How to Raise Coin Operated Washers

Coin operated washers, the manual kind where you have to push in the coin slot in order to deposit the necessary money, are commonplace in laundromats and apartment complexes. If you own them and are seeing your bills and costs increase, you can increase the cost to use your washers as well. All you need are the proper tools to take apart the coin slot and regular coin slots to replace the blank slots with to increase the price.

Unplug the machine so that it's turned off. Unlock the panel that gives you access to the coin drop and to the slide mechanism. From the inside and outside, remove the bolts that hold the coin slot in place and remove the entire sliding mechanism from the washer so that you can take it to a work bench.

Unhook the return spring. This spring is what pushes the coin slot back out once the coins are deposited, and you need it to be temporarily deactivated.

Flip the mechanism upside-down so that you're looking at the bottom of it. Remove the three retainer plate screws from the bottom and set the plate aside. You should be looking at the underside of the coin-holding mechanism, with functional inserts where there are currently coins and slugs where you cannot put coins.

Pull out the blank inserts (the slugs), and replace them with functional inserts that will hold coins. Once the functional inserts are put in, simply replace the plate, flip the mechanism over, reconnect the spring and reinstall the coin slot into the washing machine by bolting it back into place. Plug the machine back in and test the new mechanism to be sure that the coins all go through and the washing machine starts up.