Washing machine in the motorhome

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A washing machine in a motorhome is a great thing. But doesn't it use too much electricity? And then there's 230 V! How is that supposed to work?

Well, without electricity nothing happens, one would say, analogous to the otherwise well-known saying concerning finances. Therefore, practice makes perfect: here is a report of experience.

Which one would you like?

Camping washing machines range from 1.5 to 4.5 kg. Machines equipped with a separate spin dryer usually have a washing capacity of 2 to 3 kg and a spin capacity of 1 kg.

If you are thinking about a 4.5 kg capacity, you should remember that the amount of laundry also needs to be dried and that the clothes rack must have a corresponding length of line...

Although the spin performance is quite remarkable, the machines should be operated with a load of 50 to 75 %. Ultimately, the gears are not made of solid, and therefore heavy, metal like household appliances, but of more or less vulnerable plastic.

As is usually the case, the golden mean is the wisest decision: moderate weight, low power consumption and good washing and spinning performance.

So the decision was made to use the model oneConcept DB003, which has a 250 W drive for the washing drum and 120 W for the spin cycle.

oneConcept DB003

Like all other models, the washing machine has neither a heater nor a pump. The water, heated to around 40 °C, is poured into the washing drum using a hose or bucket, detergent and laundry are added, the power plug is connected to 230 V, the timer is set to 15 minutes - and the machine starts rotating the drum alternately to the right and left.

The power consumption is limited to around (250 W / 60 min x 13 min =) 54.17 Wh for a 15-minute wash cycle and a maximum of (120 W / 60 min * 5 min =) 10 W for a five-minute spin cycle. 2 minutes of spinning is completely sufficient, corresponding to (120 W / 60 min * 2 min =) 4 Wh.

A wash cycle including spinning consumes between 64 and 58 Wh.

The machine is also sometimes used as a "household" washing machine, meaning that regular use does not seem to pose any particular challenge to the mechanics. It remains to be seen to what extent subsequent models will maintain the original quality standard.

Power supply

Not an issue with shore power, but it may be more of an issue in mobile operation via inverter and auxiliary battery.

An inverter has a so-called Efficiency η (refers to the part of the incoming energy that is output when the battery DC voltage is converted into e.g. 230 V AC voltage) of eg 93 %.

The effective consumption is calculated as (56 W + 10 W) x 100 / 93 and is therefore 70.98 Wh.

Depending on the battery capacity of the LiFePo4 auxiliary battery, e.g. “only” 120 Ah, this corresponds to (120 Ah x 12.8 V =) 1,536 Wh, i.e. a very manageable requirement that can be covered in an hour even with a simple 100 W PV module when the sky is reasonably clear.

And dryer?

When the weather is good, you get it for free in the form of sun and wind.

A fairly stable and yet lightweight Rotary clothes dryer, with three decent ground anchors for just under 40 euros, equipped with coat hangers, offers plenty of space for two or three loads of laundry. Only bed linen has to be washed and dried separately due to capacity reasons of the washing drum.