Gas vs. Electric Dryers in a Laundromat: Cost, Capacity, Code

By Jason Taken, business broker · HedgeStone Business Advisors · Updated 2026-09-04 · 9 min read

The Comparison

Why Gas Usually Wins Where It Is Available

Two reasons, and both are about cost structure rather than performance.

Unit energy cost. In most U.S. markets, delivering a given quantity of heat via natural gas costs less than delivering it via resistance electricity. That gap is what drives the industry's general preference.

Demand charges. Commercial electric tariffs commonly include a demand component based on peak draw, not just consumption. A bank of electric dryers running simultaneously at a Saturday peak creates exactly the demand spike those charges target — a cost a simple cents-per-kWh comparison misses entirely.

For context on the electricity side, the EIA reports state all-sector average retail prices, with a 12.94 cents/kWh U.S. average for 2024 and wide variation between states. The state pages on this site carry each state's figure. But a state all-sector average is not a commercial tariff and does not include demand charges, so it frames the question rather than answering it.

What Actually Constrains the Choice

For most buyers, the decision has already been made by the building.

Total connected BTU load is the item that most often stops a retool. Adding larger dryers can exceed the existing meter or service line, and discovering that after equipment is ordered turns a scheduling problem into a budget problem. Sum the load and confirm with the utility before ordering.

The Extraction Connection

The cheapest way to reduce dryer cost is not choosing a fuel. It is putting drier clothes into the dryer.

Water remaining in a load after the wash must be evaporated, and that evaporation is the dryer's entire energy consumption. A washer with higher extraction speed removes more water mechanically — which is far cheaper than removing it thermally — and shortens the dryer cycle that follows.

The compounding effects:

• Lower fuel consumption per load
• Shorter dryer cycles, which frees dryer capacity at peak
• Higher effective dryer throughput without adding machines
• Better customer experience, since people wait less

This is why washer selection is partly a dryer-cost decision, and why extraction rating belongs alongside capacity when evaluating a machine. See G-force.

Inspecting Existing Dryers

Whatever the fuel:

• Ignition and burner operation on gas units — reliable light-off, clean flame, no delayed ignition
• Airflow measured at the drum and at the exhaust termination
• Lint accumulation through the whole exhaust run, not just the trap — an efficiency drag and a fire risk
• Exhaust length and elbow count against the manufacturer's stated maximum
• Makeup air adequacy, since starved burners perform poorly
• Tumbler seals, rollers, belts, and bearings
• Cycle time and temperature against specification
• Coin drop or card reader function on each unit

An underperforming dryer looks like a fuel-cost problem and is frequently an airflow problem. Check the exhaust before concluding anything about the fuel.

How Do You Price the Decision?

If you are choosing rather than inheriting, model it rather than assuming:

1. Take your actual dryer minutes sold, or estimate from washer cycles and typical dry times.
2. Convert to energy required, using manufacturer consumption data for the specific models.
3. Price that energy at your actual tariffs — commercial gas rate, and commercial electric including demand charges.
4. Add the installation delta: gas piping, venting, combustion air, and any meter or service upgrade versus panel work and circuits.
5. Add the schedule delta, since utility upgrades take weeks.

The answer is usually gas where gas is available and capacity exists. The point of the exercise is the "where capacity exists" clause, which is what actually varies between stores.

What Actually Decides This in Practice?

Rarely a preference. Usually a constraint, and the constraints are physical and local.

Whether gas is available at the premises at all. Some buildings have no gas service, and bringing it in is a utility project with a cost and a timeline that frequently settles the question by itself.

Whether the existing gas service has capacity. A building with gas is not necessarily a building with enough gas for a bank of commercial dryers. Upsizing the service or the meter is a permitted project, and it is the item most often discovered late in a new build or a retool.

Whether the electrical service has capacity. The same question in the other direction. Electric dryers draw substantially, and a service sized for the previous tenant may not support them.

