Equipment Lease & Sales FAQs

The majority of agreements entered into today are between five and 10 years, with the average being seven. The longer the agreement, the more generous the terms of the contract will be.

How much rent Hercules will pay is often dependent on the vend rates of your laundry equipment. Don't assume, however, that increasing the vend rates will automatically translate into an increase in laundry room income. If there is a laundromat close to the building, or if you do not police the use of private machines in the apartments, you have every reason to maintain moderate pricing. Usually as the vend rates increase, demand falls.

If your rental income depends on percentage of the money collected, you will either have to trust Hercules figures as fair and accurate, or oversee the collections made by Hercules collection personnel. If you have a Smart Card system installed, accountability is automatically built into the electronics and accurate reports can be easily rendered. In addition, utilizing a hand-held control unit, Maytag computerized washer and dryer models offer advanced two-way data communication. This state-of-the-art system provides complete accountability throughout an entire laundry operation.

Although "up-front money" or "bonus money" might sound like a windfall, neither is what it seems. Both are discounted money paid at the beginning of the agreement that otherwise would be paid over the life of the agreement. Thus, the larger the "bonus" payment, the smaller the rental or share of the collections paid throughout the term of the agreement.

This is the key element in determining income potential in any given building or location. If a resident uses the equipment one time per week with one white clothing load and one dark clothing load using two typical top-loading washers and two matching dryers in the process, they do two loads per week or approximately eight and one-half loads per month.
A building with young families with children will do substantially more loads per month than a building with "empty nesters" or seniors.

HE washers can use as little as 20% to 50% of the energy used by traditional agitator washers because there is less water to heat (from 20% to 66% less), according to the Soap and Detergent Association (SDA).

According to the Soap and Detergent Association (SDA), using regular detergent may prevent some soils from completely rinsing out of the HE washing machines. SDA recommends avoiding problems by using an HE detergent and by running a regular maintenance cycle, which means running a full wash cycle without any laundry in the machine. Check the manufacturer's instructions and recommendations for specific details.

Water usage varies by washer. However, the new Maytag Front-Load washers use approximately 13 gallons of water, and the Maytag Top-Load washers use approximately 35 gallons of water.

The RPMs vary by the exact model number of the washer, but generally, for a top load washer it’s 600 RPM and for a High-Efficiency washer, it’s 800-1,000 RPM.

The cleaning of machines and venting associated with laundry rooms varies by location. However, usually such cleaning is performed every 6-12 months.