main panel for 0.50 euro.
6. Press start. The display panel will say something like it will start in 3 minutes and will be locked after that (in German of course), this is to give you time if ever you don't want to proceed.
7. Wait. The display showed 48 mintues for the washing time so you can either go out for a run, go to the gym,eat, read, or like me just wait for the entire thing to finish(I was writing this while waiting).
That's it, simple right? and when in doubt just ask the other laundry-goers. I find that Germans are quite friendly.
1. Choose your machine. Each one has a number on the upper right corner. Load your clothes and close the hatch. Make sure that it is locked otherwise you might end up like me waiting for the cycle to start only to realize that I d not close it properly.
2. Pay. There is a panel labeled "kassenautomat" and this is where you insert the coins or bills for payment, it only accept 5 and 10 euro bills. Press the number of your machine from the number selection. You can collect your change on the bottom left part of the panel with the label "Geldrückgabe".
3. If the washing machine is off, just press the on/off button labeled "ein - Aus".
4. Select your water temperature,the options are 30, 60, and 90 degrees.
5. Put the detergent. The detergent panel is located on the upper left part of the machine, just pull out the small drawer. the left side is for the detergent itself while the right side is for the fabric softener. You can select vollwaschelmittel or colorwaschelmittel from the main panel for 0.50 euro.
6. Press start. The display panel will say something like it will start in 3 minutes and will be locked after that (in German of course), this is to give you time if ever you don't want to proceed.
7. Wait. The display showed 48 mintues for the washing time so you can either go out for a run, go to the gym,eat, read, or like me just wait for the entire thing to finish(I was writing this while waiting).
That's it, simple right? and when in doubt just ask the other laundry-goers. I find that Germans are quite friendly.
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