Samsung Washer

[pturo]

I was at the doctors reading last summers Simple Magazine, and there was an and for a Samsung washer that disinfected clothes in cold water using silver ions I belive. 99% of Bacteria removed. Anyone heard of this process or this machine?

 

[westytoploader]

The Samsung SilverCare been talked about MANY times here...

 

[gansky1]

Disinfecting in cold water with silver ions, it still sounds a little too good to be true. I suppose when the machine burns on fire and takes the house with it- that's sort of like disinfection as well...

 

[pturo]

I just don't know the alchemy behind the design. It may well disenfect, but does it get out the underwear stains? I should go to the archives, I guess. Just wanted to get a read on if trusted members have used this appliance.

 

[launderess]

First Of All...

Ewwwwwwwwww!

Second, no, the silver will not remove stains of any sort, detergents and bleaches perform that function.

Silver does have germ killing properties, hence silver nitrate which is still dosed to newborns (in eyes) to prevent blindess caused by veneral disease.

Recently however the United States federal governent began to look into Samsung's silver washing machine in response to complaints from "tree-hugging" groups and others about releasing large amounts of the metal into waste water. By large one supposes if a significant number of households in a given area all had the same washing machine, that would cause substantial amounts of waste discharge contaning silver.

L.

 

[pturo]

Thanks Laundress, for being on top of these things, but EEEEWEEEEW is a part of laundry life when one cares for two senior citizen parents who can't afford to pay 7 grand a month each to go to a nursing home. But Yes, EEEEWWWE was appropriate in the face of a silver injection that was supposed to santize, but then pollutes. It is all about the bleach, in my opinion. Just seems dumb to pollute, to save energy on hot water, if that is what this Samsung thing does with it's silver thing.

 

[launderess]

Silver wasn't by injection, but via some type of bar that the water passed over. IIRC, the bar would at some point have to be replaced, but probably not for ages.

As for the "Ewwwwww" comment, it wasn't meant as a personal attack, if I offended am deeply sorry.

Speaking for myself, as someone who worked in nursing and changed lots of nappies (the cloth variety), best way to cope with that sort of thing is either a good laundry program using chlorine bleach or boil washing.

Aside from the normal contents of fecal matter such as bile, much will depend upon what was digested. Many mothers new mothers soon learn which solid foods do not agree with baby, and result in very nasty bowel movements. Prunes, green veggies, and other foods can result in some very difficult stains. Hence the need for bleach. A good enzyme detergent or pre-soak can work wonders as well.

If one has a top loader, try Dreft or any of the baby detergents. By their nature they are designed to remove common baby stains, including BMs. Hot water temps and or chlorine bleach will sanitise.

L.

 

[whirlcool]

The silver could be filtered out of the water and recycled. We had these huge plotters in our weather room that would plot out fronts highs, lows, etc on clear transparencies that would go up on a light board. The plotters that created these would use silver in the processing. They had a way to filter the by products and the silver would stick to a grid in a plastic bucket and when the grid became solid, a recycling company would come and pick it up and leave a couple of hundred bucks behind.

 

[panthera]

Actually,

The Korean board of consumer's affairs tested these machines and found there is absolutely not difference to standard washers in the results...both left clothes hygenically clean.
Whatever that means.
It is just a marketing gimick.
Oh, I don't doubt the effectiveness of silver for this purpose, I just find it interesting that an independent test has yet to validate the claims.

As for the water concerns, it seems to me that the tree-huggers do more harm than good with their hysterical attitude. I care about the environment, but boy, by the time the "greens" are done telling me what a horrid person I am here, I always want to go right out and invest in BP.

 

[washerman8]

Gansky1, Launderess, Whirlcool, and Panthera

Thanks for taking the time to answer pturo's question. It's refreshing to see folks take the time to answer a question instead of posting a useless, sarcastic statement. I was curious about this machine myself.

 

[fa_f3_20]

Silver salts, like copper salts, have mild anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. However, I've never heard that the pure metal does. If metallic silver was really a strong chemical agent, it wouldn't be used in jewelry.

