(Initial review on unpacking day -- will update after a week or two of use.)
The dryer was lighter than expected (but not so light as to feel cheap). Build quality is good; packaging is tight fitting to protect it during shipping. Note: you must find and remove the shipping immobilizer under the base -- this is BOTH the metal angle iron and the heavy-duty plastic zip-tie holding it in place. The zip-tie is tricky to get out, even after cutting it open with scissors. If either is not removed, the spinning mechanism can be damaged. There is an X-shaped styrofoam spacer filling up the clothes chamber inside at the top to stabilize it during shipping -- remove it, but be prepared to vacuum out zillions of annoying styrofoam bits afterwards. Finally, DON'T FORGET to set up a bowl or small bucket under the water drain spout at the bottom front!
Use was simple and much faster than I expected -- just put in wet clothes no higher than the top of the inner chamber, slide in the flexible pink safety cover on top of the clothes but under the inner chamber rim, plug in the dryer, and close the hatch, which locks and activates the spinning. Warning: I suggest leaning with some weight on the lid/dryer when you start it up, because if it is unbalanced, it will buck all over the place. With experience in loading my clothes, I have reduced the number of bucking incidents and hope to pretty much eliminate them. Assuming no bucking, the dryer quickly spins up to very high speed and water starts gushing out the drain spout in front. (This is when you will remember to put a dish/bucket in front if you haven't already! :) ) Once the water slows to individual drips, you are done. This usually happened within a minute or two for my loads of heavy-duty cotton T-shirts & cotton underwear. The clothes came out surprisingly dry, definitely dryer than from my traditional full-size top-loading washer.
Why I didn't give it 5 stars (for now):
1) I will upload photos of the machine and manual; the manual says the warranty is only 1 year, while the listing says 3 years. I have a request into Amazon to find out what's going on here. Even if it's only a 1 year warranty, SquareTrade sells an appliance 3-year warranty here on Amazon for about 10% of the price of the dryer.
2) Small capacity. Initially, it seems to fit only about 4 heavy-duty thick men's cotton T-shirts at a time; I suspect I will be able to add some socks and underwear at the same time as my loading skills improve.
3) Sensitivity to uneven loading. I may change my mind on this as I improve my loading skills with practice. It seems likely the best way to load it is to put the heaviest/largest items in first, and to extend each item in a circle shape around the center as much as possible, forming a donut-shaped pile of clothes at the bottom.
That said, I really like this machine:
-) It's easy to move around and compact. I keep it next to my small table in the bathroom, then move it next to the sink and outlet when I want to use it.
-) It's very quiet -- quieter than my bathroom exhaust fan (unless it starts bucking!).
-) It's ridiculously fast -- a few minutes and it's spun out all the water it can, leaving the clothes surprisingly dry.
-) It's easy to use, without any parts that look like they will break easily.
LOVE the new Nina Soft Spin Dryer & Wonder Wash combo!
We live in a fifth wheel and have an on-board washer and dryer. Sometimes it takes the tumble dryer up to 4 HOURS to dry two bath towels even though they'd been through the spin cycle in the washer. Since we don't always have full hook-ups and some park laundry facilities are up to $3.25 to wash and dry a load, I'm now using Laundry Alternative's Wonder Wash and the Nina Soft Spin Dryer. The Nina Soft pulled nearly 3 quarts of water out of EACH of two towels, after which the tumble dryer finished drying both in 40 minutes. Woohoo!
Other remarkable drying times: Nina Soft followed by the tumble dryer = Queen sheets dry in 20 minutes; 4 pair of jeans shorts, 20 minutes. Nina Soft + line dry on a hot day = 20-30 minutes total drying time for T-Shirts /Shorts. Pretty amazing.
The spin dryer's earned a permanent place in my RV kitchen because I use it almost every day. I'll still be using it even when I have full hook-ups and can return to using my regular washer.
I dealt directly with Laundry Alternative and they were great to work with... answered many questions by phone and email before and after receiving my products. My only regret is that I didn't order them a year ago. I could have saved so much time drying my clothes, and money at park laundry rooms.
