stainless or paint?

[CharlieS]

I'm getting ready to replace all of my dryers in one store, and am debating whether to go stainless or painted fronts. Your thoughts?

Thanks
Charlie

[anonymous]

Stainless steel

[Rondo]

I wanted stainless on the last dryers but I ended up with Paint. The stainless looks real commercial. The stainless was pretty expensive, guess some times I can be a cheap bastard.

[anonymous]

Stainless.
I think stainless steel will always look "current".
A batch of emerald colored dryers look old. Who knows, maybe in 5 years white will be out and purple will be the modern color.
Sure stainless may look very commercial, but thats what I want - the appearance of something rugged.

[Lar Hylobates]

Stainless is timeless

[Fred50]

Stainless takes work to keep clean. I also think that if your washers and dryers both have stainless fronts it may look a little too sterile - hospital-like!

[anonymous]

Stainless steel is the only way to go, period.

[anonymous]

I think..SS front Dryers looks very COLD, washer looks nice, but dryers??!! I prefer white..

[anonymous]

white front DEXTER Stack dryers OWNER....
If you are not happy with your white Dexter stack dryers, I am looking for to buy it.. aakuzu@hotmail.com

[pete f]

I like the look of stainless washers, almond color stacks and tops. I have seen all stainless mats, a little to metal for my tastes, but is probably the better deal in the long run. Stainless is a bitch to keep clean though. Fingerprints.
Is their much of a price difference?

[CharlieS]

The stainless is $200 a unit more, $3K for the 15 I am buying. My wife said paint, even before I told her the price difference. I am a stainless fan myself. The real question is whether or not it would help to increase sales over the life of the machines. I don't have any good data, other than my own gut feeling, which is for stainless.

Thanks for your comments! Further comments are appreciated!

Charlie

[Fred50]

For SQ Stacks the stainless fronts are about $500. If you want stainless on your dryers, I'd go for the drums!!

[Tini Bubbles]

Stainless meens clean, money, overall want to use verses a painted item. My 25cents.

[vohraajay]

if you're going to recycle your dryers every 8 to 10 years then you can't go wrong with Paint. If you like to keep your laundromat clean then it doesn't matter what you have. stainless does look nice when it's polished - but you do have to keep it polished. If you go with paint - you can take the fronts off and repaint them after few years or just keep wiping them daily.

I have two rules I follow with my wife: 1) wife is always right, 2) see rule number 1.

ajay

[anonymous]

If you put stack dryer in,stanless is only way to go since lower pocket will always get hit all the time by carts,people.I bought some paint stack dryers,I wish I bought stanless steel.

[anonymous]

I don't want to single out the people below who are talking about fingerprints and how tough it is to clean SS. I disagree. We clean our SS all day long with just a damp cloth, and then wipe it down with a dry one. They look just fine when maintained this way. At the end of every evening we wipe down with a bit more vigor and once in a while we spray wd40 on a rag wipe it on and again wipe off excess with a dry towel. No special care is need to keep them looking great. My white top loaders do not look half as good as my SS machines of the same age.

[Quartermaster]

For those in the Northern climates where salt is used as a snow/ice remover, is there any problem with rust/corrosion or stains on the stainless fronts?

I have painted fronts and customers coming in the front door stamp their boots on the floor mat and splash salt on the dryers. I have not had any problem with rust, just the extra cleanup daily.

When I replace dryers I would like the stainless fronts, just wondering if there is a problem with salt.

[anonymous]

Some of my old SQ have stainless lower panel,they are 30 years old,I am in IL,we use salt like crazy in winter.No rust after 30 years on the stanless steel.

[Kitty]

Charlie, go stainless.

Ask your wife to see the new kitchen equipment that is all stainless steel. Makes a kitchen look sparkling clean, professional and pleasing to the eye. Yep, more expensive but this is the exact impression you want your customers to see in your mat. Professional, eye pleasing and sparkiling clean.

Go see a mat that is all stainless steel you will see how sharp it looks. The care of the stainless steel is easy. Paint may rub off. We currently have 2 year old tops that have the paint rubbing off of the corners of the machines and as well as where the cart rubs against the bottom front of the machines.

As much as I enjoyed Ajays rules of thumb, as those rules should be lived in every household..... I think you may have to use your veto options on your wife as she should give in to your suggestions. Remember this is where you will be spending your time and efforts more than she, so you should have the veto power... :)Kitty

[CharlieS]

Kitty - I am a strong believer in a quotation from Red Skelton (I may be showing my age here)

When asked the secret of his long and happy marriage he said

"My wife and I agreed when we got married that I would make all the big decisions and she would make all of the small ones."

However, he followed up by saying

" The interesting thing is that in 50 years, we've never needed to make a big decision"

Charlie (married 26 years and counting)

[anonymous]

I always use SS on FLW's and paint for the TLW's and Dryers.

[anonymous]

____________________________________________
Quote:
Ask your wife to see the new kitchen equipment that is all stainless steel. Makes a kitchen look sparkling clean,
______________________________________________

Kitty,
Stainless Steel Kitchen Cabinets?? I don't think so...:)

[Kitty]

Buddy,

When did I say cabinets? Stainless steel equipment, meaning the appliances. Definatley not cabinets. If you have ever seen this type of kitchen you'd know what I mean. The look is very
neat.

[CharlieS]

Actually, Kitty, I am with you. I really like the stainless. I have already ordered the painted. In the end, I could not justify the extra expense with anything other than emotion! The ADC sales folks said they had nothing that indicated better market acceptance of stainless over paint.

All things (cost) being equal, it would have been stainless.

Charlie

[anonymous]

Kitty, I know you did not mean S.S Kitchen Cabinets. I was just kidding. :)

[Kitty]

Well, when we built our house 5 years ago..I wished I would have put the stainless appliances in and went with a higher dollar appliance. I got a housefull of maytag products, none of which are made like they used to be.

We get what we pay for, and many times what we pay for is not really what we want.....Happy Holidays!