Silver, like stainless steel, does have the property that bacteria find it difficult to grow on the surface because it's pretty non-porus. However, there's a difference between that and actually killing bacteria that come into contact with it. I don't think silver does that.

 

[ultramatic52]

Hi everyone

I bought a Samsung WF316BAW FL washer with silver technology 1 year ago. I´m impressed of how well it can remove stains. I also own a Whirlpool Gold Catalyst (TOL). Samsung removed stains that Whirlpool even doing an overnight soak, prewash, 2 rounds of hot water for 15 min each with heavy duty action, and 2 rinses couldn´t.

Now that I´ve tested it and have washed with this silver technology for 1 year, I can say it really works even in cold water. I use half the amount of detergent I use regularly in Whirlpool (not HE detergent as it is recommended) and get excelent results time after time.

In the other hand, I use to wash my white clothes in Sanitary Cycle with a prewash, which takes about 2:38 to complete, increases water temp up to 75ºC and agitates for about 45 min constantly. I never use bleach, clothes get really damage after several uses of bleach. I do this because I´m a medicald doctor and bacterias/viruses and so are all over the place and prefer to prevent any deseases at home. Hospital also uses silver technology to disinfect and sterilize surgical material without loosing sharp or material properties.

I don´t really think silver ions can contaminate water, since it is intended to kill bacterias and stuff. It is also used in refrigerators and air conditioners. The only 2 brands I know use this techonolgy are LG and Samsung, and I believe that before introducing this technology, they made tons of experiments and research, adn after that, they came up with this.

I´ve also tryed washing my whites in the whites cycle using the rest of the temperatures (Normal Hot, warm and cold) and get the same results everytime.

I promise I will take my time to research about Silver and the water pollution and then will post my findings.

Here are some pictures of my appliances which I´ve already posted in past threads.

This is my Samsung which has the best capacity someone could ask for, on a domestic washer (30 lb or 15 kg), King sized comforters are washed as if they were feathers.

 

[ultramatic52]

This is my Whirlpool Gold Catalyst

TOL model

 

[sassifrass77]

Samsung Silver Care Washer

Consumer Reports has tested the silver care process and has proven that it does make a difference in how much residual bacteria and germs are on clothes after they are washed with and without the Silver ions. apparently it did make a significant difference. Check out Consure Reports, if you pay your $26 for a membership, you can check out all their info all year long.
The only thing they couldn't say was about the machines longevity, there aren't enough of them yet to tell.
The Samsung comes in a very cool Tango Red color too, I'm happy to see something other than generic white! So boring!

 

[sassifrass77]

Samsung Silver Care Washer

Consumer Reports has tested the silver care process and has proven that it does make a difference in how much residual bacteria and germs are on clothes after they are washed with and without the Silver ions. apparently it did make a significant difference. Check out Consumer Reports, if you pay your $26 for a membership, you can check out all their info all year long.
The only thing they couldn't say was about the machines longevity, there aren't enough of them yet to tell.
The Samsung comes in a very cool Tango Red color too, I'm happy to see something other than generic white! So boring!

 

[panthera]

Silver

All by itself is also toxic. Ag is pretty cool stuff and the only reason it doesn't do us in is 'cause of the old rule:
"the dose makes the poison".
The fact that Consumer Reports verifies effectiveness of the machine doesn't surprise me - they build good stuff. But whether the silver really plays a role here...hmm, I think I'll stick with the Koreans on that. The last few times I read CR in the 'States I wanted to cry. What on earth happened? It used to be, I'd buy an issue and spend the whole afternoon reading it and looking at all the explanations and tables...detailed descriptions of testing methodology. Do they even test themselves, at all?
Rinsing - which this machine is really good at - and a well set up spin cycle - also a strong point of this machine - have at least as much to do with how clean things come out as anything else.
Bronze, by the way, has been used for public contact (door knobs, banisters, etc.) for aeons because microbes find it impossible to live on it's surface.

 

[tolivac]

Bronze is also used for these applications because it is very corrosion resistent-esp to body salts.