Which washing machine should you get? A semi-automatic VS a fully automatic one

A semi-automatic washing machine from Hisense, Nigeria

Semi-automatic washing machines will teach you time (and light) management because you can never be too far away from the machine. If you sleep off while washing, good luck to you because the machine will simply wait for you till you wake up for more input, wasting all that time in the process.

For one cycle, you’d need to do the following-

1. Add the clothes, detergent and water and then switch off the water when it is enough. In a fully automatic one, the machine controls this.
2. When the first wash cycle is done, you’d need to drain the water and run fresh water. In a fully automatic one, the machine does this.
3. After the second wash cycle is done, you’d need to repeat step (two) as many times (at least twice) minus the detergent for the rinse cycle. Already, the machine has needed your “help” at least five times to this point, but it is not yet over; you have not “spun” the clothes yet.
4. Then, you’d need to transfer the clothes from the “wash/rinse” chamber to the “spin” chamber and set it to begin. Again, the number of times you choose to spin is up to you, but let’s use once for this conversation. So, the machine needs your “help” at least seven times for one wash cycle. It would be five times if the machine does not have the spin function. Each of those seven times is within a space of five to fifteen minutes, depending on what function you are doing. This means your ability to multi-task and the type of task with the semi-auto machine is very limited.

Fully Automatic washing machine from Midea, Nigeria

The entire process takes forty minutes to one hour (or longer if you are not paying attention to the machine) for one wash-rinse-spin cycle; depending on the size of the clothes, using your hands might be faster.

Finally, cost. A semi-automatic 6–8kg washing machine costs nearly the same as the fully automatic one at ~N250k (~$212), so it is not cheaper per se. I think I have answered your question about which to buy.

The ONLY place a semi-auto washing machine might have an advantage over a full-auto one is voltage allowance. The semi-auto one is more likely to work under low voltage/current (which Nigeria mostly supplies anyways) than the fully auto one. Anyways, stabilizers?