Hi, what about putting things like a ball inside of the washing-machine to support the detergent? ciao --Ibot 21:50, 4 January 2011 (UTC)
David Butcher's ideas[edit source]
David Butcher, the pedal-power enthusiast with the web page Pedal Powered Washing Machine Tests, made some suggestions via email, and has given permission for me to post them here:
- Something to think about:
- Humans produce so little power, efficiency is paramount. For washing, I would suggest four separate units, each optimized as much as possible
- * washer
- * rinser
- * wringer
- * pump
- I would also recommend at least two pedalers per unit (except the pump, which could be designed with a flywheel as my PPPM is) so the pedaler's legs could be placed out-of-phase. Such a system could complete 3-6 loads per hour, depending on wash time. With two washing units as suggested below, that volume might be doubled.
- The washing units could be plastic buckets used to transport the clothes, then partially filled with water and soap and placed on dual rollers (like a rock-polishing drum) then moved drained, refilled with clean water and placed on the rinse rollers, then emptied to enable the clothes to be passed through the final station, the wringer.
- Wringer water plus fresh would be used for the rinse cycle, and rinse water would be used for the wash cycle.
- (This design) would allow two or three wash "stations" feeding the rest of the pipeline. This makes sense as rinsing and wringing take less time than washing.
--Singkong2005 (now known as Chriswaterguy) · talk 18:40, 16 October 2006 (UTC)