Scrubba  Wash Bag

I have used this for two weeks in Europe and have a lot of thoughts I wish were available before I bought it. The headline is that it does by and large accomplish the task of doing the wash on the go a little easier, but it doesn't entirely accomplish it in the way it claims to deliver results. In general I'm less impressed with the engineering of the product. First of all, the air valve is very small and not conducive to wet soapy hands and pressing air out. It should have been much larger like an air mattress valve, or something a little more industrial. This valve is like the one on a blow up inflatable beach ball. Some people on Amazon have commented on how fast this broke. Mine has been steady after many, many washes - but I rarely use it and push the air out like a Ziploc bag before I use it. More on that to come... Secondly, the outside of the bag purports to have a steady platform from which to swish around the wash. However, this bottom of the bag only works on a completely dry surface and doesn't work when you do this in a bathtub in which you just filled the bag. Who in their right mind wants to do washing on a dry surface where spills need to be cleaned leads into yet another engineering faux pas. The bag isn't entirely waterproof. Water and soap will come out the top if it's filled and vigorously used. So you will have some suds coming out. Cool if it's in a tub...not cool if it's on your dinner table - which is what Scrubba claims to have created. Another major engineering problem is that the washboard nubs are only on one side inside the bag. But turning the laundry while it is closed, and wet, is an almost impossible task. I have tried every way but you have to re-open the bag and re-position the laundry. Rinsing is also a specific art. If you use the detergent that they suggest you use or any foaming soap you will end up with a rinsing nightmare which is very difficult in the bag. However, I did find the old school soap which is readily available in Europe which is intended to use for hand-washing and that worked like a charm. Smells rustic clean and cleans well but doesn't foam up like mad so the rinsing is a couple cycles instead of ten minutes trying to wring out the soap. What I do is fill the bag with cold water and then push them up and down with my fist in the bag till I see my low-suds soap everywhere, and then dump it and rinse again. Usually I stick the showerhead in the there it rinses very quickly. Now, for the better part. What Scrubba has inadvertently managed to create is a washboard system if you do it the old way like our great-grandmothers used to do. What I have perfected as a technique is to rub some of my handy old-school soap on the nubs and on the sweaty and dirty parts of the washing. Then I fill the bag with some water, leave it open, position it against my leg and start dipping and rubbing and washing like our ancestors did. Then the bag works actually pretty well and I found incrementally useful as a solution to not finding a laundromat. The last thing to mention is the bag is small. Doing a full size towel takes some technique in the way I use it - and if you use it the way Scrubba lists in it's instructions I can't see you getting it done. But socks, underwear, shirts, my wife's sun dresses...they all got done very well. So manage your expectations and you should be okay. The nubs inside are solid, almost cracked some finger nails on them so pay attention when you're putting elbow grease into it. In conclusion I think the bag is slightly overpriced and is an example of shoddy engineering and less capable field testing but like many things in life there is a happy accident in the midst of the Aussie experiment which is that there is a portable washboard/soaking bin that you can fold up to fit anywhere and if you stick a bar of washboard soap or use hotel handsoap you should be able to handle most of your laundry. You should buy it. But know what you're doing and know what you plan on doing. Probably too long a review but before I bought couldn't find anything intelligible on the web reviewing this and the Amazon reviews weren't comprehensive.

We gave the Scrubba a fair trial over 5 weeks on Maui, followed by 2 weeks in Alaska, then Canada. Our experience was that the nubs on the side (bottom in use) of the bag are ineffectual when used as designed. The laundry placed inside simply remains in a clump as you roll your hands over the top of the bag. During this process water and soap leak from the bag, making a mess of whatever surface you are working on. The process to remove air through the small, valve (like the one on your vinyl pool toys), is frustrating, and ineffectual. We ended up doing as another REI member suggested and rolling the air out before closing the top. As a test to see if the bag was doing it's job, we washed the clothes as instructed and the did three clear water rinses, we then removed the clothes and placed them in a white sink, added water and swished the clothes around. To our disgust, grey brown water remained in the basin when we removed the clothes. Obviously not clean (note: these were clothes that we had worn over two days, doing short hikes). Next we took a 20 Litre dry bag we had with us and placed the rest of our clothes in it with a little laundry soap, added water, left the bag open, and oscillated the clothes with our hands for two minutes. Rinsed three times, same oscillations but only about thirty seconds each time. The outcome in the sink test was much different, with only a very light grey tint to the water. We did this test three times over the span or our trip, with the same results. Conclusion: back to REI with the Scrubba (What a great store!). The dry bag weighs less, multi use, and takes up less room. Happy trails!