Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I love this thing. I live in a one-bedroom apartment with no washer. I found myself just buying more undergarments, so I could extend the time between schlepps to the laundromat. Now, I pop a week's handful of clothes in a 5-gallon bucket. Wash away and hang dry out on my porch. This washer makes me feel like a pioneer woman. My clothes are actually cleaner than when washed in machines. I save TONS of money. And unlike laundromat washers, clothes can actually soak--yes! What's different is no spin rinse and manually powering the entire process. I manhandle a full 5-gallon bucket that sits in my bathtub, and there's no great way to rinse all the soap and then the water out (save hand-wringing, but I ain't got time nor the skin and nails to mess with that). Tip it over, let the water out, dam the clothes from flooding out, refill and repeat. My sweet spot is 1/4 c. detergent, 2 wash cycles, 1 water cycle, 1 softener cycle. All steps performed by moderately laborious swooshing, dumping and refilling. If performed straight through, those manual cycles could be 20 mins; I normally take hours (because I'm at home--not at the laundromat--and I can). Hang slopping wet clothes out on line. If I really want to avoid the laundromat, I stand straddling the sides of the tub and wash big loads in there. No longer a pioneer but an old-timey factory worker stirring something industrial-sized. I thought I would really want an electric mini-washer. No way. I'm so glad to have saved the money and bulky object to store. But just as valuable, I really love how this washer makes me feel: old-timey, strong and self-reliant.