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fasenuff
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2010 12:33
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http://www.laundry-alternative.com/products/Wonderwash.html
I have been considering this for use here in my cabin. The reviews look ok but with them being mostly on the company website I thought I would ask around first. One of the reasons I am considering it is the fact it uses so little water and for me that would be a plus only if it works.
Anyone use this before or know someone who did. I would like to hear from you.
http://www.laundry-alternative.com/products/Wonderwash.html
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Rob_O
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2010 13:49
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I have seen it recommended on another forum, along with the spin dryer that company sells
Amazon.com has 47 reviews on the product
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fasenuff
Member
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2010 13:55
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Thanks Rob_O. I have read those reviews. I will probably be ordering one soon. I also checked out the spin dryer and like the fact it has a low power draw and would help the clothes dry much faster in doors.
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hattie
Member
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2010 14:00
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It looks pretty small. I wonder if you could fit a pair or two of jeans in it? It says you can put 2-3 pairs of jeans in it, but I don't know - it looks too small. Having said that, I bet it does work really well.
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larryh
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2010 17:37
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I have had a James Washer for over 35 years which until recently I used for all my laundry. They are larger and would take a number of buckets of water to be able to use them and then to rise as well. But they will accommodate most things your going to ever need to wash. I have the hand wringer and dried them on a line either outside or in the attic. I also can't quite visualize how something as small as that wonder washer would handle many items? Of course the James washer is quite expensive by now. I think before I bought the Wonder I would just try hand washing in large tubs which I have often done when I didn't want to wash a lot of things, you can get quite a bit in one wash tub and use a scrub brush to get at the hard to remove dirt.
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hattie
Member
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2010 19:00
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Quoting: larryh and dried them on a line either outside or in the attic.
I think your idea of hanging laundry to dry in an attic is sheer genius. It is a great way to use normally unused space.
fasenuff - Hubby suggested you buy an old Beatty washing machine (although I don't know where the heck you'd find one now). He said they could run on electricity, a gas engine or a pully from a tractor. The original models had a big handle on the side that you rocked back and forth to make the machine run. I'm guessing they were like the James Washer that larryh suggested, but Hubby is biased cuz the Beatty Brother's company is his family. *S*
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fasenuff
Member
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2010 20:57
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Lol! Does he still get royalties?
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hattie
Member
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2010 23:32
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Quoting: fasenuff Does he still get royalties?
Geez wouldn't that be nice if he did....Unfortunately the company was sold to GSW in the 1960's. *S*
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adamclay
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# Posted: 28 Dec 2010 17:03
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Fox news did a review on their "DEAD OR DUD" segment of this product:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk-CK_2OmHk
It is an interesting video. She puts her dirty clothes in it (covered in ketchup, dirt, mud, etc.) and follows the directions. Then she dries them outside. The clothes come out perfectly clean. So it's a deal! The only complaints I have heard of this are that it is cheaply made. Don't expect it to last more than 6 months to a year with full-time use, before something breaks. I'd love to see a better quality version made, using steel components. Even if it cost 3-4x as much, it would be worth it if it lasted for 30 years.
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PlicketyCat
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# Posted: 28 Dec 2010 20:17
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I use the Wonder Wash here at our homestead and it works wonderfully for smaller stuff, especially our delicate wool. You can shove 2-3 pairs of jeans or a couple towels in there, but I don't find it works as well when you do and your arm gets really tired spinning that much weight. A single pair of jeans or one normal-sized towel is about all that works well... but you can put in several shirts and whole week's worth of undies and socks without a problem. You do get better results with warmer water than cold water, it makes the vacuum pressure better and blows the dirt out more I guess. In any case, for our weird glacial silt clay mud, the Wonder Washer with warm water works better than a normal washing machine or an agitator tub (like the James washer).
So far, I've been using a hand wringer, but if I can find a decent-sized spin dryer and not just the counter top size, I do plan to get one since I worry about our wool stuff getting damaged or felting in the wringer, and getting towels/jeans through the wringer takes some muscle and a couple of passes to get the majority of water out so they'll dry on the line quickly.
Although, we sometimes cheat if we're going to go into the village for chore day. This is the only way we've ever been able to wash blankets or a significant amount of jeans or towels...
We put our laundry in a large rubber tote with a good locking lid. Add enough warm water and detergent to cover by an inch. Snap on the lid and stick it in the back of the truck. Driving 30 minutes down the bumpy trail and the gravel highway does all the agitation for us. Then we dump out the dirty soapy water by the public well, fill the tubs with clean water at the well house for the rinse, and the agitation back home to the wringer and the line. We do, however, stop at the laundromat to run blankets through the spin cycle in the washer there since blankets through the wringer is a nightmare and they take way too long to dry hung up sopping wet.
