Pros: This unit, which uses an impeller rather than a central agitator, holds more clothes than you'd guess. It's difficult to gauge its size because there is no frame of reference in the photo, so I surprised it was large enough to hold a decent sized load of clothes, or, in one load, a king sized set of sheets. Also, the unit is monkey-simple to use.
Cons:
Boy, where to start. The unit is simply more trouble than it's worth. By the time you adapt your washing routine to accommodate its shortcomings, you've rendered the convenience, inconvenient. Just a few of the limitations:
1. It has a very short drain hose, less than 3 feet. Since there is no spin cycle, the unit relies on gravity to empty. This means you must lay the drain hose down to drain. The hose rests upright against the back, on a hook, during use, and you lift it off the hoke and lay it down to drain, against the ground. Consequently, forget about draining this into the bathtub or a sink, as it is neither long enough, nor will provide the necessity gravity, to drain up and over the side of a tub or sink. To get around this, I picked up the unit and literally placed it in my tub, and filled it with water and washed clothes in it while it sat IN the tub enclosure, so that I could lay the very short drain hose down in the tub's drain when I was finished. Which led to limitation no. 2.
2. It has a very short electrical cord. This cord is very short, so, because I had to set the unit in my tub enclosure to wash, it wasn't long enough to also reach the electrical outlet only 6 feet away. A grounded 3 print extension cord was required.
3. The cavity / wash tub of this unit is surprisingly large, so it holds more clothes than you think. This may seem like a pro, however, think about manually filling it with water. There are no hookups required, so you manually pour water into it. This may also seem like a pro, but it actually isn't. For me to wash a MEDIUM sized load of clothes, it took five sloshing full buckets of hot water. Now, think about the time involved in filling five buckets of water from the faucet, and carrying pouring it into the wash tub. I started with a pitcher of water and realized, geez, I'll be at this all day, and switched to buckets.
4. The cycle is 15 minutes long. This is barely enough time for an underpowered washer to get clothes clean. It's fine for lingerie and hand washables, but for anything heavy, you'll want to do two cycles, at least.
5. It says to use 2 tablespoons of detergent, but you'll need much more. Low sudsing is recommended, but I used the same amount I'd use on any other load. Remember, you've just added 5 buckets of water. 2 tablespoons of detergent did NOT get my clothes clean.
6. Once you've laid the hose down and drained the 5 buckets of now dirty water, you'll need to repeat the process and fill it up again with 5 buckets of clean water, and run a 15 minute cycle to rinse the clothes, and then gravity drain again.
7. Because there is no spin cycle, the clothes will be sopping wet, as if they sat in a 5 bucket container of water. Which they did. Hand wringing is required, with a period of drip drying before they'd be ready for a standard dryer. If you use a line, no problem, but they will be sopping. Thus, you wouldn't want to wash heavy towels or jeans in this machine.
8. The force of the wash cycle is surprisingly strong on small loads. The impeller spins the water into a gentle whirlpool effect, swirling your clothes one direction, pausing, and then the other direction. This back-and-forth motion continues for the entire 15 minute cycle. Now, when the load is pretty small, the force of the whirlpool was really pretty decent. However, on a medium and full load, the force just disappeared completely. That's a lot of water to move around, and when you get to 6 or 7 buckets for a full load, the weight of the clothes and water just slow down considerably, and they swirl around slower than the most gentle of gentle cycles. This equates to clothes which do NOT get that clean, and really, are only being swirled in kinda murky soapy water. This is great if you only want to rinse them out, but forget about washing any dirty underwear or diapers with "biological klingons" -- as they will still be there when you're done.
9. Bottom line of all this? I was exhausted with all the effort I went to, to avoid going across the complex to the laundry room. I did NOT save money, because of the considerable investment of my time, energy, and manual labor.
Really, I think the only place I'd recommend this machine, is if you want a simple, fast, easy to use method of rinsing out bathing suits and towels near a pool or campground, and, you've set the unit up outside, on a patio, next to a hose. You can use the hose to fill it up without sloshing buckets, put the bathing suits and towels in it, wash out the chlorine and dirt, and drain it right into the ground or flower bed. Hang out the beach towels and suits, or clothes next to a clothesline, and you're done. Anything "INSIDE" your apartment or house, and you'll just get frustrated.
Remember, at anywhere between $60 and $100 for this machine you're better off using that to put down on a real compact washing machine with a water hookup, legit drain hose, and spin cycle.
So, I've got one more appliance that doesn't do what I really needed. I have once again "got what I could afford" instead of "got what I need." I'm now out the money, and, still have to use the laundry
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Product Description:
LCK 50 portable washing machine Specifications: 00-3049-4. Capacity 6.6 lb (3 kg) . Space saver.- Its compact design allows it to be stored almost anywhere in the home . Lightweight.- Only 25.5 lb (11.6 kg) . Portable.- Easy to move from one place to another . Durable.- Rus
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