What Does Your Own Laundry Actually Cost?
Doing laundry at home is not free. Once you add up power, water, detergent and your own hours, most households in Santa Clarita are spending more than they think. Put your real numbers in below and find out.
How to Read This
- Every field is an estimate you can change, so the answer is yours and not ours
- The defaults are typical for a Southern California household
- Your time is counted at whatever your hour is worth to you
- If doing it yourself comes out cheaper, the calculator will say so
You Save Every Month
Doing It Yourself
- Electricity
- $0.00
- Water
- $0.00
- Detergent and supplies
- $0.00
- Supplies subtotal
- $0.00
- Your time, 0 hours
- $0.00
- Total
- $0.00
Letting Us Do It
- 0 lbs
- $0.00
- Delivery
- Free
- Total
- $0.00
Heads up. Pick up and delivery has a 25 lb minimum, so we have billed 25 lbs here. Drop off and Just Fluff have no minimum.
Delivery is charged per trip. This assumes one trip a week.
Where the Default Numbers Come From
Every figure in the form starts at something typical and is yours to change. A washer and an electric dryer together pull somewhere near 3.3 kWh a load, and the dryer is almost all of it. Southern California power sits well above the national average, so the default price per kWh is set high rather than low.
A modern high efficiency washer uses around 25 gallons a load. An older top loader can use twice that, so if your machine has a few years on it, push that number up and watch what happens.
The hour a load is the part people argue about, and it is the part that matters most. It is not the time the machine runs. It is your time. Sorting, loading, moving the wet pile over before it sours, folding, and putting away. An hour a load is a fair middle for a household that stays on top of it.
Why the Old Calculator Was Wrong
The version that used to sit on this page never worked properly. Electricity was multiplied by zero, so power never counted at all. The service rate was locked at zero, so our side always came back free and the saving was really just what you spend on yourself. On top of that, every dropdown was empty, so the form could not be filled in.
This one uses the real published rates, counts every cost, and will tell you plainly on the weeks when doing it yourself is the cheaper option.
Want the Real Number for Your House?
Tell us your pounds and your ZIP and we will quote it properly, discounts included.