New Washing Machine—Again

Back in January Bro Smith informed us that his daughter, whose washing machine he’d lent us shortly after we moved, would need it back in about three weeks. He’d forewarned us that this would be the case at some point; still, it came as something of a shock. All of a sudden, we were again facing the spectre of an expensive and inconvenient Canberra Laundromat or time-consuming hand washing.

Thankfully, once again everything turned out great. I immediately started looking at the online classifieds (which I’d done in October), but this time, within days, I found the perfect washing machine to buy. Only four years old, it was being sold by a family who’d bought a larger machine, and, being keen to get it out of their garage, they were asking for only $100.

I drove up to Ngunnawal on the Friday to check it out, came home to discuss it with Troy (who’s cluey when it comes to household appliances), and then drove back up with the trailer Saturday morning to buy it. I’m now the proud owner of my first washing machine, and I love it.

This is not just because it allows me to do my wash conveniently at home, either, though I do appreciate that immensely. No, this is more than just a household appliance; this is a washing machine for blokes. It has cool lights and an even cooler motor. It’s so fun to use that I actually find myself looking around for things to wash—a phenomenon I’ve never experienced before.

My favourite features: The SmartDrive DC motor has no brakes, pulleys, or gears, allowing it an infinite range of wash speeds depending on how much ‘resistance’ it detects in the drum. This ability to detect resistance also lets the machine know if it needs to add more water. It also means that it can spin at 1000rpm, about double the spin speed of a standard washing machine, resulting in wash that is already half dry when it comes out. In addition, the small load setting really is for small loads. Yesterday I tried washing three T-shirts, a pair of shorts, and two pairs of socks on this setting, and the machine actually had to add a bit more water to handle these few items. Lastly, the spin cycle (courtesy of the direct-drive motor and its super-fast speed) sounds like a jet engine taking off.

Now if I could just find something to making ironing more enjoyable….