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larryh
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2010 17:05
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Plickety
I have been seeing a large spinner advertised for the amish in their paper. Next time I see it again I will let you know who makes it and where to inquire about it.
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islandguy
Member
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2010 21:16
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I always wondered how well a wine-making grape press would work for removing water from laundry.
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larryh
Member
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2010 23:10
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My guess is a press would cause some pretty nasty wrinkles, although the hand wringer can do that as well if the item is very large and bulky. My mom taught me to shake the cloths well before hanging them to help remove the wrinkles.
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fasenuff
Member
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# Posted: 30 Dec 2010 07:12
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Thanks Plickety! Glad to hear from someone who has one. I plan to order one.
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PlicketyCat
Member
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# Posted: 30 Dec 2010 20:43
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I found a spin dryer that was a little smaller than an apartment-sized washer, took about 500w for the initial spin up and then dropped down to only 50 or so for the rest of the cycle (definitely need to run that off the generator and not the batteries!). Can't remember now where I found it, but they didn't ship to Alaska and it would cost a fortune if they did :( I might have to get my electro-mechanical handy hubby to figure how to make one from parts and recycle instead.
fasenuff -- you'll definitely build up your arm strength if you do a lot of loads, but the longest and hardest I've ever had to spin it was 5 solid minutes for two pairs of very muddy jeans. I thought my arms would fall off!
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fasenuff
Member
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# Posted: 30 Dec 2010 20:57
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It still would have to be better than hand washing.
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PlicketyCat
Member
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# Posted: 2 Jan 2011 09:31
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I find hand washing tires out my forearms with the plunging whereas the Wonder Wash tires out my shoulders with the spinner. Since I still handwash the heavy stuff, I guess I'm getting an equal work out :) You definitely stay buff living in the bush without all the modern conveniences!
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Rob_O
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# Posted: 4 Jan 2011 16:57
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Laundry Pod how-to directions, in Engrish
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fasenuff
Member
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# Posted: 5 Jan 2011 08:01
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Thanks to everyone who is posting in this thread tho. I am getting some useful info. Really helps.
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ecolite
Member
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# Posted: 5 Jan 2011 16:26
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Hi,
I just saw your post for wonderwash and also saw the Laundry pod on the tinyhouseblog. If you google laundry pod, you can get more information about it in a video. It will be in production and proposes a price tag of $99, but we will see what the price is as it comes out.
Here are my thoughts. I liked the wonderwash. It was great for me, being a single person in an apartment without a washer/dryer in the building. It works via hot water pressure. Once you figure out how much water you need, the first few spins require effort and the moment makes the spinning effortless after that as long as you keep up the speed. If you experience something else, you don't have the water level correct.
I found it works well and clean well and you can get a surprising amount of clothes into the canister. I would say equal to a small load that you would put into a single-load washer. I've laundered full-size sheets in it without a hitch. I did find that after 6 months of regular use that the crank handle screw isn't holding up well. I think it is worth saving if I can find someone handy to make up a better base-crank system to put the canister in.
I also found that it is just as easy to use a 5-gallon bucket with a clean toilet plunger. Let your clothes soak for an hour or so in soapy water while you do something else. Then plunge for several minutes and they come out really clean. (Use another 5 gallon bucket for rinsing or simple put them under the faucet.) Some people like to use a larger tub and just squish the clothes with their feet. (Good exercise for the toes!)
I also found that I absolutely love the larger/faster spin dryer that laundry alternative carries. I wouldn't give that up at all. It does require electricity, but spins fast enough to get your clothes almost dry. Just hang them up to complete drying in a short time or iron them dry in minutes. I put the clothes directly in the spin dryer from the rinse with only a light wringing to get the major drips out. Then, I'm sure to use a large bucket to catch the water from the spin dryer when it sucks the water out of the clothes. Maybe someone can figure out how to make a electric free spin dryer with a bicycle or stepping motion!
All, in all, with our sedentary culture, I really don't mind doing laundry by hand and it does give a little exercise to my hands and arms that suffer from repetitive use on the keyboard. It's a healthy thing as long as you don't have too much laundry!
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fasenuff
Member
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# Posted: 6 Jan 2011 09:59
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One thing is for sure, living in the backwoods you do not need a membership at the gym. Between carrying water up from the creek, hand washing the clothes, wringing them out, and hanging themup on the line a person gets a workout. Haer makes a small electric washer that would work well here but between having to run the generator and the amount of water it would go through I am in hopes of finding an alternative that is both easier on the elctric and water.
