What's your profit margin on Huebsch dryers?

[Sunflower]

Okay, here's the deal. Our Huebsch dryers require 63,000 BTU's to run for an hour straight. Our propane company says ONE gallon of propane is good for 90,000 BTU's.

We're charging .25 for 7 minutes. In short that is equivelant to us paying 14.5 a minute for propane plus repairs and whatever electricity is being used.

That doesn't seem good to us. We think prices should go up. What do you experts think?

And can I post this on the other boards too? (Or is that a No-No?)

Thanks, Anna

[DuboisLaundry]

Okay, here's the deal. Our Huebsch dryers require 63,000 BTU's to run for an hour straight. Our propane company says ONE gallon of propane is good for 90,000 BTU's.

We're charging .25 for 7 minutes. In short that is equivelant to us paying 14.5 a minute for propane plus repairs and whatever electricity is being used.

That doesn't seem good to us. We think prices should go up. What do you experts think?

And can I post this on the other boards too? (Or is that a No-No?)

Thanks, Anna


I don't think I understand your math
Also, even at the highest temperature setting, the burner probably cycles on and off

anyhow in oversimplified estimate pretend the burner did run fulltime
63KBTU/HR 90KBTU/GAL
so this burner could run about an hour and a half on a gallon
7 minutes into an hour and a half would be about 12+ quarters, or $3 and some change. I doubt your propane was $3/Gal

my conclusion: this dryer more than breaks even on propane alone
not including rent, electricity, repairs, and an eventual upgrade/replacement fund

read some more threads; try the "search function".
there have been polls and other discussion about minutes per quarter for dryers.

[Sunflower]

Thanks. I did read other posts first but found no profit formulas...

We were paying 1.89 a gallon and that's the number we used for figuring. It's currently at 1.98!!! Scary isn't it?

The Dryers are stackers -Model No. JTD32DG

Thank you for bringing the cycling on and off to my attention. I didn't factor that in (sigh of relief). But I don't know if Huebsch did when they printed that a dryer requires 63,000 BTU's per hour or not. I will call them on Monday.

We were going w/a simplified scenario of the dryer running 1 straight hour @ .25 for 7 minutes equalling about 9 quarters (2.25) an hour (63min). Propane costs 1.89 divided by 90,000. = .000021 (cost of a BTU) x 63,000. (the simplified BTU per hour per dryer) = $1.32 (our cost to run per hour) 1.32 divided by 60 (min) = .022 a min. .022 x 63 min = $1.38.6 (our cost per 63min) 2.25 minus 1.38.6 = 86.4 cents on 63 min. . divided by 9 (quarters per 63m) = .096 (or our cost per 7 minutes). 38.4% markup. In 1.5 hours we "profit" $1.23.36 before other expenses.

P.S. Your scenario seems a lot simpler and easier to figure!! (Why didn't I just figure it like this before!) You're saying we are profiting about $1.32 every hour and a half.

My brain hurts.

[DuboisLaundry]

it better than $1.32/hr profit ( not counting overhead, repair, etc )because my oversimplified method thinks the burner runs full time, which it does not. how much they really run depends on the temperature of the makeup air, and the front panel temp selection.

the rating on the plate is as if it burned full time; all gas & propane appliances are rated that way for standardization and to ease makeup air and gas pipe requirement calculations

anyhow, looking at some of the polls I' would say your 7 minutes is near the middle of the market. My 9 minutes is quite a bit on the cheap side, but I just changed it from 10 a couple of months ago. I'll wait until tourism season to drop another minute or 30 seconds so I can easier squeeze the money out of non-local customers. I know some of my loyal local customers are already hurting from high propane costs this winter. I'm still doing better than break-even but would like to set aside more for future upgrades.

Hot water is also a big thing to consider when looking at your propane bill but since I'm a quarters ( non-card) store I have to jump a whole quarter and I'm trying to hold out until the new sewer treatment plant starts showing up on our water bill.

does anyone have a carwash too? I finally got the hydronic floor heat working and that boiler really goes through propane! I'm at 40 seconds per quarter there and thinking of going to 30 seconds.

[pete f]

Thanks. I did read other posts first but found no profit formulas...

We were paying 1.89 a gallon and that's the number we used for figuring. It's currently at 1.98!!! Scary isn't it?

The Dryers are stackers -Model No. JTD32DG

Thank you for bringing the cycling on and off to my attention. I didn't factor that in (sigh of relief). But I don't know if Huebsch did when they printed that a dryer requires 63,000 BTU's per hour or not. I will call them on Monday.

We were going w/a simplified scenario of the dryer running 1 straight hour @ .25 for 7 minutes equalling about 9 quarters (2.25) an hour (63min). Propane costs 1.89 divided by 90,000. = .000021 (cost of a BTU) x 63,000. (the simplified BTU per hour per dryer) = $1.32 (our cost to run per hour) 1.32 divided by 60 (min) = .022 a min. .022 x 63 min = $1.38.6 (our cost per 63min) 2.25 minus 1.38.6 = 86.4 cents on 63 min. . divided by 9 (quarters per 63m) = .096 (or our cost per 7 minutes). 38.4% markup. In 1.5 hours we "profit" $1.23.36 before other expenses.

P.S. Your scenario seems a lot simpler and easier to figure!! (Why didn't I just figure it like this before!) You're saying we are profiting about $1.32 every hour and a half.

My brain hurts.

I always liked to calculated my cost for dryers based on a full BTU burn, as you did, and try to price them at double my cost. In your case that would be about .25 for 5 1/2 mins. I have propane at 1 mat, and charge 6 mins a quarter, down from 6.5 earlier. I am buying propane for 1.18, a contract price thru CLA ( Coin Laundry Assoc.) I still price them like was paying full price. You have to take some sort of 12 month average, there will be spikes now and then. I have mats from 5 1/4 min to 7 right now, the 7 ( on NG) being a mat in a very poor area, the 5 1/4 in a "rich" area, some of this is based on occupency costs as well.

[Sunflower]

How can I get a contract price? ...Probably have to be in a big city...? I belong to CLA but didn't hear a thing about that!

[DuboisLaundry]

call your supplier and competing suppliers in your area

my price is contracted to be 25 cents more than whatever my distributor pays and I am not to buy from anyone else.

maybe when I have more years of usage data I'll bargain for a fixed per gallon price for an extended time span. Usually those have a minumum commitment where you buy the minumum amount of gas even of you don't use it in a slow month. some are even a fixed amount of gas where you pay current market if you go over.

[pete f]

How can I get a contract price? ...Probably have to be in a big city...? I belong to CLA but didn't hear a thing about that!

I am not sure if it is a state wide thing or national. Ask CLA for a number to a local chapter and inquire. It is not a big city thing.

[Sunflower]

Thanks for the tip and what happened to your picture? Everyone should have to post a pic. (Errhumm, I shall get right on that!)

[pete f]

Thanks for the tip and what happened to your picture? Everyone should have to post a pic. (Errhumm, I shall get right on that!)


The new one is a picture of me fixing a washer :)