Sunday, December 28, 2014

The Economics of Laundry

     Washing laundry at home is a significant use of water, accounting for up to 40% of total household water consumption. This is partially due to the incredible water demands that a typical top loader uses, 40-50 gallons per load! After a year spent going to the laundromat and being increasingly disgusted by the cost and how poor a job the "high efficiency" washers did (after all, how high is the efficiency when the machine doesn't do the job it was designed to do?) we have returned to using a wringer washer. I spent our early married years using a wringer, we've also washed clothes by hand with a plunger and scrub brush- which is hands down the cleanest our clothes have ever gotten.

     The wringer washer takes 16 gallons to fill, in that water I wash at least 3 loads in succession beginning with the lightest/least soiled clothes and progressing to dirtier/darker clothing. As each load is wrung it is put in a bucket or basket, after the 3-4 loads are washed the tub is refilled with rinse water, each load is rinsed, wrung and then hung. The rinse water then becomes the wash water and the cycle starts again. To fill my particular clothesline I can wash 6 loads, so water consumption for me equals 48 gallons (16 gallons to wash, 16 gallons to rinse which is also the next 3 load's wash water, and 16 more gallons to rinse.) That works out to 8 gallons per load of laundry.

     To my rinse water I add a splash of vinegar, we don't like our clothes coated with synthetically scented petrochemicals, then we line dry. In the Winter (which here is mostly rain) we use lines strung on the porches, drying racks indoors and/or lines strung through the living room. It takes around 12 hours for jeans to dry, but that's balanced by increasing humidity in the house and the fact that my kilowatt usage is zero.

     I like that our laundry method leaves a gentler impact on our planet, but I like the cost savings even more. We were spending around $30/week at the laundromat. Should we want to take our laundry system off grid this washer could be converted to bicycle power in about an hour. I found one of my wringer washers on Craig's List and the other at an auction, I paid $75 and $125 for mine. I can't image a laundry system that I'd be more pleased with than this, it has everything: clean clothes, low energy use, and very low water consumption!

12 comments :

  1. What a great article. I'm headed to Craig's List now....

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    1. Why, thank you! I'm happy to have shared the passion for old school technology that does a better job than modern engineering.

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  2. Awh!! Wonderful post! Love you Mom

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    1. Nostalgia for home is a good thing. Love you too, hun.

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  3. Excellent post - - seriously gets one to thinking...

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  4. Hi, other Mrs. G! I found your blog providentially through Herrick Kimball's blog, and I am enjoying it! Too much! I need to get away from your excellent posts and back to work. Now I join the throngs of your readers to go look for a wringer washer... Mollie Griffith

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    1. Thank you for taking the time to tell me that, it made my day! :)

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  5. We found a relatively new Maytag on someone's back porch by putting the word out through friends. 1972 I think. $100. A few years ago now but not too many. LOVE IT and can't say enough good about it. Also "make" our own laundry soap, although since I haven't made soap in awhile, it is made with storeboughten soap -- Zote or Fels-naptha usually, washing soda and borax. We make a gel and love it -- when someone gets really dirty we can rub it into the clothes and leave them in the dirty clothes until they get washed. The homemade soap leaves no stink on clothes and is cheap. We haven't owned a dryer in years and years. Highly recommend.

    We may, however, be dirtier than you are because our rinse water does as wash water maybe for a fairly dirty load, or for a pre-wash of animal soiled something. Love how clean the clothes get tho and a lot will go through one fill of the machine.

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    1. I've never had good luck with homemade detergent, it just doesn't have enough soap in it to be really effective, I think. A good way to gauge the effectiveness of your soap is to look at the rinse water, if it isn't pretty clear then your clothes haven't released all of their grime into the wash water and are dumping more in the rinse water.
      We do use Zote to scrub cuffs and other stains.

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  6. I enjoy my wringer washer too. For us, the biggest plus is that you can keep it outside year round, so it doesn't clutter up the house (and turns laundry day into a time to enjoy the birds and butterflies). Plus, with so few moving parts, my husband can always fix it when it breaks. Ours was free from my husband's grandmother, who couldn't figure out why on earth we wanted it. :-)

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    1. What a great way to look at laundry! Ours was outside too until recently. Freezing pipes on the porch gave us the incentive to move the washer into the bathroom for the winter, it makes it more crowded but the warmer spot to do laundry is so worth it. I (or somebody) has to do laundry everyday in order to not fall behind. :)

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