Product Review: The Wonder Wash

Now that we’re living in an apartment, we find that getting our laundry clean can be quite difficult to do. The on-site laundry facilities are unappetizing, and driving elsewhere is inconvenient at best. So, my husband and I decided to buy the Wonder Wash, a portable pressure clothes washer. This product is hand-cranked, but the claim is that it cleans so much more efficiently that you only need to spend 2 to 3 minutes washing a load.

The reason that it’s suppose to clean so much more efficiently, is because you use hot water, then seal it in the drum, the hot water then heats up the air within the vessel, causing air pressure. This pressure forces the water and laundry detergent through the fibers of your clothes, getting your clothing clean in much less time, using less water and less detergent.

Or at least that’s what the pitch is, anyway. This is an “As Seen on TV” item, and you know how those can be. Some work, some don’t.

Here’s how it works: You fill the metal container with warm to hot water, add clothes detergent, put your dirty clothes in, then screw on and tighten the specially made lid. The next step is to crank the portable washer for a few minutes, rinse, and, voila, your clothes are clean. The actual instructions are more detailed, and you have to be careful not to put too much water in it. If you’re interested in more detailed how-to instructions, check out my article on How to Use a Wonder Wash.

When the Wonder Wash came, my husband put it together without much trouble. The assembly instructions were pretty lackluster, but the pieces went together intuitively. By the time he was finished putting it together, I had a load of clothes all ready, and was eager to try it out. Yeah, I was eager to wash clothes. The life of a mommy, eh?

The wash drum seemed quite sturdy, and I had no problem putting in water and screwing down the lid. On the other hand, the stand for the drum is a somewhat rickety and seems less sturdy than it ought to be. I have read reviews of people who’ve used the Wonder Wash for long periods of time, and haven’t had any trouble with the stand breaking, so perhaps it’s stronger than it looks.

For my first load, I used the recommended amount of detergent, which I found to be a little much, and reduced the amount on subsequent loads. Cranking the drum was a little difficult at first, but you get into a rhythm and the 2 minutes go by fast. The Wonder Wash has a special “bayonet” (their word, not mine), that you attach to a valve on the bottom, which opens and the water drains out. This means that you do not have to lift the drum and dump the water out yourself, but let it drain out through the bottom into your bathtub or kitchen sink (or where ever you keep it) with little to no work. This is much better and easier than other, similar products that you have to lift the whole wash drum and drain the water out through the top. This part I really, really like, and think is really great about the design.

I thought that the Wonder Wash got our clothes quite clean, and I had picked out some that were especially dirty (easy to do with 2 little kids). For the first load, I did rinse an extra time to get more laundry detergent out, but fixed that problem by using less detergent in my future loads.

Overall, I felt that the Wonder Wash was well designed and easy to use. For the convenience of getting clean clothes without leaving home, I feel like the amount of work is worth it.

If you're interested in buying a Wonder Wash, you can order them for $50 off of Amazon.com.