RVrs: The Laundry Alternative people told me it's BEST THAT NINA SOFT TRAVELS UPRIGHT v. stowed on its side.
BOONDOCKERS, I asked the Laundry Alternative people how much water would the Wonder Wash be putting into the grey tank for washing and rinsing? Here is their reply:
"It takes a little over a gallon of water to wash the clothes. Rinsing depends on the method used. If you refill the machine to rinse, you can use up to 3 gallons of water" [total, wash + rinse water]. "You can also rinse by hand, and perhaps use less water. The best way to use the least amount of water is to use a spin dryer...it's not commonly known, but a fast spin cycle removes a great deal of detergent suds...most people assume you must use water to rinse, but fast spin speed also does a great job of rinsing."
For what it's worth, I'm making my own low suds powdered detergent from recipes found on youtube, and I'm getting great results with only 1/2 - 1 TEASPOON of powder per load in the Wonder Wash. Makes rinsing easy and the water extracted via the spin dryer is coming out nearly clear. If you have to be super conservative with water while boondocking or managing your grey tank level, it is easy to recapture the rinse water from the Wonder Wash and the Nina Soft and re-use it to wash the next load.
The photo compares the Nina Spin Soft to my counter height and a one-step folding stool. Hopefully it will give you a good visual comparison for size. Believe me it's worth the space. And the price for the Laundry Alternative combo.
BTW, my husband was fussing that these were just "gadgets" before I made the purchase. After watching me keep the laundry clean this last month and my neighbor schlepping off to the laundromat with 3 weeks dirty laundry, I got a welcome, "Good decision, Babe." Can't beat that. Unless he did the laundry. LOL
UPDATE 10/20/15: STILL LOVE THE WONDER WASH/NINA SOFT SPIN DRYER COMBO
Have only had full hook-ups about 2 weeks out of the last 4 months, but the laundry situation isn't a hassle any more. The combo works - clean clothes in less time. Was able to use my regular washer this week, but only used it for 3 big loads. Found I prefer the Wonder Wash for small loads of like things, plus the quick turn-around time of just a few minutes to wash and rinse a load. Used the spin dryer after each of the regular washer loads, too, and it was remarkable how much soapy water was extracted. Thanks, Laundry Alternative, for great products.
Most amazing thing ever! I have no idea how I didn't know about this product sooner.
I live in a NYC apartment with my husband and 2 kids. We accumulate a lot of laundry!!!! Not only is it terribly expensive, it takes up so much time!
I recently found about about a small device to wash clothes in a bucket in minutes. Right after I ordered that, I found this. First I didn't think I needed it, but if you've ever rung out 4 peoples worth of laundry by hand, you'd see that you do. I thought my hands were going to fall off.
My mother in law bought this for me for my birthday and I did 4 small loads of laundry that day!!! I've been doing 1 small load a night and with this spinner, it's dry by morning. It has probably saved my sanity.
I don't write a lot of reviews, but this dryer has so impressed me that I felt the need to share. I live in NYC and like most people don't have a washer and dryer in my unit. For years I schlepped my laundry a few blocks to a wash and fold place, which was expensive, but they did a much better job of folding than I ever did, so it seemed like an OK deal. A couple of years back my local wash and fold place closed and luckily right around the same time the building put in a small laundromat in the basement. This has been cheaper than the wash and fold places, but the machines aren't as well taken care of and usually have lots of hair in them...and I still end up spending $10 a week or so.
So I've started doing a lot more laundry by hand in the sink. After a bit of doing that I thought there has to be a better way to do laundry by hand. I was originally thinking I'd go all hipster and get a laundry board...but then I came across the rapid washer (the plunger like thing) and the Nina Soft Dryer that had pretty good reviews and decided to go ahead and get them. bought and received the rapid washer first, and it works well and makes rinsing especially much easier and thorough, but ringing out by hand and hanging in the shower to dry was still a lot of work and slow. So I got the dryer.
