To get second hand washing machine for hubbys work clothes?

[mrscotton]

My husband is a mechanic and often comes home black with oil, grease and general dirt on him & on his clothes. We have always had one washing machine that we wash everything in and clean often due to how dirty it gets (i guess because of his work clothes).

Our son has just started school and now has to wear white shirts 4 days a week (we rarely wear white clothes so never been an issue before, use to do half a load every other month). I have just washed some shirts and as I was taking it out, the sleeve rubbed against the rubber and now has black marks on the sleeve so needs rewashing.

Thinking of buying a second hand washing machine to put in the garage to just use for washing his work stuff. Has anyone else done this? Is it possible to run a washing machine off a hosepipe? It would be a nightmare trying to get water supply out there to run it as would need to take up our patio etc.

That's a good idea!

You can get special small washing machines for camping so there might be something suitable that you can fill with water as you need it?

Can't you send them to a local laundry at least for the time being till you've decided what to do. I think you can claim something back re tax. But might not be worth it. Not sure about running a machine from a hosepipe. I hate the way the rubber gets dirty. Didn't seem to be a problem with the older machines.

Ooo that’s a good idea. I will look into them as it would only be used twice a week for his work clothes. Thank you

My friend has a separate washing machine for her dogs stuff, bedding etc as she couldn’t stand the hair getting everywhere 😂

Our nearest launderette has closed, not sure where there is another one but I can find out. It would be much easier doing it from home as going back to work 5 days a week soon.

Does he get tax relief for washing work clothes at home, OP?

If there isn't a washing machine at work (we have one that is supposed to only be for work-related items, but some people overlook that fact...), a second one would make sense, if you have the space for it. My work clothes smell awful, and dog beds (I have working dogs) get smelly and hairy, and I'd rather keep those away from my "incognito" clothes!

Horse owner here - we have a second hand washing machine in the stables just for horse 'clothing' (not big horse rugs!) and pet beds - saves mud and hair in our family machine. We use a hose from the tap for water in and a piece of blue pipe firmly shoved in to the out-take pipe to take the dirty water out to a piece of rough ground outside.

My DH was a motor vehicle technician, same problem. The overalls did go away for specialist dry cleaning, didn't come back on time and although they were labelled with the techs names,big letters,he usually ended up with the wrong ones,a lot of guys were 6 ft tall,to his 5.7ins. I washed them at home, very hot wash, scoop of "vannish or similar and washing powder,always check the rim etc, never had a problem, same with my light coloured nurses uniform. The "allowance" for washing at home is a pittance in tax relief.

We moved our washing machine into the garage. Is yours attached to the house? It was quite simple to run water to it, if so

You do have to make sure the waste water goes into the correct drainage, though.

A plumber could do it for you, if you're not DIY friendly.

Standard Tax relief is £60, per annum. Nurses, midwives £125.

If you've space do it. We have one larger capacity machine and I wash football kit, tough mudder wear, pet beds and dont have a problem but I run the machine clean cycle after every challenging load. A seperate machine would be better.

He doesn’t get tax relief but only been back in garages for 2 years as he was HGV driving for 10 years before that.

As far as I know, there is no washing machine at his work that he could use.

That’s great to know it would work. ChatGPT says you cant use a washing machine on a hose pipe. I can use the hose pipe for clean water and have a drain just outside the garage door that I can shove a pipe down for the dirty water to go down. Thank you

Our washing machine is built into our kitchen as we live in a new build (well 4 years old now).

My husband is pretty good at plumbing and his Dad is a heating engineer to run pipes etc but I just don’t want to take up all the patio. We have already done the garden since living here as the garden was shocking and we had no grass after 6 months.

I know it is a bit indulgent, but can you put your sons shirts to be washed at a dry cleaners. Timpsons in morrisons do them and they are usually ready same day but definitely the next,

It would only be 4 shirts a week as he has to wear PE stuff for one day. I was also thinking it would be nice not to have all our normal clothes washed in the same machine as his work stuff as well.

Maybe i need to get the husband to find a different job haha.

Be fine you might struggle occasionally in winter if there a very hard frost
we had this type of setup in plastic cabinet we got from wickes in garden

connected to outside tap when we had extension built

Fair, oil and muck is rank , dh has a cleaner job now but when we were washing overalls I was forever cleaning the machine.

Sorry if I'm being dim but have you tried cleaning the rubber? I admit I bought some stuff to clean ours but never got around to using it so can't advise how effective that would be.

The other suggestion would be to carry on using your existing machine for most things/darks and get a small camping type machine just for the white shirts since it sounds like small loads and you'd know the machine itself would not have tainted rubber.

We have industrial sized washing machines in three local supermarket car parks.

We've had two washing machines for years, one in the kitchen for "nice" stuff and one in the integrated garage for work/gardening clothes, DH's car washing cloths/rags - basically anything that may be oily/greasy etc.

We decided to do it after spending a couple of years going through our house when we moved in, i.e. redecorating every room, lots of DIY, lots of sanding/filling/silicon etc., and with DH washing and polishing our cars every week, and saw just how filfthy our brand new washing machine had become in just a couple of years, constantly needing to be wiped/cleaned around the drum and seal etc., and noticing "marks" on our white bedding, dresses, white shirts, etc.

The one in the kitchen we use for "best" is a good brand with full range of options, large drum, etc., whereas the one in the garage is a cheap brand with very limited options and cost about a third of the price.

We barely have to clean the kitchen one, but the garage one gets filthy after just a few washes, so I probably wipe/clean the garage one more often even though it's only used less than a quarter the amount of times as the main kitchen one.

You can get huge laundry bags to prevent pet hair on your machine they would work on his clothes.

This sort of thing, check the size before you buy and much cheaper elsewhere

https://christiesdirect.com/powair-pet-hair-laundry-bag.html?utm_source=google&utm_campaign=nb_shop_uk_na_na_na_all&utm_medium=cpc&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21854430882&gbraid=0AAAAADs7hmaBYmkdvK61B5kNsHHHDWVrc&gclid=Cj0KCQjwh4TVBhCWARIsAG0czmp2fLpNyCmmyhIZXO2JJdxUVDxpuf3N3Rbd0taIY37C_lARBdhJVasaAkjJEALw_wcB

Why don't you just hand wash the 4 white shirts. Just put it in a bowl of soapy water in the evening. Just leave it soaking and rinse out a bit later on.

If you really do just want a 2nd machine, then ignore this 😀

Back in the days of twin tub it was using a hose from the tap and ensuring the waste hose didn’t leap out of the sink as it emptied!

Where I live the twin tub is still a popular option.

And many of the older generation do not want to know about automatics, many say they just don't clean as well. Which makes sense really as with the old TT you get to choose how long it washes for. And it gets moved around with the drain pipe going into the sink. Usually always had a nice cloth over when not being used 😀

I also wanted to suggest it, but then realised they probably are not even available in the UK these days.