Steam Cleaning Front Loaders??

[frontloadfan]

I am excited about having purchased the new Maytag Neptune. Related to this, I was surfing to see what I could find on Samsung's web site. I also visited GL's website too. It was interesting as on both sites there was a description of a new technology in washing machines that is a steam cleaning of some sort. It uses only the fraction of water as a regular front loader and to boot, it kills off all germs. The machines they showed looked like typical front loaders.

Reviewing the ads, it was obvious the ads were not intended for an American audiance. If fact, the reference seemed to be toward Middle Eastern sales.

Has anyone heard about this technilogy, or is this just a niche market aimed for areas where water is very scarce?

I would be interested if any of you have heard anything about it.

Thanks

 

[Acerone]

LG offers one also but it's only available in Korea.

 

[toggleswitch]

Interesting- must research this.

But of all places that don't need more heat, a steaming washer? OMG.

 

[toggleswitch]

..water shortage? in the middle-east?

Get a country that is near a water source.
Add a de-salinization /distiller plant to it.
Use your oil to heat the water, and purify it.
Use your oil wealth to build a mega stainless steel pipeline to carry the water to land-locked countries.

Distribute the water-free-of charge.

Now for the hard part:
Re-educate your population that water is now available and can be freely used.

worst case scenario #1 use waste heat (2/3 of total fossil fuel used) to fire-up the water treatment plants.

scenario #2 use heat generated from burning your garbage to fire-up the plant, then go to an electrical generating plant!

oooppps- didnt meant to rain on the parade or hi-jack the thread!

 

[toggleswitch]

steam cleaning .... ok in the Middle-east may work on mostly white and pastel colors..

What so you do in places (like my city) where the de rigeur colors are black, navy blue and gray? Won't the steam fade the load to H - - -?

or in the south of this country where (I think) it's a lot of bright and loud colors.. F A D I N G ?

 

[Acerone]

Here's a picture of the LG Steam Washing Machine..

 

[launderess]

V-Zug has a steam front loader, but not sure how that feature is used. V-Zug by the way is an uber-top laundry appliance line from Sweden, whose machines are rumored to out class Miele (if that is possible). Oh how I WISH they were sold in the United States!

 

[foraloysius]

Launderess,

The V-Zug uses the steam after the spin cycle to de-wrinkle the laundry, steam is not used for cleaning AFAIK. They also use the steam for sanatizing the machine. V-Zug machines are made in Switzerland, not in Sweden. And until now I have never seen a V-Zug machine outside Switzerland. On the website they clearly state that they concentrate exclusively on the needs for "Herr und Frau Schweizer". So I don't have high hopes that a V-Zug machine will show up on your side of the pond soon.

Louis

 

[launderess]

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

But I WANT one!

Thank you Louis for clearing up my errors, but I STILL WANT A V-ZUG washer! *LOL*

Launderess

 

[toggleswitch]

No matter what comes out,

I still want a WACOMAT with electro-mechanical controls, as long as I could advance the timer manually.

The ones from the 50s/60s that kinda look like the early Bendix in shape. (Not squared off, but rather more like a cylinder mounted on a base..)

I don't care if I have to mount it to the concrete basement floor..

 

[mayken4now]

Toggleswitch:

I think you are referring the a "MILNOR"?????????????????? These machines preceded Wascomat. Let me know if you find differently!

Steve

 

[toggleswitch]

I'm sticking to my story.

The Wascomats I am refering to were in grandma's laundromat!

 

[lavamat_jon]

Whoah!!! That LG is so big that the parents are lining up ready to put their kids in for a steam LOL.

Launderess - I too would LOVE a Zug washer, but it looks like we'll have to brush up on our French, German or Italian (delete as appropriate) and move to Switzerland in order to get one LOL.

Toggle - I think you are right about them being Wascomat, I seem to remember seeing an old (1960's era) Wascator - so old that it was made before Electrolux owned Wascator - in a launderette near where one of my aunt's lived. If I remember rightly, the control panels are at the back like a toploader?

Jon

 

[toggleswitch]

Yes! rear controls.
Almost forgot about that.

IIRC the way to dipense product into the tub was via "dump-hole" (there has to be a better way to express that!)-- no spray flush assist, no holding bin-- just a clear view of the "mesh" wash cylinder. It was similar, I believe, to the dispenser compartment (just a hatch really) in Greg's Bendix combo washer-dryer in Omaha, Nebraska.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Did somebody use Dash in that Steam Trom to make it so TALL?

The door on the top of the Bendix was called a soap trap when I was growing up in the 50s. Did others hear other terms for it?

 

[Designgeek]

Clothes-sterilizing washers in the Middle East, hmm. Mr. President, we have just discovered evidence of biological weapons manufacture and stockpiling...

Though, as for Korea... that sounds as if someone is thinking ahead to when bird flu hops over to become casually transmissible between humans. At that point you definitely want laundromats and other communal laundry rooms to be equipped with machines that sterilize the clothes and/or sterilize themselves at the end of a load. Just wait until a pandemic gets going and you will see them in the USA in no time flat. And there will be bargain sales of all the previous-generation machines that don't have that feature (so all the folks who want them for home will have an easy time finding them).

Re. desalinization: It's incredibly energy-intensive. You don't want to do it with oil-fired plants and in any case the consensus of petro-geologists is that the Middle East oil fields have been peaking and Ghawar in Saudi is about to peak, which means oil prices go up, up, up.

The only way to do desal for "free" is to piggyback it onto a nuclear plant's secondary cooling loop (no, the water doesn't become radioactive). This is great if you're already building nuclear plants near the coast, but realistically you need them at inland locations as well, and pumping all that water inland is a big hassle.

 

[toggleswitch]

Soap trap?

HA!
Between Laundress and Venus and Bethann, that is what Toggle's mouth is gonna look like one of these days!

You girls have been oh so very quiet. What are you collectively plotting?

LOL

love,
Steve

 

[toggleswitch]

Designgeek:
May I call you Georgio?

I like how you think.
Bush, half-cocked, goes on a rampage!

L H Mercy!

 

[Designgeek]

Sure, if I can call you Stevie

I suppose I should update my profile.... Generally I don't fill out profiles; data have a way of migrating. On the other hand, one never knows when Mr. Wonderful might come along in a place I didn't expect to find him (no, that's not a subtle hint; I think you're married or othewise out-of-range including geography).

Lions & Tigers & Bears, oh my!