My first experience with a Costa Rican washing machine left me very confused. It's sort of a manual version of a typical western machine where you have to turn the water on and off and move the clothes from one side of the machine to the other.
Thank god for the gal that worked at my AirBnB who helped me with the many steps involved to get a load of laundry done. She's gone now so today I was on my own. I honestly couldn't remember everything she told me; fill the water first, then clothes, then run it, then somehow rinse/spin, flip this dial, slide that over. Ah, what's this?! An instruction sheet - woohoo!
The Basics
In short, it's a 2-sided machine. The left side is to fill up with water and wash the clothes. Then you move the clothes to the other side and have the water go into that side to rinse and then spin. You have to manually do all the steps including turning off the water at the correct time on both sides of the machine.Step 1: Fill the Water
Make sure the Drain Selector dial is set to Wash and not Drain, make sure the Water Supply Selector (which basin the water will fill) is slid over to the left for the Wash and not Rinse basin, turn on the water source (in my case a regular hose spigot on the wall with a hose going into the machine).You need to manually stop the water when it's full enough for your load of clothes. I put the soap in, let the water run for a little bit to dissolve the powdered soap, then put my clothes in and turn the water off once they're submerged. If you forget your water is on (because you are used to a machine where you turn it on and walk away), trust me that it has an overflow and the extra water will drain out the regular drain. Turn off the water source, turn the Drain dial to Drain for a few seconds to lower the level, add more soap since you just sent all your soap out to pasture with the wasted water, and continue with the next step.
Step 2: Wash
Now you're ready to wash. Select the type of Wash Program (Gentle, Normal, or Strong) and turn the Wash Timer dial. I use 12 minutes. On it goes! It gets some pretty decent agitation going. Wait until the time runs out.Step 3: Drain and Move
Set the Drain Selector dial to Drain and the water will drain out of the wash basin pretty quickly. You don't need to wait for it though. Move your wet soapy clothes over to the right side. The small side. If you have to do more than one rinse / spin batch, so be it. It only takes a few minutes.Open both lids on the right and pull out the semi-floppy protector cover. Put your clothes in and don't stuff it too full. Put the semi-floppy protector thingy inside and on top of your clothes.