(21 February 2013, 05:22)Kenneth Eames Wrote: Hand made washing machines should be easy to make. They work on the principle of agitation. It certainly beats beating your clothes on stones by a river bank.
You're right, Kenneth, but I've also bought one of these things (the Wonder Wash, demonstrated
here) and there's more to them than agitation. They work on pressure created by movement in a vacuum (much as a pressure cooker does) and the results are little short of incredible. I've washed stained whites in mine that would have taken half an hour's steady scrubbing in the ordinary way - and they've come out perfect. You need less detergent than in an ordinary washing machine, and they'll even work in cold water - though a wash may then take four minutes instead of one and a quarter.
I already use mine in preference to the ordinary washing machine for small loads, and have easily made back the purchase price in what I've saved in electricity. Post WTSHTF they'll buy me something even more precious, which is TIME. Most survivalist blogs go on about leisure time being a thing of the past in the 'new world', and anything that does routine jobs in less than a tenth of the time has to be good.
Sorry, I sound like an advert. If I had to offer a negative I'd say it's a real pity these things can't 'spin'. At present I'm still using the electric washing machine for a hefty spin before hanging the clothes out to dry, and post WTSHTF I'll probably have them dripping sodden on the line for days.
A mangle, as others have already said. My kingdom for a mangle...
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