Interior design advice

[stranded]

I want to fit a washing machine. Actually, I don't give a stuff about a washing machine, but it has been decreed that a washing machine will be fitted. Trouble is, it don't fit. So we are going to have to build a cupboard. The photo below is a not terribly helpful one but all I have of our saloon. The plan is to build a compact washing machine (Kenny Euronova is favourite) sized cupboard in the far left hand corner, under the cupboard to the left of the tv. Style and finish to match the existing woodwork. Obviously this would mean truncating the settee. Before I let this go any further, does anyone have any idea what the cost might be - ply, with colour matched Sapele veneer - and even better, can anyone recommend someone they would trust to do this with their own boat. I take alternative suggestions as given on here, but they really would be welcome (but it must be a proper, albeit small, electric machine).



Mark

 

[prv]

Looks like a fair-sized boat. Does the washing machine really have to go front-and-centre in the saloon? No room in the heads or an underused sleeping cabin or even a cockpit locker? In the latter case you could enclose it within the locker and cut a door from the cabin, to save waving your pants around the cockpit

If not - wild-arsed guess of £150 for materials if I was doing the job myself, but I daren't think how much a skilled joiner would charge for labour. Boat joinery is a fiddly business.

Pete

 

[stranded]

You'd think, but no, every existing possibility comes up a few centimetres short. Only two cabins - have tried to persuade swmbo to let me convert spare (i.e. daughter's) cabin to a workshop/utility room but she is strangely reluctant. Pants in cockpit is a sensitive subject at the moment as well - hand washed a pair when had to stay down unexpectedly, put them on a (pontoon side) winch to dry and forgot about them until stopped for a pee half way home. They were at least well dry after two weeks sat there.

 

[Vegable]

Just a thought but there's a lot of empty space inside a washing machine case. As you mention it's a few centimeters too large, could "you" remove the white enamel case and fit the workings in a cupboard/locker? A competant electrician should be able to rearrange things. It means more expence but saves ripping your lovely saloon apart.
Mike

 

[stranded]

Just a thought but there's a lot of empty space inside a washing machine case. As you mention it's a few centimeters too large, could "you" remove the white enamel case and fit the workings in a cupboard/locker? A competant electrician should be able to rearrange things. It means more expence but saves ripping your lovely saloon apart.
Mike

Must say that had never occurred to me. So the casing is purely cosmetic? Guess there'd be a lot of exposed wiring (but in a cupboard) - do you think a qualified electrician would touch it?

 

[rob2]

Pants in cockpit is a sensitive subject at the moment as well ...

Years ago went into Poole Yacht Club for the night. Ended up berthing our scruffy but well-loved T24 t''other side of the finger from the Commodore's Starlight 39. Quick hand wash and all the crew's smalls were pegged along the rail, pontoon side. When Commodore and his racing crew arrived, he looked long and hard at the Chinese laundry on his pontoon and said, quietly "I can never read a signal without the book in my hands..."

Rob.

 

[geem]

before you go to all that trouble, we actually stripped our washing machine out of our boat. it was installed in the engine room and created poor access to service the generator.
We have a spinner that does a very good job or removing water and soap from our clothes. Washing is done with a couple of builders rubble buckets. Really it is just a case of putting clothes in there with some hot water and soap and an occasional poke with a stick. The odd stubborn stain is rubbed with some detergent and away you go. Clothes are removed from bucket and put through the spinner then into bucket number two. Once all clothes make it to bucket number two they are rinsed and spinned again. Third spin then hang out to dry. Works well, is efficient on water and clothes are clean. No washer needed. Spinner is smaller than washer and stores in our back cabin.

 

[Vegable]

Must say that had never occurred to me. So the casing is purely cosmetic? Guess there'd be a lot of exposed wiring (but in a cupboard) - do you think a qualified electrician would touch it?

If you think about it, washing machines (and other white goods machines for that matter) are made to fit the width of a kitchen unit so the insides are arranged to fit in that space.
If you want to take it further I suggest you visit a washing machine repair workshop and have a word with them. I must advise you that this is just an idea based on having had a look inside a machine and not based on practical experience and at a guess it will probably cost about 3 days labour to do.
I see no reason why the internal plumbing and the various wires cannot be extended and moved around a bit. As for having bare wires it'll be no different than what's behind your instrument panels by the chart table. The only big difference is that the washing machine electrics are at 240v.
Mike

 

[stranded]

before you go to all that trouble, we actually stripped our washing machine out of our boat. it was installed in the engine room and created poor access to service the generator.
We have a spinner that does a very good job or removing water and soap from our clothes. Washing is done with a couple of builders rubble buckets. Really it is just a case of putting clothes in there with some hot water and soap and an occasional poke with a stick. The odd stubborn stain is rubbed with some detergent and away you go. Clothes are removed from bucket and put through the spinner then into bucket number two. Once all clothes make it to bucket number two they are rinsed and spinned again. Third spin then hang out to dry. Works well, is efficient on water and clothes are clean. No washer needed. Spinner is smaller than washer and stores in our back cabin.

