Our Cedar Creek is plumbed for a washer/dryer combo. There’s a little cabinet in the bathroom area beneath which is a tilt-out hamper and a set of three drawers. I had been using the cabinet for all our knitting, crochet, and spinning supplies. It was bursting at the seams with wool! The downside to this is that I was having to go to the laundromat for the first time in several years. At nearly $20 a visit at least once every two weeks, that was getting to be quite an expense.
I’d been lusting after the shiny, new Splendide washer/dryer combos in the Camping World flyers. They’re designed especially to fit in the small space of an RV, and they only use 110 volts to get the job done. There are two basic types of RV washer/dryers: vented and ventless. The vented models work pretty much like your standard washer and dryer except that the washing and drying happen in the same machine. The ventless are a completely different animal.
Ventless models dry using condensation. Basically, the wet laundry is heated until steam is produced, and then that steam hits condensing coils that are cooled by running water. The coils cool the steam, turning it back into water. The water is then flushed away.
These machines are much more efficient than those in a stick-built home. They use less water and less electricity overall. The downside is that the loads are smaller, so laundry has to be done much more frequently — like every day. Loads also take much longer to wash and dry. In all, it takes around 3 hours for a single load to go through both wash and dry cycles, more if the load is larger and needs longer to dry. Perhaps the biggest difference is that laundry does not come out completely dry nor all fluffy the way most of us are used to. Instead, the clothes are usually slightly damp to the touch and must be shaken out and, in most cases, hung to dry for a little while before folding.
The vented machines do a much better job of drying because they use the usual air drying method, so what I really wanted was one of those. Had I bought one from Camping World new and had it installed, it would have cost me around $1400 including installation (a hole would need to be cut into the sidewall of my RV). Saving the $1400 has been a challenge, especially since loads of little extra expenses have cropped up — all sorts of repairs and parts (more to come this week when the repairman comes out to fix my sewer valves). My goal has been to save for a week-long trip to Florida over the winter. That trip and the washer cost roughly the same. Decisions, decisions. A week away in South Florida during the first week of January or no more trips to the laundromat ever. Hrm.
Well, the problem seems to have resolved itself, at least for the time being. I was searching Craigslist when I finally came across someone in D.C. selling a used Splendide Comb-o-matic 6100, a five-year-old ventless model, for $250. That’s a $1000 machine brand new! I called the fellow, and he said it worked fine. He bought it used about three years ago, then used it for a year or so, and its been stored since. He said he fired it up a month ago when he decided to sell it, and it worked fine. He conceded that, like most ventless machines, it didn’t dry very well. That much I figured but still couldn’t pass up the bargain.
So last Thursday night, Lex and I drove to Washington D.C. in rush hour. That’s never fun. Lex moaned and groaned the entire way. Can’t blame her, really. D.C. is a nightmare. We found the address without much trouble, and the man who was selling the machine had a dolly and a strapping young nephew (and I do mean strapping…what a hottie!). The two of them wrestled the 150 lb. machine down three steep flights of stairs out of their townhome and into the alley. Then they lifted it up onto the back of the truck for us. Angels! That was worth at least $100 of the $250 that I paid!
Before we left D.C., we stopped in Hyattsville at a Mexican food joint and had some really yummy tacos and parillada. Nom, nom! I brought home leftovers, and we had breakfast tacos the next morning. I wish we could get food like that in Baltimore, but I’m inevitably disappointed with the Latin cuisine here.
When we got home, I opened the door to the RV, and Lex backed the truck right up to the door. It was easy to get the washer out of the truck and inside, but it was harder to wrangle it up the steps into the bathroom and then harder still to dead lift the thing the three feet in the air into the cabinet. I actually had to remove the cabinet doors and hardware so I could get it onto the shelf. These cabinets are designed exactly to fit machines like this one, which are about 24″x22″x32″, much tinier than standard machines.
We finally got the machine in place without serious injury to either one of us and connected it to the water supply and the drain standpipe. The water input hoses were leaking, but I fixed that with plumber’s tape around the faucet threads.
I had to try a load right away. It did take a very long time, and I was disappointed at how damp the clothes were at the end of the cycle. I read the owner’s manual that I downloaded from the Splendide website and learned that there’s a filter that needs cleaning, so I took it out and did just that. I found all sorts of junk in there: a quarter, a button, half a foam heart, and loads of lint. Cleaning it seemed to help a little, but the clothes were still coming out pretty wet.
I’ve been experimenting since, and I’ve discovered that there are certain tricks to using the Comb-o-matic. First, it helps if I use a low-sudsing detergent designed specifically for high efficiency machines. Plus, it’s important to use just the right amount of the stuff. These washers use much less detergent than regular ones. It only takes a tablespoon per load, in fact. Fewer suds equals shorter drying times. One to two tablespoons of fabric softener go in as well. Apparently, softer laundry dries better. I also found that I have to put much less in the loads than I first thought I could. I can do one bath sheet or one outfit at a time. Bed sheets will probably have to go in separately, and rugs and blankets will have to go to the laundromat.
Even with these tricks, I’m still finding that the laundry is coming out slightly damp. My solution: a folding wooden laundry rack that I paid $10 for at Kmart. It doesn’t take up much space and stores flat. I’ve found that clothes are usually ready to put away after a couple of hours on the rack.
I had to make one last big trip to the laundromat this weekend to wash up the two weeks’ worth of wash that I’d been stashing in the trunk of my car, including a quilt and set of sheets along with a whole load of towels. There was no way I could do that stuff at home. That wash done, I was finally “caught up.” If I’m going to keep up with the wash, I’ll have to do a load each day from now on. I’ve got one running right now, in fact.
In case you were wondering, yes, the machine does make quite a bit of noise when it’s running, and it also shakes the whole house when it’s on spin. It’s a bit like a jet plane taking off. It may seem odd, but I actually find the noise and the motion comforting. It’s not so noisy that we can’t hear the TV or the telephone, though. Mind you, we do have to turn the volume up a hair.
So I’ve made some concessions for my five-year-old washer, but for now, the good outweighs the bad. It does take a shift in perspective and habits to get used to the thing, but, again, worth it. I figure I’ll use it until it dies, and then I’ll invest in one of the new ones. Even if I only get a year of use out of the Comb-o-matic, it’ll be worth it. A year of wash at the laundromat would cost me approximately $500. That means six months from now, the machine will have paid for itself. Since I don’t pay utilities here at the RV site, I don’t have to factor in the cost of water or power.
I’m hoping, too, that going with the used machine will also allow us to take our Florida trip in January! Perhaps that’s the best part of this tale. Not only will I only have to go to the laundromat for bedding and rugs, but we can go on vacation and take our washer with us! Woot!
Picked it up used from a Craigslister for only $250!
Tags: dryer, energy efficiency, laundry, rv, saving money, Splendide, washer
