Should You Sanitise Laundry at Laundromats?

There's probably a laundromat near you that wasn't there five years ago. According to The Guardian, self-service laundromats in Australia have grown by an estimated 200–300% over that time, and most suburbs now have at least one.

But anyone can walk in and use those machines. Before you, someone may have washed gym gear, a dog blanket or sheets from a sick bed. You'll never know. So is detergent enough, or should you sanitise your laundry too?

The short answer: detergent and a normal wash handle everyday dirt. But in a machine everyone uses, a sanitiser sheet is a sensible extra for the loads that touch your skin, like towels, bedding, underwear and gym wear.

Why So Many of Us Use a Washer and Dryer at Laundromats

The main reasons are space and money up front. Plenty of us rent flats with no room for a washer and dryer. A good machine can cost well over $1,000, and The Guardian notes that a rental big enough to fit one can change the sums.

A laundromat also has bigger, faster machines. Two baskets can be washed and dried in about an hour.

What does it cost? Prices vary by suburb and machine size. At the Sydney and Brisbane stores we checked, a mid-sized wash ran from about $6 to $12 and a dry of 30 to 40 minutes from about $6 to $13. That puts a full load at roughly $12 to $25. Some stores include detergent. Others sell it for around $2.

So the trade-off is simple. You pay more per load than at home, but you skip the machine, the space and the repair bills. What you give up is control over who used the washer before you.

What Could the Last Person Have Left Behind?

Most laundromats do clean their machines. One Australian chain says it uses fresh, not recycled, rinse water at least twice in every cycle. Another says it cleans and disinfects its stores every morning. Some ban pet blankets or give them their own washers.

That's good practice, but it varies from store to store, and you can't see it happening.

One study is worth knowing. Researchers at Reckitt, the company behind Lysol and Dettol, tested 17 public washing machines in six US laundromats. In each, they washed a sterilised cotton cloth on a cold cycle with detergent and no bleach. The cloths came out carrying bacteria, averaging about 6.6 million per cloth. Sequencing also found genetic traces of several bacteria that can cause infections, including Staphylococcus aureus. The authors' own tests found detergent alone fell well short of a 99.9% reduction.

Here's the fair reading. The authors call it preliminary; it was one wash per machine in the US, and the team works for a disinfectant maker.

Can Your Laundry Come Back Smelling Worse?

Yes, it can, and the cause is usually simpler than germs.

A drum that never dries out can smell musty. The Reckitt authors suggest biofilms inside machines may be an ongoing source of bacteria, so sniff the drum before you load, and pick another washer if it smells off. Too much detergent leaves a film, so clothes come out stiff or dull and the machine can fill with suds. A packed drum or dryer stops water and air from reaching every item. Leftover powder or residue from the last user can turn up as bits and stickiness.

The biggest culprit is damp. Clothes left wet in the drum, or bagged up before they're fully dry, turn sour fast. If a forgotten load already smells, rewash it before it goes in the dryer.

A sanitiser sheet only helps with part of this. Bacteria are a big part of what causes that sour, damp smell, so reducing them in the wash makes sense. But the sheet can't dry your clothes, clear someone else's residue or fix an overloaded drum. You still do the checking. The sheet does the antibacterial step.

Is a Sanitiser Sheet Worth It?