Thanks Geem - afraid swmbo does not do poking with a stick, even occasional. Except me from time to time. I have to say that my view is that if a boat does not have a locker big enough for a washing machine, it is too small a boat to be the sort to have a washing machine (if you see what I mean). But this is not about logic, it is about a quiet life, for which I am prepared to go to considerable lengths...

 

[stranded]

If you think about it, washing machines (and other white goods machines for that matter) are made to fit the width of a kitchen unit so the insides are arranged to fit in that space.
If you want to take it further I suggest you visit a washing machine repair workshop and have a word with them. I must advise you that this is just an idea based on having had a look inside a machine and not based on practical experience and at a guess it will probably cost about 3 days labour to do.
I see no reason why the internal plumbing and the various wires cannot be extended and moved around a bit. As for having bare wires it'll be no different than what's behind your instrument panels by the chart table. The only big difference is that the washing machine electrics are at 240v.
Mike

I am liking that idea quite a lot - a bit like a modular watermaker. The trouble would be my limited diy skills - I imagine it would not be entirely straightforward - longer water runs affecting performance, that sort of thing. But I have seen a second hand white goods shop in our local town that looks like the sort of place that would know about this sort of thing, so i think I will pay them a visit as you suggest.

Sort of on the diy lines and also geem's idea, my mind has been mulling over how practical it would be for an innovative manufacturer to create a 'tow along' washing machine - perhaps a drum within a drum with some mechanism - fins, propellor - to agitate it as one goes along. Maybe a variation on those little wind up ones that are available, perhaps with a stand and a handle for using when stationary for extended periods. Has it been done? Could you be interested if it was?

 

[Vegable]

Hmmm! I think there already is one on the market.
I believe it's called a fishing line.
Mike

 

[stranded]

Hmmm! I think there already is one on the market.
I believe it's called a fishing line.
Mike

I have just refined my design some more - what about a cylinder with a screw pattern on the outside and washing ribs inside, fill with soapy water, pulled along lengthways with a swivel attachment so the whole thing travels through the water like a screw. Reckon you cuold make one for a tenner and no moving parts so should last forever.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Have you considered a top loader portable washing machine. Not sure how these dimensions compare: -

http://portable-washing-machine.toptenreviews.com/haier-hlp23e-review.html

The Haier HLP23E portable washing machine comes in as our Top Ten Reviews Gold Award winner. This is the least expensive of the lot, but don't confuse low cost with low quality. This tidy machine lacks some convenient features, but for its slim size and price tag it is quite the package. Standing a mere 35 inches tall, 21 inches wide and 22.5 inches deep, this washer is one of the most compact models we compared. The stainless steel tub holds up to 1.45 cubic feet of clothes and pulsates to get them clean. Don't base the Haier's intelligence on its small size either, because this machine is as clever as it is compact.

 

[stranded]

Have you considered a top loader portable washing machine. Not sure how these dimensions compare: -

http://portable-washing-machine.toptenreviews.com/haier-hlp23e-review.html

Yes, thanks B O B - saw those but they are wider and deeper than the Euronova, and crucially, taller - we have none of this chine nonsense - so plenty of breadth and depth for washer at the top of lockers but taper due to hull form means just too little space lower down.

 

[CFarr]

We have one of these at home you could have for a small fee.
Store in cockpit locker - or It could double up as a hat stand when when you've finished your smalls.

 

[stranded]

Looks like something to practise milking cows!

 

[pandos]

What kind of boat, shortening the settee seems extreme and and will damage the value of the boat forever. I am a joiner and have had considerable experience in fitting kitchens and equipment into camper vans. there is nearly always someway to shoehorn something into a small space with a bit of imagination.

removing the outer cabinet maybe daft, it leaves you with no warrantee and probably dangerous equipment.

post some more pictures and a plan of the layout or a link to a website.

 

[prv]

I imagine it would not be entirely straightforward - longer water runs affecting performance, that sort of thing.

The washing machines I've seen the inside of were not highly-engineered items. I doubt anything is tuned for the particular hose lengths.

Pete

 

[prv]

probably dangerous equipment.

If anything, removing the conductive metal case probably makes it safer!

Most of the electrical parts can probably be mounted in plastic enclosures inside the overall space. The only thing likely to be tricky is the motor, but that can still have guards to keep wandering fingers out.

Pete

 

[northwind]

no warrantee

Unfortunately I think the warranty is invalid at the point you put it on a boat...