After almost two weeks of being out of service, the laundry facilities for Hi-Rise and Lo-Rise are fully functioning. All eight of the dryers and all nine of the washing machines were unavailable after a power surge damaged the electronic components of the equipment.

“It was a lot of different things, so getting to the root of the problem took some time,” said Noreen Angeletti, project manager for the WesCard office.

The damage was twofold; the laundry control system, which reads the cards, and the interface between the machines and the system were unusable after the surge.

The machines themselves were fully functioning, according to a representative from Mac-Gray, the University’s provider of laundry equipment and repair. Thus, the problem lay solely within the card reading system that accesses the monetary funds on student identification cards. The laundry machines are activated by WesCards, rendering the machines useless without the computerized interface.

Repairpersons from Mac-Gray were able to activate some machines for student use during certain points in the restoration process.

“I believe that the Mac-Gray workers did let some people do their laundry while they were working,” said Peter Hill ’08, a residential advisor in Hi-Rise.

For most students, however, doing laundry was largely a matter of getting to another facility. The Bayit’s laundry facility is the closest to Hi-Rise, but, with only two machines, could not meet the needs of Bayit residents plus the 219 residents of the Rises.

Reslife and Mac-Gray suggested students use the facilities located on Vine and Pine streets.

“I couldn’t do laundry for a week and a half, so eventually I just hauled it over to my boyfriend’s house on Washington,” Hill said.

Other students made the trip to one of the recommended facilities, with mixed results.

“I injured my ankle walking to Vine Street with my laundry,” said Joseph Feldblum ’08. “It was terrible, not to mention the mental pain and anguish.”

Stephanie Calvert’08 found the inconvenience minor.

“We got in our cars and drove. Then I had clean laundry. I didn’t think it was a big deal,” Calvert said.

Most of the irritation was due to the amount of time it took to discover and fix the problem.

“It was just annoying to have it out [of service] for that long, ” said Kai Johnson ’08. “It was really frustrating because it’s a pretty large student population down here and there isn’t another laundry facility nearby. I just thought it got a little bit out of hand.”

“It was ridiculous,” said Zach Frosch’08. “Everyone I know pretty much had to go to other places to do their laundry. [Earlier in the week] I saw the laundry company’s trucks there and he [the repair person] said it’d be ready in an hour… I ran down there to use it before everyone else in the junior class and I got in just before it broke again.”

Students weren’t alone in their exasperation. Fielding complaints from students and cooperating with Mac-Gray, University staff was occupied with the problem from start to finish.

“It’s frustrating for us too, because it’s a brand new system and this isn’t supposed to happen, but you can’t control electrical surges,” Angeletti said.

The problems caused by the surge have left many weary of the efficacy the University’s repair processes. That the machines are up and running is enough to satisfy the majority of affected students.

“I had nothing clean to wear, but it’s cool because my housemates and I are tight enough to share underwear,” said Emily Rabkin’08.