handwashing clothes/portable washers and dryers

[happyhats]

I seem to remember a thread similar to this around here, but I wasn't able to find it. I'm looking to get a small portable washer and dryer for my apartment. It's meant to supplement washing with a machine at my parents (I just don't get there as often as I sometimes need to and I have to pay for a laudromat at my apartment complex) so it doesn't need to be anything super fancy. The washer I'm looking at is a crank style called the wonder washer. It seems sufficent for what I'm looking for, and the reviews seem fairly positive. (I'm not expecting any kind of miracles.) Now I'm wondering about the drying system. I know I'll have to hang things, and that's not a problem. I plan on hanging things in the bathroom shower we never use (TIIINY, useless master bath). But I would like to avoid vigorous hand wringling. My dd and I both have some delicates I don't want to screw up, plus I'm pretty sure things would seem so tedious I'd never end up doing it. I am however comfortable with using a wringer. I am also looking into getting one of the portable dryers similar to the wonder washer. I was just curious if anyone else has used anything similar, or could recommend a wringer or other portable dryer. They cannot be huge, as I will store them under my kitchen sink or in my bedroom closet (or just make a station in that useless bathtub, lol.) Thanks.

[Dahlea]

I havethe wonder wash and you definitely need something to help wring. I actually haven't used mine in a couple of months because the wringing hurts my hands lol. I have thought about the dryers but they're so much more expensive! Oh fwiw the washer does get the clothes nice and clean!

[alaskaberry]

bump

Need to revive this thread, since I've been wondering about this too. I was looking at the Lehman's hand-crank washer and wondering if it's worth it? I live in a dry cabin with a gray-water system(basically, pipes that run out under the house!) up in Alaska. I'm not off-grid but anything to conserve energy would be great because the electric company charges sooo much money for their "fuel costs".

happyhats, did you ever buy a wringer? got any recs?

I have a bathtub/pump shower setup so wringing clothes out won't be a problem. Mainly I just want to use it for the kids' clothes & the cloth dipes.

Any and all advice would be great! TIA!

eta: oops, just saw another (more recent) thread about this. I don't want to do a plunger, though.

[ltlmrs]

I have the wonder washer and a plunger. The plunger is easier and quicker to be honest, I just put two buckets in the tub to use it.

As far as wringing it. I have both a wringer and a spin dryer (also from Laundry Alternative). The spin dryer is very hard on delicates, much worse than a washing machine. If that's all you need to wring, then I would do it by hand anyway (I've never pulled out the wringer to do a few delicates, so I don't know if it would be gentler since it is just so much quicker to wring by hand. That said, everything else goes through the spin dryer (including wool skirts that have strong seams). It is so handy and gets all the water out making things a lot quicker to dry. In the summer, clothes dry in an hour or two on the line. Indoors in the winter, maybe half a day/overnight.

I'm not as big a fan of the wringer simply because I was never able to find a good wash tub to attach it to and that has complicated matters. But, some day I hope to get a set of tubs like Lehman's carries and set up a permanent laundry room.

One thing you need to think about is how this will change your laundry routine. It's a lot harder to do laundry each day if you're doing it by hand (it takes me about an hour to get two Wonder Wash size loads done from start to finish). Spending an hour each day on laundry is a pain. But, doing it once or twice a week is not always feasible either because of the amount of laundry that adds up! And we're pretty minimalist with clothes, too. Something gets thrown in the laundry if it is soiled, otherwise, it gets hung out to air an worn three or even four times more (less in the summer when people are sweaty).

[alaskaberry]

Well, right now I do it once a week at the laundromat, and it always seems to take 2+ hours (or more), plus the gas to get to the laundromat. I won't be doing big stuff, like Carhartts (I'm afraid those would break the machine!), mainly just diapers and underwear. Plus sometimes it's just too cold to go to the laundromat, and running out of clothes is no fun! (anywhere from -20- -40 we don't leave the house )

Yeah, we re-wear clothes too...if it's not soiled, why not is my motto, lol.