If you go there when the laundromat is busy, the hot water lines should have hot water running through them to other machines.

However, you might want to check to see whether the facility has a water heater and whether it is being used. It's cheaper for the laundromat to only provide cold water.

I have the same problem with my own machine. I curse the previous owner for not installing a sink in the laundry room when she was building; it would have enabled me to clear the hot water line to the washer.

I think laundromats probably don't heat their water up much anyway to keep their costs down. Sometimes laundromats have a sink near the washers. Maybe you could run the hot water in the sink, near the washer to sort of "preheat" the water pipes? I actually do that at home when washing on hot in my front loader.

Graywings -- You could install a circulator pump for your hot water. I love mine. It's like 'hotel living' to turn on any hot water tap in the house and have hot water in three seconds.

We've had this for a dozen years now. I was momentarily puzzled by someone's post on collecting pails of water from her shower to use in watering her plants. I thought she was talking about graywater, but it seemed she was collecting the gallons of cold water otherwise wasted while she waited for hot water.

I do that with my sink. I have a bucket that I pour water into while waiting for the water to get hot or cold. That water gets used to water plants and for rinsing dishes. It's become a habit.

With the laundromat, they do use hot water as the top-loaders have hot water. Since the bedding isn't dirty, cold-water will have to do with the front-loaders. If I remember, Sunday mornings are busy, so that will be the day we do them, and hopefully get warm if not hot water.

I read somewhere that the new tankless water heaters will not deliver hot water to the top loading water saving machines of today. The top loaders use water in spurts, and not for long moments of filling, so that tankless water heater never gets to the point that hot water is being used. And yet the top loading machines say to use a hot water wash every now and then to help control smell and mold in the machines. My daughter has this combination, and I do set the towel loads on hot, but I don't know if the water temperature is ever hot.

I read somewhere that the new tankless water heaters will not deliver hot water to the top loading water saving machines of today. The top loaders use water in spurts, and not for long moments of filling, so that tankless water heater never gets to the point that hot water is being used. And yet the top loading machines say to use a hot water wash every now and then to help control smell and mold in the machines. My daughter has this combination, and I do set the towel loads on hot, but I don't know if the water temperature is ever hot.

my laundry room is also where my hot water heater is in a closet. So that room and the small bath room beside it get hot water almost instantly. Any time I need hot water I go to the faucet in that bathroom and also my coffee area has a small sink in it like a wet bar sink it is also really close to the water heater and gets hot fast.
My master bath however and the guest bath are across the house so it take a long time to get hot water there.
I don't know why they did not put in 2 hot water tanks to remedy that. In my other homes I had multiple water heaters to accommodate where the hot water was needed.
Those wasted corner spaces in a kitchen are a great place to put one of the short little hot water heaters. I had one in my Oklahoma house back in that corner which was right beside my dishwasher and my sink. That was very convenient.

This house has an 80 gal hot water tank for the master bath with oversized Jacuzzi tub (which we have not used once in 18 months since moving here) and one other bath. Hot water is immediate.

The hot water to my laundry room (sink and washer) is also there within just seconds with a second hot water tank close by in a hall closet.

But, the wait for hot water in my kitchen is annoyingly long, as is hot water to the guest bath. I almost feel like I should tell people, if you want warm for your hands, turn on the faucet as you are sitting down and by the time you have finished you can do a hot wash up....

I talked to my plumber about it and from the layout of the plumbing he didn't really understand why so slow. He took the flow restrictor out of my Kohler sink faucet which helped speed things up only a little and the pay back is I can get splashed at the sink if I'm not careful to stay dry and out of the aim of any spray.

There's always going to be a wait while the cooled water in the hot pipe between the fixture and the heater runs out. How long the wait is depends on the diameter of the pipe and of course the distance. In addition, a tankless usually takes about 5 seconds to start serving up hot water. Once that passes, the wait time at any location would be the same. I'd think a tankless would work better for a top loader. They use so much more water than a front loader, the hot will be running longer for the fill-up. Those with a tankless can start the unit first by opening a hot faucet (anywhere in the house) just before starting the washing machine. Then the wait time and temp of the hot water going into the washing machine would be the same as with a tank heater.

To a builder, the placement and capacity of water heaters is often driven by cost or appearance and not by function. There are so many other features in modern houses that are used simply because they're cheaper, never because they're better - slab construction instead of perimeter raised foundations, hvac ducts (or even equipment) in attics, and on and on.

Some front loader washers and also dishwashers have internal heaters to warm water to the designated temperature for the cycle if the incoming water isn't hot enough - mine do.

The boss installed tankless at work, Great for his area, but our potty needs a 3-4 minute wait to feel any warm. Perhaps paying for water over rides the expense of heating it?

Old Fixer, unless you're talking about a run of many hundred feet, something's wrong. I'll guess one of three possibilities, alone or in combination:

1) The water pressure is too low, the hot water pipe is too big, or flow restriction at the faucet is causing the equivalent problem. Too little flow through the faucet means it takes longer to flush out the cold water in the line and before the hot arrives.

2) The unit is defective, or the flow is insufficient to trigger it to start.

3) The installation was goofed up in some way.

They start to produce hot water after a few seconds, and after that you have the same run and the same delay as if there were a tank model.

that's the bummer of our front loader..never know just how hot the water actually is! (I rarely if ever use anything but warm/cold..but our water heater is on hot. no kids in the house anymore to worry about...