The Portable Washing Machines and Accessories to Buy 2018

June 17,2024

Our writer bought a Haier portable washing machine, saved hundreds of dollars, and recommends getting one for small apartments in expensive cities. He reviews a Black & Decker, two smaller Kuppets, and drying equipment you’ll want to go with..
The best machines overall are the top-loading, single-stream machines. A few different companies make these — like the Haier I went for — but the best-reviewed one on is from Black & Decker. It doesn’t hold as much as it could, at only about six pounds, but it’ll fit in more places and run through the entire wash-rinse-drain-spin-dry cycle without you having to do anything. It also has wheels, and it’s made of metal (rather than the plastic of the cheaper models), which is more durable and allows the machine to boast a more violent and effective spin-dry cycle. This is the one I would buy if I had to do it over again. .
The Kuppet Mini is a side-by-side machine, meaning the washer and salad spinner are in two separate compartments. The spinner is slightly smaller than the washer, which means you can only wash half as much laundry as you could in a similarly sized all-in-one machine — it holds just 4.7 pounds of laundry. At this size, it’s best for mobile use, perhaps in an RV, or for people with small homes who need a quick way to wash cloth diapers or something like that. .
Kuppet makes a few sizes of these; this one is about twice as big, holding 10.1 pounds of laundry in the wash side. That’s the standard size for portable washing machines that can substitute for normal washing machines, but it’s certainly still smaller than a normal washing machine. A nice thing about the Kuppet machines is that they can be filled by just dumping in a bucket of water, which means you don’t have to worry about finding the right adapters and hookups. This machine, it’s worth noting, is among the biggest portables you can find, so you can wash more laundry per batch, but at more than two feet wide, you’ll need more space for it. .
The valve (where you screw in the hose that connects to a water source) is a totally standard washing-machine attachment. You can replace these as needed with very cheap hoses from a hardware store. From there, you can buy adapters that will let you screw the hose into whatever water source you want, but I recommend the shower. This brings up the issue of having to unscrew the washer and screw in a showerhead when you want to take a shower, and vice versa when you want to wash clothes. Not ideal, but there’s also an adapter for that — problem solved. .
There aren’t many true electric dryers that plug into a standard 110-volt outlet, but reviewers seem to like this Panda model, which is described as drying a load of laundry in around two hours with minimal dollars added to the electric bill. But these are expensive; if you opt for the best washer and this dryer, you’re looking at about $500, which might be more than you want to spend.