page_title: Self-service laundry
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Self-service laundry / By country / United States
caption_attribution_description: English: Lmaries Laundromat in Bowling Green, Ohio. This laundromat is heavily automated.
context_page_description: A self-service laundry, coin laundry, laundromat or coin wash is a facility where clothes are washed and dried without much personalized professional help.
  Laundromats are known in the United Kingdom as launderettes or laundrettes, and in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as laundromats or washaterias. It is known that George Edward Pendray was the one to create the term "laundromat" for Westinghouse.
context_section_description: Self-service laundry facilities in the United States are most commonly called laundromats. "lavanderia" is an alternate name for laundromat, but is not in common use outside of Texas. The term comes from the first laundromat in the United States, which was known as a Washateria and was opened on April 18, 1934 in Fort Worth, Texas, by C.A. Tannahill. Though steam-powered laundry machines were invented in the 19th century, their cost put them out of reach of many. Cantrell and others began renting short-term use of their machines. Most laundromats in the US are fully automated and coin-operated and generally unmanned, with many operating 24 hours a day. The invention of the coin-operated laundry machine is ascribed to Harry Greenwald of New York who created Greenwald Industries in 1957; the company marketed the devices through the 20th century. 
  The United States Census Bureau estimates that there are 11,000 of this style of laundromat in the US, employing 39,000 people and generating over $3.4 billion every year.
caption: A modern laundromat in Ohio
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