Wonderwash, from The Laundry Alternative, Inc. is a self-contained washing machine
We take two big trips up to the Northwest each year and one of the problems we run into is laundry. Camping is one thing, but when you combine that with visiting family and friends, well, sometimes you’d rather not look and smell like you’ve been camping in the mountains for a week!
This leaves us with the option of either spending a night at a KOA so we can use their laundry facilities, or dragging all of our laundry over to someone’s house. Neither of those are great solutions, since a week’s worth of laundry means burning at least half a day, just washing clothes.
I stumbled on the Wonderwash one day and it made me “wonder” if something like this would work for camping. I thought I’d pick one up and give it a try, so here is my video review of the product.
CampingBlogger Review of the Wonderwash from Roy Scribner on Vimeo.
The bottom line, though, is that the Wonderwash gets clothes clean and in just about one minute. Now, there’s no way you’d need something like this for a weekend of camping, where a single change of clothes is all you need to pack, but for extended trips the Wonderwash makes some sense, because you could pack a lot fewer changes of clothes.
Do you ever wash clothes when you are camping?
See also…
The WonderWash is a completely portable unit, and an incredibly efficient way to wash your clothes.
http://www.greenlivingeveryday.com/Wonderwash-Portable-Mini-Portable-Washer-p/9781001.htm
Doing a little back reading on your blogs….I feel like everything thing we take needs to have more then one purpose. Must be some way that could be adapted for ice cream. I have two smallish rubber maid tubs with lids that I take for washing dishes. We do much the same as you just did with the clothes. In goes the hot water, a drop of soap, forks, knives, spoons, plates, cups, bowls, what ever was used for the meal. All of it is plastic of some sort. Pop the lid on and its some kids job to give it a good shake for about a minute. Pour off the soapy water and add some fresh for rinsing.
Jenn – it does remind me of an ice cream machine! We use a couple (one for soap, one to rinse) of Rubbermaid tubs with drains for washing dishes – they’re perfect.
The Clean Air Gardening washer is not the same, for one it does not have a drain spout. Without the drain spout, you have to pick up the machine when it’s heavy and full of water to drain. The product is fairly similar but it is not accurate to say it’s the same.
Hi, anyone got the full instructions for these? I have one that used to belong to my Aunt but no instructions! Much appreciated.
CAG – sorry I missed you there, my overzealous spam filter grabbed your comment. Agree on the “spin cycle” comment – even though I used a pair of jeans in the demo, drying time would be a lot better with lightweight clothes made for the outdoors.
Thanks Shawna, I actually had to run the sprinklers on Sunday morning 🙂 The wash-time was a big takeaway for me, too. On our long trips we let the laundry pile-up for a week, then spend at least 3 or 4 hours doing laundry somewhere. I think it’s going to be more efficient to use the Wonderwash every other day, so that the laundry does not build-up. I just wish it had a rinse cycle – heh.
First off…I’m jealous of your green grass in the video. Ours is half covered in snow, dull and lifeless. The washer is impressive. It held more clothes than I thought it would and didn’t require a lot of time per load. I’ll keep it in mind.
shawna’s last blog post..How To Build A Snow Fort
We also carry this product, and it has been popular with our customers.
The only downside with a washer like this is that there’s no “spin cycle” like with a conventional washing machine.
So your clothes are really, really wet when you take them out of the machine.
That means that you’ll need to wring them out yourself so that they will dry faster. It’s no problem with small items of clothing like underwear and tshirts, but it’s more work with things like jeans.