Students must now pay an extra 50 cents to wash and dry each load of laundry.
At the end of Summer term the College and Mac-Gray, the company that supplies residence hall laundry machines, raised the cost of the use of washers and dryers to one dollar.
The 25 cent increase is the result of rising utility costs and comes after two years of negotiations between Dartmouth and Mac-Gray, Director of Residential Operations Woody Eckels said.
Eckels said the price hike was the first at the College in seven years and that few schools in America have lower laundry costs.
Nine of the 44 schools the College surveyed last year charged 75 cents for washers and 19 levied 75 cents for dryers, Eckels said.
The rest of the schools charged $1.00 or $1.25 to use a washer or dryer, he added.
Kleen Drycleaners & Linen Services in Hanover charges $1.25 for use of the smallest washers and 25 cents for 10 minutes of dryer use.
Eckels said he contacted local laundromats and found prices in residence halls are the cheapest in the area.
Dartmouth students spend about $160,000 each year in College laundry machines, Eckels said.
Students said they were not pleased with the price hike. The price jump is "horrendous. It was overpriced as it was," said John Schneider '96, who does laundry in the basement of Mid-Fayerweather hall.
