Samsung antibacterial washer to enter front-loader market

[ub9s2me]

Samsung will soon introduce the "SilverCare" washing machine into the US. This will be the first Samsung badged washer in the US market. The washer differentiates itself from the competition by providing a silver cycle that is supposed to be capable of cold water sanitization without bleach that is gentle on fabrics. Offshore web sites also state that some of the electrolytically generated silver binds to fabrics to produce an antibacterial finish.

My wife is a healthcare worker and I worry about what she might carry home on her scrubs since MRSA is now common in the hospital. Has anyone seen a Samsung Silvercare machine for sale yet?

 

[Acerone]

It's on Lowes web site right now.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Silit cookware from Germany has a silver-based inner surface that is touted to reduce food spoilage the same way.

I don't think that I would want to home launder surgical scrubs from the hospital, especially in cold water although they have to have the initial bath in cool water to dissolve blood and other proteins, if present. It's another thing if it's stuff just worn on the floors where they have to wear gowns, gloves, masks and booties for isolation, but the gowns, if they are not disposable paper ones, go into a special hamper, as does all of the linen from an isolation room. Those are some of the precautions with MRSA isolation, along with disposable dinnerware.

 

[Designgeek]

The way I'd deal with that is, get a washer with a 200-degree sanitize cycle, or one that will handle incoming hot water at 200 degrees; and then if it's not equipped with an internal heater, put an inline heater in the hot water line to raise it to 200 degrees. Profile wash if possible, up to sanitize temps, and adding bleach at the last 5 minutes of the wash cycle. First rinse at hot, second at warm, done. Chances are I'd use a Staber for this since it's a TL horizontal axis, stainless steel interior.

Then, when my SO walked through the door, he'd strip down in a hall (preferably an "airlock" between an outside door and an inside door!), put the hospital clothes into a tightly-woven cloth bag, put on a towel, go to the WC, put the towel into another similar laundry bag; then shower, use different towel to dry off, put on house clothes, and done.

Then one of us would put on rubber gloves, dump the contents of both sacks into the hatch on the washer, and toss the sacks themselves in after. Set the controls for hotter than hell, press the button, toss the rubber gloves into a pail of bleach water, and sit down to dinner. "How was your day dear?"

Note, the reasons for using a Staber are: Low water consumption like a FL (particularly important when using hot-as-hell water), but can be loaded from the top by gravity (dumping the load in) rather than having to stuff everything through a porthole up close. And the stainless steel tubs should be able to handle the water at 200 degrees without trouble.

BTW, the same protocol as per above can be used in the event of an avian flu pandemic. In that case, everyone gets to do it every time they come in from being out in places where other humans are hanging out.

Someone should compile a list of washers that can handle incoming water at 200 degrees, that would be a useful resource. If your machine isn't rated for that kind of temperatures, you'd use plenty of chlorine bleach instead.

 

[ub9s2me]

200 degree incoming water might not be hot enough to kill microorganisms after all the interior steel cools it down, as the ratio of water to metal is low in a frontloader. I think only these machines with heating elements are going to be able to achieve reliable heat sanitization. Bleach is effective and ok for whites but not the new designer scrubs that my wife buys.

Silver might be a better answer - especially for home use.

 

[maytagbear]

We're all going to die of

something anyway.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[ub9s2me]

That's a morbid thought for a Maytag fan. It is true we are all only visitors to this planet, but I don't want to die from something that may be easily preventable. You also have to look at the possibilies if innovative electronic companies get into the washer business and start competing - how aobut a combination Washer- MP3 player- video camera. If you could match the tempo of the spin cycle to the MP3 player you could make a video of yourself dancing with the washer - but what song would you play???

What about adding a GPS to keep track of my socks?

 

[Designgeek]

Key question: what percentage of bugs are actually killed by the silver treatment, as opposed to the conventional hot water & bleach?

And also: if there is silver deposited on garments, does that also kill microorganisms, and if so, what percentage.

You see where this is going: "kills 99.9% of germs" means that the other 0.1% survive and prosper. Resistant strains. Normal washing counts on the detergent and mechanical action to kill some and remove most; any bugs that are left are a balanced ecosystem consisting mostly of harmless bugs, in which harmful bugs have a tougher time getting a foothold. Boiling and/or bleaching kill everything except possibly prions (mad cow). But I'm highly skeptical of chronic use of "antibacterial" products, based on the 99.9% issue. Residual silver remaining on garments could be a problem in the long run if it leads to resistant bugs growing on clothes. Anyone know more about this?

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Re. networked appliances:

There are a couple of potentially practical applications here. One is for a washer to tell a dryer how dry the clothes are at the end of final spin (moisture sensor), to automatically set the dryer controls. To me this is dubious because people generally prefer to have direct control over those things: perhaps you just want to partially dry a load for whatever reason, or use a different temperature or drum speed or timing or whatever.

Then there's the idea of monitoring your appliances from your computer or TV screen: a pop-up would tell you when your washer or dryer or dishwasher is done with a load, for example. This is primarily useful in large houses where you can't hear what's going on in the laundry room or kitchen; the rest of us can use our ears

The application I think could be a winner is household power control. For example the dryer tells other high-wattage appliances to suspend operating during the dry cycle. The point of this is to equalize load over time, which is valuable to electric utilities because it reduces the need for peak-load capacity and thereby allows more efficient use of primary generating sources. Power companies may even offer incentives to households that network their appliances in this manner.

Another variation would be a flow-detector in a shower line that tells other hot water using appliances to suspend during a shower; obvious benefit that someone taking a shower wouldn't suddenly get cold water when another device starts using the hot water. This could also be accomplished with point-of-use water heaters.