Anyone else using old washing machine motors for a DIY wind turbine?

Been down this rabbit hole myself after spotting a dead Hotpoint drum sitting outside a neighbour's house last spring.

The permanent magnet motors out of certain washing machines can work surprisingly well as alternators — you spin them, you get AC out, sorted in principle. The tricky bit is that most modern machines use brushless inverter motors which are far better candidates than the old brushed ones, but they need a controller to make sense of the output before your rectifier can do anything useful with it.

My setup out here is primarily for the shepherd's hut and keeping an EV charged when grid access isn't practical, so I've been experimenting on a budget where I can. Got a Victron MPPT doing the heavy lifting on the solar side, but wind has always felt like the missing piece for the grey weeks we get.

What I found:

• Rotor diameter matters enormously — even a modest improvement in blade span makes a huge difference in low-wind cut-in
• The rewinding rabbit hole is real if you want higher voltage at lower RPM
• Mounting and furling is where most DIY builds fall apart, not the motor itself

The main frustration is that UK wind is often gusty and turbulent rather than steady — quite different from the ideal conditions these motors are happy in.

Has anyone actually got one producing meaningful output through a proper winter? I'm curious whether anyone's measured real kWh figures rather than just peak watts on a breezy afternoon. And has anyone tried pairing one directly into a Victron system without too much faff?

@DaleVicky oh mate, you've awakened something dangerous in me here. 🤣

Had exactly the same moment last year — spotted an old Indesit out for collection and nearly caused a traffic incident swerving to grab it.

The trick nobody mentions is matching your blade diameter to the motor's cogging torque — these things can be surprisingly stubborn to get spinning in light winds. I ended up testing three different blade profiles before I got something halfway decent turning in a Force 3.

On the boat I've got a proper Rutland unit, but the DIY lash-up on the mooring post has been genuinely educational. Currently charging a Fogstar lithium bank through a basic rectifier and a repurposed Victron MPPT (yes, it'll take wind input, people sleep on this).

What RPM range are you seeing at the output shaft before rectification? That's where it gets interesting.

@DaleVicky this is genuinely one of the better budget wind projects you can tackle with salvaged parts. Worth noting though — not all washing machine motors are permanent magnet types. The older brushed universal motors are useless for this. You want the BLDC/PM motors from more recent direct-drive machines (no belt, drum mounted directly to motor). Hotpoint and Indesit direct-drives from roughly 2010 onwards are often good candidates.

Key practical point: the output will be three-phase AC, so you'll need a suitable rectifier bridge rated well above your expected current. I'd also strongly recommend running the output through a Victron MPPT if you're feeding into a battery bank — trying to directly charge without proper regulation is asking for trouble, especially in gusty conditions where voltage spikes will be unpredictable.

Blade design and furling mechanism matter enormously for longevity. What rotor diameter are you planning?

@DaleVicky genuinely brilliant thread — I've been running a modified PMSM from an old Indesit on my narrowboat for about 18 months now and the results have surprised me.

Key thing most people miss: rectification matters enormously with these motors. The three-phase AC output is wildly variable at low RPM, so a decent bridge rectifier feeding into a proper charge controller (I use a Victron SmartSolar in wind-assist mode) makes the difference between usable power and just heating wire.

Also worth checking the winding resistance before committing — some older machines have quite high internal resistance which kills efficiency at the voltages you're actually working with. Below about 0.8 ohms per phase is where it starts getting genuinely worthwhile.

Blade design is honestly the hardest bit. I carved mine from reclaimed timber but the balance has to be spot-on or you'll vibrate your connections loose within a fortnight.

@LakelandNomad oh brilliant, another boater doing this — what are you using for rectification? That's where I got properly unstuck initially.

Running a Indesit-sourced unit myself on the roof of my 57-footer. The three-phase AC output is the bit people underestimate — you can't just chuck it straight at a Victron MPPT and call it a day. Learned that the expensive way.

Ended up with a bridge rectifier salvaged from an old UPS unit, then a small dump load controller I built from a forum guide. Feeds into a Fogstar lithium bank now and it's been surprisingly tidy since.

The blade design is genuinely the dark art though. First set were carved from decking timber and looked like something a toddler made. Second iteration is much better — printed templates from Hugh Piggott's website if anyone's not found that yet.

Great thread! @HalfAJob raises a really valid point about rectification — that's where a lot of people come unstuck. I used a three-phase bridge rectifier from an old UPS unit for mine, which sorted the AC-to-DC conversion nicely without spending much.

One thing nobody's mentioned yet: cogging can be a real issue with these motors at low wind speeds. Worth checking whether yours has it badly before you commit hours of work to a build. A simple test is just spinning the shaft by hand — if it notches and catches noticeably, you might struggle to get cut-in at anything under 4-5 m/s.

Some BOSCH and Miele drum motors seem less prone to this than average, in my experience. Anyone else found particular makes that behave better in low winds? Living in the North West means I need something that'll actually turn in a light breeze!