New Motorhome
we have just purchased our first ever motorhome, having never even been camping so it will be an experience learning everything!!
Just wanted to ask fellow members about washing machines onsite in the uk. Do sites charge for there use and if so does anyone know the prices charged as we are going away for a month on our very first trip and will need to do some washing!!!
Probably a silly question, but just wondered.
Thanks in advance.
Comments
-
Hi jspur,
Yes, sites charge for washing machine and tumble dryer use. Not sure of the price but I think it’s about £4 a load.
Might be worth taking old clothes that you don’t mind ‘dumping’ and get round it that way.
We usually buy very cheap (sometimes uncomfortable undies) use once then bin. Otherwise, depending on how much you wash, it might get expensive.
Alternatively, we have, in the past, used our camping washing machine. Great for smalls etc but not too good for bedding and towels.
Enjoy
1 -
The club charges £4 for a wash but the machines are bigger than domestic machines. I forget the price of a tumble dry.
1 -
When we used to spend a month down in Cornwall, we usually took around 9-10 days worth of undies and t-shirts, plus other stuff depending on weather, and then used to find a laundrette. Drop off washing, have a mooch round town for a couple of hours, pick up well spun washing, back to site to dry it on a line!
Usually cheaper, usually washed and spun off better. We had no problem putting up a line on CL, but we did use a small lightweight rotary line in later years. If weather is bad, we create a warm room in bathroom, piping heating into there and hang stuff on hangars!
1 -
As an aside here, jspur, All Questions are silly but only if you know the answer !!
. Don't fret about asking what ever you want to know, excepting, as ever, the next Lottery winning Numbers, but you can find loads of answers to questions you never asked by trawling thro' all those other entries on this happy Club Site 
3 -
OH is not a big fan of the fast washing large machines the Club has installed, they do not seem to rinse the clothes well and sometimes I have had to rinse them again by hand.
We find the normal sized Miele machines commonly used in Germany to do a much better job, though they do take up to 2 hours, but most larger sites have several.
We do not use the dryers, we have a rotary airer, in the awning if necessary, and like TTDA we hang things in the bathroom to air afterwards.
Using site machines on extended trips does work out expensive, so we invested in one of the small twin tubs, this takes most of our clothes, but ours cannot handle large towels, double duvets, or my jeans.
Abroad, we make up a load of these heavy items every so often, and that works fine as we carry several spare towels, bedding and plenty of clothes. Our trips are 2-3 months.
In UK we can avoid using these industrial machines as we are generally only away for 4 or 5 weeks in one go so can take along enough towels and bedding and do a big wash when we get home.
0 -
We agree how many days worth of clothing we should take and that gives us an indication as to when we might need to do some washing. Most sites use commercial equipment.
We tend to take 'quick dry and non-iron outdoor clothing' as much as we can which means we can stretch our outerwear clothing a day or so more without smelling [too much!] and dry clothes overnight, wearing them the next day if need be. Some of our clothing can be washed in the van's sink by hand if absolutely necessary.
1 -
Using site machines on extended trips does work out expensive,
What do you all do at home for washing, have you ever worked out the cost of a wash especially for a cotton wash for towels etc? If you take into account electric, water etc. though not £4 I bet is £2-£3?
Being away for a long time you will obviously need to wash things at some point, like others we take about 10 days clothes and do a wash normally on site but dry in open air as its generally abroad. WE do like ot have a clean towel once a week so for a 3 week tour we would take 2 each and wash one lot to cover the third week, do the same for bed linen as it can get a bit sweaty in the hot weather....
3 -
as with Michael, except for the odd fortnight's stay on a CCC/THS site, our long breaks are taken where drying of washing is a speedy natural process....
underwear, t-shirts, shorts (the staple of our touring wardrobe) can be managed without resort to a washing machine or dryer....just a small wash load in an outside sink, in the sun, every few days...
apart from bedding, it's so much easier to keep up with laundry when what you are washing is small and light, and everything dries in a couple of hours....
0 -
Water cost at home is the same whether we use it or not, no meters here. We have solar PV so as far as possible wash when the sun shines.
I have not checked how much electricity our WM uses, that could be interesting, but if we say 5kwh for a 60 degree cottons wash, that would be 65p for the electricity and 10p for the bio pod.
A lot of what you pay to use a machine on a site probably goes to the purchase and repair etc of the machines, so if you factor that in at home, our machine has cost us 20p per day over its life so far. Again it costs that whether we use it or not, and the longer we have it the less the daily cost.
So compared to that, using a site machine is pretty expensive.
However, after a couple of bad experiences with CAMC machines when we first started taking longer trips, it is the performance of the machine that mainly puts us off using them.
With a small twin tub, cost £70 and in use for 9 years now ( or indeed hand washing as many do) washing a small load more frequently means we do not often have a large load to try to get dry at one time, which works for us.
As we go away out of the hottest times, getting things dry is often the biggest problem.
0 -
For short trips we take enough clothes (to many) to not need to do washing.
On most sites home or away the machines cost around £4 €5 for wash and £1 for dry, abroad no need to tumble.
The main issue I have with using site machines is one the cost and two hanging around trying to get a load in if site is busy. so to that end 2 years ago I bought a camping twin tub machine.
We take this away with us on long trips 10 - 12 weeks, it lives in the shower which isn't a problem as we use site facilities.
It can easily take the bedding 2 x single duvet covers, sheets and pillow cases, just don't put it all in at once. It will take jeans and tops and the spinner is really good.
One wash once a week job done. I do sometimes hand wash then just spin if the items require it.
Machine is currently on offer at Aldi for £69.99, can be ordered on line and delivered free of charge. Outlay soon recovered.
Edit: we take ordinary towels away with us but also a couple of those quick dry sport towels should be encounter a long period of bad weather. (never happens as we move if its that bad)
1 -
We have handed clothes in at a launderette in town and collected them the next day - washed, dried, ironed, folded, clean and warm.
0 -
Its not just the queuing that annoys me, its the state of the machines when you do finally get one. Twice on club sites I've had to clean out dog hairs from the machine before I can use it (didn't in the end until warden put a rinse through it)
Hand washing is ok for small items but for some things it just pulls them out of shape.
We have handed clothes in at a launderette in town and collected them the next day - washed, dried, ironed, folded, clean and warm.
Not got to that point yet quite happy doing my own while I can. When away for 10 - 12 weeks it would cost a fortune to do that, like AD we are not so much on holiday just living somewhere else
0 -
Oh dear, Tammy, are people putting dogs in Club site washing machines? I just read a novel in which Jack Reacher puts the villain in a commercial tumble drier and switched it on. But dogs in washing machines? I sense a protest beginning.
0 -
Hi there jspur ,a lot of the C&MC sites have washing machines and as has been said ,about £4.00 or somewhere near👍Try not to waste too much of your trip in the laundry room😳 Exciting times ahead for you ,try to keep the stress levels down😂 Congrats on your new Motorhome ,enjoy. We have been at it for 22yrs now and still love it.
Brian & Jo
1 -
Cost of washing machines is as already described by previous posters. We go abroad for about 7 weeks twice a year, and I do there what I would do over here for a month. Wash smalls by hand about twice a week, when it's time for the "big stuff" like bedding and towels, I use a washing machine, and if there's room, I put in as many smalls as will fit in. We mostly go abroad, so drying isn't usually a problem, but when we've been away in the UK, I've usually managed to dry stuff outside as well. Just check out the weather for a good drying day
0 -
New 2017 book, Tammy - "The Midnight Line".
0
