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Haven With Laundry Facilities (That Guests Might Actually Want To Use)

Thanks to my trusty wheelbarrow, I was able to get my washer and dryer out of the truck and into the grainery today. Of course, I had to try them out!

I have plenty of water hose, so I just uncoupled it from the RV holding tank intake and brought the hose to the grainery, where I coupled it to my sprayer, which effectively gives me an on-off switch for the water. I then rolled an extension cord from the grainery to the exterior outlet on the motorhome (closer than the breaker box).

I don’t have a manual for the washer, but it was fairly intuitive. It’s really not that many fewer steps than using the Wonder Wash, but it does allow me to do a lot more laundry at one time since the washer has a bigger tub, plus the washer does some of the labour itself.

I’ll still want to use the Wonder Wash for small loads, like dish cloths, that need super hot water, but for clothes, I think I don’t think it will be hard to get in the habit of using my washer. 🙂

I added soap to the tub and then started adding water. I set a timer and learned that it takes about 20 minutes to fill the tub completely. I was able to put a lot more clothes in the machine than I would have expected.

You can choose how long to have the washer agitate the clothes. I picked 30 minutes since I had some really soiled clothes in the load.

Again, I set a timer, and went to do something else. When I came back, I put the washer on the ‘drain’ setting to get rid of the water and transferred the clothes to the spin dryer to wring them out. I had to do this in two batches since the dryer capacity is smaller.

I put the clothes back in the washer and filled the tub again to rinse the load. So another 20 minutes on the timer, then another 15 minutes of agitation, then another two loads in the spin dryer. Oh, and an extra 20 minutes on the fill because I forgot to shut off the drain setting! *shakes head*

The process may seem like a lot of work compared to an automatic unit, but it sure didn’t feel like it after using the Wonder Wash for so many years! I also didn’t get completely soaked, so I can do laundry in cooler weather!

It was grey and overcast and there’s rain in the forecast, so I decided not to tempt fate and instead try out my dryer. This is where I learned that the exterior outlet on the RV is on the same circuit as my office, where I had a heater plugged in and running. So I blew a breaker (oops) and had to move the extension cord to one of my new 20A outlets on its own circuit.

It took several hours to dry the load completely since it’s a 120V unit that doesn’t get as hot as a 220V unit. I definitely won’t be getting in the habit of using it, especially since clothes smell nicer coming off the line!

I am very happy with my new laundry setup. This isn’t quite the kind of washer I was hoping to find, but I really wanted a 120V dryer, so the washer is a good compromise. They are also hard to find over here, so I may be able to recoup the cost later and apply it to an automatic unit once I get the cabin wired and plumbed.

While the clothes were drying, I tried out my new weed whacker. Yes, I ran a dryer, a weed whacker, and a heater all at the same time. Having 70A available to me is pretty sweet. 🙂

9 thoughts on “Haven With Laundry Facilities (That Guests Might Actually Want To Use)”

  2. I can’t even find the washer online, much less the manual, including on both Hitachi’s English appliance site and the Japanese.

  4. As I said, I can’t even find the washer online, much less a manual, and that includes on the manufacturer’s website, much less in the big ole sea that is the internet. It’s like I bought a ghost.

  6. Rae – make sure that you have a good size extension cord running from your power post to the barn. A small drop in voltage (loss in the wire itself) can really knock it down. It’s a squared function thing.

    From the picture, where you show the water hose, it looks good, but make sure that it is at least a 12 gauge and 10 gauge would be better.

    And, I would run a separate wire to it, not split it with the washer. At least, if your using them both at the same time.

  7. Pleinguy, the Asians and Europeans have lots of cool spacing stuff we don’t see out here. 🙂

    Bill, yes, I am aware of voltage drop and sized my cords according when I bought them (I think they’re 12AWG). I can plug my RV into an outlet 150′ away using two of these yellow cords and have no voltage drop, even when running the AC. That was my setup for the entire 2012 summer and it worked out just fine. You just have to make sure not to overload the 20A circuit and run too much at once. So I just run the appliances separately.

  8. As far a drying, could you put up drying lines IN the grainery, even if it were a little folding one? I run my full sized dryer for only 10 -15 minutes for each load, then hang my still damp clothes on a line or hangers to finish drying. I don’t use a much electricity or wear on the dryer that way. Just an idea.

    • Yup, I have a little drying rack to use indoors in the not so good weather, but I’m not keen on hanging clothes to dry in the grainery because it doesn’t smell that fresh in there and I’m worried the smell will transfer to the wet clothes. So I’m going to keep doing laundry when it’s nice enough to line dry until I start fixing up the graineries. 🙂

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