Is it worth the washer and dryer?

Free Range Human wrote:
I notice that everyone replying has a large stackable unit/units. You don't HAVE TO sacrifice a lot of space for the ability to wash your own clothes, however.

I have a Wonderwash, which I love, and is very fast, and a Nina Soft spin dryer. Couldn't be easier. I wash every day, spin dry, hang up in the shower for an hour, done.

Doesn't have to be complicated or space-consuming. FWIW, it is SO worth it to not have to go to a laundromat!

I agree about not going to a laundromat. I've thought that people who think they might not want a washer/dryer should take three loads of laundry to every laundromat in town, twice. Once on a weekend, and once on a weekday. That includes the skankiest ones around. Then decide.

Most campground laundries are okay (usually merely okay). But there will be plenty of times you don't have access to one and have to go to a public one, and they can be a whole lot of not fun.

I have a Spendide vented combination washer/dryer. I also have a Wonderwash, which I don't think works very well and uses a surprising amount of water, and its biggest problem is that it doesn't have a spin cycle. I see you cured that with the Nina spinner (excellent move), but I don't think my combo unit takes up much more space than the Wonderwash and the Nina together, and it's a real washer/dryer.

I use the Wonderwash for bike clothes when we're boondocking, and can see that it doesn't get things as clean as the Splendide, or actually as hand-washing in the sink. This is especially apparent with socks, which get dirt on them and I can see if it comes out.

The Splendide spins at 1000 RPM, while the Nina is 1800 RPM. But 1000 RPM is already a whole lot faster than even commercial front-loaders in a laundromat, and top loader machines in laundromats shouldn't even consider themselves as having a spin cycle. Stuff comes out of my machine almost dry.

The Splendide is a real washer, an excellent spinner, and it's also a real dryer.

I've figured out how to do a load of laundry (e.g. a set of queen sheets, or a couple of pairs of jeans along with 6 or 8 or 10 shirts), on 8 gallons of water and, unlike the Wonderwash, the water doesn't have to be hot.

I would give the Wonderwash away, except we have a modified sine wave inverter and I'm scared to run my Splendide on it; it's an older model and they don't make the control board for it any more. So when we're boondocking, I still use it if we're running through bike clothes.

Occasionally I'll go back and read the advertising on it and convince myself it's really better than washing in the sink, even though I don't really think it's true. But it makes me feel better about having it.