Laundry Cost Calculator

Estimate your at-home laundry cost per load and per month

This Laundry Cost Calculator is built for one simple decision: what does it actually cost you to do laundry at home, per load, and what does that add up to over a week, month, and year. Most people underestimate laundry costs because they only think about detergent. In reality, your washing machine uses electricity and water every time you run it, and if you use a tumble dryer, the electricity cost can easily become the biggest part of the bill.

Use this page when you want a fast, realistic estimate for household budgeting. It is not designed for laundromats, dry cleaning, or commercial laundry services. It focuses on typical home laundry where you pay for your own utilities. The calculator combines four main cost components: washer electricity, water usage, detergent, and (optionally) dryer electricity. You can also add a small per-load amount for extras like fabric softener or stain remover if you want a closer estimate.

To get a useful answer quickly, start with the required fields: how many loads you do per week, what you pay per kWh for electricity, what you pay per 1,000 litres of water, and your average detergent cost per load. Then press calculate. You will see a clear cost per load first, followed by weekly, monthly, and yearly totals. If you want a more accurate result, open the Advanced section and adjust the default assumptions for washer electricity per load, litres of water per load, and dryer usage. The calculator always works even if you leave Advanced fields blank, because it falls back to sensible defaults.

Assumptions and how to use this calculator

• If you leave Advanced fields blank, the calculator assumes 0.60 kWh washer electricity per load, 60 litres of water per load, and 0% dryer usage.
• Water price is entered per 1,000 litres so it matches typical billing units (1,000 L equals 1 cubic meter).
• Monthly totals use an average month length of 4.33 weeks to avoid underestimating annual spend.
• Detergent cost per load is your average dose, not the bottle price. If you are unsure, estimate by dividing the bottle price by the number of loads it claims to cover.
• This calculator excludes appliance purchase cost, maintenance, and time value. It estimates running cost only (utilities and consumables).

Common questions

Why does my cost per load look higher than I expected?

Detergent is usually not the whole story. Electricity and water add up, and dryer use can dominate the total. If your dryer usage is high, even a moderate electricity price can push cost per load up quickly. Check your electricity price per kWh and your dryer kWh per load in Advanced, since those two numbers often drive the biggest differences.

I do not know my water price per 1,000 litres. What should I do?

Use a reasonable estimate rather than guessing wildly. Many utility bills show a price per cubic meter (m³). One cubic meter equals 1,000 litres, so you can copy that number directly. If your bill shows a total water charge and total volume used, divide total charge by total cubic meters to get an approximate rate.

Should I change the default washer and water assumptions?

Only if you have better information. Modern efficient front loaders can use less water and sometimes less energy than older top loaders. Hot washes and heavy soil cycles typically use more energy. If you have a machine label or manual that lists kWh per cycle or litres per cycle, enter those values to improve accuracy.

How do I estimate detergent cost per load accurately?

Take the detergent price you pay and divide it by the number of loads you actually get from it. Marketing numbers assume a minimum dose. If you use a bigger dose for larger loads or hard water, your real cost per load is higher. A quick reality check is to track how long a bottle lasts and how many loads you do in that time.

Does this include heating water for hot washes?

Partly. If your washing machine heats water internally, that energy is usually captured in the washer kWh per load value. If your hot water comes from a geyser or boiler and your machine uses that hot water directly, your washer kWh may look low while your household water heating electricity is higher elsewhere. In that case, increase the washer kWh per load to reflect hot washing, or treat hot washing as a separate household energy cost.