Portable washing machine

We bought one of these on-line to test it. Even at a price between $40 and $50 it’s poor value for money, we reckon.

If you read the prominent reviews on the Temu website you could be convinced that this foldable, compact, eight-litre capacity, 240V washing machine is a camper’s best friend…but we reckon it’s not.

The little washer seemed well-made and unfolded easily from its collapsed, easily-packed mode into operational mode. It plugged into our inverter socket and the touch pad controls worked well.

Temu’s own promo material points out that it’s strictly for: ‘Little Size Clothes – socks, underwear, baby clothes’. Also, the instructions insist that the water temperature must be below 60 degrees C, so if you like an extra-hot wash it won’t handle that.

We found the the claims of suitability for ‘small size clothes’ were accurate and anything larger, such as lightweight adult T-shirts or shorts, could be washed, but only one at a time.  Heavier denim clothing just wouldn’t fit.

With the correct amount of tiny clothing in its bowl the machine certainly did a thorough wash and spin-dry, but we judged that it wasn’t an item that warranted space in our slide-on camper.

We’ll stick with our regime of drip-dry camping clothing – including undies – that we hand-wash and rinse in a couple of buckets, or save up until we’re in a caravan park and can use its washing machines.