I had a stack washer and dryer that I used at my first cabin and for the most part it was ok. I would catch the water and re-use it when possible. The second rinse water became the first rinse and the first rinse water became the wash water. The wash water if not real dirty I would use a second time. Doing it this way at times I could do a couple loads with about 15 or 20 gallons of water and about a gollon or two of gas.
The dryer seldom ever got used except on the occasional winter wash day for comforters or blankets which took up a lot of space when hung indoors.
I am fortunate in having a neighbor who invites me over now once a week for supper and laundry. But while I like his company and the meals are good I just do not feel right about using his machine. The whole independence thing just seems to go out the window. Lol!
Compactapplianced.com carries a couple brands of the small electric washers and they are smaller than the stack unit I used to have. The prices are not to extreme and I may go ahead and get one as it would save me ending up looking like a professional arm wrestler. But I am still thinking about the Wonder Wash. It would be cheaper to operate and defenitly make for a quieter wash day since it would not require the generator running.
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manny
Member
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# Posted: 10 Jan 2011 17:24
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Hook it up to a bike . that should give ya a good work out."LOL"
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Camping girl
Member
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# Posted: 10 Jan 2011 20:29
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Hi, I have a wonder washer I love mine my sister bought one and my mom bought one we all use it for our campers. I just bought a new camper with a washer and dryer into it so I no longer use my its in my storage ben. Have a good one but I would recommend one to any body
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modernhomestead ing
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# Posted: 1 Feb 2011 12:59
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What a great thread! I've been using the Wonder Wash part-time for about 2 years, and while I agree it's cheaply made, and I've had to replace the lid once, I wouldn't be without it. There are definitely some tricks to loading it for optimum spinning. For example, if you don't fill it all the way with water - and clothes - it's ridiculously hard to spin. There's a sweet spot of water to clothes ratio that changes depending on the sort of clothes you're washing (heavy jeans, etc., vs. lighter synthetics) - once you find it, you're sold!
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millstream
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# Posted: 27 Sep 2011 22:51
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Just another suggestion, if you want to go low tech. Take a 5 gallon bucket with a lid (easily found at local big box stores) Get a clean toilet plunger, and drill a hole in the lid to accommodate the handle of the plunger. Use only HD detergent as its low sudsing, (less to get out). Toss clothes in with a little bit of soap and water and slosh and squish. Dump water and add fresh and repeat till you feel the soap is out, hang to dry. If you find that you can't get enough sloshing, remove the lid so you and move the clothes the way you want. Worked on a deployment in the desert. Then again hanging clothes to dry there didn't take much time at all...
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RnR
Member
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# Posted: 24 Oct 2011 11:29
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FYI: the Laundry Pod is now officially available for sale and it can be ordered through their web site at http://www.thelaundrypod.com/ . I checked and can confirm that online orde form on the web site accepts Canadian addresses. It is $99 USD.
I had been checking on this product for a while now as the manual spin is something that nothing else on the market has at this time as far as I know. I think that even if you did your laundry by hand in a double sink, the laundry pod is worth getting just for the spin/water extraction feature, which seems to be the weak link in hand washing clothes in general. Hope this is helpful!
RnR
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smitty
Member
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# Posted: 25 Oct 2011 09:46
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I wonder if you can work up some kind of pulley and gears to run the pod with a cordless drill, or maybe a bicycle.
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RnR
Member
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# Posted: 31 Oct 2011 13:07
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I have been investigating other ways to do laundry at the cabin or on on the road without power, again, with an emphasis on something with a wringer of some sort for water extraction, and one idea I had was to use one of those industrial mop buckets with a built-in squeeze wringer (yellow bucket below). the only problem with this is that it must be heavy when full of water.
Later, I discovered mop buckets with a built-in spinner to wring the mop. These would ideally work with small items, I'm not sure if you could fit a whole towel in there for instance.
Then I also found on youtube some videos of people who use commercial salad spinners for water extraction.
Another good source is lehmans.com, which is an Amish supply store, they have a few non-electric clothes washing accessories.
I'm not sure exactly how the cost of the Laundry Pod compares to these, but I thought I would share some of my findings.
can be purchased at hardware stores
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not sure where to buy, may have to order
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order for ebay or restaurant supply store
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one washer sold at lehmans.com
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Arni
Member
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# Posted: 14 Sep 2019 08:52
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Hi
I rent a camper and have wonder washer with it.
My renters love it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgMm6DexyGk
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