A Washing Machine on a Boat?

One of our concerns about living on a boat was how we were going to manage laundry. Not an easy feat if you are relying on public transportation or your own two feet. Lugging laundry through the streets wasn’t our only concern; we’ve also heard that in some countries, laundromats can be hard to find or very expensive.

Therefore, we spent some effort researching washing machines that can be installed on a boat. Ryan and Sophie installed an electric washer/dryer combo on Polar Seal. Fancy, right?

Since we had been staying at Marinas with free laundry facilities, we had no need for our handy-dandy washer machine. But on our way to Port Aransas, I used a beach towel for a blanket (click here if you want to read why) and rather than hanging it up to dry, in our slightly traumatized arrival state, we wadded it up and shoved it into an out of the way corner of the cockpit and then forgot about it. For like a week.

This soured beach towel gave me the perfect excuse to use my neglected machine, and you know what? I LOVE IT!! I ran the towel and half a dozen washcloth sized cleaning rags through the machine with some vinegar to get out the sour smell. Then washed them again with just a small piece torn from an ecofriendly detergent laundry sheet. I easily rinsed the rags by hand in the tub as I filled it with fresh water, then put them in the spin basket and let it do its thing while I ran the towel through a 15-minute rinse cycle. Even though the thick towel filled the spin basket completely, so that I wasn’t expecting good results, it nevertheless came out smelling clean and fresh and nearly dry just like the smaller items.

The other thing I love about this machine is that it sits perfectly on the bench seat. I don’t have to move it to use the shower, but it’s lightweight so I can do so easily if I want to access the storage cabinet behind it. I use a short extension cord to reach the nearest electrical outlet. The fill hose is long enough to attach to the sink faucet, but I think it’s easier to just use the shower head. Since it’s in the shower, I can just turn the knob to the drain position, and the water flows out into the shower pan and gets sucked out of the boat via the sump pump. Easy-Peasy.

We were not looking forward to the complicated install and couldn’t find a good spot to put one like it on our Catalina so, we opted for this portable machine that we ordered for $100 on Amazon. Months ago. And then never used it. In fact, the entire time we were in Kemah it sat in the back of our truck.

Are there any drawbacks? Possibly. You do need to hang everything to dry and if you are in a boat there is a good chance you are in a humid climate and if there's no breeze, that may mean hanging them indoors like we did. We hung them inside the boat, and the A/C was running.

And of course, you’ll still need a laundromat for big things such as blankets. But it’s perfectly suited for summery, beachy clothes like tank tops, T-shirts, swim trunks and shorts. You could probably even wash a pair of jeans and a bulky winter sweater in one load. We probably wouldn’t.

Then there is water consumption to consider. There is always water consumption to consider on a boat. At least on our boat. Our Catalina holds 110 gallons of fresh water. To both wash and rinse one load it takes about 6-10 gallons. Not so bad if you have a water maker or can fill your tanks readily and for free. We do have a water maker that hopefully works. Maybe we will get to put it to use soon too, but I guess that will be another day and another post!