What the landlord and the lease permit. Alterations affecting building services usually require consent, and some leases are restrictive about gas work specifically.

What the local utility rates actually are. The relative cost of gas and electricity varies considerably by region, and a comparison built on national averages can point the wrong way for your address.

The practical instruction is to establish all five before forming a view, because a preference that the building cannot accommodate is not a decision. And where an existing store is being bought, the decision has already been made — what matters then is whether the installed system is adequate, safe and serviceable.

What Should You Check on Existing Dryers?

Six things, and they matter more than which fuel the store uses.

Cycle length against what the machines should achieve. Long cycles are the symptom that reveals nearly every other problem, and they cost you gas and lost turns simultaneously.

The venting, along its full run. Not just at the machine. Restriction anywhere in the run produces the same effect, and the terminations outside are a common failure point.

Make-up air. A dryer can only exhaust what it can draw in. A store sealed for energy efficiency, or where a louvre has been blocked, starves its dryers and produces exactly the symptoms of a blocked duct.

Ignition and burner behaviour on a gas machine. Delayed light-off, cycling, or incomplete heat are service items that lengthen cycles and raise consumption.

Lint accumulation, everywhere. Screens, transitions, ducts and the cabinet interior. Failure to clean is a leading contributing factor in clothes dryer fires (Source: U.S. Fire Administration), and the same accumulation is what is costing you money daily.

The washers. Moisture the washer fails to extract has to be evaporated with gas, which is far more expensive. A washer not reaching rated extraction speed is a drying cost, and it is the most commonly missed cause of high dryer bills.

Run all six with the machines actually operating, through full cycles, rather than inspecting them cold.

What Does This Mean for a Purchase Offer?

Three practical adjustments, and none of them is about which fuel is better in the abstract.

Price the cycle times you observed, not the ones the machines are rated for. If dryers are running long, the store is carrying an ongoing gas cost and losing turns at peak. Whether that is a discount or an opportunity depends entirely on the cause — a blocked duct is cheap to fix, an undersized service is not — so diagnose before you price.

Establish the service capacity before planning any change. A buyer intending to add or replace dryers needs to know whether the gas supply and meter, or the electrical service, will support them. Upsizing either is a permitted capital project with a real cost and timeline, and it is the item most often discovered after closing.

Confirm the venting will meet a new machine's specification. Ductwork sized for the existing fleet may not deliver the airflow newer dryers require, and under-vented new machines will run long in exactly the way you paid to avoid.

Two further notes. Check the lease for who is responsible for building services and ventilation, because ambiguity here is expensive precisely because the failures are rare and large. And ask the utility what the service size actually is rather than inferring it from what is currently installed.

What Should You Not Conclude?

That one fuel is simply better. The comparison is local, and three things make a general answer meaningless.

Rates vary by region, and the relative cost of gas and electricity can point either way depending on the address.

Availability and capacity are physical facts about the building, not preferences. A store with no gas service, or with a service that will not support the load, has had the decision made for it.

The installed fleet is what it is. On an existing store, the useful questions are whether the dryers are adequate, safe, serviceable and running at reasonable cycle times — not which fuel you would have chosen.

Spend the diligence effort on cycle length, venting, make-up air and washer extraction, because those determine what the store actually spends. The fuel type is a fact to record; the airflow is a number to price.

Summary

Gas is the common choice where it is available, on unit energy cost and because commercial electric demand charges penalize simultaneous dryer operation. But the building usually decides: connected BTU load against meter and service capacity, venting routes, combustion air, and code. Check capacity before ordering equipment, and remember that higher washer extraction reduces dryer cost more reliably than either fuel choice.

The Next Step

This page is general information about laundromat transactions, not legal, tax, or investment advice, and not a guarantee of sale price, timing, or financing approval. Verify current rules with your own CPA, attorney, lender, and the relevant state or municipal agency before acting.