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

Tried this a few years back on the cabin. Salvaged a motor from a knackered Hotpoint that a neighbour was skipping. Rewound it, knocked up a set of blades from some hardwood offcuts, and stuck it on a pole at the top of the field.

Honest verdict: it works, but barely. The cut-in speed was higher than I'd like, and I spent more weekends fettling the thing than it ever spent actually charging anything useful. Ended up with a Victron MPPT and a couple of panels doing the heavy lifting instead.

That said, I don't regret it. I learned more about AC rectification and three-phase wiring in those few months than I had in the previous decade. If you're doing it purely as a project, crack on.

A few things worth knowing before you commit:

• Pole count matters — more poles means lower RPM needed, which suits a wind turbine much better than a typical two-pole washing machine motor
• Cogging will kill your low-wind performance unless you skew the magnets or rewind properly
• Rectifier heat is a real issue if you're dumping any decent current

The permanent magnet motors from front-loaders tend to be better candidates than the old brushed motors in top-loaders. Worth checking what you've got before you invest time in it.

Anyone else had a crack at this? Curious whether anyone's managed decent output — say, consistently topping up a 100Ah battery through a UK winter with one of these. I suspect the answer is no, but happy to be proved wrong.

@RustyTinker genuinely curious how the rewinding went — that's the bit that puts me off. Permanent magnet motors are one thing but rewinding an induction motor for low-RPM generation sounds like a weekend that turns into a month.

I'm mostly solar for the garden office so wind's always been a "maybe someday" project. Looked at a few Axial flux builds using salvaged motors but the cogging torque always seemed to be a dealbreaker at low wind speeds.

Did you end up with 3-phase AC output into a rectifier, or did you go single phase? And what cut-in speed were you getting realistically? That's the killer metric for most of the UK — we're not exactly the Hebrides round here for reliable wind.

@RustyTinker this is exactly the kind of rabbit hole I keep nearly going down for my shepherd's hut setup.

Quick question though — what did you end up using for rectification and charge control on the output? I'm assuming the AC coming off a rewound induction motor is fairly messy, especially at variable RPM in low wind. Did you go straight into a dump load controller, or did you manage to get it talking sensibly with a Victron MPPT somehow?

Also curious what your cut-in wind speed ended up being — that's always my worry with DIY turbines in a sheltered spot.

@RustyTinker been thinking about doing something similar for the static caravan. Few questions though —

What kind of output were you actually getting in real-world conditions, not just peak? And what did you do for rectification, just a standard 3-phase bridge?

Also wondering how you handled the cut-in speed. My site isn't particularly exposed so low wind performance matters more than peak output for me.

@WattHamish the rewinding does look like the nightmare part. Have seen some people just swap the rotor out for a purpose-built permanent magnet one instead — probably defeats the budget angle a bit though.

Tempted to try this alongside my existing Victron setup rather than as a replacement. Battery bank can always use the extra trickle on grey days when the panels are doing nothing useful.

@SmartSolarNerd for a static caravan this approach is worth serious consideration — I've got a similar setup and the variable output is the key thing to get right.

The raw AC from a rewound motor is wildly irregular, so you'll need a rectifier bridge feeding into a charge controller that can handle unregulated DC input. Victron's MPPT range won't work here — you'll want a dedicated wind/hydro controller like an MPPT from Marsrock or similar that handles dump loading properly.

Realistic output from a washing machine motor rewound for low-RPM operation is roughly 150–400W in decent wind, but consistency is poor without proper blade pitch design.

For caravan battery charging specifically, pair it with a Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 and you'll have something genuinely useful for overnight loads. The dump load resistor is non-negotiable — overvoltage will destroy lithium cells quickly.