Salad spinner for hand washing bras-- will it really work?

It all started, for me, with Busty Girl Comics (so easy to relate to!), and this little post. It started popping up on bust-bloggers feeds on facebook-- has anyone tried this? What do you think about it?

I thought it was brilliant! I handwash my bras to prolong their wearable life, especially since I view them as an investment in my appearance. I have mostly molded or lightly padded bras, and I can't effectively squeeze out moisture without majorly misshaping the cups-- in which case, I might as well stick them in the washing machine-- and then they tend to take about 2 days to dry, because so much moisture is left in the fabric. Since I put off washing them, all my bras (that fit) are in the wash at the same time, and I'm stuck with the choice of wearing a moist bra (not a good choice, it probably would have deleterious effects on the longevity and wearable life of a bra), or wearing a terrible fitting bra that gave me breast tissue migration when I wore it. There's no good choice there, my friends!

 Lots of people were discussing the idea, but I didn't see many people who had actually tried it yet, and I really needed to wash some bras.  So, I decided it was worth trying for me, in the immediate future (I considered it a worthy attempt to improve my quality of life.)

Oooh, easy!

I read reviews on Amazon, and decided that pretty much all salad spinners suck in some way. None of them had all positive reviews, and all of the issues mentioned seemed reasonable. I read tons of reviews, and after a few hours I just pulled the trigger on this one because it was not too expensive (relatively), and I was tired of looking. It seemed to be one of the bigger ones (big is very important!), and I liked that it didn't require handle cranking, and that it didn't have a center column to obstruct the number of ways I could put in a bra.

Obviously, the brand and type of spinner has a big effect on how this will work, so I wanted to mention the particular one I'm trying.

So, did it actually work?

First, I washed my bras like I always do-- I put about a teaspoon and a half of Dreft* laundry soap into my bathroom sink, and fill it with cool-to-lukewarm water. Then I plop in some bras, and I let them sit about 5 minutes while I'm doing other stuff.

Still soapy bra in bowl and basket of salad spinner

 Once they've soaked, I gently rub the fabric with my fingertips, focusing on the underwires, the inside of the cups, and the areas near the armpits. After the item seems sufficiently clean, I dunk it around in the water, and then remove it to the bottom portion of the spinner, which I conveniently left near the sink (once I dripped soapy water all over the bathroom floor a few times).

I switched from my Freya Carly to my Deco Ocean
at this point in pictures.

Once I had as many bras as I could fit in the spinner (in this case with molded bras, only two at a time could be submerged), I put the spinner under my bathtub tap and ran coolish water into the bowl. I did this, let it sit for a minute, dumped out the water, and then added fresh water once more, swishing the bras a few times.

 Then I took out the bras using the basket (tipping it to the side so water would run off faster), and dump the water out of the bowl.

 

Positioned for minimal distortion:
Clean, rinsed but still very wet bra in spinner.

I placed one bra in the basket/ bowl, and positioned it so the centrifugal force wouldn't distort the cups unduly. Side note: at this point, in this spinner, I would say that with a molded cup, mine is near the tallest cups one could fit into the spinner without distorting the shape excessively. You could go wider, and I don't know if that's a concern, but if you are considerably larger breasted than I, you might have better luck with a different, taller spinner. My Fantasie Ava, which has much stiffer molded cups, got flattened and wrinkled at the bottom of the cup when I dried it with the spinner, but I don't think it will alter wear (I'll update if it does).

Lid on, ready to spin!

 I popped on the lid-- for this style, you just push the lid on. After a little experience, I discovered you need your other hand firmly pressed on the lid while pulling on the spin-cord, if you don't want it to come off!













 Then, it's spin time! This is kind of fun! This is much more comfortable and less likely to go crazy when done at countertop height compared to leaning over a bathtub.

Grasp the handle

and pull! Spinny spinny!

 For each bra, I pulled the cord 6-8 times, and I dried all bras individually, since more than one really doesn't fit with my cups. Water splashes on the inside of the bowl as you go (Credit for cord-yanking photography goes to my fiance). I'd say per bra, I got at least an additional half-cup of water out (I should have measured). I could have continued until no additional water came out when I pulled, maybe, but I'm not that dedicated and wanted to see what "lower/ normal effort" would do. If the bras don't dry as fast as I'd like, I might spin longer next time.

The bras were noticeably dryer than without the spinning, but whether that will translate to ideally shorter drying time is to be determined.

 After all that, I clipped up my bras in my normal fashion, on a multi-clip hanger, and hung it in the basement by the dehumidifer (this is the same as always).

 Now, to see if I have clean, dry bras that are ready to wear tomorrow!

Update 10/2/2012: I went downstairs in the morning to check if the bras had dried, and they were all completely dry, even the molded ones on the inside! I will definitely use this method in the future!


With spinner: Fully dry by ~9 hours post wash.
Without spinner: Fully dry by ~36 hours post wash.

Clipped up and ready to hang in the basement
(not pictured: the remaining 4 bras that were washed and clipped up).

* Dreft is a baby laundry detergent that I chose because it supposedly lacks the surfactants that damage elastic over time, like more expensive lingerie wash... but I did not do any research myself to back this up, so it's hearsay.