Q&A. Electricity Free Clothes Washing
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 07.25.05
Q. Hi there, I've been reading your site for about a year now. Good job! Anyway, the washing machines in my condo just went up by a quarter, and so did the dryers. now it's like $3.00 to do a few shirts, some shorts and some underwear. I figure this is a good time to break free of the laundry machine addiction. I tried the old kitchen sink method, but it ain't working too good. So I'm wondering, does Treehugger have any featured products that I can use to do my wash... without electricity and that I can keep in my one bedroom condominium? Thanks much, Justin H.
A. Hiya Justin, I thought straight away of a probable solution to your dilemma. The Wonderwash. It’s a power-plug-free washing machine. Hand operated by rotating a handle on the side of the heavy duty plastic barrel. Works like and has the appearance of a small cement mixer. It has a volume of about 25 litres that will accept up to 2.2 kilograms (5lbs) of dirty laundry. (An average top loading washing machine takes about 5-6 kilograms, while a front loader will accept 4.5 with a push.) Although it should suit your needs for stashing away in your apartment, it’s also equally useful for those who do frequent laundry and can’t justify filling a traditional washing machine to maximise its energy usage. For example, it’s gentler on delicate clothes like underwear and lingere.
The Wonderwash operates by stowing your dirty clothes in the barrel, with hot or warm water and a small amount of detergent and fixing the lid in place. A pressure screw in then tightened on the lid. It is this pressure which the key to the performance of the unit. The notion is that the hot water in the completely sealed and pressurised barrel heats up the air trapped inside. This pressure forces the water and the detergent through the fabrics and separates the dirt and grime rapidly. Rotating the barrel with the handle further agitates the mixture of water, detergent, fabric and dirt. About 2 minutes rotation is supposedly all that is required. The pressure screw is released and the dirty water emptied. The Wonderwash can also be used for rinsing laundry. But it is not a mini tumble drier.
When I was lecturing in eco-design, the Wonderwash made a great case study for innovative thinking. Taking the notion of pressure cooking in the kitchen and applying it to the laundry. It can use 45,000 less litres of water per year, compared to a standard top load washing machine, a saving of nearly 80%. There is also a corresponding saving of roughly 65% in energy and 45% in detergent use.
The down sides are that it uses hot water (tsk tsk) and in the past there have been some issues with the longevity of the plastic structure. Maybe these have been resolved since my days of using one as my sole washer. Laundry Alternative offer them for $43 USD and Lehmans have a made in the USA model, called Wonder Clean for about $45 USD. Plus they have the much more robust James Hand Washer for the tidy sum of $450 USD, but this is more than it sounds like you need
May your wash day blues be a thing of the past, Justin.
It's a pitty there don't appear to be any peddle-powered washers or driers to handle larger loads. Anyone heard or or seen such a thing?
i've been looking for the same thing, andrew. i thought i saw a crank-powered spinner at some point but can't find it now.
Peddle-power. I like that idea!
Thanks for the bit on this washer, I did not realize it was so inexpensive.
"The down sides are that it uses hot water (tsk tsk)"
What about heating water with the SolarSizzler?
I purchased the Wonder Wash and I'm thinking it was a mistake. For one, it didn't get a simple dirt area (plain dirt) on my tee shirt clean. If it can't remove a simple dirt spot that would be easily cleaned in a conventional washer then it's not worth the savings. Let's see, my shirt was dirty, I used an enviro-friendly washer, so now I have a dirty shirt. Great. I don’t feel good.
Also, the instructions that come with it are vague. It says follow them closely but they don't really give specifics, like how much water is needed; only how much detergent to use given how much water you choose (and it turns out to be about the same amount I’d use in a standard washer). The instructions indicate to me that the Wonder Wash is more wishful thinking than breakthrough technology.
Danec, we were never suggesting that the Wonderwash was 'breakthrough technology' but that it tackled a specific problem for some users (size, space, purchase price, etc). It would be great if $40 products provided the same performance of product costing $400 but is unlikely. That said, the $600 front loader in our household is not always brilliant at removing dirt either. Try some of the tips at http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/home/559 for stain removal, if your 'dirt' remains.
Someone was saying that you have to use hot water
for this machine. However, on the company website
it says you can use cold water.
I am considering buying the Wonderwash. It seems
the most feasible for me.
The Japanese had displayed one of their washing machines on tv long ago. it looked like a bike attached to a large white cylinder washing machine. You peddled to provide power. I haven't seen the thing since it appeared and wish I had gotten the name of the Japanese company that did it. It was part of a annual competition for inventions which they had a name for-but couldn't remember.
We live in New Zealand and use a Wonder Wash with cold water and they are great. It's best to use small loads at a time (all of our clothing divided into lights and dark colours plus the days towels and cleaning rags), so we do one or two small loads in the evening when we've undressed (depends on whether we have all of darks or lights or what), and the occasional extra load for sheets, or towels / extras. At first I wondered how we would get on for wringing the washing, and considered buying a hand-wringer, but actually the wringing part isn't that hard. For bigger things, just need two people to wring in different directions. Smaller, frequent loads are better to do, than large ones as the tumbler gets heavy and the handle can come off. It takes effort to use the wonder wash, but it's only 2 mins or so at the most, and frankly, a lot of us need the work-out nowadays, bound to be good for upper body strength, who needs to go to the gym! It's very satisfying to not have to rely on electricity and I can't understand how the man didn't manage to get the dirt out of his t-shirt in the response above, as we have found it cleans a lot better, and we have got all sorts of what we thought were unremovable marks out of clothing.
Wow, peddal-powered would be amazing. If my dad was still alive he could've invented just the thing.
After seeing this post I went and bought myself a little hand-powered washing machine, since I don't have room for a washing machine and I HATE having to carry a huge basket load of clothes to someone else's place to wash them. The one I bought was not a Wonder Wash, but something similar. So far it seems to work pretty well, but I have some tips for anyone else who tries it out:
I found that the frame that the washer thingo comes with is really dodgy, shaking and stuff while I'm trying to use it, so I'm going to make a new frame out of steel or something similar.
Don't put in too much detergent, because then you have to do heaps of rinsing, which is a HUGE waste of water, and tedious. I found it best to squeeze out lots of the sudsy water by hand after the detergent wash, then do a rinse "cycle". This seemed to work nicely.
I also found that I had to use a lot more water than I am happy using, mostly in the rinsing, so I think it's best to do large batches of washing to reduce the amount of water used, plus I'm going to be a super-duper tree hugger and buy myself a large drum with a tap on the bottom to put my greywater into so I can water the garden with it! Of course you need to use a bidegradeable detergent for this.