Overview

With the Free Dry Promotion, you're enabling a secondary balance on all Laundry Cards/LaundryCat App accounts, called the Free Dry Balance.

When a customer starts a particular Washer in the store, that Washer's Card Reader adds a pre-determined amount of value to that card's/account's Free Dry Balance.
Funds added to a customer's Free Dry Balance are only accepted by Card Readers installed on Dryers (with 1 exception).

You can configure different machines to add different amounts of Free Dry Balance during Washer starts.

For example, you can specify that the 60lb Washers in your store will add $1.00 worth of Free Dry Balance, whereas the 30lb Washer may only add $0.50 to this balance.

When a customer starts a Dryer in your store, the Dryer Card Reader will always attempt to deduct the vend price from the customer's Free Dry Balance first.

When the Free Dry balance is depleted, the Dryer Card Reader will automatically switch to then deduct any outstanding balance needed to satisfy the full vend price, from the customer's primary balance (i.e. the paid balance of their Laundry Card/LaundryCat App account).

Clarification notes about the Free Dry Promotion:

This promotion does NOT use the concept of points (like other card systems might); it uses actual dollar values that can ONLY be used towards Dryer starts in the store (with 1 exception).
The Dryer is NOT free in a general sense; it is still charging its displayed vend price, so someone cannot simply walk off the street and start using your Dryers for free.
The Free Dry Promotion can NOT be put on a schedule; it is intended to be either enabled at all times or disabled at all times (with 1 manual workaround).

Example of the Free Dry Promotion in action

The table below runs through an example of what happens to the 2 discrete balances of a customer's Laundry Card (the Paid/Primary Balance, and their Free Dry Balance), when the customer uses their card in a store running a Free Dry Promotion:

Operation	Primary Balance	Free Dry Balance
In this example, we'll start with a customer who has a Laundry Card with a $0 Paid balance and a $0 Free Dry Balance.	$0.00	$0.00
The customer adds $10 to this Laundry Card, using a VAC kiosk, which goes to the customer's Paid balance only	($0 + $10) $10.00	$0.00
The customer then pays to start a Washer, which charges $4, and is programmed to give out $0.80 in Free Dry value.	($10 - $4) $6.00	($0 + $0.80) $0.80
The customer then pays for a Dryer start that costs $0.30. The card has enough Free Dry Balance to pay for the Dryer start, so the Paid card balance is NOT used at all.	$6.00	($0.80 - $0.30) $0.50
The customer pays another $0.30 to add additional time to this Dryer. Again, only the Free Dry Balance is used.	$6.00	($0.50 - $0.30) $0.20
The customer pays another $0.30 to add more time to this Dryer. In this case, there is not enough Free Dry Balance to satisfy the full vend price, so BOTH balances are used for this payment (starting with the Free Dry Balance)	($6 - $0.10) $5.90	($0.20 - $0.20) $0.00
The customer pays another $0.30 to add more time to this Dryer. Since the Free Dry Balance is completely depleted, the entire vend is deducted from the customer's Paid balance.	($5.90 - $0.30) $5.60	$0.00

Configuring the Free Dry Promotion

To enable the Free Dry Promotion in your store, you will be:

Configuring the amount of value each Washer Reader will be giving out during machine starts.
Configuring the VAC kiosk(s) to enable all Laundry Cards/LaundryCat App accounts to display their 2 discrete card/account balances.
Confirming that all Washers/Dryers are participating in the Free Dry Promotion

Step 1: Configuring the Free Dry Amount Washers award

You'll need to specify how much money a particular Washer reader will add to a Laundry Card/LaundryCat App account's Free Dry Balance whenever the Washer is started.
This is done by changing the value of a setting called Free Dry Bonus Amount on every Washer reader:

The steps for adjusting a Card Reader's Free Dry Bonus Amount setting are exactly the same as Configuring Vend Prices:

you can use the Bulk Pricing Menu to update this setting on an entire group of machines:
you can use the individual Card Reader settings menu to update this setting on a particular reader individually:

Note: It is strongly recommended that you put machines into custom groups, unless you plan on giving out the same amount of Free Dry value, regardless of the size of Washer that's started by the customer.

