Pros & Cons of a Portable Washer ~ By I-Fix Appliance Repair

Living in an apartment building has its benefits. Primarily, it’s the cost. Renting a condo unit of equivalent size in a similar area is usually more expensive.

At the same time, it has its inconveniences you have to live with. Aside from the lack of concierge service and other perks, apartment buildings rarely have washer/dryers in the units.

Instead what you end up having to do is travel to a basement and use the common laundry room. Depending on the building, the place will have different levels of cleanliness but still, washing your underwear in the same machine with an entire building full of people just feels wrong.

One of the solutions to this is to get your own portable machine that can be set up in the bathroom and voila – laundry services in the unit and at your own time too. No lines, no dirt and no pressure.

There are downsides to this as well, so we decided to weigh in on the matter and list the pros and cons on having a compact portable washer inside your apartment unit.

So what are the pros of setting up your own laundry?

Some of them we already mentioned.

It’s your own machine which nobody else is using
The costs of running a small, compact machine will be less than the coin laundry below
No lines, no need to worry the machines will be all taken – do your thing at your own time
The portable washer is yours and you can take it with you when you move next time
This releases you from the worry of the next place having even worse laundry conditions

Those were the pros, but there are the cons to, which you need to weigh when making the decision of purchasing the new compact laundry washer. The good thing is some of those cons can be taken care of if you prepare for them in advance.

What are the cons of installing a private laundry?

Regardless of how small it is, it will take up space somewhere, not always easy to find
The place you put them will need to have access to water and a drain
Some apartment buildings don’t allow renters to bring in their own washers
Those appliances are small and won’t be able to take large laundry loads

This is mostly it. As we said however, they can mostly be worked around.

If you have a second bathroom, you can set it up there. It can drain directly into the toilet or bath / shower drain while the hose where the water fills the toilet reservoir can double as the washer hose with one minor adjustment of adding a split joint to its base. If not, there’s the option of using the space under the kitchen counter for it, where most portable units will fit with ease.

This solves both the first and second problems, of space and water/drain access. The third one is not something we can do much about, unfortunately. The fourth is easy to get used to if you learn to divide the laundry into loads and plan the washing cycles spreading them along the week.

And one last bit of advice – get someone with plumbing skills to get it all connected. Keeping yourself and family members safe from flooding and electrical hazards is important.