I had read the reviews of the dryer talking about how almost dry clothes came out. I figured that I've had front loading washers before that do a rapid spin at the end to dry the clothes a bit before you throw them in the dryer, so I figured I knew what to expect. I was wrong. Clothes come out much dryer than they do from any high end front loader washer. When it first arrived I thought I'd test it out with the dirty clothes I had on hand. A couple of pairs of shorts, maybe 3 or 4 button down short sleeve shirts, a few pair of underwear, and I think a dress or two. Washed everything in cold water, rinsed, and threw into the dryer without any ringing out at all). Ran the dryer for exactly 3 minutes. I wasn't really expecting that much to be honest, since it didn't seem like all that much water came out of the machine (I set up the dryer in my shower, so no need for a basin to catch the water). But I pulled out the clothes and not only were they not dripping at all, they were almost dry enough to wear, shirts were dry enough to just hang directly in my closet. Other clothes needed to hang out for a bit to complete drying, but if I put them in front of a fan they would probably be finished in another 15-20 minutes.
I've now had the machine for about two weeks, and it has already changed how I think about laundry. Before I would wait until essentially everything I owned was dirty, and then bunch it all together and take to the laundromat and spend most of the day doing laundry. Even back in the days when I had a washer and dryer in the house it was pretty much the same. But the Nina Soft means I do laundry in much smaller batches, either as it gets dirty, or when I want to wear something specific. The other day I unexpectedly had some free time during the day and wanted to try and make it to the gym, but my gym clothes were pretty smelly. Not a problem, give them a quick wash and rinse and throw in the Nina. Less than 5 minutes later I was wearing clean shorts and a shirt that were only the slightest bit damp. If I owned a washer and dryer I never would have wanted to do that small of a load, and even if I did, it would have still taken 45 minutes or so.
* A small caveat to my enthusiasm. So far I've only washed and dried fairly lightweight summer clothes. I haven't had a chance to test heavier winter clothes, or things like jeans. I have a feeling I'll probably still end up taking those to the laundromat downstairs, but we'll see once the weather turns cooler.
Update July 2015: I've now had the Nina Soft for about a year, and like it just as much as I did when I first got it. I've been through a winter, and as expected I didn't use it as much for heavier clothes like jeans. But that's not really the dryers fault. It's just that hand washing certain things like jeans doesn't seem to get them as clean. Running them through the Nina Soft works just fine, although you can't put very much else in there or else the dryer gets off balance. They come out pretty dry, definitely no dripping, but they are still wet enough that it will take a couple of hours hanging for them to completely dry.
So I've pretty much fallen into a routine where things like jeans, towels, underwear and socks get done in the regular washing machine. Everything else gets done by hand and then put in the Nina.
One tip: It's pretty easy for the Nina to get off balance. They say to put the heaviest things in at the bottom, but I haven't found that to make much difference. I tend to throw things in there randomly, but then after it's full reach in and toss them like a salad a bit until they are more evenly mixed. Then, when I'm closing the lid I push down on the Nina firmly to make sure there's no wobble as it starts spinning. I keep holding down firmly until it gets up to close to full speed. That's reduced my off balance issues a fair amount.
Absolutely wonderful product. By choice, I use the Wonder Wash and EcoSpin washers to wash all of our clothes and the Nina Soft is the perfect complement to these. It spins everything out until it's nearly dry. If you're used to hand wringing your clothes, you'll love how the Nina Soft treats them - especially the towels. They come out soft and fluffy, rather than flat and stiff (a problem I used to have to deal with when I was wringing by hand.) I lay everything out on drying racks and the clothes are dry very quickly. I love the Nina Soft and would highly recommend it to anyone who either doesn't have access to laundry facilities or is looking for an alternative to wringing out your clothes by hand.
One thing to note - when the spinner starts its cycle, it takes a moment or two to balance itself out. Just put your hands on it to steady it. If it doesn't balance itself within a couple of seconds, just redistribute the clothes and try again. I've never had to redistribute the clothes more than once.