Step 2: Enabling the Free Dry Promotion

The promotion can be enabled/disabled store-wide, using the "Free Balance Display" setting inside VAC01 (the primary Value Add Center kiosk).

Click on the wrench icon to access VAC01's configuration page.

Then click the Edit VAC Settings button and scroll down to the Free Balance Configuration setting.

Change it to the "Free Dry" option, and submit the request by clicking the Update Settings button:

The system will automatically update this same setting on all the online Card Readers, and all other online VACs, to ensure all equipment has their individual Free Dry Configuration settings set to the same value so that all equipment is participating in this Free Dry promotion.

It may take up to 15 minutes for the system to update this setting on all the other online equipment in the store.

A small Fire icon will start to appear next to all Washer and Dryer Card Readers, indicating that the particular Card Reader has its Free Balance Configuration setting enabled correctly:

You'll want to ensure that all Dryer and all Washer Card Readers have their Fire symbol displayed, since both Washers and Dryers need to be participating in the Free Dry Promotion for it to work correctly.

Step 3: Confirm All Card Readers are participating in the Free Dry Promotion

After updating VAC01's Free Balance Display setting, and after waiting about 15 minutes, you should notice that all Card Readers are now displaying their Fire symbol in the Machines list, which indicates that all readers are participating in the Free Dry Promotion.

You'll want to confirm 2 things to ensure the Free Dry Promotion is configured correctly:

1. Confirming all Card Readers' Free Dry Configuration Settings are enabled (click to expand)

Refresh the main LaundroPortal page, then scroll through your Machines list to ensure that all Washer and Dryer Card Readers are displaying their Fire symbol.

If they are, this is confirmation that all readers have their Free Dry Configuration Setting enabled.

If you see any Card Readers that are NOT showing their fire symbol, it means that the specific Card Reader is NOT currently participating in the Free Dry promotion.

You're able to click into that individual reader's settings page to enable the Free Dry Configuration setting manually if that reader was skipped by the system's automatic process initially:

You are only able to update reader settings for Card Readers that are reporting online on the LaundroPortal:

If any Card Reader(s) are showing a "Timeout" error, it is expected that you will NOT be able to adjust that reader's settings.

Card Reader settings cannot be adjusted unless the reader is reporting online on the LaundroPortal.

Review our Portal says "Timeout - check reader/machine" - Card Reader is Reporting it's offline article for troubleshooting help for offline Card Readers.

2. Confirming all Washer readers are giving the correct Free Dry value (click to expand)

To confirm all Washer readers are programmed correctly, navigate to the Bulk Pricing Menu and check each of your custom groups to see if any have a yellow triangle warning symbol indicating a Washer group is NOT using the same Free Dry Bonus Amount value for all Washers in that particular group:

If there is no yellow triangle, it means all Washers in that group are using the same value for their Free Dry Bonus Amount setting. If the value shown in the grey box is the correct amount you want that group of machines to be giving out, then the Washers are correctly configured to give out the right amount of Free Dry value.

If there is a yellow triangle showing, then it means at least 1 reader in that group is using a different value for its Free Dry Bonus Amount setting.

Simply hover your mouse over the yellow triangle, and you'll see a pop-up window showing you what each reader in that group is currently using for its Free Dry Bonus Amount setting:

Once you know the affected reader, first ensure that this reader is reporting online on the LaundroPortal. If this reader is online, simply update its Free Dry Bonus Amount setting, either by pushing a price update to the entire group (via the Bulk Pricing menu), or by navigating to that reader's individual reader settings page to update it.

Disabling the Free Dry Promotion

To disable the Free Dry Promotion, on VAC01 simply change its Free Balance Display setting to Disabled.

Changing this setting will trigger the system to automatically send the same settings change to all online Card Readers and VAC kiosks in the location.

