Washing in analog and digital spaces – opportunities and risks
In the evening before I go to bed, I turn off the lamp in the room where our washing machine is. I notice that the ‘porthole’ of the washing machine door reflects the light strangely.
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It took a while to convince Miele customer service that this was a warranty case (we didn’t wash a brick or a carpenter’s hammer. Not even a headset). It will take another two weeks for the replacement device to be delivered. In the meantime we rely on a laundromat, of which there are fortunately three within walking distance.
I can’t immediately say when I last washed laundry in a salon like this. Maybe on holiday in Tenerife in 2007? However, I can pretty much name the first few times. That was on vacation from 1984 and then in the fall of 1988, when I had just moved to Berlin and didn’t yet have my own washing machine.
So I regularly went to a laundromat on Gotzkowskystrasse, but it was different than the one that Google shows you there today. To wash, you had to insert 5 or 6 DM into a machine and in return you received a coin called “Waschpolette” and a cup full of washing powder. The dryers cost 50 pfennigs for 15 minutes, which also required special coins. I mean, there would also have been a machine for changing coins.
In total, you had to throw a coin into a machine 2-3 times for a washing process and then a few more for drying. It was an error-prone process and so hardly a washing session went by without some customer cursing loudly that the damn device had eaten the pole again.
There was no staff in the salon, but there was a notice with a service telephone number where you could complain, and I think I once got my money back that way.
2023 in Greifswalder Str. the process runs with coins, notes and cashless. The pay machine on the wall accepts card payments and you can tap the number of a free machine on a touchscreen and then book it. You can bring your own detergent or buy it separately.
The only source of error: Machines are also shown as available when the previous wash cycle has been completed but the clean laundry is still in there. In this case, you cannot cancel the booking and you either have to wait for the owner to show up and take out the laundry, or you can put it yourself in one of the laundry baskets standing around. Or you grudgingly pay for another machine.
Shortly after our new washing machine arrives, we drive to the Baltic Sea, to a holiday home area that also has its own laundromat. So I go to the reception of the complex to buy detergent and ask how to book and pay for a machine. The former is a fancy plastic packet full of colorful liquids, for the latter I get a handout with explanations (5 easy steps!).
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I carry both of them home to the holiday cottage to my wife, who wanted to do the actual washing. So she downloads the app, registers, books and pays for a machine. Then go to the laundry room, fill in the laundry and detergent and start the washing program.
She also notices that the wash house will be closed for cleaning for an hour when our washing process ends. Then it’s my turn to pick up the laundry again. Your concern is that someone will book the machine directly after us and then urgently wait for the laundry to be taken out (see above).
I, on the other hand, have a completely different problem – the machine seems to have completed its program, but the door cannot be opened using any of the controls. There are no staff on site here either, but at least our laundry is safe. So I call my wife to see if she can unlock anything in the app, but she can’t.
So I cycle the 100m to reception and ask for advice. It says “Unfortunately we can’t do anything about that, the machines are operated by our own company, here is their service telephone number.” So I call the number and am told that yes, this happens often because the door would automatically lock 20 minutes after the end of the wash cycle. We should simply reserve the machine again in the app, then the door could be opened again.
With this new information, I cycle back to the holiday home and my wife sets off again to the washing machine with her phone and app so that she can be there the moment the door opens.
Fifteen minutes later she comes back with the laundry and further information. She met another vacationer who said the door thing happens all the time. However, there is an emergency release behind a flap at the bottom right of the machine. You have to pull down the yellow ring behind the slanted slot, preferably with a coin.
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The lack of a cover flap and the condition of the release lever indicate frequent use.
The wife also points out that this route is in principle also described on the instruction board on the wall.
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Unfortunately, here is the English version, the German version can still be seen on the left.
If necessary, readers can make their own list of the inconsistencies in this organization of the digital washing process. However, everyone involved was friendly and helpful and no animals or laundry items were harmed.
(Virtualist)