Awesome content incoming! We can very nearly feel like our campervans are a second home, but the lack of home appliances can often feel like a barrier to independence. Fridges are a necessity, and thus there are lots of campervan-specific options available. There are also many options for ovens, and dishwashers are easily substituted by hand washing. Link and dryers for campers are a grey area - they're big, heavy, and use a lot of power and water.
This article details the options and technicalities of installing washers and dryers in your camper, helping you to come to a decision. Shane, the founder of The Van Conversion, is a campervan professional dedicated to helping people transform ordinary vans into homes on wheels.
Shane also writes The Van Conversion Newsletterwhere he shares practical tips and insights. After completing two hookup builds and living dryer the road full-time sincehe is passionate about sharing his expertise with others. Note: Did you know that you can get a free electrical wiring diagram by signing up to The Van Conversion Newsletter.
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To understand our policies washer content, affiliate commissions, and liability, please review our Terms of Use. Our top pick for a motorhome washer and dryer is this campervan-specific combination unit from Splendide. A combination washer and dryer that's specifically designed for campervans is the best we can recommend for washing and drying laundry on the road. Combination click to see more take up half as much space as separate units, dryer a model specifically designed for RVs will be lighter, more compact, and energy and water efficient.
It's important to understand, however, that the high electricity usage when drying clothes means washer this kind of appliance can only reasonably be used when connected to an electric-hook up.
Everybody needs to wash their clothes. Many vanlifers rely on laundrettes laundromats in North America or campsites with laundry services. Laundrettes can be found almost anywhere, as they're somewhat of an essential service. However, they're not always to be found exactly where you are, and thus require planning and driving hookup of your way.
Many campervan users choose the lifestyle in order to be less tethered to place. Installing a washing machine in your campervan can add crucial independence to your experience. A dryer for your campervan can seem more necessary. Not all laundrettes have dryers, and drying clothes in a camper is inconvenient.
You don't realise how small your van is dryer you've tried to festoon the whole interior with a full wash of clothes. Moisture buildup becomes a concern, especially in cold weather when you don't want windows open. Drying outside is fine as long as it's warm dryer drybut the weather doesn't always cooperate.
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Shane and the author of this blog have both wished for campervan dryers before, especially when trying to dry bedding inside the campervan dryer a rainy day. If you're seriously considering buying a washer and dryer for your motorhome, you have a number of options washer choose from. Hookup go over the general categories here. See more first major split in the market for washers and dryers for campers is 12V versus mains voltage V in most of the world and V in North America.
These appliances are designed for use in campervans and boats, and will thus draw less power. This makes them kinder on your batteries, but might result in more modest performance. Mains-powered washers and dryers exist in a wider array of options, as they're what people have in their homes. However, they require an inverter to run off a 12V campervan electrical system, and will have a considerably higher power draw: a 12V washer designed for campers will draw around W, whereas mains washers draw between W and W.
The article is air-con focused, but the same principles apply for washers and dryers.
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Washers and dryers can either be bought separately or as a RV washer combo. The benefit of having separate units boils down to performance, capacity, and flexibility. Separate, dedicated machines may perform better than a combined machine, both in the washing and drying department. Further, RV washer combos often have a smaller capacity than separate units, as there are more components packed into a machine of the same size.
Finally, with separate machines, the breaking of one doesn't prevent you from using the other. However, in the context of campervans, the main consideration is space.
A combined unit takes up half as much space as two separate units. Washers and dryers for campers are often marketed as 'portable'.
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These are generally smaller, lighter, and don't have a fixed water dryer valve or drain hose. They also often have handles so they can easily be moved and stowed washer not in use. They're generally top-loading, with a smaller capacity, and need hookup be hand-filled with water before use.
Some incorporate two drums; a wash drum and a spin drum. Moving the laundry to the spin drum allows you to run a spin cycle before the final rinse cycle, and can also be used to spin dry the clothes imagine a big salad drainer.
They work a bit differently to your washer at home, but their small size, lack of complex plumbing, and low power draw make them ideal for on-the-road use. Portable dryers in a similar format also exist. They're smaller, top loading, and don't have a drain hose. Their power draw is still significant, at W - W, but much less than models intended for home use.
There are human-powered solutions to the laundry problem that bypass the need for electricity. An interesting and well-regarded example is the Scrubba wash bag. This is a waterproof drybag with an integrated washboard. Fill the bag with clothes, water, washer detergent, and scrunch it with your hands and feet to agitate and get dirt and grease out of clothes. You can't do big washes, and of course you do the work yourself, but the bag only weighs g and uses far less water than a washing machine.
Other innovative solutions are hand- or foot-cranked washing machines. These are small, highly portable units which incorporate a hand crank dating android app interracial foot pedal. These are again simpler, smaller, lighter, and use much less water than a powered machine. Installing a washer dryer dryer for your camper necessitates changes to your electrical system. The important numbers to consider are the wattage expressed in watts, W and the electric charge usage expressed in amp-hours, Ah.
Let's take a look at some numbers. Looking at the average specifications of different kinds of washers and dryers, we can come up with some numbers for power draw and charge washer.
Appliance type. Power draw. Charge usage per hour.
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Fixed washer. Portable washer. Fixed dryer. Portable dryer. These numbers assume 12V appliances connected directly to the leisure battery. Let's take a look at upgrading a couple of example off-grid electrical systems to allow for the use hookup washers and dryers.
Here we have the spec of a medium power usage, off-grid electrical system. Busbars, cables, connectors, fuses, switches etc. It's usually a good idea to spec a battery bank based on being able to spend 2 full days off-grid at a time, with no charging from solar or battery to battery chargers.
This gives us a daily usage that is about a quarter of our total battery capacity. You can read more about campervan batteries in our article on the subjectwhich includes a free load calculator for calculating your electricity needs. If we assume one use of a one hour wash or dry cycle per off-grid period, we see the following necessary increases in battery capacity:.
Base system. With portable washer. With fixed washer. With portable dryer. With fixed dryer. Electric charge usage per 2-day off-grid period. Required battery bank capacity. In the case of adding a portable washer, we see a modest increase in overall battery bank size. A jump from Ah to Ah probably wouldn't necessitate an increase in solar and battery-to-battery charging power. This means that we also don't need to upgrade the solar charge controller.
Increasing the size of the inverter to account for the W power draw would washer on whether you could live with using no other appliances whilst your wash is running. Adding a fixed washer changes the calculation. Increasing our battery bank size from Ah to Ah would necessitate an increase in solar charging power, from W to around W. Depending hookup on the setup, this may well necessitate a slight increase in the capacity of the solar charge controller.
Adding W of power draw would require us to increase the capacity of our inverter from W to at least W. Adding dryers changes hookup significantly. Even a portable dryer with a comparatively low power draw doubles our necessary battery size.