After waiting about 15 minutes, check all Card Readers to make sure they are no longer displaying the Free Dry Fire symbol:

Note: you do NOT need to edit the Free Dry Bonus Amount setting, on the Card Readers, when disabling the free dry promotion.

As long as the reader's Free Dry Configuration setting is set to Disabled (and therefore is NOT displaying the fire icon), that reader will NOT be participating in the Free Dry Promotion and therefore will NOT give out any Free Dry value.

It's normally recommended to leave the Free Dry Bonus Amount settings in place; that way should you decide to re-enable the Free Dry Promotion in the future, all Card Readers will already be programmed to give out the correct Free Dry amounts.

Configuring Free Dry Value to Expire

By default, Free Dry Balances are set to never expire, but you can configure an expiry time for any unused Free Dry Balances that are accumulated.

For example, you may wish to have all Free Dry balances on cards/accounts expire 24 hours after being obtained, if they are not used in the store within that time.

To set Free Dry Balances to expire, you need to configure Free Dry Balance Expiry for Laundry Cards and LaundryCat App accounts in separate sections of the LaundroPortal:

For Laundry Card Free Dry Balance Expiry (click to expand)

You configure this from the Bonus section of the Value Add Center kiosk settings page.

By setting the Free Balance Expiry Hours setting to something other than "0" (a setting of "0" means credits will never expire) this determines the number of hours unused credits will be considered valid and usable:

For LaundryCat App Free Dry Balance Expiry (click to expand)

You configure this from the Account Restriction section of the Mobile App Configuration settings page.

Free Dry Balance Expiry Transaction Records

When Free Dry Credits are set to expire after a certain number of hours, you will start to notice "Free Balance Reset" transaction records showing up in your Reader and VAC Logs:

For Laundry Cards specifically, because the card's balance is stored directly on the memory chip embedded in the card itself, when unused Free Dry balance is set to expire, the system will mark those credits as being expired credits; however those credits are technically still programmed in the Laundry Card's memory chip.

So when this card is brought back to the location, and interacts with either a VAC kiosk or a Card Reader, it's at that point the system checks if there is any Free Dry Balance that's been marked as expired, and if present, the system performs a Free Balance Reset operation to remove the expired Free Dry Balance before the customer starts to collect Free Dry value during their current store visit.

"Free Dry" vs the "Wash and Dry" setting

When enabling the Free Dry configuration setting, you'll notice that there are 2 available configuration options:

When enabling the Free Dry Promotion, you will ALWAYS select the Free Dry option.

The Wash and Dry setting is a special configuration setting that is normally only used if you are phasing out the Free Dry promotion, but would like to allow your customers to be able to use up all the Free Dry Balances they've obtained so far.

When setting this setting to Wash and Dry, this makes it so that no machines give out any free dry balances, but both Washers and Dryers will accept Free Dry balances for machine starts.

So for customers that still have Free Dry Balances on their card/account, this configuration allows them to start both Washers and Dryers, using the Free Dry Balances remaining on their cards/accounts.

Enabling the Free Dry Promotion for specific days

The Free Dry Promotion is intended to either be enabled at all times, or disabled at all times; it is currently not designed to be put on a schedule so that it's only active during specific days of the week.

Enabling/Disabling the Free Dry Promotion for specific days is not a recommended configuration, and there is no automated way to set this up.

However, it is technically possible to do this by manually enabling and disabling the promotion on the days you want it to be active.

Turning the promotion off doesn't remove any Free Dry Balances customers have already collected; these balances remain on their cards/accounts while the promotion is off, unless you've set Free Dry Balances to expire, in which case they'll still expire as normal.

If you decide to use the Free Dry Promotion this way, there are a few things to look out for each time you enable or disable it:

When enabling/disabling the Free Dry Promotion (click to expand)

When manually enabling/disabling the promotion, you will start by adjusting the Free Balance Display setting on VAC01 to Free Dry (for enabling), or Disabled (for disabling):

Once this setting is updated on VAC01, this also triggers the VAC to send a one-time command to all other VACs, and all Washer and Dryer Card Readers, that are currently online, to adjust their Free Dry Configuration setting to match what VAC01 was updated to. This process can take up to 15 minutes to complete.

