it will all come out in the wash

I'm having a dispute with my neighbors.

We share a laundry room. When I tell this to people, they make a bad face. Other people don't seem to like the idea of sharing a laundry room with other people; it reminds them of college or some kind of laundrotrauma involving missing undergarments. But I've never had any problems sharing the laundry room. My neighbors are retired and get up very early; they usually have a load of clothes going when I leave for work. I do my laundry during Letterman or on the weekends.

My neighbors generate a remarkable amount of laundry for two retired people, which amuses me. They are fastidious in their upkeep of our shared space. They have kindly handled every aspect of our ailing appliances, calling the repairman and meeting him and assessing the problem and even choosing a new washer for my approval.

Our condo agreement calls for us to split the cost of the appliances. And therein lies the dispute. My neighbors feel that because they are high-volume users of the machine, they should pay a larger percentage of the new washer. They are quite adamant on this point and have asked me to contribute something along the lines of 25 percent of the total cost (which they are not revealing).

These are the kind of neighbor problems that are a joy to have. But I am equally adamant that I pay my full 50 percent. Any suggestions on how I can prevail without hurting my neighbors' feelings?