COLUMBUS, Ohio — Kay Titus used to wait in line for one of the washing machines in the small, crowded laundry room at her apartment complex unless she got there by 5 a.m.
"You've got to get there by 5 o'clock or you can't get a washer," she said. "People are pushing and shoving and it's just awful."
But one recent morning she put in 17 loads at once after going to a new laundry with 250 machines — one of the largest in the country.
Laundries are getting bigger, cleaner and offering more diversions, including lounges, video games and tanning beds.
"There's a renaissance now making coin laundries bigger and cleaner to break the perception of them as these cramped, dark places with broken machines," said Brian Wallace, executive director of the Coin Laundry Association.
"These additions also give people something else to do. Your first preference isn't to watch the socks tumble. It's all about making the time go by faster," he said.
Mr. Big's Coin Laundry and Tanning, which opened this month, is about seven times the size of an average laundromat. It's the biggest coin laundry in Ohio and one of the top three or four in the country, according to the association, based in Downers Grove, Ill.
While home washers typically can handle 17 pounds of laundry at a time, some of Mr. Big's machines can accommodate 27, 50 and 80 pounds. An 80-pound machine can handle two or three queen-sized comforters at once, said owner David Angel. The matching dryers stand more than 6 feet tall.
The huge capacity does come with a hefty price tag. Angel estimates his monthly utility bill will be around $36,000 — $12,000 each for water, gas and electric service.
Wallace said utilities are the single biggest business cost for the industry. The jump in utility prices this year has forced most of his members to raise prices, he said. In an age of giant chains, coin laundries are one of the few businesses still dominated by mom and pop operations, which thrive on repeat customers.
"The worst thing you can have happen in this business is for your regular customers to come in and have no open machines," said Angel, who owns another coin laundry as well as a tax business, a data-entry service and a temporary staffing agency. "Here they come in, they can do all of their laundry at once."
Angel said the size of the washers and dryers is a blessing, too.
"If they want to bring a friend with them, they could wash every stitch of clothing they own," he said. "They would just need to have somebody throw their clothes in while they're tanning and bring something back for them to wear afterward."
And if you don't bring a friend, perhaps you can find one at the laundry. Laundries, like grocery stores and playgrounds, serve as informal community centers for people to meet, said Jack Nasar, an environmental psychologist at Ohio State University.
"You have a reason for being there and a reason for staying there," he said. "You're a social distance from people, you make eye contact, you're there for a while. It might even be uncomfortable if you don't start talking. That's why these places work."
Wallace added that people are more likely to be approachable, even more honest at a coin laundry than at other meeting places.
"Let's face it, it's hard to be pretentious when you've got your dirty socks and underwear hanging out," he said.