[fuzzybeard]

Does this only make sense for small machines? I bought a gigantic washer/dryer and have no problem working through a large buildup that results from some disruption in life.

Borrowing from your analogy, I have large on-prem servers so I don't need the scalability of the cloud.

[brightball]

Just assuming you have a giant washer/dryer at home and it would handle say, 3 of the loads at one time.

10 loads total.

1. Put 3 loads in washer. Wait for cycle. 7 loads waiting to start.

2. Move 3 loads to dryer. Put 3 new loads in washer. 4 loads waiting to start.

3. Move 3 loads out of dryer and fold, move 3 loads from washer into dryer, put 3 new loads in washer. 1 load waiting to start.

4. Move 3 loads out of dryer and fold, move 3 loads from washer into dryer, put 1 remaining load in washer. 0 loads waiting to start.

5. Move 3 loads out of dryer and fold, move 1 load from washer to dryer.

6. Move 1 load out of dryer and fold.

Total run time, 5 cycles.

10 loads at laundromat

1. Put 10 loads in 10 washers.

2. Move 10 loads from 10 washers to 10 dryers.

3. Move 10 loads out of dryers and fold.

Total run time, 2 cycles.

Compounding variables are overfilled dryers that may result in clothes not getting entirely dry or a very busy laundromat with limited available capacity. At the laundromat, you begin folding while adding time to any load that needs it. At the home dryer, the entire line cycle is blocked for the additional time needed by each blocking dryer.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not advocating for letting laundry build up just so you can go do it at a laundromat. The convenience of having it in your home is well worth it - but if for some reason you do have a huge build up it's a great way to buy back your day / weekend if you want to be able to leave the house.

[gozur88]

>10 loads at laundromat

>1. Put 10 loads in 10 washers.

>2. Move 10 loads from 10 washers to 10 dryers.

>3. Move 10 loads out of dryers and fold.

As if. More like:

1. Arrive at the laundromat and realize there are only four washers free.

2. Start three loads because the fourth one doesn't work no matter how many coins you put in.

3. Wait for a dryer when the the three loads finish. Because washers are faster there are already two people waiting for a free dryer. You realize there's no point in hurrying to do the next three loads, since your first three are only making the dryer situation worse.

4. One dryer is finished but nobody is there to unload it. What's the etiquette at this place - should you take a stranger's load out and put it in one of the dingy carts? You wonder how big the owner of those clothes is, and if he's sane.

5. Eventually you get ten loads of clothes through three washers, read an entire three year old issue of Glamour magazine upside-down to make it last, and get all but the last two loads through the dryers before deciding to dry the last two at home by draping them over your furniture.

Total run time, a little over five hours and ten sanity points.

There's probably another cloud analogy in here somewhere.

[kbutler]

But the washing and drying time at home can be used for other things - parallel processing with asynchronous dispatch of mutually exclusive washing and drying jobs.

Laundromat: Time and hassle to bundle everything in the car, take it to the laundromat, babysit it while there (you can't go anywhere else) and bring it back home. Completed sooner, but with more overhead and focused time.

Home laundry: take it a load at a time. Completed later, but you can do anything else (even leave the house) while loads are running. No transportation overhead.

Both models have advantages, and I've done both. Mostly depends on how much hassle it is to trundle everything to the laundromat, and how soon I need the backup cleared.

[tomc1985]

You'll bottleneck at the clothes-folding stage, too

[nsxwolf]

Folding the clothes and putting them away is the big issue for me.