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Westbrae Wash & Dry
Category: Dry Cleaning & Laundry [Edit]
1304 Gilman St(between Curtis St & Neilson St)
Berkeley, CA 94706
4 reviews for Westbrae Wash & Dry
Pros: Very clean and in good shape in comparison to other laundromats. There's a couch to sit on and magazines to read, which is nice. There's also some arcade games in a separate little room in the back, which is a fun time-killer. The prices are pretty reasonable and I've never had any problems with stuff being stolen or the machines messing up my clothes.
Cons: Some of the machines can be pretty noisy. Especially the washers, which will sometimes suddenly make a very loud, high-pitched screeching noise that startles me every time still. They also close kind of early, 7:00 PM on Sundays I believe.
Overall a good place to do laundry.
Westbrae Wash & Dry's convenient location, well maintained machines, and clean interior isn't enough to rope me in as a regular customer. I have some qualms with this place.
The first is the age and variety of the machines. They're all very old and most don't have options like a double-rinse. The washing machines here are mostly top-loading, so you have to worry about packing them too tight and distributing the weight evenly. The majority of the machines are on the small side, but cost just as much to use as the one or two bigger machines, meaning you'll probably have to split up your loads and pay more cash. The machine prices are also relatively higher than most Laundromats I've used. Also, if you have to do your laundry after work or on the weekend, you'll have a hard time finding open machines to do your laundry since the place is so relatively small.
My other issue is with the management. There's only one man running the show and like HL S. has said, he's kind of creepy. He comes off as being a little on the cranky side. If he talks to you, it's a half-mumbled bark that usually comes off as a little condescending. He's by no means a bad guy, can be very helpful, and I've grown to like him, but dealing with him is often a strange test of patience and understanding.
Those issues aside, Westbrae's location for me is excellent and serves as a good backup place for me to do a quick load of laundry when I'm in a bind. Westbrae Wash & Dry could easily fill a good niche for me if they were open later, but it closes relatively early in the evenings.
This is the only place within walking distance to my house, so I still go here occasionally out of desperation and not wanting to pile 2 loads of laundry on my scooter like someone from a 3rd world country.
It's $2/wash load, which is on the high end of normal. The washers will sometimes not work, the older dryers occasionally would leave streaks of oil (?) on my clothing until I switched to the very-few newer ones.
Mostly-ok, though, but there's a dude who works here (I shall call him the Laundry Troll) who is CREEPY. He's moved my things a few times from smaller dryers into a large, berating me upon my return that I should have used the larger, better dryers. (They were FULL when I put my stuff in, otherwise I would have!). Creepy that he's touching my stuff, you know? He also sometimes closes early, which is less-than-ideal.
But, uh...like I said, within walking distance from my house. So, occasionally, I go. And, it's clean enough on all the sanitizable surfaces.
p.s. don't touch the couch, it's filthy.
The mural: Awseomely cute.
The packman machine and other intensely cool arcade video games: Epic.
The perfect place to do Laundry in North berk-town.
Love it.
As of 2003:
Open Sun-Wed: 6:00 am- 6:00 am
Thurs-Sat: 6:00 am- 10:00 pm
Last wash: 1 hour before closing
