( 2 reviews )
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( 1 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Mar 28 2009
The Avanti washer is wonderful. I bought this washer because the apartment I moved my family into after my husband died had no hook-ups for our standard washer and dryer. But I have five children, so going to the community laundry facility was not a good option. We have a lot of dirty clothes on a daily basis, so I needed a way to wash clothes at home every day. I researched the available portable washers and decided to take a chance on the Avanti mostly because it had the largest capacity. With so many children, I needed to be able to wash a full sized load. The Avanti fits our needs wonderfully. It's full capacity is about 2/3's a regular full sized load on a standard machine, but it's still a lot of clothes. I can wash about 8 pairs of children's jeans, or 15 children's shirts, or any combination thereof. And I don't hook it up to the sink. I went down to our local hardware store and spoke with a plumbing associate who helped me find the right connections to hook it up to the water supply from my toilet. That means I wash everything in cold water, but that's fine with me. Not having to move it around is worth it. I attached an extension onto the drain hose so mine drains directly into the toilet as well. The drain hose comes pre-installed on the left side (as you are facing the front of it), but the machine is made with ports on either side, and you can switch it to whichever side works best for you. It's a little hard to unsnap it and reattach it to the other side, but it's doable. It has a built in slot for the drain to hook onto on both sides of the machine as well, for when it's not draining into the sink. But if you have it drain into your toilet as I do, you need to purchase a tight fitting extension and leave it on the hook because the drain must sit at the level of the hook, otherwise the tub will never fill. I hope that makes sense. It's a physics thing, not a mistake. Attaching it to the toilet water supply was easy, but the water supply hoses it came with were not high enough quality to do this without leaks. I had to buy higher pressure and tighter fitting washing machine supply hoses that went on tighter. Since the hoses are the same ones a standard washer uses, they're easy to find at any hardware store. I purchased high quality flexible steel hoses. The ones it comes with are soft plastic ones, with plastic heads that would never screw on tightly enough to not leak. The washer itself it fabulous. It cleans the clothes really well, and it spins them out enough that line drying is actually possible. It's what I do everyday. I put in a load every evening, and hang them to dry and in the morning put everything away. The washer has a built in lint trap that is a nice feature, and a built in softener dispenser. The detergent goes in a drawer through which the water runs, so the detergent is mixed with the water as the machine fills. It comes with lots of different wash settings, including a special "Jeans" setting, that does two rinses and an extra fast spin cycle to really get the water out of them. The water has three levels, and there are extra rinse options, and many more, like "Soak", "Normal", "Delicates". This machine makes washing at home for a large family a reality. It's actually big enough to wash family sized loads, and it does a great job doing it. If you have a smaller family, this machine would more than meet your needs. One last note, I find it cute that when a load is finished the machine chimes out the tune "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee". Perfect, because I really am joyful to have such a great appliance when I thought I was doomed to spending every Saturday at the laundry mat!
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( 11 of 11 found this review helpful ) Posted: Apr 7 2008
This washer made my life better! First, it's a great size. It's bigger than many of the portable washers, so you can actually do a real load of laundry. Also, it's classy and makes these cute musical sounds when you start a load and when it ends. Another great thing is that it has a large variety of washing cycle options-- different lengths of soaking, washing, and number of rinse cycles. But if none of the presets work for you, you can totally customize your wash. It's awesome. It has casters, so it rolls around (but only front to back, they don't roll in every direction), and leveling feet too, just in case. It's really quiet. The only real con is that the drain hose comes out of the side instead of the back. It would be easier if everything came out of the back. But it's a pretty minor thing. This was an absolute great buy. I was originally looking at the Haeir version of a similar size that was unavailable. I'm so glad I found this beauty instead. It's a classier machine for us apartment dwellers and it does a great job for a pretty decent price. Not much to complain about.
