When we first looked at a portable washing for our Airstream, we thought maybe this was a fantasy wish list piece of gear. But then we saw a video on the Costway Portable Washing Machine. Mmmm! Maybe this could be a reality. Our Costway portable washing machine not only uses hardly any electricity, but it can run on Solar. With our RV Solar set up this makes the perfect washing machine for our Airstream.
Costway can easily run on even the smallest of solar set ups. It’ portable, lightweight, and easy to use. But most of all, it does a great job getting our clothes clean. And yes, we did test this piece of gear for 6 months before we made it a part of our Airstream gear. To say we were a bit skeptical on how durable and how clean it would get our clothes were an understatement. But it has lasted with no issues and more importantly it get’s our clothes clean. When you go backpacking like we do, our clothes get pretty dirty and stinky, and so far, the Costway Portable Washer hasn’t let us down.
How does it fit in our Airstream?
When we renovated our Airstream Argosy, we wanted to keep the original layout with a few modifications. One of those mods was the size of our Center Bathroom. We made it just 3 inches wider so we could fit our portable washer. It fits perfectly on our original shower tub. The nice thing is that we can keep it there and still use the Shower. All we do is pull our shower curtain, load the washer, put water in, and start the washer. It drains right into our Gray Water Tank. Keep in mind we use this system when we have full hookups. Of course on those days we are boondocking, we pull the washer outside and can plug this right into our Solar and do laundry just fine.
The Costway Portable Washer is 24.8 x 15 x 28.5 inches. The washer tub can hold 8 lbs of clothes, while the dryer tub can hold 12 lbs. It weighs just under 30 lbs so it’s not that heavy. It runs on a egg timer which draws very low voltage and amps. It also let’s you pick how much washing time and drying time you need. The spin cycle spins so fast (1100 rpm) it practically dry’s your clothes. However, you will still nee to hang your clothes either outside or in a dry place to completely dry your clothes.