sneakers in the dryer

[pete f]

Is this something I should be concerned about? I have always worried the dryer window would pop out, yet it has never happened. I do not like the rubber marks either, but what do you say to someone who spent $20 doing laundry and wants to dry thier sneakers? I mention the heat may ruin them , but many times it is the work sneakers. What is the concensus on sneakers in the dryer?

[Howard]

Like you, I don't like the idea.

On the few times I am at a mat and someone tries to dry sneakers, the door usually pops open. I figure that they eventually get tired of the clock counting down with the door open and the dryer not running because of the sneakers and stop doing it.

I don't think you can stop them and it isn't worth pissing off a good customer.

I have never had a glass pop out, but it sure does some horrendous bouncing and noise making.

[Gary C]

I just grit my teeth. Not much you can do. I really don't think they hurt anything.

Gary

[David]

Pete F said
but what do you say to someone who spent $20 doing laundry and wants to dry thier sneakers?

Thank you very much! Come again!

[PeterH]

Oh no. Sneekers are strictly taboo in my dryers. I'm convinced that even though IDC made poor quality dryers at the end of their manufacturing run, my drums came apart due to sneekers banging around in them. Now that I have new dryers, NO SNEEKERS! If I hear sneekers banging around in my dryers (you hear them more often than see them), I promptly remove them and point to one of the 5 bilingual signs over my row of machines. If I see them in the washers, I keep my eye on the customer and nip it in the bud when they move to the dryers. When questioned, I tell them all the reasons why:
1) They will pop the door open
2) They may pop the glass out of the door
3) They will cause the drum seams to prematurely come apart

Then they say "OK" and they are now better educated customers. I have never lost a customer because of this.

[Anonymous]

No problems ever with sneakers harming the Dryers. Yes the doors will pop open on occasion, so be it. Don't forget, the customer is paying you.

[buddy]

Just tell them your sneakers will shrink and won't fit you anymore ! :)

[Coinwash]

What we did was to put the sneakers under a high powered fan I put together for this purpose.
We also told the customer they would shrink and a possibility of melting and ruining there sneakers in the dryers and the Laundromat was not responsible for them.

This usually worked in scaring them into not drying them in the dryers.

[CharlieS]

I've never had a problem or a failure related to sneakers. Like I tell my Maytag dealer when he tells me my customers are overloading the machines "Let me know if they can't take it, I'll find a brand built for commercial duty"

Customers are gonna do what they're gonna do.

Charlie

[pete f]

This would have made a great poll. I thank all of you for your comments. I think I will lean towards the forget it side. I will, and do now, mention heat is tough on those $125 Nike's but most often it is work sneakers. I feel better knowing nobody has a glass issue, that was my main concern, but never having a window pop out in 9 years I should have figured it was a non-issue..., well, a couple windows, but it was more the rubber gasket fault being bad though I blamed it on sneakers..

PeterH-- I am not so sure sneakers wrecked your drums, they are not THAT bad!!

[Anonymous]

I have absolutely no problem with sneakers, its sheetrock screws and nails that I really wish people would not put in my dryers.

[CharlieS]

Now you have really hit a pet peeve! Screws, nails, this stuff really makes me mad. I have several dryers with huge gouges in the sheet metal.


Charlie

[Rondo]

And how about the bullets and cigarette lighters, thats realy upsets me.

[PeterH]

Of the 17 IDC dryers I had, 4 were completely out of service because the drums had pulled apart so badly, and another 8 were well on the way to complete drum failure. Granted, it was probably a quality issue (dryers build in 1994, probably some of the last made), but the sneakers banging around sure didn't help.

[pete f]

PH- no way you had enough sneakers dryed to bang up all your washers..

I think I have a cement screw lodged inside the outer and inner drum of a super 20 now. Last nite when the washer was running it made that sound you hear when a dryer has screws in it. After it was done I checked and could not find anything, but still has something scratching at times. I do not think it was the bearing. To take the drum out is a huge amount of work, I am hoping it runs a few more times and the nail/screws wears itself down..
I had planned to replace this washer, and the one beside it, next year anyway.Will know how my luck is runnig the next couple days..

[Lar Hylobates]

Super 20 saga.

I've got eight left. I had my boy spend 4 nights sanding and filling the steel bases with bondo, then paint them.

These bases have had so much leakage, there were huge holes clear through the bases and I suspect that short of the cement that they are filled with there is very little stability left.

This is making me consider moving up my replacement plans a year as well.


Stonecold

[pete f]

Got up to early this AM, decided to go and rip the washer apart anyway. It ended up being the inner drum was just hanging on to the shaft. Suprised me, as I checked the drum play. This one did not have the bolt and big washer on the drum wheel. I had an old bolt that fit and washer so loosed the allen screws, tieghthen the bolt, retite the allen screws and out the door all in about 20 mins. Guess my luck ran good for at least a day.