Technosonic Mini Washing Machine
It looks like an overgrown blender, about 2 feet high with a motor at the bottom and a detachable bucket on the top that has an agitator in the bottom.
I laughed when my wife bought this tiny little washing machine for the boat. It was only after she returned to Florida that I found out how useful the machine can be.
The machine runs on 110V off my inverter and draws hardly any current. It uses about a bucket of water and can wash about 3 long sleeve shirts, or a double bed sheet at a time, in about 9 minutes.
This does not seem very much, but I found that if I set up an assembly line I could do a huge laundry in less than one hour using very little water.
While the machine is washing away, I set up two rinsing buckets. The laundry comes out of the machine and I squeeze out the soapy water back into the machine. I then rinse in the first bucket, and squeeze the somewhat soapy water back into the machine again. Then rinse in the second bucket and squeeze this back into the first rinse bucket. Of course I need to replenish the final rinse water from time to time.
If I was at a dock with a hose I would replace the water several times, but at anchor I would keep recycling the water from final rinse bucket to first rinse bucket, to the machine.
I even used river water once, after measuring the salinity with my watermaker TDS meter.
By keeping the machine washing all the time and me rinsing and wringing all the time, it is amazing how quickly I can do a whole load.
The laundry is still quite wet after the final wring, but I hang it on the washing line and I don't care if it takes all day to drip and dry.
The motor stores inside the bucket (along with the detergent) and the whole thing takes up very little room.
This Technosonic machine is available from Amazon.com for about $100.
Howard [ Just Imagine ] 22-Feb-2008