The Laundry Alternative Wonderwash Retro Colors Non-Electric Portable Compact Mini Washing Machine (Blue)

I love this little gem but being averse to creating a wadge of carbon pollution I I don't want to have the little darling dragged from the US to the uK. Why, oh why don't they distribute these wonderful Wonder Washes here. I had one 20 years ago and stupidly gave it to one of my children. Never seen again, of course! Please help me, Laundry Alternative or Ecowash or whatever you now call yourself.

I had one of these for a long time, and a second one for a much shorter time. I found it excellent for small washes. This new model also came with sachets to use for dry cleaning , but I never used them. It took very small frequent loads and required no electricity. Quiet and efficient, it can be especially great for a couple of shirts or underwear. It does the job and it does it well (but hopeless with a large towel or jeans, of course). It is a little cumbersome and cannot be dismantled effectively for storage, but is obviously not the size of a full on machine. However, the snag is its build quality. My first failed when its handle snapped, while my second (bought second hand when no new ones were available) when, while the handle was weakening, its underframe went. Unlike some others here, I found both drums to be robust (for a while I continued to try to turn the drum on my first unit without its handle - not recommended) but the rest was poor on both units. After the first one I blamed myself, but not after the second Now these failures would be less painful if it weren't for its price which is high in the USA and even more so in the UK (and I don't imagine that tariffs would help!). Since my first unit, it has always been very difficult to source new in this country, and too expensive even when you can track one down. There is a considerable market for a device like this - people who live in small flats, people in caravans or houseboats, people who don't want to run a large machine for a tiny load, students - but at these prices and with this build quality (unless this dramatically improves) I cannot recommend this as it is too short lived to justify its price or inconvenience. And if you're buying it as an ecological alternative to the washing machine, that's a lot of plastic waste to require disposal for too little utility.. I await someone producing a better product on these lines. Maybe in China. Why 3*? Because I still miss using it.

Looking at the picture I didn't exactly expect to get a bunch of plastic pieces that I had to assemble, but that's what I got. It wasn't difficult to assemble the pieces and it's sturdy enough to be used but just barely. As long as you don't plan on moving it around a lot, this will do just fine. If you were hoping for something a bit more solid and sturdy though, you might want to reconsider. The drum itself (where you put the clothing and water) is of decent construction, but the legs seem to be less than ideal. What's more, you can't easily disassemble it once it's put together so you're better off putting it someplace out of the way, but still accessible to a drain. As I said, it didn't take me long to assemble the pieces but one of the pieces left over puzzled me and still does to this day. It looks like it's supposed to be a cap over something but it doesn't appear to fit on ANYTHING on the device. It doesn't seem to be crucial for its operation so I just left it off. If anyone figures out what it's for though I'd like to know just in case it might somehow improve the performance of this thing though that's doubtful). EDIT: it was a cover for the drain inside the drum. You put the cover over the drain to keep clothing from plugging the drain. Anyway, it seems to work best when situated near a sink (for the drainage) and filled with a few gallons of warm/hot water (but no hotter than what comes out of the faucet normally). Unfortunately it's not big enough for a REAL load of laundry, but if all you need is a handful of shirts or undies, or a couple pair of pants washed and nothing more, then this saves you money in terms of water and electricity used (or coins spent at the laundromat). The agitation of the water is done by a hand crank which flips the drum over and over from top to bottom and back again. I suppose the cleaning power depends entirely on how dirty the clothes are, how much water you used, how much detergent you used, and how long you're willing to sit there turning the crank. I've tried it on some heavily soiled clothing and it came out no better or worse than if I had put it in an actual load of laundry, but with the benefit of using less water so I don't feel as bad if I need to put it through an additional wash cycle. Once you're done you can attach the little pipe to the bottom which pushes a spring-loaded plunger out of the way allowing the water to drain. Then you can remove the pipe, throw in a couple gallons to rinse the wash off, and crank it a bit more. Unfortunately you don't get to spin-dry so you'll need to wring out your clothing before hanging it up to dry somewhere. If you have a working washing machine and need to do large loads of laundry for the whole family, then you're probably better off doing the wash like normal. However, if you're in a situation where your loads of laundry are too small to do a load in the washer or if you have some clothing that might be damaged by a regular machine, this is probably a much better alternative. I'm one of those people who doesn't need to wash more than a few articles of clothing at a time, so this is perfect for me, though as I said before, the plastic construction on the legs makes it feel a bit cheap and prone to break. Just focus on not putting any sideways stress on it and make sure the feet have a good flat surface to attach to for the suction cups and it should work just fine for many washes. I gave it 4 stars mostly for the compact nature and being able to do small loads of laundry without having to get my hands wet. I expect that my results will improve as I learn more about the limitations of the device and much I can pack in there before the cleaning power diminishes. I subtracted one star mostly for the cheap plastic legs which may pose to be a problem in the future. If the legs break, then it immediately becomes much harder to use so I feel like they should have put some metal reinforcement around the frame of the legs, or made the plastic thicker.

