Selfsufficientish.com

Hello All.

In my recent wanderings around a garage sale, I picked up a WonderWash manual washing machine. I've been a fan of self-sufficiency and eco-friendly gadgets for a while, and thought I'd give this a shot. I have all of the parts, but the Wonderwash I bought did not come with an instruction manual.

Is there anyone out there who has one who could tell me how one uses this thing? Specifically, how much soap, and water should I use, and how much manual turn time do I need to do. I'd love to be able to see the manual myself, but knowing the basics would be enough.

Here's a link to the new product, if others are interested. I hear pretty good stuff about it in the reviews.

http://www.laundry-alternative.com/pages/wonderwash.htm
http://www.laundry-alternative.com/prod ... -15-5.html
http://camping.about.com/od/campinggear ... erwash.htm

Also, is there a brand of environmentally friendly laundry detergent that is sold in Southern CA (or shipped here) that anyone would recommend?

Thanks for the help.

-David

Sorry I can't help with directions - have you emailed the mfr? Otherwise use the amount specified on you detergent for a hand wash?

As to eco friendly detergents - many ishers use ecover or soap nuts.

Hope this helps!

Hi David, doing a quick search has come up with this
Seems that you need about 6 litres of hot water, a few tablespoons of detergent and give it a spin for a couple of minutes.

Hope that helps

It sounds very interesting - as the price of electricity is going up and up this sort of thing (if it works) is sounding very attractive to me.

Please let us know how you get on.

I used have one for camping and from memory it was around a cup full (yes American cup) of washing powder and fill it with the warmth of water you want to the first seam up the tub. Ensure the lid goes on and locks. Turn fair vigorously to build up pressure, you can tell because when you take the lid off it will hiss. They are very effective but they do need an awful lot of soap powder for the amount of water and clothes to get things clean. You also need a lot of water for rising after and strong hands to wring the clothes or they drip dry for days.

I used a spin dryer to wring stuff out and rinse.

edited to say unless your strong I would not put 5lb of washing as spinning the tub is then hard and heavy work.

I had one of these in my first year at Uni.

You will need a spinner to go with it.

basically, shove clothes in, cover with hot water, chuck in some detergent, make sure that the lid locks on, and spin, spin, spin!

BEWARE: they do exactly what they say on the tin! I had a pair of jeans with permanent marker signatures on them. Had being the operative word...the wonder was washed out the signatures - even where a conventional washing machine had failed!

Anyone know where these can be bought in either the UK or Spain?

I tried World of Camping but got this reply: "Sorry this item wont be back in stock"

Thanks for any help.

Alex

We had one of these about 30 odd years ago. It was dark blue body with a white stand and lid. It slid around all over the place so I fixed it to a board with 4 jubillee clips.

As for useage instructions... havea look at thishttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sby4M9LLs-c link. Mind you you need to have acouple of shotguns and a nueclear fall out bunker as well.

David, I use Seventh Generation or Planet. Either powder or liquid. I always use the scent-free. Ecover is also good, but costs more. I don't use as much as the label says to. I use about half that amount.

If you want to be very DIY, then baking soda, Borax, and a tablespoon of washing soda are a good laundry detergent. I find they work better if dissolved in water first and then poured in the machine. Vinegar is good for fabric softener, or in the rinse cycle.

You can also use Dr. Bronner's organic, liquid castile soap, mixed with baking soda, and borax. If you don't like the washing soda, this is a milder option.

You can also get hand wringers, the kind that are used in car washes.

alexgadd wrote:Anyone know where these can be bought in either the UK or Spain?

I tried World of Camping but got this reply: "Sorry this item wont be back in stock"

Thanks for any help.

Alex

Outdoormegastore.co.uk says: "Unfortunately the washer has now sold out for this season. We would hope
to receive the new 2009 stock around February next year."

So does anyone have suggestions as to where I can buy?

Thanks

Good clear usage instructions:

http://randomchaos.com/documents/?source=wonder_wash