When you live in an apartment that doesn’t have a washing machine and dryer, the costs can become expensive. In our apartments, it costs $2.25 to wash and dry one load of clothes. Not a lot, but when you are doing laundry for five people, it can add up.
A couple of months ago my mom bought me a tiny washing machine called the Wonder Washer. When she first told me about the Wonder Washer, I thought she had been scammed. I generally don’t trust products that are in these “as seen on TV” type magazines.
So, I went on the internet to try to find some product reviews for the Wonder Washer. What I found was surprising. There were all of these comments raving about the Wonder Washer. Now I was anxious to see how the Wonder Washer worked for myself.
After the Wonder Washer came in mail, I went to my mom’s house for a visit and brought it home with me. It is a compact little washer and I had read that it would basically hold one outfit. This would include a shirt, pants, underwear, and socks. So, not much at a time.
I read the instruction manual for the Wonder Washer and started my first load. The first time I used it I only put in two of my daughter’s shirts that she had gotten stained while eating. I had pre-soaked them with Spray N’ Wash and was now putting them into the Wonder Washer to be cleaned.
The Wonder Washer has a standard and delicate cycle. I used the standard cycle for my daughter’s shirts. The timer on the Wonder Washer goes up to fifteen minutes, so I set it for the maximum amount of time. Once the washer cut off, I realized something I didn’t think about before. There was no rinse cycle. So I had to drain the water that I washed the shirts in out and put in cold water for a rinse cycle. I then reset the timer on the Wonder Washer for another fifteen minutes and waited.
When I took my daughter’s shirts out of the Wonder Washer, they were clean! There were no more stains and they smelled great. But, they were sopping wet. There is no spin cycle for the Wonder Washer. So I had to wring the excess water out of the shirts by hand. Once I had gotten the excess water out , I hung the shirts up to dry. They dried a little “crispy” because I didn’t think to add fabric softener to the rinse cycle.
So, do I still use my Wonder Washer? Yes. It doesn’t do a lot of clothes at once and the process can be cumbersome, but it does clean the clothes without having to go to the laundry mat.
Here are the pros and cons of using the Wonder Washer. Pros. It saves money by not having to pay to wash my clothes. It gets clothes clean and is great for undergarments and baby clothes. Cons. There are no rinse cycle or spin cycle. So that means you have to lift the heavy bucket of soapy water and empty it into the bathtub, refill the bucket with cold water, and squeeze the excess water of the water once the load has completed (which can break down the threads in your clothing over time).
Tips I’ve learned as I’ve used my Wonder Washer. Only use ¼ a cup of laundry detergent. I started out putting what I’d put in a small load of clothing and it was too much soap. I was having to do two to three rinse cycles to get all the excess soap out. Use fabric softener. Once I started putting ½ a cup of liquid fabric softener in my rinse cycles, my clothes did not get as crisp when drying. And finally, if you are going to wash your clothes in the Wonder Washer and dry them in a regular dryer, make sure you wring the excess water out well. If you don’t, they will not get dry in the dryer.
Over all the Wonder Washer has been a great buy for us. It allows me to do my daughter’s laundry on the spur of the moment (which has cut down on staining). It has also been great for washing my intimates and would be wonderful for someone who is cloth diapering.