If I could give this 6 out of 5 stars, I would. 11/10. 100% satisfied. I live in a small apartment and my job has me working long hours. When I get home from work or on my rare day off I have a really hard time bringing myself to go do laundry at a laundromat. Not that I mind doing laundry, but the sorting it, packing it up, hauling it all to a laundromat along with laundry detergent, paying $5+ every time just to spend about 1.5 to 2 hours sitting and waiting for the laundry to finish all while it being around 10 or 11 at night? Yeah, I put it off as long as I can every single time. Like, until the only thing left to wear are the ugly Christmas sweater and the shorts I've had since middle school level of put it off. After a while I started washing things by hand in the bathtub because I hated the laundromat process so much, but that was such a tedious process involving a plastic magazine file bin, kitchen tongs, and scalded hands... needless to say, it was a dark time where laundry was concerned. I was hesitant to purchase this at first due to price, but y'all, I WISH I HAD PURCHASED THIS SOONER. It's SO easy. It takes two minutes to wash things (but I double that because two minutes of washing feels weird), so I pop on a good song and spin it until it's done. The entire process can be done in the bathtub: the spinning, the draining, the rinsing, and then scoot it over and your drying rack can fit in there too. It takes a while to drain if the lid stays on (the instructions recommend keeping it on for hot water until it cools), but since I'm at home, I can just go do other things. If the water is tepid just pop that lid off and it drains quick. I'm not stuck staring at a spinning washer hoping someone doesn't steal my clothes. Then a quick rinse, let it drain, dry your clothes, and go back to your day. It's hands-on work for only roughly 10 minutes. It's awesome. It fits a lot more clothes than I anticipated, too. I use those 13" x 13" cube bins as a laundry hampers for each type of clothes so they're already sorted, and the washer can fit pretty much an entire bin's worth of clothes. I was shocked at how much I could wash at once. Even though it's expensive, a quick calculation showed it would pay for itself in 16 trips to the laundromat (and a trip to the laundromat runs roughly 2 loads of what this can handle), so that's basically 32 washes. But forget the money part. Not having to deal with the entire process of going out to do laundry, and not having that chore hanging over my head basically at all times... that alone is worth it. I already have to spend all day every day outside of my apartment and I just don't want to leave my place on my days off. And with winter coming, laundry days lugging dirty clothes through nasty NYC street slush is *miserable*, but now I don't have to! Plus, it's kind of fun! I'm actually looking forward to doing my laundry now. It's worth it to me to FINALLY have a full closet of clean clothes and not losing things to endless pit of the "dirty" hamper! I am 100% a fan of this. If you have ever found yourself washing clothes by hand at any point, just do yourself a favor: buy this washer and thank me later.

I can wash a small load of laundry in my apartment. I use it as a laundry basket. Once a week I wash my laundry. I like that it isn't electric so it's ok to bring it in the shower to fill up. Light weight. Use with a laundry spinner, and hang laundry to dry.

I can’t place the locking caps on the support brackets so I resorted to just taping them in place. Trying it tonight for first time. Got to be easier than the bucket and plunger I’ve been using. Balance is a difficult issue for me being paralyzed and handicapped. Overall, I’m satisfied although maybe overpriced somewhat. I’ll find out. Delivered next door and they opened it. If it works, two more for them will be ordered. I live in an RV in the country. Thanks but please do something about those locking tabs. See this on more reviews. Not complaining. Just being honest.

This works alright, but really doesn't hold much at all. Maybe a t shirt and pair of undies. Used a few times and no issues with leaks. Very hard to get a good rinse and need to repeat several times to remove soap and dirty water.