Maybe You Need a Portable Washing Machine
If you’re renting your home, there’s a good chance that one of your biggest problems is laundry. If your apartment or building doesn’t have a laundry, you have to go to the laundry (or your parents’ house) regularly. But there might be another solution: just like a desktop dishwasher , you can buy yourself a portable washing machine for a few bills ( there are even tiny, tiny ones designed to be taken on travels ). But do portable washing machines really work and are they worth the investment?
How does a portable washing machine work?
All portable washing machines work basically the same way: you connect a hose to a kitchen or bathroom faucet, load the laundry like you would with any washing machine, then connect the drain hose to the sink (or bathtub) and let the machine pump out the water. Some cheaper models require you to fill and drain them by hand, but that’s a lot more work.
By and large, portable washing machines will do the job in the sense that the clothes you put in them will stay clean. Because these machines are designed to be portable, you can move them relatively easily, so you can store them in a hard-to-reach area and only take them out on wash days, which is an absolute must for tiny apartments.
In this case, some disadvantages should be taken into account:
- Connections. Most portable washing machines come with an adapter to connect to your faucet, but these adapters don’t always fit your particular faucet, so you may need to look around and buy another one. If your faucet has an aerator , you’ll need to take a wrench and remove it before plugging in the washing machine.
- The size. Portable washing machines are, well, portable, which means small . You will not find a huge amount of clothes here. This means doing many small loads or doing laundry much more frequently. Whether this worsens the convenience factor for you or not depends on your personal decision. At the same time, most portable washing machines are not small enough to disappear into a convenient place – be sure to measure the device you are considering and figure out where it will live.
- Expenses. Yes, you don’t load dollar bills into the launderette’s washing machine, but if you’re paying your own utility bills, you’re likely to see your monthly bill skyrocket, especially if you use the machine a lot. It may not be a huge amount of money, but it is something worth paying attention to.
- Drying. Of course, most modern portable washing machines will wring out the laundry to squeeze out the water (some cheaper models don’t, so be sure to check), and many do a good job of this. But your clothes will still be wet, which means either buying a portable dryer , or dryers that will take up even more space, the latter meaning the laundry will be dried all over the place on a regular basis.
- A leak. The chance of you not having water leaks with a portable washing machine is also zero . This will most likely be fairly minor, but it will happen – it’s just the nature of the temporary water connections. You will need to leave the water running while the machine is running (so it can drain the water and refill it for the rinse cycle) so even a very small leak will be a real headache and may require you to run the machine where the water on the floor won’t be big problem.
- Landlords. Your landlord is well aware of the existence of portable washing machines, and you definitely won’t be the first tenant to want one. Some landlords may have clear rules against them (due to noise and leakage issues), so it’s a good idea to check before investing in one.
Should you buy a portable washing machine?
Of course, a portable washing machine has one big plus : it will wash your clothes in your apartment . Any respectable portable washing machine you buy will get the job done, so the trade-off between convenience and annoyance of doing five hundred microloads in a leaky, noisy machine could very well be worth it. After all, the laundry room, or even the common laundry room in your home, are not particularly quiet and hygienic places. And given the relative affordability of these machines (you can get a downright cool car for less than $200 ), they make a solid investment in your quality of life.