ARKSEN Portable Mini Washing Machine 8-9LBS Dorm Camping RV Compact Laundry Washer

I was NOT given this product for free or at a discount in exchange for an honest review.Now that that's out of the way, I can tell you about my first experience with this washer. I live in a small apartment and the nearest laundromat is too inconvenient for me to walk to. My car is always on the fritz and there are no laundry departments in my building. So I decided to look into a portable washer. I found this one that holds up to about 9lbs of clothes for under $70 on Amazon. Pretty good bargain. It arrived yesterday and it is much bigger than I thought it would be but very light. When I took it out of the packaging, I noticed a red ink mark on the lid and some black ink smeared on the safety disc thing for the spin cycle. Wasn't sure if that came from manufacturing or not. I washed off the red ink but the black wouldn't come off. The way my kitchen is designed made it difficult for me to sit this on my counter so I sat it on a chair in the bathroom where I could easily fill it with a few buckets of water and drain straight into the toilet. The sink hook up does fit my kitchen sink so if I had the space, I could've hooked it up there with no problem. I filled the machine to the medium marker, added detergent, then clothes and filled with more water as necessary. The drain hose seemed like it was gonna spill out so I stuck my finger in it to prevent spilling since i didn't have anything small enough to fit the hole and left it the duration of the wash and the rinse. It drains very quickly which is good. I didn't use the spin cycle because I have a Nina Soft Spin Dryer by Laundry Alternative which is amazing for those who don't know. You can find those on Amazon as well. So I can't review the spin cycle. Overall I'm happy with the product. Makes my laundry days much easier. I only gave it 3 stars since I couldn't comment at all on the spin cycle. I would recommend to a friend though.

It turned out to be larger than I had pictured. I measured the interior dimensions top to bottom and ofcourse width on both sides and I came up with a measured cubic foot area of 0.92 cu ft. Thought that might behelpful to some. On my last load the motor seemed to strain a little getting up to the normal swirling motion speed nearlyevery time the agitator changed direction. I was washing an aged pair of blue jean shorts, 3 t-shirts,1 tank top, 1 pair of socks,& 1 wash cloth. When I removed one of the t-shirts the motor returned to its normal agitatoraction and with out strain. The clothes came very clean. Pretty pleased there. The Spin-Dry cycle of this thing is a wholedifferent story. The spin basket is rather small and it performs mediocre at best in terms of removing moisture from thecentrifugal action. For one thing it doesn't spin fast enough IMO to be effective at spin drying and it is difficult near impossible to get the load balanced adequately. It will remove some of the moisture almost comparable to one wringing them out by hand. Guess some of that is dependent on how strong your hands and wrists are.. :-)I also purchased the Laundry Alternative's entry spin dryer that has the < $90 price currently and its a Prime item onAmazon. I did a comparative test and I will say the Laundry Alternatives spin cycle removed more than 2x's the amount ofmoisture from the same load after I had already used the spin-dry cycle of the Arksen Washer.One last thing for now: First time I operated the washer was in my kitchen which is rather small and it ran fine but gave off a offensive odor which seemed to be giving me a mild head-ache. It seems to have dissipated. I did move the unit tomy basement where I use the cold water fill and hot water fill hoses from my old large capacity whirlpool washer that broke 2 wks ago to fill the portable washer. I set the Arksen unit on a shower chair and set it next to the toilet that is also close by to the washer and is where I drain the wash water and the water from the spin dry cycles. Will update more later if something significant comes about. Thanks for reading my review. Hope it was helpful.

I got this washed because I was spending almost $40 a month on wash at the laundromat for 2 people. There aren’t washer hookups in my house and even if there was, there isn’t really space to put a washer.I got the washer yesterday and already did two loads of wash. I fit jeans (men’s 38, 32) a shirt and some small things like undies and socks all together and it washed them fine. I didn’t use the water intake tube because it wasn’t the right size fit for my sink. I just put the water in at the top and that seemed to be fine. It’s not loud at all and fits more than I thought it would and doesn’t take up too much space. I put in on a chair and had a bucket to drain the water. To empty the water all you do is let the tube down that is on the side of the machine. So unless you have a drain or something on your floor to drain the water, it fit on a kitchen chair just something so you can let the tube down to drain it. Fewer things can fit into the spin basket one or two things at a time, but it did a great job! You should have the tube draining while it is spinning or the clothes will just get wet again. The only thing, it shakes a little while it spins so I had to hold it (even when it was on the floor) but the spin doesn’t take long at all so I didn’t really mind. I’d rather do that than ring them out by hand. For a small washer it worked great. I haven’t tried towels yet but by the looks of it I think towels and bedding will be the only things I’ll have to take to the laundromat.