# Would you Risk using a laundromat today? (bedbugs) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 24, 2015, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-risk-using-a-laundromat-today-bedbugs/720686 "2015-05-24T01:21:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-risk-using-a-laundromat-today-bedbugs/720686/21 "2015-05-24T17:53:00Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Once you find a clean machine, run the washer through a full cycle on max hot with soap, bleach, and none of your goods. Inspect it again. Now run your goods through the same washer, taking care to empty stuff from your sealed trash bag directly into the washer cavity without touching the floors, outside of the machine, etc. Oh no…paranoid people are going to read this, and making people wait an extra cycle while they do a bleach cleanse is going to become the new taking up an extra seat on the subway for your bag, isn’t it? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-risk-using-a-laundromat-today-bedbugs/720686/22 "2015-05-24T18:03:44Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Excellant advice LSLGuy. I hadn’t considered running bleach through the washer first to clean it. That would be helpful for a lot of things. Never know if someone washed a load of dirty diapers an hour earlier. Or greasy mechanic’s clothes. Cleaning the machine makes good sense. Actually, my local laundromat has machines reserved especially for “greasy mechanic’s clothes” or, more specifically, clothes from the local steel mills and related industries. They’ve also been known to offer free bleach to people laundry stuff like dirty diapers and the attendants do clean the machines and the rest of the place both on a regular daily schedule and as needed. Which is really about using a decent laundromat instead of a cesspit. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-risk-using-a-laundromat-today-bedbugs/720686/23 "2015-05-24T18:11:57Z")
We got them from a hotel and it was a challenge to get rid of them. I’ll probably check every hotel bed for them until the day I die. ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-risk-using-a-laundromat-today-bedbugs/720686/24 "2015-05-24T19:23:32Z")
I think 2009 wants ace back. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-risk-using-a-laundromat-today-bedbugs/720686/25 "2015-05-24T20:45:00Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Hot water kills bedbugs. Hot dryers kill bedbugs. Washing something in hot water na dputting it in a hot dryer will definitely kill any bedbugs. This - perhaps absent the scrambled spelling - is as far as any rational person needs to go. (I dismiss the idea that you should worry about getting bedbugs if you walk around inside a laundromat as borderline lunacy.) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-risk-using-a-laundromat-today-bedbugs/720686/26 "2015-05-24T23:16:34Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Oh no…paranoid people are going to read this, and making people wait an extra cycle while they do a bleach cleanse is going to become the new taking up an extra seat on the subway for your bag, isn’t it? ☹ Decades ago I owned a laundromat. What mattered to me was quarters in the machines. If I can persuade somebody to do 2 loads instead of one, ka-ching. Go **ace**!! And yes, we kept the place neat, cleaned the machines, and all the rest. Laundromats are not for the top 1% of society, but they don’t have to look like they’re inhabited by only the bottom 1% either. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-risk-using-a-laundromat-today-bedbugs/720686/27 "2015-05-25T00:10:20Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Decades ago I owned a laundromat. What mattered to me was quarters in the machines. If I can persuade somebody to do 2 loads instead of one, ka-ching. Go **ace**!! Oh, no, I agree, it’s great for the owner. The more Niles Crane types (OK, if Niles Crane ever used a laundromat) an owner can attract, the better. I just mean for anyone waiting to use a machine. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-risk-using-a-laundromat-today-bedbugs/720686/28 "2015-05-25T12:25:01Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Well, since I “risk” using one every Saturday and don’t have any bugs, I voted “yes.” Likewise. It’s either the laundrymat or buy new clothes all the time and I can’t afford that. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-risk-using-a-laundromat-today-bedbugs/720686/29 "2015-05-25T12:33:36Z")
I needed to use a laundromat while living in the last temporary housing location before the condo was ready. Anyway, it was fine. Did my clothes, did my sheets, did towels. Not one bedbug. No grease stains, either. No e.coli, Hansen’s disease, or crotch rot. A lot of apartments in New England just don’t have washer/dryers in the unit, so it’s not only THOSE SORTS who use laundromats. I kind of liked it because I showed up at an off hour, tossed everything into the washers, then into the dryers, and did all of my laundry in less than 3 hours instead of it taking all day. Still no bedbugs. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-risk-using-a-laundromat-today-bedbugs/720686/30 "2015-05-25T12:54:44Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Oh, no, I agree, it’s great for the owner. The more Niles Crane types (OK, if Niles Crane ever used a laundromat) an owner can attract, the better. I just mean for anyone waiting to use a machine. I understood you meant that. IME, most laundromats are vastly _under_utilized. Prime time on Saturday morning we might have been running at 100% capacity, but that happy state only lasts a couple hours a week. Given some of the low-lifes who use laundromats, I see them “self-policing” especially egregious examples of folks hogging machines while others are waiting. I’m glad I got out of the business before webcams were invented. I’m sure some of our customers’ interactions would have made Jerry Springer proud. That stuff I don’t need to see. Then again, maybe I could have started a profitable youtube channel. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-risk-using-a-laundromat-today-bedbugs/720686/31 "2015-05-25T13:40:10Z")
There’s a laundromat in the same building as my apartment; it’s really a row of four storefronts with apartments above each. (Mine is above the Serbian bar, which has its own challenges on folk music night 😉 ) So I’ve used the laundromat as my regular laundry room for 14 years now, and never worried about getting bugs of any sort from the machines there. ---
**Author:** ![Hopeful\_Crow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/da6949/32.png) [@Hopeful\_Crow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hopeful_Crow)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-risk-using-a-laundromat-today-bedbugs/720686/32 "2015-05-25T17:46:17Z")
I worry much more about getting bedbugs from riding the bus than from going to a laundromat. In fact, I’d never even thought about getting bedbugs from the laundromat until I read this. Fortunately, we have our own washer and dryer here at our current apartment. The last place I lived in had one pay washer and dryer for all twelve units. That was mildly annoying when someone forgot they had laundry in machine and much more annoying when certain tenants **“forgot”**. As in they didn’t feel like getting their sorry butts down to the laundry room until sometime the following day. Still, I made regular use of them. Since I washed more often than Pops, I’d use the ones in our building and then when Pops was ready, we’d go to the laundromat together. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-risk-using-a-laundromat-today-bedbugs/720686/33 "2015-05-28T20:25:18Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Once you find a clean machine, run the washer through a full cycle on max hot with soap, bleach, and none of your goods. Who the hell can afford to run all these extra cycles? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-risk-using-a-laundromat-today-bedbugs/720686.md?page=1)