[Tagging] self-service laudry machines a camp and caravan sites

John Willis johnw at mac.com
Fri Feb 17 01:10:40 UTC 2017




Javbw
> On Feb 16, 2017, at 10:51 PM, Paul Johnson <baloo at ursamundi.org> wrote:
> 
> ems when it comes to laundry in the US, there's not really a set "load" size, even though every machine ever at a commercial laundry shows capacities in "loads."  
 

The issue is that though the drum volume is easily measured in cubic feet, the "kg" rating for the same capacity drum varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, but there seems to be in a small range of variance. 

The same variance occurs as to how many pounds makes up a nominal "load" 

The idea originally came from small washers a long time ago, and larger "double load" washers many people buy are larger than they used to be. 

From a message board: 

"It's hard comparing capacity in weight(kg) to volume (cf). Samsung has a chart that shows their 4.0 cf washers handling 14kg, and their 4.5cf washers handling 16kg. That puts the equation as:

Capacity in Cubic Feet = Capacity in Kilograms / 3.5"

Other people noted it is kg/3 for some machines and kg/3.5 quoted by Samsung. 

A washing machine repair man on a paid question answer service was quoted as:

"So [4.3cu ft] is actually a very large kilogram capacity to what you might be used to since most countries that use kilos to measure units typically have compact washers. 4.3 cu ft is equivalent to 12 kilos." 

This was a 2.8 ratio - a conservative estimate, but is kg/3 if it is just 4.0 cu ft. 

Then reading a laundromat operator's forum, 

http://www.coinlaundry.org/openforumlink/community-home/viewthread?GroupId=43&MID=3707&tab=digestviewer#bm0

"There is pretty good evidence that a "load" is about 10lbs of laundry, but the manufacturers market the washer as holding more - but is actually unable to clean a normal mix clothes that weigh as much as they rate."
And 
"The industry generally allows about 6 lbs. per cubic foot capacity but a cubic foot actually holds about 4 lbs. of normal laundry."
And
"I have asked this question several times over many years and always told a single load is 15 lbs of dry clothes."

One person posed a picture of a manufacturers documentation for "30lb 3-load commercial washers" That worked out to 4cubic feet = 3 loads, and the ratios were roughly the same for their larger washers (60lb 6 load washers). 


Our previous suggestion that it is kg/3 looks like:

4 cubic feet = 12kg/3 or ~26.5 pounds/3 

To fit the manufacturer's guidelines, 

4 cubic feet = 13kg/3.4 or ~30 pounds/3.4 

This is closer to Samsung's guidance. 

I think it is safe to be conservative, but following the manufacturer's signage is probably more consistent, since that is what most people will see when mapping. 

So: 

1 cubic foot = 3.5kg or 7.7 pounds of laundry
One load = 10 lbs / 4.54 kg of laundry. 

Mapping the drum volume is best, then KG/lbs, then "loads". We can fuzzily convert between them - at least as well as the people in the industry can. 

Javbw. 
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