<p>My S is able to go on line and see if a washing machine is available. Once he starts the washer, the washer will text him when it has finished and the clothes are ready to move to the dryer. The dryer will then text him when the clothes are dry.</p>
<p>Sure beats the old days back when...</p>
<p>Yep. S had that, too. Pretty cool, huh?</p>
<p>If they can invent technology to do that, why don’t they invent technology to move the clothing from washer to dryer?</p>
<p>At Marquette in my days, there was a laundromat connected to a bar. Brilliant idea!</p>
<p>I wonder if it alerts them if someone opens either the washer or dryer?</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I think there is a machine that does both wash and dry. </p>
<p>I don’t remember ever doing laundry at college!</p>
<p>I’ve used the wash/dry one machine things – and I hated them. Used two different one, both in England, and thought that it baked the clothes rather than air drying. </p>
<p>Machines that can text … now <em>that</em> is bizarre.</p>
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<p>Exactly what I was wondering!</p>
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<p>That’s nothing. I have a small phone that I can fit into my pocket that sends texts, voice calls, and pictures.</p>
<p>Lol Gardna!</p>
<p>I work at a university, but also have a S that is a senior and we looked at a lot of colleges this summer. When I came back reporting on the new-fangled laundry machines that email or text you when they are done, one of my colleagues told me that they are also looking at a solution called eSuds:</p>
<p>[USA</a> Technologies :: eSuds](<a href=“http://www.usatech.com/esuds/]USA”>http://www.usatech.com/esuds/)</p>
<p>My running joke with my kids (which I’m sure they don’t find funny): instead of the “in my day, I had to walk uphill 10 miles each way to school” I tell them “in my day, I had to walk all the way to the TV set to change channels.”</p>
<p>At DD’s U, if all the machines are in use, you can set up to get a text when they finish (for the dryers the site also tells you how much longer they have to run). You can also check out the machines in the other dorms if you’re in a hurry.</p>
<p>Yep…I think the modern laundry situation is at many colleges. Their phones and laptops tell them which machines are empty and which ones have completed the cycle. </p>
<p>I also like that the kids don’t have to use **quarters **anymore…just swipe their cards. Another improvement! :)</p>
<p>My home machines do have a modem that constantly updates a counter top display that tells me when cycles are done …or how many remaining minutes.</p>
<p>My son did not have to use online or texting to know that the washer or dryer had finished his load. I personally knocked his door to deliver the message that I needed the machine.</p>
<p>Yep, so cool! DS’s school is the same. He can go online and look at the laundry room and it shows a visual of the washers and dryers and shows the ones in use actually vibrating–gotta love technology.</p>
<p>Oh, the advances in technology. Back in the early 1970’s we had plastic tickets that were read electronically by the machine when put in the slot instead of putting in quarters for the washer (dryers were free- probably stopped a lot of dryer time theft). Had to buy them from the front desk- which was closed at night when you sometimes discovered you were out of clean clothes and tickets. Then you asked around to see if anyone had some you could buy from. Guys have it easier- H states and son seems to think if clothes sit in the laundry they become clean again (saw this once when son was home for vacation and hadn’t gotten around to doing his laundry- he came down to his laundry bag and pulled out stuff). Different physiology as well as thought processing. Son merely needed to have enough money in his dorm account to swipe his ID card.</p>
<p>Where are all these high-tech washer’s?! My school had your standard washer and dryer–two per floor. Then I moved out of the dorms and started to use real laundromats where 90% of the machines were broken–that was fun.</p>
<p>In the basement of my dorms. Son’s wasn’t, but interconnected buildings built into a hill so an elevator was useless- horizontal and up/down travel. Move in freshman year looked good on paper- first floor. But that was an outside downhill trip with the full laundry carts (uphill moving out). At the speed son wanted to go I was afraid of dumping things off the concrete path and into the woods. That dorm had front loaders. Some of his subsequent apartments have had same floor or lower level, front/top loaders. His latest place, post college and away from a campus area, has top loaders on the same floor and a small free dual washer/dryer in his closet (no extra rent charge or cost)- he prefers the separate ones.</p>
<p>I lived off campus every year and would load my car so full of dirty laundry that there was just enough room for me to sit (no one else). I would pass by the laundry mat and see it over crowded and go on to class. sometimes the laundry would be in my car for days before i thought i could go in and not wait for a machine…lol…1970’s</p>
<p>Same here, sans car. My last year of college I lived in a building with coin laundry in a room off an open courtyard–the landlord used the laundry bin to move the garbage out to the street and there was always a big rat with a crooked tail wandering around. After a few tries I gave up and hoarded my laundry until my boyfriend’s parents could come pick us up to do it at their house. I vowed from them on that the one thing I absolutely wanted in any apartment was private laundry!</p>