EcoSpin, Portable Hand Cranked Manual Clothes Non-Electric Washing Machine and Spin Dryer, Counter Top Washer/Dryer for Camping, Apartments, RV's, or Delicates

First, I purchased a hand crank washer like the EcoWash a couple months ago thinking of doing away with my front load washer and gas dryer. I wasn't all that happy with it. The frame was very rickety like it was going to break apart under the weight of water and wet clothes inside. Everything else about the washer was nice; the quality of the drum, the lid, and the hand crank. I never used it again after the first couple tries.A few days ago my front load washer stopped working. I'm not going to get it repaired, instead I ordered this ecospin washer. I expected cheap plastic but was actually impressed with the quality of the plastic drum and the lid. I had to do 5 loads which would have been equivalent to one load in the front load washer. I used the same water for each load. I placed a clean bucket beside the ecospin and after each load instead of draining out the water I put the washed clothes in the bucket. When I was finished with washing, I drained out the water and used the ecospin like a colander. I sprayed water on the clothes one load at a time, then spun them dry in my little turbo spinner that spins at more than 1700 rpm. Yeah, it requires electricity but only for about 30-45 seconds! Spinning for longer than that is a waste. This system seems like it's going to work out pretty well. Being as graceful as I am, I spilled my lunch on my sweatshirt earlier in the day and even though I didn't pretreat it before putting it in the ecospin washer it came out nice and clean. I'm hoping by only using the hand crank during the wash cycle and not the rinse or spin dry cycle the ecospin will last a long time.Now, about the the EcoWash look alike hand crank washer I'm not using, it will come in handy when my gas dryer quits too. I'm going to use it like the air fluff cycle on the dryer. By not filling it with water the frame should be fine. I'm going to put a couple dry towels and a couple dryer balls inside the drum with freshly spun out clothes and crank for about 5 minutes or so. This should require no muscle whatsoever since there is no water inside. When spinning out clothes in the little turbo spinner, they get pretty wrinkled. The EcoWash look alike washer along with a couple dry towels and a couple dryer balls should remedy that problem nicely.

The media could not be loaded. I do a lot of running, and since washing my workout shirts & shorts in the regular washer/dryer was causing them to tear and fall apart, I started washing them by hand. Wringing them dry one article of clothing at a time was too tiresome and time consuming, so I bought this thing to batch that process and speed it up. The EcoSpin did that, and the included plastic hanger with drying clips was a nice bonus.Now, when I first got this thing, I loved that it did what I wanted that I overlooked its glaring design flaws:- It's a plastic lid that "locks" into place using four flimsy plastic tabs that catch on plastic stops on the rim of the base unit. Since plastic isn't a solid durable material, this thing has a limited expiration date.- There's no gasket, so even when you fill with water below the max line, it's still prone to leak water out of the side and make a mess- The rubber feet on the base are flimsy low-quality plastic that's not able to retain a suction creating curved shape. At best, one or two will catch, causing the unit to rotate as you spin the handle. This forces you to hug it to keep it in place while you spin the drum. Factor in the point above, that means you end up wet too.As I was doing a load of laundry earlier today, the crank handle stalled and the unit stopped working, as shown in the included video. At the end of the video, you can also see that the lid is already missing one screw (which I never noticed fall out), and that the other two are already coming loose. All of the centrifugal force involved with operating this thing is too much for the simplistic design and cheap materials they used to make this.According to the warranty, they'll replace defective parts for the first year, but you've got to pay the shipping costs. I purchased this on July 20th, and had it fail little over a month later on September 9th. I don't expect a provided replacement part to last longer than the remainder of the warranty period, and it's not eligible for return through Amazon.This would be an amazing product if it it employed gaskets and were made of a heavier metal material to keep it in place when spinning. As it's constructed now, it's a $70 pitfall that's going to cost you more in frustration and shipping costs for replacement parts. Stay away from this.