ULPT can I just buy a set of commercial laundry machine keys?

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Interesting-Dish-927@reddit

Yes, you can — but I wouldn’t recommend touching/stealing from the coin compartment. That’s asking for trouble. Just use the key to override the payment system.

Usually those round universal keys open up the panel to control the machine cycle.

There will be something in there that will let you override the payment system — for example, on older machines there is usually a wire with a plastic connector. Unplug and replug that wire, and viola. The cycle will start.

An underpaid maintenance guy at my first apartment unlocked all the machines and showed a bunch of residents how to do this override.

(On some machines the override will be a button in that panel, or on the back of the machine.)

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Traditional_Cress561@reddit

Could.pop the coins in, then open up the machine and take your own coins back. So not to steal other people's coins

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Interesting-Dish-927@reddit

My concern isn’t so much about the ethics of stealing from your landlord. Frankly, I don’t give a shit if people steal from their landlord.

But if you are reported by someone, or seen on camera — “uh, the machine was acting weird so I used the reset button” is a lot less likely to get you into deep trouble than anything involving the coin compartment.

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tomtomclubthumb@reddit

Also if money is missing from the coin compartment, the landlord will try to find out why.

He is unlikely to know that the machine has done more cycles than have been paid for.

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Filamcouple@reddit

Some machines have cycle counters

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LeagueOfLegendsAcc@reddit

How many times is the machine owner gonna audit that?

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FrontAgency3795@reddit

let me count up these quarters here, yep 359 coins! and 200 cycles, that can't be right, the cycle counter must be off, let me recalibrate this machine here, or did I miss count, 1 quarter, 2 quarter

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adriax@reddit

More like hmm, which machine is more likely to be broken, the cycle counter or the coin counter?

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braytag@reddit

There are asshole landlords, but without landlords, a lot of people would be living in the street.

It's just capitalism 101, dude has an investment and want to make a profit.

Saying "All landlords are scumbags and should be abolished" is really juvenile and naive.

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Knave7575@reddit

Landlords provide housing just like scalpers provide concert tickets.

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KidenStormsoarer@reddit

No, if landlords didn't hoard property, housing prices would be reasonable and people would be able to afford to buy

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usmcnick0311Sgt@reddit

Nope. Still stealing from a lock box.

It's like: Sell my car to a used car dealer. Go there at night with the spare I kept and take the car back. Try to justify it by saying they didn't give me enough.

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Traditional_Cress561@reddit

Sounds fair, get your car and some moneys

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markovianprocess@reddit

Tubular locks aren't universal although many of them can be impressioned with a fairly cheap tool.

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BugBugRoss@reddit

Google bic pen tubular lock

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markovianprocess@reddit

Yeah, older Kryptonite bike locks had a tubular core that was impressionable with a Bic pen. They used to.offer owners insurance against theft as part of buying the lock. They had to pay out a lot in claims once word hit the street about this.

The principle why actual impressioning tools work is the same as the pen but pens won't actually fit most tubular locks properly.

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GnPQGuTFagzncZwB@reddit

If you stick to stealing your own money unless someone sees you, have fun. Better would be to get a buddy to dress up like a repair guy and run a wire from the coin switch to a magnetic reed witch and glue that onto the body someplace you can find easy. When you want it to run, just stick a strong magnet there to act like it got fed coins.

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FrontAgency3795@reddit

I have Reed switch in my car so it can't be stolen, even with the key, although I don't think anyone wants my car

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GnPQGuTFagzncZwB@reddit

I had an old Chevy truck with the the three on the tree shifter, and I could leave that sucker idling when I went shopping. Besides it being standard, no one knows the shift pattern on them anymore. And to add to that it was old and the shift linkage had some play in it, and if you knew where they gears were she would pop right in, but if you fished around too much they rods that moved the cams on the transmission would get stuck and you could not longer move the shifter. It happened to me a couple of times when I was first driving it and I got good and getting them back where they needed to be, but it was like only me and my girlfriend could drive that sucker any distance.

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kyohti@reddit

Oh wow, you just gave me a hell of a flashback to my mom trying to explain three on the tree/four on the floor to me as a kid. I don't think I've heard those terms before or since.

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FrontAgency3795@reddit

never heard of that kind of shifter.

shift linkage just needs bushing or whatever they use back then

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GnPQGuTFagzncZwB@reddit

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/when-three-was-on-the-tree.929381/

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FrontAgency3795@reddit

what the heck, I don't like it, that's the most confusing.

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dirtymoney@reddit

Oh this is very clever.

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diabeticsmash@reddit

You happened to describe my living situation exactly. I've been thinking of doing this for a while. $2 each for wash and dry is too much especially when I need to acquire quarters

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SolidWarp@reddit

I do it. As long as you aren’t taking coins and are inconspicuous, it’s likely to go unnoticed. My machine has an access panel on the top where I key it open then pull a lever to start the machine.

