Anyone know if a US-made direct-drive washer can be salvaged to make an alternator?

[phreich]

Hi,

I came across this video about a fellow in New Zealand that has used British-made Fisher-Paykel "smartdrive" direct-drive washing machine motors to build free 3 phase alternators for both hydro-powered alternators and wind turbines. Looking at his videos, it looks like the windings and magnet setup in these motors makes the conversion/modification really easy.

My question is: are there any US distributed washing machines that are made in a similar way (that have a large brushless motor that can be as easily modified to work as an alternator)?

I look forward to all you tinkerer's thoughts on this.

Here's a link to a video that describes his process:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLaSf_YY7Xs

This one shows how he set it up to do his own hydro-power from a very small stream:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ieFZI4-6K8