I have found the ultimate off grid Washer. I use it and I love it.

nobody928 · April 2014

As many of you know I have started a few threads on a good washer for off grid use. I made my selection and I have now used my washer and am super happy with the results.

The model number is WF42H5200AP It is the samsung 4.2 cu ft unit. It has an energystar guide of only 7 dollars a year when used with a gas heater. I use only cold water to this unit so I should be getting the same results.

I hooked my killawatt meter to this unit and for most of the cycle it is under 100 watts sometimes even under 30. The highest surge that I have seen so far has been under 300 watts with a full load of clothes. There are many different cycles and options on this washer including a quick wash cycle that is under 3O minutes. This option is my favorite as most the time my clothes are not that dirty. I have a very small secondary system in place within my house as a backup if my main solar system ever has a fault. I am using this washer off of a very tiny system with very good results.

At the end of the day when the sun is down my battery floats at 12.8. I can easily do one or two quick cycle loads wich only drop my voltage down to about 12.7 or so.

So as you can imagine during my good sunlight hours this washer could probably run a good amount of time.

I am not an expert here but I am just an average Joe living off grid. So I apologize as i am not sure how to measure the watt hours required for each load but I attest that it is quite small.

The system I am using is 200 watts. I have a 105 amp hour agm battery made by batteries plus. I also am using a 30 amp mppt charge controller and I have two inverters for this systerm. 300/600 watt sinewave and a 1000/2000 watt sinewave.

westbranch · April 2014

Re: I have found the ultimate off grid Washer. I use it and I love it.

To measure the Wh consumption of any unit just leave the Kill-A-Watt meter plugged in and push the buttons to see all the data it had on your Kwhr usage, frequency and power factor etc. IIRC it might have to be plugged in for at least 1 hr with inverter on.

hth

jcheil · April 2014

Re: I have found the ultimate off grid Washer. I use it and I love it.

I'd be interested in seeing the actual kwh consumption used for an entire load. Please do run it on the kill-a-watt meter for an entire load.

And remember that the kill-a-watt meter cannot capture the highest surge, even if you are watching it 100% of the time you may never actually see the "real" surge.

And at $999 I hope it works VERY well

waynefromnscanada · April 2014

Re: I have found the ultimate off grid Washer. I use it and I love it.

An interesting spec from Samsung - - - a bit confusing: "Energy 3.2 cu.ft/kWh/cycle". I take it they're saying that it consumes 1 Kwh per 3.2 cu ft load.
http://www.samsung.com/ca/consumer/home-appliances/washers-dryers/washers/WF42H5200AP/A2
My Sears FL uses a rough average of 169 watt hours per load. (0.169 Kwh/load).

vtmaps · April 2014

Re: I have found the ultimate off grid Washer. I use it and I love it.

waynefromnscanada wrote: »

An interesting spec from Samsung - - - a bit confusing: "Energy 3.2 cu.ft/kWh/cycle". I take it they're saying that it consumes 1 Kwh per 3.2 cu ft load.
http://www.samsung.com/ca/consumer/home-appliances/washers-dryers/washers/WF42H5200AP/A2
My Sears FL uses a rough average of 169 watt hours per load. (0.169 Kwh/load).

I think they are including the energy cost of hot water. Energy star ratings are based on hot water consumption and electric consumption. Not sure... I think they may also get points for extraction... the more water they extract, the more energy will be saved in the drier.

--vtMaps

stephendv · April 2014

Re: I have found the ultimate off grid Washer. I use it and I love it.

To be a great off-grid washer it should have a dedicated hot water input feed so that you can optionally use solar hot water with it... don't see any mention of this?

nobody928 · April 2014

Re: I have found the ultimate off grid Washer. I use it and I love it.

stephendv wrote: »

To be a great off-grid washer it should have a dedicated hot water input feed so that you can optionally use solar hot water with it... don't see any mention of this?

Modern washers are capable of washing clothes just as efficiently with cold water.

I never use hot water.

I am amazed that I run this washer, a wireless router two lamps with led bulbs, my wifes curling iron and flat iron as well as My electric razor and a 19 inch led dvd tv off of a 200 watt system and 105 watt agm battery. And I have room to spare.

westbranch · April 2014

Re: I have found the ultimate off grid Washer. I use it and I love it.

