Best Washing Machine For Off Grid

Tracking down the best washing machine for off-grid usage requires completely different search criteria than when you’re a “regular” washing machine.

These things need to be foolishly energy efficient (or completely energy dependent). They need to be able to use a variety of different water sources, you need to use that water efficiently while still producing a deep and consistent clean, too.

Well, we’ve done the heavy lifting for you.

Below we highlight two of the very best washing machines for off-grid usage, the kinds of washing machines you’ll be glad to own when you start to move off of the beaten path.

The Best Washing Machine for Off Grid – Lavario Portable Clothes Washer

One of the most popular off-grid washing machines money can buy right now, this game-changing unit is 100% power-free and can be used anywhere and everywhere you want to do some laundry – so long as you have just a bit of water and just a bit of detergent.

Features

  • 5 pounds of clothes washing capacity
  • Top loading
  • Hand powered
  • Washes clothes in 20 minutes or less

What We Like Most

There’s a lot to fall in love with when it comes to this portable off grid washing machine, but the fact that it doesn’t need to use any electricity whatsoever – while still deeply cleaning all of your clothes the way a traditional washing machine would – is incredible.

This system has been designed to use two different “buckets” (with a little bit of help from gravity) to make quick work of your laundry chores off grid.

Drop your clothes into the interior bucket (more of a basket, really), fill the outer bucket with up to 10 gallons of water and detergent, and then simply start pumping the interior basket up and down.

About five minutes of pumping and then 15 minutes of soaking is all you’ll need to do to get your clothes completely clean.

What We Didn’t Love

Manually washing your clothes by hand certainly takes a little bit of getting used to, especially if you have been leaning on electric washing machines your whole life.

Aside from that, though, there’s no real downsides to using this off-grid system.

Pros and Cons

  • Allows you to wash your clothes literally anywhere
  • 5 pounds of clothes in the basket make quick work of laundry chores
  • You can wash a whole load of clothes in less than 20 minutes
  • You have to manually agitate your clothing to wash them

A Great Budget-Friendly Alternative – WonderWash Laundry Machine

The functionality of this washing machine is very similar to our top option above, except for this time you’ll be spending a handcrank instead of pumping your laundry basket up and down.

Some people really like the handcrank and have even found ways to attach it to solar-powered motors to turn this into a semi-electric off grid washing machine. Maybe that’ll work for you, too!

Features

  • 5 pounds of clothing load capacity
  • Top loading
  • 100% hand powered
  • Washes clothes in two minutes

What We Like Most

There’s a lot to love when it comes to this little off-grid washing machine.

For starters, it has an adorable retro-looking form factor and comes in a whole host of different colors – including a number of special edition retro pastel colors.

Secondly, this thing handles almost all of the “heavy lifting” after it’s been loaded up and locked down.

All you’ll need to do is manipulate the handcrank for a couple of minutes and then you’ll be able to take your clothes out of this system just as clean as if you ran them through a traditional washer.

As mentioned above, some people have even found ways to jerry rig solar-powered motor and belt systems to handle the hand cranking for them.

If you’ve got a little bit of inventor in you that might be something you’re interested in, too.

What We Didn’t Love

Emptying out the cleaning chamber on this potbelly off-grid washing machine can be a little annoying.

On top of that, having to sit and handcrank over and over and over for a couple of minutes gets dull in a hurry, too. Especially if you have a couple of loads of laundry to do.

Pros and Cons

  • 5 pound clothing capacity means you’ll rip through laundry quite quickly
  • Handcranked technology means you can use this anywhere off grid
  • Thanks to the cleaning chamber you only have to wash for two minutes
  • There’s no spend dry with this system, meaning you’ll have to ring your clothes out and dry them a little longer
  • Cranking this over and over again gets annoying quickly

Closing Thoughts

Both of the off-grid washing machines we highlighted earlier make relatively quick work of laundry when you don’t have access to a traditional laundry system.

Each of them have their own little quirks, but both are well worth having if you’re going to be spending any significant amount of time off-grid and without consistent sources of electricity.

Because each of the pics above are so similar it really comes down to your budget and how you want to physically manipulate these hand-operated washing machines.