However, in some cases, there may be a few Card Readers that do not receive this one-time command, and will therefore not be taking part in the Free Dry Promotion while it's running, or will continue to take part in the Free Dry Promotion when it's supposed to be disabled, because that reader's Free Dry Configuration setting has not updated with the rest of the equipment.

So, if you're manually enabling/disabling the Free Dry Promotion frequently, after making any changes to the Free Balance Display setting, wait approx. 15 minutes and then review the LaundroPortal's Machine list to confirm that all equipment is either taking part in the Free Dry Promotion correctly, or no longer taking part in the Free Dry Promotion correctly:

What to check for when enabling the Free Dry Promotion (click to expand)

Check the Machine list to ensure all Washer and Dryer readers are displaying the Free Dry fire symbol :
If you find any Card Readers that are not displaying the fire symbol, click the wrench icon for that Card Reader, and manually adjust that Card Reader's Free Dry Configuration setting to Free Dry:

What to check for when disabling the Free Dry Promotion (click to expand)

Check the Machine list to ensure all Washer and Dryer readers are no longer displaying their Free Dry fire symbol :
If you find any Card Readers that are still displaying the Free Dry fire symbol, click the wrench icon for that Card Reader, and manually adjust that Card Reader's Free Dry Configuration setting to Disabled:

If you're running into issues with Card Readers not updating their Free Dry setting:

Try rebooting the Card Reader and then sending the settings change again.
If that doesn't work, try rebooting the VAC01 kiosk, and then try resending the settings change.
If that still isn't working, it's likely there is some wireless interference in the store that's causing issues with Card Readers receiving commands from VAC01.
In most cases, this interference can be resolved by adjusting the frequency that VAC01 uses to communicate with your Card Readers. In order to select the best frequency to use in your location, you'll want to run a wireless network scan so we can figure out the best frequency for your VACs to use.

Wireless interference issues are discussed in detail in our Reader Network Communication Issues - Interference & Obstruction article

Troubleshooting

Issue	Explanation and resolution
Washers are wiping Free Dry Balances, or are not giving out Free Dry Balances	Check to ensure the Free Dry Configuration is NOT set to the "Wash and Dry" option on all affected equipment: First confirm that VAC01's "Free Balance Display" setting is set to "Free Dry" and NOT the "Wash and Dry" option: For any Washers that are either removing Free Dry balance, or not giving out Free Dry value, click into that reader's individual settings menu, and ensure its "Free Balance Configuration" is set to "Free Dry" and NOT the "Wash and Dry" option: Check that the Free Balance Expiry setting isn't causing credits to expire before intended. If you use the expiry credits, confirm you haven't set the credits to expire sooner than you intend. If you suspect Free Dry credits are expiring, use the Card Tracker to check for any Free Balance Reset transaction records, as these will always be displayed if the system has reset Free Dry based on the expiry setting:
Free Dry has been enabled on the VAC, but Card Readers are not showing the fire symbol	This is usually related to an issue with wireless interference between the VAC and Card Readers in the location. First confirm the Card Readers aren't displaying a Timeout error indicating the readers are offline. If the card readers are offline, you need to troubleshoot that error first before you'll be able to enable Free Dry on the offline readers. Try rebooting the VAC kiosk, and then try to manually adjust the Free Balance Configuration setting on 1 card reader, using the reader's individual settings menu. If you're unable to adjust that reader's setting individually, try power cycling that machine/reader, and then try changing the setting again. If you're still unable to get the reader to receive the settings change, it's highly likely you're running into wireless interference in the store. Contact the Laundroworks support team to have the VAC's wireless Zigbee frequency adjusted to help correct this issue. You'll want to have a wireless network scan handy so we know the best frequency to use in your location.

Free Dry Promotion