Gas or electric drying for a laundromat?

How big is the difference per cycle?

Drying consumes almost all of a laundromat's energy. Washing draws power to turn the drum and pump water; drying produces sustained heat for tens of minutes. Cost per unit of heat, not the headline electricity bill, is what decides the shop's margin.

Gas wins clearly on that measure. The COMBO manufacturer's catalogue lists gas consumption of roughly 0.5–0.8 kg per hour depending on machine size. On the electric side, an installer reporting more than 100 shops built puts electric dryers at roughly 15–25 kWh per cycle, with a medium all-electric shop running about THB 30,000–80,000 per month in electricity.

Set against the published cost structure of an operator running gas dryers — electricity THB 6,000–12,000 plus gas THB 7,000–15,000 per month — the combined total still sits well below the upper end of the all-electric range.

That is why TOKIWASH installs the gas dryer variant of the COMBO as standard. The choice is made on cost per cycle, not on ease of installation — and we are not going to pretend a gas system has no trade-offs. It does, and they are in the next section.

What a gas system costs you in return

• Floor area for cylinders or a gas room — space that earns nothing, which matters most in small units.
• Permitting and inspection for gas use in the premises, adding time before opening and varying by local by-law.
• Ongoing inspection and maintenance of pipework and connections, for the life of the shop rather than once at installation.
• Safety exposure that has to be managed. The case most cited in the industry is a 2018 explosion caused by accumulated gas at a laundromat three days after opening, injuring nine people.
• Gas price and delivery volatility — in 2026 some suppliers began adding a per-cylinder transport charge where previously there was none.

These are manageable with correct installation and scheduled inspection, but they have to be known before choosing a site: some buildings and leases do not permit a gas installation at all. Ask the landlord before paying a deposit.

When electric is the right choice

Electric is not simply the weaker option. Three situations call for it even though cost per cycle is higher.

• The building or lease does not permit gas — common in malls, office buildings and condominiums.
• The unit is too small to give up floor area for a gas room, or doing so costs you a machine position — which hurts revenue more than the energy difference saves.
• Gas delivery to the location is awkward or expensive enough to erode the cost advantage.

In those cases the same COMBO model is available with an electric dryer, at the cost of a higher electricity bill and a shop-wide electrical load that has to be recalculated.

What to check before deciding

• Ask the landlord, before paying a deposit, whether a gas installation is permitted and on what conditions.
• Ask the local authority about the permitting steps and how long they take — it affects your opening date directly.
• Ask the supplier for gas consumption per cycle and kWh per cycle for the exact model to be installed, then price both against energy costs in your own area.
• Calculate the shop's total electrical load under both scenarios. Going electric may require a three-phase supply or a transformer upgrade — a first-day cost that rarely appears in a brochure.
• Ask who is responsible for scheduled gas system inspection, and what it costs per year.

Our team works out both scenarios for the location you send us, and tells you whether the building can take a gas installation — before you sign a lease.

The figure TOKIWASH is preparing to publish

No brand publishes measured energy cost per cycle for the machines it sells in Thai, even though it is the number that decides the shop's margin. We are compiling both gas consumption and kWh per cycle from operating branches, and will publish them with the measurement method, the number of branches and the period covered.