Portable washing machine suggestions

MagicalArmchair

MagicalArmchair

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We have four kids who produce huge amounts of washing and when cruising, this all gets saved up for when we find a marina with a laundrette and then we spent lots of time going back and forth and spending rather a lot of pennies in washing and drying clothes (On the last week away we must have spent £30 on laundry alone).

We have a Bavaria 40 with two heads, the aft head is a shower room, so we could put it in there to "wash" and then drain and pump out with the shower sump pump?

Can anyone suggest a camping type washing machine and if anyone has any advice? Or is this just a bad idea, another bit of kit to crash around when sailing?
 
We have had one of these type of machine
Leisurewize Portawash Plus

for over 10 years now. Saved a lot of time and has paid for itself many times over. They have probably updated them by now ours does not have a pump out which would be handy.
 
MAURICE said:
We have had one of these type of machine
Leisurewize Portawash Plus

for over 10 years now. Saved a lot of time and has paid for itself many times over. They have probably updated them by now ours does not have a pump out which would be handy.
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In our winter living in Spanish campsites we see many couples using these. They appear to work well with relatively little effort required.
 
Caravan, motor home retail outlets should be a good place to start for small machines. I recall seeing a small machine sold by Adi, when they do camping specials. You will still need to frequent a marina, for both the endless fresh water and power, you will still spend time tending the machine - but cut out the trip to the laundry - drying might be an issue (maybe someone has a clever idea - other than move to Australia). . If you have not already done so - we would suggest you forget about ironing :)

Jonathan
 
Poignard said:
Put the clothes in a bucket of soapy water, then go to sea. After 24 hours of being shaken around the clothes will be clean. Rinse in salt water then fresh.
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The bucket and sail method worked well for us preferably with a lid or at least poly-bag on the top, but we gave up on the salt water rinsing as we found that we used more water to get 'all' of the salt out than we did to remove the soap; perhaps not such a problem for just a week or two aboard, but when you're full time and not going to be putting them into a 'real' washing machine next week...

dansaskip said:
A bucket ;)
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That sir is cruel, a gentleman ensures that his wife's provided with at least two buckets for clothes washing/rinsing.
 
Slowboat35 said:
Control the amount of clothes your kids are permitted to wear?
One outfit per couple of days is plenty on a boat...
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I'll remind you of that once:
  • Seasickness has kicked in on the 3 year old, and he is now bathed in barf as the wind over tide chop starts to bite.
  • When getting a cup of coffee whilst holding the 0 year old, her breakfast came up over her... (and me - yup, that's a change of clothes for me too).
  • We went to the beach! Yay. The kids discovered how close the mud was under the sand... They also decided, fully clothed, to go stamping about in the mud.
  • We have a picnic, ketchup now covered our six year old, head, to toe. A very sticky young lady indeed.
We limit and reuse clothes as much as we can - it's alarming how quickly it builds up though!

MAURICE said:
We have had one of these type of machine
Leisurewize Portawash Plus

for over 10 years now. Saved a lot of time and has paid for itself many times over. They have probably updated them by now ours does not have a pump out which would be handy.
Click to expand...

Where do you stow it? How do you drain it out and where in to please?
 
MagicalArmchair said:
I'll remind you of that once:
  • Seasickness has kicked in on the 3 year old, and he is now bathed in barf as the wind over tide chop starts to bite.
  • When getting a cup of coffee whilst holding the 0 year old, her breakfast came up over her... (and me - yup, that's a change of clothes for me too).
  • We went to the beach! Yay. The kids discovered how close the mud was under the sand... They also decided, fully clothed, to go stamping about in the mud.
  • We have a picnic, ketchup now covered our six year old, head, to toe. A very sticky young lady indeed.
We limit and reuse clothes as much as we can - it's alarming how quickly it builds up though!
Click to expand...

OK, what you need to do is similar to the days of commercial sail: Go out for a sail and attach the soiled clothes and more especially the children to long ropes made off on the stern cleats; throw them off the back and drag them for a mile or two. then haul back in to air-dry; or to save having to do similar again tomorrow, forego the making off lines/hauling back in again element.



It's OK, I was only joking! I know how expensive kids clothes can be, so you must of course secure/haul those back.
 
BobnLesley said:
OK, what you need to do is similar to the days of commercial sail: Go out for a sail and attach the soiled clothes and more especially the children to long ropes made off on the stern cleats; throw them off the back and drag them for a mile or two. then haul back in to air-dry; or to save having to do similar again tomorrow, forego the making off lines/hauling back in again element.



It's OK, I was only joking! I know how expensive kids clothes can be, so you must of course secure/haul those back.
Click to expand...
When I was in M/V Bernes we had a first-voyage cadet joined who wanted to know how to wash his boiler suit (the washing machine was broken down) . The Second Engineer told him to put a heaving line through the sleeves and tow it astern. The cadet asked how long he should do this and was told half a day.

When half a day had elapsed the cadet hauled it on board and found all that was left of his boiler suit left was the remains of two sleeves. Mind you, they were nice and clean.

A 10,600hp B&W engine makes a pretty poweful washing machine.

The bosun wasn't too pleased with his shredded heaving line, either.
 
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