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Drying clothes

Tesla

By Tesla
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CaneyJ Engager

CaneyJ

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I do mine using a hand cranked pressurized barrel called a presawash for a couple of mins and then spin the clothes practically dry in an Indesit spin dryer which uses about 200 watts of juice for 4 mins pausing half way through to add a jug of rinse water and re-spin it out. I then hang the clothes on an airer in the shower or out on deck and they are bone dry in a couple of hours. In winter I currently use a Meaco dd8l dehumidifier to help them along and likewise are dry in a double of hours with minimal space and power used. The presawash stacks on top of the spin dryer when not in use. I can do pretty much most things apart from duvets and pillows and use about 35 litres of water in total to process 3x 2kg wet loads of laundry.

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nicknorman Veteran II

nicknormanDonate to Canal World

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Vented tumble drier, powered from TravelPower when we are cruising. I can't be doing with damp washing hanging around a boat - I grew out of that once my student days were over (35 yrs ago). But (following on from MtB's point) it's amazing how few sets of clothes one gets through in a couple of week's boating!

Edited by nicknorman
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blackrose Veteran II

blackrose

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Vented tumble drier, powered from TravelPower when we are cruising. I can't be doing with damp washing hanging around a boat - I grew out of that once my student days were over (35 yrs ago). But (following on from MtB's point) it's amazing how few sets of clothes one gets through in a couple of week's boating!

 

Really? I wash my clothes on a regular basis. I can't be doing with wearing smelly clothes. I grew out of that once my student days were over... tongue.png

 

If I was on a narrowboat I might not hang damp washing out given the space restrictions, but on my boat that's not an issue and they're dry in a day. I'd guess most people aren't cruising enough in winter to use your method - either from travelpower or inverter. Using a tumble dryer from shore power instead of hanging clothes just seems a bit wasteful to me - both in terms of it's economic and environmental impacts.

Edited by blackrose
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Pykebird Rising Star

Pykebird

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I use a high rated washing machine as I tend to get filthy in my job and need to keep on top of things, so wash a couple of times a week, but things are nearly dry. In summer I tend to hang things over the side of the boat on a folding rack, like the ones used for caravan windows. It hangs onto my hand rails and I just ensure things are well pegged(learnt that one early on)!

During winter if I am off shoreline, I have a rail attached to the ceiling above fire and use this, plus I have a hook to attach the hanging rail and things will be dry over night. windows are left open, so not really much condensation.

If on shoreline, small slimline tumble, job done.

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Hawkmoth Rising Star

Hawkmoth

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SHMBO would not entertain hanging washing around the home, be it house or boat. We had to have a washer/dryer.

It runs from our travel power in summer and shore line in winter.

It has broken down at times so our backup is a fan heater in the bath with a folding airer over it.

Bob

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Dekazer Rising Star

Dekazer

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We inhertited it with the boat and I can't remember the brand name, but we have something very similar to this: http://www.urbanclotheslines.com/retractable-clothes-dryer-mini-5

 

In the summer when it's hot, and in the winter when the fire's going, clothes dry very quickly. In the spring and autumn when it's wet outside things can take longer.

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Ex- Member Veteran II

Ex- Member

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We generally use the whirly gig washing line fitted to the gas locker, unless it's a sunny day though, stuff won't fully dry, so several weeks ago we decided to just pop to the launderette, a lot less hassle and for £2.40 (2 spins) we can fully dry 2 weeks washing which includes bed sheets & denim, I have to say worth every penny too as we never usually iron clothes or linen but the big tumble driers in these places really leave your washing smooth and fresh. we just incorporate this with our normal shopping, the launderette is manned too so no problem leaving it whilst you go shopping, it's turned out to be a brill solution for us.

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Alastair Rising Star

Alastair

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When it was just me aboard I did quite a lot of my clothes by hand washing. Made a rack from 15mm copper pipe on the wall behind the stovepipe - the clothes got tucked between rack and wall so that they couldn't swing into the stovepipe.

 

When the boat population became 3 adults and up to 4 children, we just used a laundrette service wash.

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smileypete Veteran II

smileypete

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As I have shoreline I use an electric dessicant dehumidifier, might as well heat/dry the boat while drying the clothes. :)

 

I use a studio sized candy and just dry half the load one evening and then the other half the following day/evening, means there's not loadsa clothes around, simples.

 

Also gives me a plentiful supply of distilled water from the dehumidifier, pity i don't have lots of batts to top up :D

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

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nicknorman Veteran II

nicknormanDonate to Canal World

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Yes, dehumidifier water might be ok in an emergency but will have plenty of contaminants. I suspect people don't understand the difference between distilled and de-ionised water - the latter is much better for batteries. I buy Gin, distilled from a wine-strength brew, but it still has a lot of water in it even after the distillation process. Some vodkas quote "triple distilled" which is a good indication that one distillation is not enough to remove the impurities.

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Nickhlx Veteran

Nickhlx

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When we distilled water in the lab, it was essentially a near closed system, and little chance for airborne pollutants to be part of the distillate.

 

Personally, I prefer (lab) distilled water over de-ionised for batteries, as the spec for "de-ionised" seems to not be set in stone !

 

You can buy "suitable for batteries" water from Pure Klenz in Watford at about £4 for 5 litres if you collect, or if you order 50 litres or more (!) they will deliver FOC in their normal delivery area

which is quite large.

 

www.pureklenz.co.uk

 

( no connection with them)

 

Nick

Edited by Nickhlx
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smileypete Veteran II

smileypete

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Whilst the water may be "distilled" Pete, surely it's pretty "dirty" as a large amount of air will have been passed "through" or over it, and any pollen / dust or other airborne impurities will be present in large quantities ?

 

Nick

I doubt a little bit of dust or pollen would hurt a lead acid batt, maybe by 0.000000000001% :)

 

I wouldn't use water from a compressor dehumidifier as I think there's a little electrolysis between the copper and ali of the exchanger which ends up as dissolved solids in the water.

 

Freezer water might be OK for batts if you strain out the breadcrumbs and frozen peas :D

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

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nicknorman Veteran II

nicknormanDonate to Canal World

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We use de-ionised water for washing the internals of our helicopter jet engines daily, to remove contaminants in particular salt, picked up from flying offshore close to the sea. With the engine running at idle, the water is sprayed into the inlet with a view to cleaning the 4 stages of compressor turbine blades. Distilled water is not permitted by the manufacturer as it is not pure enough, only de-ionised water is allowed.

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blackrose Veteran II

blackrose

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Another good point about tumble dryer is that clothes do not need ironing provide you fold them straight out of the dryer, we do have a folding ironing board but I can't remember where it is.

Phil

 

I don't iron anything. I just hang it up. I have some non-iron shirts for work from M&S. I've got better things to do with my life than iron clothes. Not much better, but I just can't bear ironing.

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