They were called 'prachechnaya'.
And the situation in the USSR wasn't that rosy. Only 70% of the population owned these tiny machines.
As with many things in the USSR, it may well have been regional and time-dependent. My memories are from mid-80s, although I know that my family had one before then. I didn't know anyone whose family didn't have one, and we weren't a nomenklatura family or anything like that - just a regular Soviet family with boring everyday jobs (teachers and engineers) - and neither were our neighbors and acquaintances.
Not that people don't own them now, but what they own now is a straight-up upgrade from what they had before.
At this point I'm sure there will soon be a market for laundromats in Poland, at least in the more urban areas. But it'd be a hard sell for the vast majority of Polish folks.
I do wonder where are the differences coming from.
In fact, building the network of government owned laundromats would be better fit for centrally planned economy of the USSR. My guess the only reason it never happened is the inability to build a reliable heavy duty automatic washing machine.
I get it that additional, large appliance may be somewhat unwieldy, but I don't think more than having to haul your clothes to get them washed.
Even the tiniest studio apartment in the UK would come with one. You very rarely see laundromats in the UK (usually in areas with a very high concentration of students, as halls of residence provision can be poor for them).
Why don't they have them in the US? You have water and electricity, so I can't understand why this is a big deal.
As for the reason why many don't - historical (they weren't designed when household washing machines didn't exist and were never retrofitted), and slumlords not wanting to manage another appliance.
Add to that nowadays Americans don't do much air drying of their clothes so a washer without a dryer is much less appealing. As long as you had physical space adding a washer to an apartment that wasn't designed for one is cheap. Adding a dryer is very costly - dedicated plug or gas line plus ventilation to the outside. So if it's not economically worth the dryer upgrade than most landlords just won't bother with a washer upgrade either.
If your landlord doesn't provide a washer and your apartment doesn't have washer hookups you could always get a portable washing machine (or jury rig a regular washer to be 'portable') for any apartment as long as you had somewhere to store it. I've even hear of someone splitting the water line under the sink to install a washer in a rental.
Same thing with dishwashers, some apartments have them, some don't.
[1]One apartment I lived in though had all the washing machines and dryers in the shared basement and they were coin operated and we weren't supposed to use them after 9.
When the tenant does finally move out, it's not uncommon for the landlord to renovate, add modern amenities, and raise prices significantly. Hence in-unit washing machines are on the rise and laundromats are on the decline. But it takes a long time for the process to play out.
Condenser dryers are pretty easy to install - all you need is an electrical outlet.
However, it looks like they're about 3x the cost of a vented dryer.
And smaller capacity than vented ones.
> Ventless dryers also take longer to get your clothes dry. A vented dryer might finish a Normal load in about 45-50 minutes, but a condenser or heat pump dryer could run for an hour and a half. Want to dry a bulky blanket or comforter? You could be waiting more than three hours.
http://laundry.reviewed.com/features/everything-you-need-to-...
Maybe it's the 240V mains supply?
That there is little incentive for landlords to spend money maintaining their property under various rent-control schemes is the real cause for issue.
I also had no idea what you meant by "special" circuit.
There are plenty of appliances that require more than 120V, and operate safely at these voltages.
Also RE: "much less appealing," should have specified "much less appealing to a prospective tenant than a washer/dryer combo thus wouldn't command higher rent thus isn't worth a landlord's time and money even if space is available right next to the sink for a cheap install." Line drying is much more common in other parts of the world.
It's also possible that there's an expectation that you always have a washer/dryer combo, whereas having just the washing unit isn't uncommon from what I've seen in the EU/other parts of the world and then just having an air drying rack for drying. I was a little surprised when I first moved abroad at not having a dryer (and annoyed admittedly), but I got used to it pretty easily and just adjusted my laundry schedule. Likewise, the size may be a difference in expectation, as many people expect full sized units installed, not compact units.
Plus a unit with an in-unit washer and dryer generally costs more than a similarly sized unit, and part of that space is taken up by a washer/dryer.
(Aside: as it turns out, I didn't know how washing machines worked, and I spent like a year washing my clothes without soap before the attendant told me. I now know that a "pre-wash" is... exactly what it sounds like, and it's not compatible with putting detergent tablets directly in the drum.)
Also, a lot of landlords will rent out washer/dryer sets to tenants for another monthly fee if they don't have their own to hook up.