Washing Machines

[ctsbillc]

Seems for a washing machine, we have few options, Splendide or Splendide.

They offer a ventless version WDC7100XCP, which has a cold plate to condense the water vapour.

Is this ventless approach good, or do they tend to fill your boat with condensation?

Tks,
Bill

[speciald@ocens.]

NO! We have the non-vented Spledide and wish we had the vented model. The non-vented model washes fine but doesn't dry the cloths. The drying cycle also uses an extraordinary amount of water. We festoon the boat to dry the washed cloths. I'm assuming the vented model would work better as I have had no experience with that model.

[Dockhead]

The non-vented condensing dryers use a flow of cold water to cool a condensor. This water is simply dumped. Totally inappropriate on a sailboat.

Besides Splendide, there's Eumenia (or Eudora in some markets). We like ours.

The disadvantage of this one is that the dryer, while not a condensing model, is unventable -- it exhausts the hot, moist air directly into the room. We keep a hatch open nearby but you still get damp air in the boat. It is a minor irritant and inconvenience.

If you don't mind cutting a hole in your doghouse for a vent, you should get a unit with a vented dryer.

[ctsbillc]

Glad I did'nt buy the non-vented.

I'll check out the Eumenia.

Shoving the vent hose though a port may be the easiest approach.

Bill

[YourOldNemesis]

Why not just fit another heat-exchanger so that the cold-water from the condenser is circulated through a salt-water cooler. Or run salt-water straight through the condenser cooler?

[Captain Bill]

We have the vented model of the Splendide. We don't use it too much, but it is nice to have clean sheets and tee shirts once in a while while on the hook. They don't have a lot of capacity and one has to have a genset to run it unless you have a huge battery bank and lots of recharge capability. We are fortunate in having a vented lazarette which is not connected to the living space where we run the vent hose and dump the moisture overboard.

[ctsbillc]

Heat exchanger for getting rid of the condensate seems acceptable, but would decrease efficiency even more.

Good point about not using it much. Best place to dry may well be on the rigging anyway.

Bill

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by ctsbillc

Shoving the vent hose though a port may be the easiest approach.

Bill

That would be easy. A removable tube of that springy stuff that stows neat when your not using the washer.

I bought one of those non vented ones for my house in Australia and I couldn’t believe the amount of water it uses in the dry cycle! Astounding! More so as the machine had a 5**** efficiency rating so I got cash back from the government because the washer used little water..... the DRY cycle wasn't included! LOL It used, from memory, about 10 times more water to dry the clothes than to wash the damn things!

Also I couldnt understand the instruction book / cycles etc. Nic had to do all the washing. Nothings changed!


Mark

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by YourOldNemesis

Why not just fit another heat-exchanger so that the cold-water from the condenser is circulated through a salt-water cooler. Or run salt-water straight through the condenser cooler?

An awful lot of complexity.

I think:

1. Ideal solution: vented dryer with permanent vent to the outdoors.

2. Acceptable solution: vented dryer with flexible hose "shoved out a hatch", as suggested above.

3. Suboptimal but acceptable solution: vented dryer, vented into the boat interior.

4. Poor solution: clothes on the rigging. In many climates they simply don't get dry.

5. Unacceptable solution: ventless condensing dryer that uses half your water tank (!) as a cooling medium.


This thread has got me thinking about rigging up some kind of attachment to rig on the vent outlet on our machine, connecting to a flexible hose to shove out a hatch. I like that. The hatch doesn't need to be closed at all or sealed in any way. The hose will blow the moist air away from the boat.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Captain Bill

We have the vented model of the Splendide. We don't use it too much, but it is nice to have clean sheets and tee shirts once in a while while on the hook. They don't have a lot of capacity and one has to have a genset to run it unless you have a huge battery bank and lots of recharge capability. We are fortunate in having a vented lazarette which is not connected to the living space where we run the vent hose and dump the moisture overboard.

When we were trying to buy an Oyster, we were told to our astonishment that many Oyster owners mount their washing machines in the laz. I have never been on a cruising sailboat that had really adequate deck storage and can't imagine giving up a huge chunk of it for the w/d.

[ctsbillc]

Looks like through the hatch for me.

I was not able to find any vendor in north america for the Eudora/Eumenia machines. Anyone know of a source?

Bill

[ctsbillc]

Incidentally, hanging your clothes out to dry can have pretty nasty consequences around Africa. Tumbu fly

YouTube - The Tumbu Fly

Ironing the clothes kills the eggs.

Bill

[Palarran]

The problem I see with the vented driers is they still are not heated air. I'ts just air tossed which means the things take two hours to dry a load. I haven't been able to find an all-in-one which uses heated air to dry.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Palarran

The problem I see with the vented driers is they still are not heated air. I'ts just air tossed which means the things take two hours to dry a load. I haven't been able to find an all-in-one which uses heated air to dry.

No, you are mistaken. They all use heated air to dry as far as I know, including the ventless condensing ones. A "vented dryer" simply refers to a normal dryer, which requires some kind of vent to get rid of the heated, moisture-laden exhaust air.

Our Eudora/Eumenia Sparmeister washer/dryer (in one unit, front-loading) has the heating element built into the door. It is on a pivot so that you have to flip the door around for the drying cycle so that the heating element is inside the drum. It uses 2.2kW to dry, so you don't have a whole lot of capacity left out of a 16 amp (x 230v) shore power connection when the dryer is running.

From the Splendide Ventless manual:

"This appliance dries laundry by heating the laundry inside
the drum to create steam and then cooling the outer drum.
As the steam hits the cooled surface, it’s condensed back
into water and is pumped out through the drain system.
This process repeats until the clothes are dry.

NOTE: This
drying process does not require any outside venting,
however, it does require approx. 5 gallons of COLD water
per your of dry time. Splendide’s ventless models DO NOT
add moisture or humidity to the surrounding area. All

humidity stays within the unit and is drained as water."

[Palarran]

You are right and I am wrong
I really wouldn't buy a ventless model. So with a vented one, the Splendide has a 1200 watt element and a standard GE or Whirlpool is 5200. So the dry time is going to be hours on a Splendide. That's the part I don't like. I want to be able to do a load from washing to finish drying in under two hours.