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Review of Columbus Family Size Washboard

The very first thing I noticed about this Columbus Family Size Washboard is that it was much smaller than I had anticipated. It stands at most two feet tall and includes a rubbing surface area of roughly 11″ x 11″. I guess I didn’t bother to pay much attention to the dimensions when I bought it since I assumed a family-sized washboard would be, well… bigger!

Of course, you’re only working on one article of clothing at a time, rubbing different sections of the clothes each time, so maybe it doesn’t have to be that big. While I don’t have a lot of experience with it (I used our recent washing machine problem to test it out a bit) many people swear that it’s large enough to clean towels, yet small enough to work well on socks.

I can say that I feel the unit is sturdy enough to put up with some abuse. Before using it, I tried to see how well-built it might be (by twisting and pulling at various angles) and without trying REALLY hard it didn’t seem to budge at all. Anyway, it’s made with a wood frame (I’m guessing pine) which is sanded very smoothly without any splinters or rough edges. It also includes a metal rubbing surface which also seems to be without any imperfections that could cause snags or otherwise harm delicate clothes. That said, I would suspect the metal would probably dent if I dropped it from a significant distance, though, it didn’t seem to have any noticeable give while using it to wash clothes.

Cost from Amazon is right at $25, which isn’t bad for something that could last for many years if cared for properly. Maybe you could build one yourself but I would suspect that properly re-creating the metal rubbing surface could be a bit challenging, especially for those that don’t have any metal working experience like me.

The real question is: how well does it work? Well, it starts with knowing how to use a washboard . It’s obviously manual labor and may not be the best option for those people with back problems (because you’re bending over a lot) or those with joint problems. Regardless, I would assume that once you get the hang of it then you can wash a single article of clothing in just a minute or two without much problem. I feel like I spent at least a few minutes on each item I washed (a pair of jeans, shirt, and a few socks) mostly because I wasn’t entirely sure I was doing anything productive.

You also need to pay attention to how you wash clothes with a washboard. Instead of wetting (or working with) an entire pair of jeans, for example, I think it works better to wet and wash parts of it at a time in order to make repeated lifting a bit less strenuous. I found that washing a t-shirt wasn’t too bad but a full, wet pair of jeans could get tiresome. I can see that I also need a better plan for where I’m going to use my washboard (a bathtub is an obvious location) as I didn’t have a bin that I thought would work well. I’m thinking a bus boy style bin might suffice but still need to try it.

In my opinion, I would suggest that a washboard is a tried-and-true method for washing clothes; however, I think I will save the washboard for those clothes that were significantly soiled and use other methods (such as a Wonderwash or 5-gallon bucket system) for more normal washing needs.

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Damian Brindle

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Comments

2 responses to “Review of Columbus Family Size Washboard”

  1. GoneWithTheWind

    I hate to give away my age but I have used a washboard and not the way it was shown in the video. She seemed to imply you washed everything by the washboard, not true. You used the washboard to remove stains. Clothes without stains were washed in soapy water and wrung out then rinsed and wrung out. But if an item of clothing had a stain then it was taken from the soapy water and the washboard was used to concentrate the effort. For example a grass stain on the knee of your pants. The item was pressed against the washboard stain up so that the soap was forced through the material and floated the dirt/stain away. If you pressed the stain down into the washboard and rubbed you imbedded the stain. It works amazingly. You can watch the soap come through pulliong dirt with it. We (my mom and which ever kid was helping) would also use a small stiff brush to kind of peck away the stain if it was too stubborn for the washboard. The brush was not simply rubbed across the stain/dirt it was kind of brushed at the edges and into the air as if you were trying to dislodge a piece of the dirt and fling it into the air. But usually the washboard would work. Best technique is to use the washboard and if not completely successful let the dirty item soak while you did the reat of the laundry and when everything else was done try again. Not much soap was needed and never directly applied. The soap was in the water and the washboard would make it suds like crazy. One other point my mother used a concoction of old bath soap soaked in a quart mason jar. Every time a piece of soap became too small my mother would add it to the qaurt jar which had these little slivers of soap and water in it. When she did the laundry in the wringer washer she would tip a quarter to a half cup of the soap water into the tub. We would wash all the whites first, then the mixed colors then the darks and dirty levis. Each laod used the same wash waterif the suds went away she would add just a little more soap water to it. Then she would drain it and we would rince the clothes in the same order but not necessarily in the same rinse water. Oh yeah, we made our own soap. We saved the grease every day and my day would mix up some plumbers lye (drano) and add it to the warm/heated grease. Too much lye and the soap was hard and rough on your skin but was great cleaning clothes in the laundry. Too little lye and the soap was oily. Also since the lye was mixed with water you could make a softer soap with a little more water. However you had to know the formula because once mixed it fairly quickly congealed and it was impossible to stir in more lye mixture or more grease. It was what it was and you used it as it was.

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    1. millenniumfly

      I’m glad you point this out because when I searched how to use a washboard on YouTube I found a few videos that showed this same method which seemed wrong to me but I went with it anyway. It made more sense to me that I should only use a washboard for scrubbing stains but since I didn’t know any better I just did what I saw. Thank you for straightening me out. 🙂

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