Have you got a battery monitor of any kind? They are a god item to have when running close to the edge..You can monitor Amps out and amps into the battery and know if you are deficit charging.

zoneblue · April 2014

Re: I have found the ultimate off grid Washer. I use it and I love it.

nobody928 wrote: »

I am amazed that I run this washer, a wireless router two lamps with led bulbs, my wifes curling iron and flat iron as well as My electric razor and a 19 inch led dvd tv off of a 200 watt system and 105 watt agm battery. And I have room to spare.

These loads are a good illustration of the kind of load that while drawing some watts, consuming relatively few watt hours.

nobody928 · April 2014

Re: I have found the ultimate off grid Washer. I use it and I love it.

westbranch wrote: »

Have you got a battery monitor of any kind? They are a god item to have when running close to the edge..You can monitor Amps out and amps into the battery and know if you are deficit charging.

I have a 30 amp tracer mppt with a battery monitor. I have two windy city 100w solar panels. I have a used 65 dollar agm battery that I have had good luck with and two sinewave inverter cheap from china

The amazing thing about my secondary system is also that I built it for way under 600 dollars. I am satisfied with the results from them. But longevity may be an issue. So far so good though. 1 year and going strong.

The main reason I started this secondary cheap system in my house is that I didnt want to run extension cords throughout my house from my bigger system. I have my system installed under my bathroom counter and it runs in to my bedroom through an adjoining wall. I went to a used battery shop and got a great deal on 4 east penn agm batteries for my main system. They had one extra "batteries plus brand x2" agm deep cycle battery for 60 dollars and I couldn't pass on it. I figured I could use it as a back up somewhere somehow. I eventually needed a way to keep this extra battery floating so I built this system one piece at a time for as cheap as possible. Now it is actually a pretty decent bottom of the barrel back up system that I am experimenting with and finding out that it is capable of more than I could have ever hoped for.

samppa · April 2014

Re: I have found the ultimate off grid Washer. I use it and I love it.

I have an old pulsator washing machine at my off-grid cottage. Been using it with a genny so far, but could probably easily use it with an inverter.
Typeplate says 250watts and washing cycle takes 4 minutes. Then you have to rinse another 4 minutes. There's a kind of mangle attached, that you use to first after wash cycle, then after rinsing to get most of the water of.. hot water is heated externally with wood or propane. Doesn't require pressurised water.
Works pretty well but is a bit of work

so to wash 5kg, it uses maybe 25wh of electricity (+ water heating).

Cariboocoot · April 2014

Re: I have found the ultimate off grid Washer. I use it and I love it.

BTW two things that can improve the washing: let the clothes soak, and rinse twice. You'd be amazed how much cleaner clothes get just left to soak in soapy water for a few hours, and how much more of that soap can be removed by a double rinse. More effective than all the fancy cycles the factory can install.

RandomJoe · April 2014

Re: I have found the ultimate off grid Washer. I use it and I love it.

Cariboocoot wrote: »

BTW two things that can improve the washing: let the clothes soak, and rinse twice. You'd be amazed how much cleaner clothes get just left to soak in soapy water for a few hours, and how much more of that soap can be removed by a double rinse. More effective than all the fancy cycles the factory can install.

This reminds me of an "oops" I had with my washer a while back. I wanted to wash my kayaking boots (neoprene "wet shoes" that are almost impossible to dry inside, so tend to stink...) so I filled the washer, added detergent, let it agitate a bit to get well mixed. Opened the lid, pushed the boots in so they'd fill up, left them to soak for a while.

What I did NOT know is that the little switch on the lid ONLY interrupts the agitation and drum-spinning functions - the timer and pump still run! The timer continued through the cycle and it drained the water out, refilled, then drained again. When I came back to the washer I found the timer at end of cycle and no water...

That seemed like a strange configuration to me - were I designing it I'd have simply interrupted power to the timer (which kills everything else) as long as the lid was open.

I have since found the schematic for my washer, and it's now tempting to remove the timer entirely and roll my own micro controller. Then I could do all sorts of fancy things like - as you say - extended soaks or double rinses. Even put it on my network and tell it to wait for the charge controller to hit float then start washing!

Edit: Oh yeah, and send me a text message (or sound an alarm of some sort) telling me the cycle completed. How many times I completely forget I'm washing clothes until the next morning - when I need to wear something in the washer!

I have found the ultimate off grid Washer. I use it and I love it.

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