Wasco Emerald series

[laundryboy]

I'm looking at purchasing 8 50-55 pounders. Does anyone have experience with the Wascomat Emerald Series?

The 655's come in two models, standard and X10. I am interested in all comments, pro/con.

Thaak you

[Rondo]

Don't know what your really wanting to know, but My Emeralds make me more money than a standard model and in a sense save me money because I can vend cold, warm and hot at different price levels. Since the cold option is the cheapest selection, most people choose it and it lowers my gas bill. If they choose hot it cost 50 cents more and that becomes very profitible. Although the first time a customer uses one they seam confusing, you only have to show them once how to use them. The extra extract is vended higher too and makes a good profit, for about a penny of electricity you get an additional quarter.

I like them, but if you have a unattended mat they may not be for you. My distrubutor has them in his unattended mats and he says other customers help with them.

[Chuckels]

I have the Emerald series in an unattended store and everyday I am showing folks how to use them. I like the concept however in a real world mat, especially in multi-lingual communities, they are not easy to use the first time. I would not buy them again and would opt for the wasco std interface if to be used in an unattended mat.

Like Rondo now I used to vend at higher prices for warm and hot. Now I charge per how many washes instead after I realized that most of our utility cost is in water not gas. Our combined elect and gas for the whole store is near the cost of water. After considering that the dryers use most of the gas it is safe to say that water is at least 300% more expensive than gas to run a hot wash. On the other hand if your cold wash is equal to your comps hot/warm/cold and you can command a premium for a hot wash from the unwitting clients than more power to you.

Chuckels

[CharlieS]

I have the emerald series gen 5. My customers love them. My experience has been that customers show a great preference for machines with digital timers showing the time remaining, and will pay top dollar for them. I also vend hot and cold differently, with the result that my gas usage is minimal, and the extra extract for a quarter is a popular option.

I have had only one machine repair due to the emerald, which was a keypad failure. The part was expensive, about $200, but has not been a recurring problem. I would buy these again.

Charlie