Great product for reducing environmental impact
I'm really pleased with the Laundry POD. Firstly, it has greater capacity than I anticipated, so it can cope with a king size duvet cover, which is the largest item I wash. My main intention in buying the POD was to reduce my water usage, reduce my electricity usage, and engage more with a household task.
The POD isn't a replacement for a washing machine. For one thing, it can't clean laundry as well - you need to soak and/or scrub soiled items if you want them really clean. For another, it can't spin as effectively, so you need to plan how you're going to dry your items, especially in a towel wash, as towels absorb a lot of water and don't tend to release it much when spun in the POD. And you need to be there doing the washing, rather than leaving the machine to wash things on its own.
On the plus side, you can do a lot of washing with little water if you plan it carefully, washing lighter coloured and less soiled items first, then going on to darker items and things that will muddy the water. For example, I washed bed linen and towels using one lot of water and soap powder, a wash that would have needed 2 loads in the machine. To wash and rinse takes about 10 - 15 litres of water, which compares very well to the average of 50 litres in a washing machine. Using the POD, I can get the washing done in about half an hour, which compares well to 2 hours using the machine.
If you're thinking of getting one of these, you need to plan carefully where you will use it so that it's as comfortable as possible for your arms when you're turning the handle, and where it's easy to get water to fill the POD and easy to drain the POD. I find that the POD moves about on the surface where I stand it to use it, and am thinking that eventually I will need to make a frame for it so it stays still in one place. Unless you have really strong arm muscles, it will make your arms ache to use it! The POD is small and lightweight when empty, so it can be stored in a different place than where you use it
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