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TheFaceStuffer@reddit

Older styles would accept any round metal like a bolt washer. Don't ask me how I know.

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wight-brit@reddit

A crackhead kept coming in and stealing the quarters from my apartment’s machines. Their solution was to remove the laundry machines.

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DogPoetry@reddit

now everyone loses

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Jack_Benney@reddit

I see this request so often here that I sometimes think it is posted by someone who sells those keys...

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FrontAgency3795@reddit

how much is way too much, go to a cheaper laundromat.

buy a washer, used ones are cheap, sometimes free on Craigslist

but u still have to pay electricity and water, unless u want to buy a key for that too....

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LittleManOnACan@reddit

As the top commented said, get the round key and override the payment system don’t mess with the coins.

BUT a word of caution from someone who does this. The wiring is in that same compartment and it does NOT feel good to bridge 240 volts with your finger so pay attention to where you’re sticking your hand. Thought I was going to die in my basement

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Lari-Fari@reddit

Sure… did you know you can also just put stuff into your backpack in stores and leave without paying? Saves a lot of money too.

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SunnyShim@reddit

I just confused as to why there’s so any laundry machine key/opening up the laundry machine posts these past few weeks. Hadn’t many in the past year and now there’s at least three or four of em.

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kifflomkifflom@reddit

It’s not just you. I googled one of the machines for one of the posts the other day. A Reddit post from like 3 years ago was the top result and it was worded almost exactly the same. The model number was off by like the last two digits. Very weird

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Loud_Ad3666@reddit

Sounds like they were karma farming

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iluvsporks@reddit

What you're asking is illegal not unethical. I still approve 🤣

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AugustusReddit@reddit

Apparently Amazon sell them but it would be only slightly unethical to buy from them. Better to buy them and report your shipment damaged or the item missing so you get them for free. The truly unethical steal from the ultra-rich (Bezos) to benefit the poor (you).

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Skarth@reddit

Rule 5.

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Hollowplanet@reddit

Dumb to risk your Amazon account over something so cheap. Good way to make it so you can't return anything.

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AugustusReddit@reddit

You wouldn't. The unethical will always 'borrow' someone else's account courtesy of the darknet and have the items shipped to an Amazon locker so there's zero connection to you. (You must have been asleep in UnethicalLifeProTips Basic Skills 101 when the teacher cover this topic.)

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Hollowplanet@reddit

You're going to buy an Amazon account and ship it to your own address and then report it stolen for a $10 item. You must be in the special ed class.

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sehtownguy@reddit

Then when you steal your money back slip a piss disc under the washer and spray the coin slot with liquid ass

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einsatz@reddit

people like you who slip this stupid ass long dead beaten horse of a joke make the sub annoying to skim. kindly stfu pleass

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SnooSnooSnuSnu@reddit

Considering how often the OP question gets asked...

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einsatz@reddit

id rather read a human beings situation that is real but posted often than HA HA PISS DISC LIQUID ASS everywhere. it's so engrained in this sub that I'll just unsubscribe eventually. in 2034 theyll still be talking about liquid ass because lemmings

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sehtownguy@reddit

It's a joke not a dick, don't take it so hard

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einsatz@reddit

oh shit you're from texas? I'm sorry dude. i have a policy where I don't pick on retards. my apologies

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einsatz@reddit

oh look, another regurgitated joke

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sehtownguy@reddit

Sure, just spray this liquid ass on yourself first

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Panda-768@reddit

I mean u really wanna introduce piss and ass near where u clean your clothes , naah

maybe do that to their home or something

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markovianprocess@reddit

The tubular locks typically used in that type of commercial machine aren't universal/all the same bitting and you probably can't just buy.a copy that will work online. I don't know where people are getting this idea.

What is true, however, is that lower-quality tubular locks are usually vulnerable to an impressioning attack using a specialized tool called a tubular lock impressioning tool or informally a tubular lock pick. Cheap Chinese vendors on AliExpress, etc carry sets that typically come in 3 sizes, one of which will likely fit the lock. Better quality locks are designed to resist impressioning but landlords are cheap so...

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coalsack@reddit

This is the thread you are looking for.

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uhbijnokm@reddit

Looks like pretty clear consensus on risk vs reward of actually stealing quarters, so probably not worth it.

But as for the machines themselves: I used to live in a place small enough that the landlord didn't want to bother with the quarters and just called it an amenity. So he gave us those circular keys you're mentioning. Paying with quarters and then pulling them back out every time did work. But it's also not hard to trace out which lever/switch get hit when the coin slot slides into place - then flip that switch by hand with the panel open to start the machine.

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dirtymoney@reddit

First try the tricks that have been used on commercial washing machine coin slots/trays

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Dannyz@reddit

If you’re trying to steal money from your landlord, I’m not gonna help you. That’s for ILPT, not ULPT.

That said, look all over that washer and the unit on top. Almost everyone has a way for mechanics to run it with out paying for a diagnostic cycle. My last apartment had a button on the back of the box you put money into.