Broken dryers and washing machines, coupled with slow repairs, have made doing laundry in the Ellicott Complex a daunting prospect, according to many students who live there.
Last week, an analysis of each of the complex's six laundry rooms by The Spectrum revealed that 22 of Ellicott's 74 dryers - nearly one out of three - are currently broken.
Fargo and Richmond Quad laundry rooms produced the worst results, with only half of the dryers working. Results were far better in Porter and Spaulding Quad, where only one dryer was broken in each laundry room.
In addition, The Spectrum tested the Ellicott washing machines and found them in poor condition. Many worked initially, but then failed to drain properly.
Out of the 22 dryers that are broken, 19 do not turn on. The other three dryers tumble the clothes, but do not produce any heat to dry them.
Jon Lasorsa, a sophomore exercise science major and Fargo Quad resident, said the washers and dryers are not repaired quickly enough.
"They should send someone around to check them and fix them as soon as they find (malfunctions)," he said. "It just kind of sucks because I have to wait around. I had the same problem last year in Spaulding."
Don Erb, residential facilities manager of the Ellicott Complex, supervises all the maintenance done in the laundry rooms. Erb agreed that there are problems with Ellicott's laundry machines, but attributed the problem to student misuse of the machines.
"They get abused quite a bit," he said.
According to Erb, the most frequent abuses include too much soap in the washing machines, overloading the dryers and not cleaning out clogged lint traps.
Erb said much of the problem results from students who are doing laundry for the first time.
"When people don't know how to use them, this is the problem you run into," Erb said.
Several students said frustration over broken laundry machines has been building for a while.
"We're just fed up," said Alicia Brown, a senior economics major. "The maintenance person should come around at least once a week to make sure the machines are working."
In response to claims of poor machine maintenance, Erb said that though machines are serviced regularly, it would help if students put "out of order" signs on broken machines so his staff could identify them.
"The machines are serviced on a daily basis, but if a machine breaks down we might not get to it until the next day," Erb said. "If one of our staff members goes in and sees that there is an out-of-order sign on a machine, we will call our customer service people and put in a work order for it."
Erb encouraged UB students to go online and request a work order on their own if they find a broken machine.
Sophomore psychology major Lauren Malvaso proposed that the conditions of the machines create problems because there are not enough machines to begin with.
"I think there should be more washers and dryers," Malvaso said. "It's an all-day
process."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