Feature Product
- Ventless Portable Electric Dryer
- 3 Year Manufacturer Warranty
- 1800 RPM Spin Speed
- 12 lb Load Capacity. Laundry is 90% dry in under 3 minutes
- This is not a regular clothes dryer, it is a spin dryer which does not use heat and does not get the clothes 100% dry
- Refer to the PDF attached below in Technical Specification for User Manual
Description
The new Nina comes with a tall, built-in handle that makes transport easier and keeps bending to a minimum. Better still, this portable dryer machine only weighs a comparatively light 15lbs, and at 136W, is 100 times as energy efficient as a conventional dryer.
UPDATE - I had heard so many wonderful things about this product that it just didn't make sense that I would get 2 that didn't work. I went to the Laundry Alternative website and contacted someone who knew about the product. He was great. He gave me his phone number and asked me to call. I missed him the first time - he was feeding his children. I left him a message and he called me right back. He said they have no input on how AMAZON treats their product and they get a lot of returns from Amazon. After talking a bit more, I decided to order from The Laundry Alternative. It arrived about a week later and I love it. I spend a lot of time dyeing fiber and yarns for sale. This machine is perfect for fibers, it dries them without any agitation or felting. It pulls more water out that I would have ever imagined. If you are using a salad spinner for fiber or socks or whatever...give it up and buy this! Make sure you have a towel and a large enough bowl under it so you don't get spills. LOVE LOVE LOVE! (The following is my original review) I have now purchased two of the Nina Soft Spin Dryers. The heavy zip tie was broken and the bar had fallen off the first one. I suspect part of the zip tie was still inside somewhere. I could hear the motor but it didn't spin. Returning it and asked for a replacement. Same thing again with the replacement - zip tie and the bar. No sound at all this time and it appears to be a big paperweight. Debating on if the third time could possibly be a charm. In all fairness, I know folks who use this product and swear by it.
In order to understand the benefits of this appliance, a little background is required. We live in a small, vintage, rental without modern utility hookups (no washer, dryer, or dishwasher). We love the aesthetics of vintage living (15 foot ceilings!) so much we decided the benefits outweigh the lack of modern appliances.
There is a coin operated commercial top loader washer and dryer combo provided by the landlord in the basement, however I discovered the washer really doesn't get our clothing clean when I went to dye my jeans in the bathtub. The directions for the dye said the clothing had to be completely wet before you added it to the dye bath. So I took my "clean" folded jeans and ran them under the tub tap while I kind of walked on them to make sure the water squished through all the fibers. My "clean" jeans turned the water a really filthy grey color (this wasn't the dye coming out of them - these jeans were really faded). That washer should be called a "swisher" as all it did was swish the clothes around in dirty water and distribute it evenly. Then I baked it in with the dryer. I tried rinsing a few more items of clothing in the tub and realized that they too, were not as clean as I hoped.
We purchased a portable washer. In order to hang our clothing to dry in the house in the winter (or on a folding drying rack outside) we really wanted to get even more of the water out. So we purchased this spin dryer.
We are very happy so far:
- It really is very lightweight (can be lifted up by the handle and moved with one hand).
- It gets out an enormous amount of additional water after the spin cycle.
- It is really easy to use. REALLY REALLY EASY!
- Our clothing dries in a matter of hours. Even our large bath towels are spun out enough to hang dry inside now.
- I wheel the washer away to a closet and the spin dryer sits on top.
- I am able to get our laundry washed, dried, and put away much faster. In the winter or during a stretch of rainy days there were times I was so sick of looking at laundry hung up around the house. Now I can wash in the morning, hang everything and come home in the early afternoon to put it all away. Then actually enjoy a clean and uncluttered house!
Here are some of the things I wanted to know prior to purchasing (the answers were scattered through out many reviews, I am condensing them into one place):
The spin dryer will fit several articles of clothing at a time but not a full wash load. It really matters what type of clothing you are spinning.
- I can fit four of my husbands cotton under shirts in one spin (he is a mens size XL) or one pair of his carhart brand jeans (really thick denim)
- My jeans are the thinner stretchy type, I can fit 2 pairs in one spin (I am a ladies size 8 tall).
