New Washing Machine

Technically, I didn't really need it. My apartments laundry room is about 200 feet away down the hall and up one set of stairs. The fact is, that I never trusted the machines there after some of my clothes were damaged due to a leaking vibration damper, and one of the machines is ultra slow due to a faultily adjusted cold water valve. So I would usually wait until all my laundry was dirty (about 3 weeks) and shlep it all up and down three flights of stairs to the local Laundromat.

I would have to sit around for hours waiting for 6 or 7 machines to finish and then dry all the stuff, and fold it. All the while passing time watching the 26" TV playing Univision [which my brother accurately refers to as the bikini channel] soap opera's in spanish. I'm always paranoid that if I turn my back for a second $600 worth of Diesel jeans will be snatched and I'll be pants less. And by the way people laugh and point you'd think they have never seen day-glo Zebra striped G-string underpants before.

Anyway, I had been dreaming of a single unit washer/dryer combination and so I Googled around until I found a site dedicated to small appliances. In Japan they have countertop dishwashers that are designed to clean a couple small plates, some chopsticks and maybe a sake cup if you are good at three dimensional puzzles. I was amazed at the sophisticated washers they had over there, but most people still dry their clothes on outdoor racks.

The unit that I settled on was an LG Electronics WM3677HW I had to do a bit of plumbing in order to get it hooked up to the kitchen sink. I replaced the sink's drain-spout with one that provided a 3/4" branch for a dishwasher. Then I built two T receptacles out of brass pipe fittings for the water supply, and connected them to the existing sink feeds. Lastly I drilled a 2 1/2" hole in the side of my sink's cabinet to run the drain and supply hoses.

The machine doesn't use an exhaust vent, it has a condenser unit that converts the steam to liquid and pumps it out the drain. It takes longer to dry clothes that way, but it has a nice timer that allows me to put a load in in the morning and when I get home from work it's done. If I'm late, it's smart enough to keep fluffing the laundry every few minutes to prevent wrinkling. The only thing I need to deal with is using liquid fabric softener instead of sheets. A small sacrifice for the convienience.

Posted on January 9, 2006 4:07 PM


Comments

Dude, you'd better learn to hack that washer in clever ways or I'll lose all respect for you!

In other news, I've succeeded in a minor bid at immortality. I just found out that my name, as a member of the Planetary Society, is on a microdot aboard the Stardust comet probe in deep solar orbit (The landing of the sample return vehicle just a few days ago reminded me of this.). With luck, my name might last as long as Nixon's on the LEM.

I suppose at some point, if outer space ever gets heavily trafficked by us, I might have to work to prevent the probe from being salvaged by space truckers on a treasure hunting mission.

Posted by: Pace Arko Author Profile Page | January 18, 2006 7:32 AM Gravatar Icon

Well, the thing already has several blue LED's so no easy hacks immediately present themselves...

As for the microdot, you should expect to start getting alien spam pretty soon.

Posted by: Bakafish Author Profile Page | January 18, 2006 2:27 PM Gravatar Icon

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January 9, 2006