Laundromats awash with people trying to save cash on cleaning clothes

People across New Zealand say the high costs of power, gas and water mean heading to their local laundromat is becoming a way to lower their bills.

But with laundry businesses subject to these same financial pressures, they're not exactly awash with cash either.

Eyes fixed on the drier as the timer counts down the minutes at a snail's pace; or glued to phones as the washing machine switches over to spin cycle.

Scenes like this are familiar in neighbourhoods across the country and with the ever-rising cost of power and the cost of living generally, more people are turning to their local laundromat.

RNZ's Checkpoint visited a dozen or so laundromats to ask people about the cost of doing the washing. Customers say that doing bigger loads at laundromats saves them both time and money - especially during the winter months.

"I think it's just the power, that's why I come here just to dry."

"I don't have to maintain the machine, I've got quite a lot of laundry to dry and if I had it in my dryer and I was constantly doing heavy loads like this in my dryer, my dryer would be broken in three, four years."

"Before I used to wash my clothes every other day, but it makes my bill higher."

"Four dollars for a wash, $4.50 for a dry, so that comes out about nine dollars, so it's not too bad, with the price of power today going up and I'm on the pension."

"I've noticed the power, electricity, if you're using hot water, cold water and water rates have gone up too."

Some say they're put off by the upfront cost of buying a washing machine and dryer, and the upkeep.

Others say it's cheaper and easier to do multiple loads in the big laundromat machines.

"The size of this dryer is such that I can do one or two loads of washing in one go and I can just get it done, it's done in 40 minutes."

"If I was hanging it out on the line, it could be two or three days, where Auckland weather you've got wind and rain, you've got four seasons in one day."

"If I'm busy and I need it to be fast, I'll just run here. Because if you have heaps, at home our machine is not that big."

"We have a washing machine at home, but it's not that big for the kind of washing I have."

"You can fit in about three loads of washing in one dryer."

David Humphreys, owner of Auckland's Dayspring laundromat, says he's noticed the size of laundry loads have increased a great deal over the last three years or so.

"We're doing lots of XLs which are about 34 kilograms, which is an enormous amount, we're also seeing families doing a route and picking up from their outer families and coming in with a van of six, seven, eight bags. That is often."

"Each bag is 18 to 20 kilograms; it's about up to your waist and about two feet wide."

Humphreys says the laundromat is usually quieter during the summer months but during winter, it can be packed with people and their sacks of clothes.

But he wants to dispel any misconceptions there's lots of money to be made in the laundry industry.

"You're sold a story that it's just a cash cow and you're going to be rolling in money, it is very busy, but the costs associated with it and the ongoing increase of your consumables which is gas, water and power is relentless."

"Our gas bill is astronomical and our water bill, there's just no end of it."

The government's Gen Less appliance calculator analyses a range registered washing machines and dryers available on the market.

People can save a lot of money depending on the model they have.

If a person does two washes a week, Gen Less found the least energy efficient washing machine costs $71 a year to run; the cheapest costs just $13 a year.

For dryers, the dearest is $241 per year if a person uses it twice a week, the cheapest is $47.

Mount Roskill's Stoddard Road Laundromat owner Amit Patel has also seen an increase in customers at his family-run laundromat.

But at the same time, he says the cost of running the business has risen a great deal.

"Margins are... already pretty low, in the next couple of months everything's going up for us, gas, electricity, water."

Recent Stats NZ figures show the price of electricity has gone up almost 9 percent in the past 12 months.

Consumer New Zealand's latest energy survey says 20 percent of New Zealanders are struggling to pay their power bills with 11 percent underheating their homes.