- Child sized clothing, socks, undies, and such can be loaded up! I put in enough to fill to the top and then the plastic "holding" piece and let it spin.
- Twin sized bed sheets fit with no problem, I spin the flat and fitted sheet at the same time. One king size sheet can fit. I noticed I really don't get a lot more water out of bed linens.
- I can fit two full sized bath towels in one spin load. The towels have to be "balanced" very carefully to prevent the spin dryer from banging loudly. It took me a few tried to get the hang of the towels, when I have my helper (child) "helping" me, I have her just spin one towel at a time.
- The directions have guidelines to spin for 1 -2 minutes for light items and up to 5 minutes for heavy items. I have found that our clothing requires much less time than that. I usually spin it just until the first rush of water comes out of the bottom. You can keep spinning but the water slows down to just a drip or two after that first blast.
Since I used to have to dry the heavy jeans and towels in the basement dryer at $1.25 per dry and it usually took 2 cycles, this appliance will eventually pay for itself. I estimate in approximately 72 dryer loads it would be "paid" for. So at one load of towels and one load of my husbands jeans a week we break even in roughly 36 weeks, not quite a year of use. However, the ability to have clothing dry much faster in the humid area we live in would make this worth it even if we weren't saving money on the heated dryer. I wish I had purchased this months ago!
I've been using this now for many months and I wish I had stopped "hemming and hawing" and bought one a long time ago. If you're an apartment dweller with a tight budget (like me) you will NOT be disappointed with this purchase.
I'd say it takes 5 to 6 spins to dry out one normal size load of laundry. Helpful tips for a balanced load: don't fill it up to the top, I only put in maybe four shirts at a time or two pairs of pants, because I get really annoyed when it's unbalanced and I have to adjust.
If mine ever breaks, I will gladly buy another one with confidence. Completely issue free operation on a weekly basis for several months now. And it really gets the clothes dry! Especially technical fabrics like gym clothes or cycling jerseys are quite dry. Other more absorbent things like terry cloth towels still need to be hung up for a while.
Thank you for delivering me from many soul-crushing hours at the laundromat each week. Now I can wash at home and use the time to read comfortably on my sofa, contemplate my existence, eat chips and salsa, enjoy my pets, et cetera.
UPDATE: 01/23/2017
I've been using this product several times a week for almost a year, it is still operating perfectly and I'm so grateful for it. If you hate the laundromat, but thought you didn't have another option, this machine will change your life for the better. It's a quality product and I wish I'd bought one years ago.
I bought this about a year and a half ago when I got the Laundry Alternative Wonder Wash. I do 8 to 10 loads a week (I’m single and only wash my clothes) and it has always worked perfectly. I do hold into it when I first turn it on in case I didn’t get things balanced in there but in just a couple of seconds I know if I need to rearrange the clothes or not. I have found that when loading things in there it helps to leave a donut hole in the middle. Perhaps it gives things room to shift on their own. It’s not a dryer, it’s a spinner and it spins out the water very well. In about 20 seconds everything is ready to hang up, damp but not drippy. I spin clothes after the wash cycle and after the rinse cycle in my Wonder Wash and have noticed that about once a week a slight soap or lint film has accumulated on the inner wall. I keep vinegar in a spray bottle and squirt a little vinegar around the inside and wipe with a dry cloth. That’s all the maintenance it has needed. For draining I cut an opening in a gallon vinegar bottle. Works great!
We use this product on a daily basis along with another Laundry Alternative product the Wonderwash. Both products works great and seamlessly together. We did have an issue with our first Nina Spin Dryer mysteriously stopped working, but Amazon was quick to replace the item seamlessly and we have not had an issue since! We use this daily as a family of four for our only dryer. This item is roughly the size of a kitchen trashcan (the barrel foot-petal type) and we use a stock pot to catch the water for 3 towels. One full load is roughly 3 towels, 2 men's pants, and 4 shirts.
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