Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Haier portable washer for sailboat use

Never could get my boat off the hard, it's still there, mast and all. But.. well, crap, that sucks.

I came across the details of a test I had made several years ago and figured I might as well post it here for anyone contemplating doing the same..

 I didn't shop around specifically for a washer for the boat, I had bought this washer several years prior for my apartment and have been very happy with it, and it occured to me that I could use it on the boat. I think the specifications says water consumption is like 5 gallons, but I really have no idea, I should have tested that.. maybe that means per cycle.. I don't know about using salt water, my intention is to draw fresh from the tank

For what it's worth..
Ran a real world power consumption test on my (at he time approx.) 3 year old Haier HLP21N Pulsator 1-Cubic-Foot Portable Washer to determine the plausibility of using it on my sailboat without shore power..
The measurements I made indicated it would just fit into the hanging locker of my G26, but I never actually tried to get it in there, but the results of the test are still valid.

For the power source I used a fully charged Goal Zero Yeti 1250 generator.
I plugged the washer into a 25ft extension cord, with the other end plugged into the Goal Zero (I used the extension cord only because I didn't want to bother with moving the washer and the Yeti closer together for this impromptu test).

Set the washer on the normal wash cycle and with the water level set to high.

As the washer fills with water it used zero watts because it's a passive fill using the sink faucet connection.

I put in two jeans, one lightweight pants, three shirts, a few pairs of socks and underwear, and a baseball cap.

During the wash cycle the wattage constantly fluctuates in pulses of 200-250-0-200-250-0-etc. watts (thereabouts).

During the drain cycles it uses 33watts.

The spin cycles (there are several spin cycles) all briefly initiates at about 480watts, and then instantly drops to about 190watts thereafter.

When the wash was done (about a half hour total runtime), the Goal Zero indicated it was at approximately 80% charged. So, although it used 20% of my stored power in just 30 minutes, it appears it would of been perfectly feasible to use this washer on my boat.

And yes.. a bucket uses zero watts, but damn.. I've had to wash clothes in the sink or bathtub before, and it's a time consuming tedious task, manually agitating it for a while, wringing each item out, then rinse all the soap out, then wringing each individual item again. I so much prefer just dropping the clothes in, pushing a button and hanging the damp clothes to dry.

However, it should also be noted that the washer should be sitting level during operation, so obviously the time to do laundry would be while at anchor on calm waters!
Gimballing may sounds like a good idea, but that also means it would have to be raised higher, thus using more space of the upper part of my hanging locker, thus no room to hang shirts or whatever...

I think the main reason it would have to be level is during the spin cycles.. I have a tendency of overloading, so sometimes it starts to spin, then stops and beeps.. at which point I have to manually resituate and balance the weight of the clothes evenly, then when I close the lid again the spin works proper..

I guess you could use salt water to wash.. that never was my intention though, at home it's made to hook to the kitchen sink and it automatically senses how high to fill, but you can also simply pour water into it with a bucket, the built in sensor still knows when to start washing.
It has a pump that drains it automatically.

Shop around I still see then turn up for under $200 sometimes.
In conclusion, if ever I move aboard a boat, the washer is coming with me. The Yeti can handle this washer off grid just fine.