How to Save Money and Energy for Laundry: The Nina Soft Spin Dryer Product Review

Learning how to save money and energy for laundry can be challenging because both the washing machine and the dryer are big consumers of energy and water. But there are simple solutions out there to help you save your cash and reduce your energy use for both of these appliances.

Dryers are big energy users in the house, but they are an invaluable addition to our modern home! If you have the option of buying a new dryer, newer Energy Star dryers are a great investment. They use about 20% less energy overall, and are able to dry clothes more efficiently with better technology. How big of a difference can this make? If all US homes chose an Energy Star dryer, Americans could save $1.5 billion each year in utility costs and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to more than 2 million vehicles!

But, if you are stuck with an older machine, here are some helpful tips to help optimize the efficiency of your dryer:

Clean the lint trap: not just the little trap at the front of the machine, but the whole lint removal system needs to be cleaned both for efficiency and home safety.

Clean the moisture sensor in the dryer: if your dryer has an automatic setting, this is how it knows when it’s done; if the sensor is dirty, it cannot sense the dampness of the laundry and may run longer than needed.

Test the voltage of your dryer: know what you’re working with to see how you can reduce your energy draw.

Of course, you can hang your clothes to dry, which is the ultimate eco-friendly and energy-saving option, but doesn’t work for everyone depending on rules and space issues.

{Related: 3 Tips to use your washer more efficiently}

But if you’re stuck with an older machine that sucks up too much energy, another option is to invest in a portable spin dryer. We were recently sent a Nina Soft Spin Dryer to review at home, and it arrived at the perfect time. Our older washing machine decided to stop draining and spinning that same morning, leaving me with a washer full of very wet clothes and dirty water. The Spin Dryer arrived just before I went to the laundromat with sopping wet laundry, so I got to put this little machine to the ultimate test. And I’m happy to report very good results.

The Nina Soft Spin Dryer is an electronic appliance that helps you save energy and money by squeezing out nearly every last drop of water from your washed load. Most washing machines, especially older ones, leave clothes pretty damp even after a spin cycle. This means a longer amount of time in the dryer, adding to the dryer’s energy usage. The Spin Dryer is like a secondary spin cycle for your washing machine. It adds a small extra step to your laundry process, but can save you time in the dryer and ultimately save you some cash too.

The Nina Soft Spin dryer has the following benefits:

• Helps clothes dry faster: it features a 1800-RPM spin speed, which removes most of the water that the washing machine leaves even after the spin cycle. This means less drying time overall. Since it’s not heated, it’s more gentle on your clothes.
• It’s small and lightweight, so it’s easy to move around the room. The Nina Spin dryer is only two feet tall and 17 inches wide, so it fits everywhere. It weighs 15 pounds.

• It’s simple to use: just plug in, add laundry, and close to start. You just need a small bucket or hose to catch the drain water.
• Spins out every last drop of water: on the day that my washing machine quit, I was able to spin out all the excess water before carrying the wash to the laundromat, saving me about 100 pounds of water weight!

However, since the broken washing machine has been replaced with a new high efficiency machine, the Nina is not very helpful for my regular laundry loads. After a normal cycle in the new machine, the Nina did not spin out a single drop of water! I think the Nina will be helpful for hand washing, which I do often, but for regular loads with the new washing machine it is not very useful. Those with older model washing machine models with slower spin cycles will definitely benefit from a spin dryer like to remove those last few drops of water before adding to the dryer or hanging on the clothesline.

It also must be noted that the packaging of the Nina was really awful: the inside of the machine was filled with two slabs of crumbly Styrofoam, which had to be broken to be removed, leaving a confetti of Styrofoam puffs all around the house and in the first loads of spun laundry.

The other issue I had with the spin dryer is that it was pretty unsteady. The instructions said that it may become unbalanced, but with every spin load I did it was pretty wobbly. Sometimes the wobbling would subside 10-20 seconds after starting the machine, after having a few moments to balance itself. However, it seemed that I had to keep my hands on it constantly to keep it from rattling around the room, even with just one towel or a few items of clothing inside of it. The instructions said it can take up to 12 pounds of laundry, but that doesn’t seem likely with these first few testings. Finally, the additional protective top seemed really unhelpful (see in the picture below). It’s a safety feature, but it was cumbersome to insert and seemed pretty unnecessary, assuming you are smart enough not to stick your hands into the machine while it’s spinning.

{Related: 6 Easy ways to Green your laundry}

Overall, I think the Nina is a nifty little appliance, and if you find that your older washing machine needs a little help in the spin department, it’s a good investment. The product seems soundly made, is quiet and sleek, and very easy to use. And it’s going to be a big help for all my hand washing. With our new washing machine, it’s not going to be much use for our regular laundry loads. But I’d imagine that for uses like gyms, where people use the hand dryer to dry their bathing suits, replacing the heavy energy-using hand dryer with one of these spinners would make a ton of sense.