repairing a brolen washing machine | The Green Lever - Using minimal resources for maximum quality of life

If you have just arrived at this project then you might want to to go back to Part One which can be found here, this will give you the steps needed to achieve your basic bicycle washer. The following shows the modifications I made to perfect the machine, making it easier to pedal and also giving us some 'spin cycle' too!

Update - I have recently completed a 'new' pedal-powered washing machine as this one finally sprung a leak after years of great service. The new one is a top loader and also has wooden stands. Due to requests from subscribers, I am writing this project up in step-by-step detail. There are also tips on removing and recuperating materials and complete photographic documentation of each step in the conversion. The first in this series of what will probably comprise 5 articles with their respective films has just been published and is available through the link at the end of this article.

At last year's Art & Garden Expo with our convivial host Daniel Renouf

Apart from the many other advantages of a pedal washing machine - saving on bills and energy consumption, fitness, fun, and time to read... everyone wants to do your laundry. Family, here on vacation, including the children, actually ask us to save up some washing! Even passing holiday-makers stop and ask to have a go pedalling. What could be better than to give them enjoyment and get your laundry done to boot!

Modifications

The first arrangement had a 1:3.3 ratio from the bicycle pedal crank wheel to the gear on the motor shaft and between the motor and the drum pulley a ratio of 14:1. Thus providing an overall gear ratio of: 4.2:1 i.e. just over 4 rotations of the pedal crank to get 1 revolution of the drum. No wonder 1 felt very little resistance when pedalling..

I thought that the gearing ratio should be at least 1:1 that is one revolution of the crank would produce one revolution of the machine drum. To this end, I disconnected the drive belt and screwed to the face of the large pulley wheel a pedal crank wheel from another bicycle. The drive chain was attached to this crank wheel. I had to increase the chain length by about 6-8 links to get it to fit. I had determined this to be the minimum ratio as I believed pedalling/drum speeds of around 40-50rpm allowed the contents to be sufficiently agitated for effective washing. At this speed, one could feel the load changing as the wet laundry was picked up in the drum by the paddles and then fell back to the bottom of the drum due to gravity. This cadence was very easy to maintain even when the direction of pedalling was reversed. Unlike with the first highly-geared arrangement I had, the load provided a resistance to the pedalling which actually made it easier.

modifications to bicycle powered washing machine

Surplus water removal (spin drying)

We’ve exhibited this machine on many occasions and the most frequent comment from spectators has been ‘let’s see you spin dry now!’. Modern washing machines have very high spin speeds (in the region of 1200 rpm or even greater). The need for these increasingly higher speeds is questionable as the additional amount of water extracted is relatively small. (See end of article for links to 'The Great Spin Debate'). Reading through it, it seems that so much, if not all, of the escalating speeds are nothing more than sales gimmicks and may result in damage to the laundry.

Nevertheless, being able to remove some water prior to removal from the machine was desirable so I started by calculating what kind of drum speeds were necessary to keep the contents held against the drum wall for the complete cycle i.e. drum speed needed to overcome the acceleration due to gravity. Obviously this rotational speed varies with drum diameter and I've included at the end of this article a link to determine G forces.

With sufficient force holding the garments to the drum walls the water can escape through the holes in the drum. Higher rotational speed will obviously increase the rate of water loss.

For our drum of 46cm diameter, a calculated speed of 62.3 rpm would mean the contents would experience a force of 1g. Fast pedalling I could achieve a consistent speed of 100rpm producing a force of 2.6g but, if I dismounted and turned the pedal by hand I could achieve 170rpm producing a force of; 7.4g. Such an action produced a significant increase in the flow of water leaving the drum but it was not possible to maintain this speed for more than 60 seconds or so. On removing the garments there was still a considerable amount of water in each item which could be extracted by wringing by hand.

A Word About Tools

All the work involved in this conversion can be achieved with hand tools but it might be a good idea to invest in at least one power tool just to save time and effort. I work on the premise that tools are a great investment and that if you are going to consider DIY then they are essential. Similarly Safety Equipment is also a necessity, in particular when handling heavy objects and using power tools. Buying these items has an initial outlay but if you buy wisely these will last you for years of projects, for example my current electric drill is well over ten years old.

Electric Drill - Two of my favourite makes are Makita and Black & Decker
Set of Bits for the Above
Wood Saw
Set of Spanners
Range of Screwdrivers
Pliers, Drift or Chain Splitting Tool
Hammer
Centre Punch
Tape Measure
Safety Gloves, Boots and Glasses
Metal File
Tri Square
Additional if Possible:
Jigsaw with blades for sheet metal

Wood Screws, Nuts, Bolts, Washers and Wood Glue

Further modifications and improvements:

Pump removal

After using the machine in this arrangement for 18 months or so I found a leak had developed in one of the flexible hoses connected to the pump. The end result was I found it easier to remove the hoses from the pump cut out the perished part of the tube and re-connect them via some rigid pvc pipe, bypassing the pump completely.

Spin drying and the future of our laundry needs

Without a doubt removing excess water at the end of the process is the most significant improvement to make. To this end I have obtained from my local dump another non-electronically-functioning washing machine. I propose to set this up as the bicycle-powered washing machine and to convert the existing machine to a more efficient spin-drier by altering the gear ratio.

When setting up this next machine I will endeavour to fix the drum more securely to the machine frame. This, I now realise, would be an ideal use for the brackets normally supplied by the manufacturers specifically for transporting the washing machine.

Future Projects - Mark 3 Laundry

Next year I intend to design and create a solar water heating system which will link directly to the machine. This will obviate the need for the alternative hot water sources, we use at the moment, viz water heated on our wood cooker and in Summer, by means of a couple of plastic bush-shower bags.

..and now if you'd like to, sit back and watch the film

Have washing machine, will travel! If you read this article and found it interesting then share it with your friends on social media or suchlike.

Please also feel free to ask questions and or make comments and if you found this helpful and would like to support this site you can always

You can also find all my films Youtube and also now on Odysee

Until next time and from a sunny day in Normandie,

Cheers, Andy

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