TOMORROWS WASHERS CLEANING W/BEADS?

[washdaddy]

Saw this article about a machine that's being developed that uses beads to clean your clothes and even cuts down more on water and the detergents we use!

These new fangled machines are made by XEROS.
Has anyone else seen or heard about these machines? They are suppose to be available in another year or two.

At the rate we are going to get clothes clean you'll be hanging them outside and letting them flap in the breeze to get clean.

What's everyone think about this "new technology" they are trying to come out with?

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[kenmoreguy89]

Actually could be seen protothype sheets since 12 years on the internet about these..

The first thing that I laugh about it's the articles titles that often report " revolution! machine that use no water, for some others instead it was no detergent" same machine advertised .... later you could well see that &#92water was indeed used like it is was detergent.
Prototype sheets  and articles  I have seen reported using nylon plastic beads...now not sure what those are made of, anyway I think no hard material can "absorbe" all the  stasins like if it were a sponge and anyway this is not the priniciple of washing.
Speaking of principle,  I don't see much a meaningful  principle of what these  beads are supposed to do here, the beads for how I see it were supposedly act to "rub" and  perhaps also act like a sort of interspace  from clothes to clothes to  let water in, question is what water if they're just  wet? Clothes are soft and anyway beads would be imprisoned as clothes fall,  fibers would anyway be on contact with each other just about like before,
The rubbing action well, it may hypothetically be a good thing for certain dirts that are also  external  soils like collars, but they are also inside and will not be removed inside since you need water to be forced inside to remove it and beads can't do that like it can't be done with a machine using too less water, so if you need more water it'll be a regular machine... people tends to forget or misconcept the rubbing action in laundring, .. "once laundry was rubbed on washboards", .. yes it was.... but  not much because the rubbing was what made them clean, meant as you scrub a sink or bathtub, clothes are not hard surfaces,  but because rubbing was the only way you could force suds and cleaning solution in clothing using less water and soap (precious thing in the past) possible, washboards are made with grooves for that very reason to help  the suds  to be pushed in...thing that happens with much more difficulties in a smooth surface, not to mention that this technique is difficult, long and wearisome itself.
Then as soap availability  became greater people passed to plungers, and then the agitators and or the tumble machines.

Earliest washing machines were made emulating  a washboard effect....
Anyway....
I don't really see the beads being able to do that at all, no deep clean...
Also...can you imagine socks, pockets and so forth? I bet these  beads would be found all around....

[this post was last edited: 1/6/2015-13:29]

 

[whirlykenmore78]

Sorry to be cynical, but:

That looks like a load of shit to me. Quite simply you can't replace a fluid with a solid and an surfactants with inert bits of plastic and expect the same result. The ONLY advantage I could see would be increased mechanical action within the wash cylinder. However if the drum is as full as it should be the point is probably moot.
The other thing which is rarely considered when something like this comes up is the environmental impact of producing and maintaining a machine that is exponentially more complex than a standard washer extractor.
WK78

 

[tomturbomatic]

In the late 50s, the dream was ultrasonic cleaning. Other than jewelry cleaners, where's that? Of course, development could have been squelched by detergent manufacturers, just like electric car R&D was squelched by all of the petroleum-related interests.

 

[kenmoreguy89]

If I know correctly...
Ultrasonic cleaning simply wasn't and isn't appliable to laundry....though ultrasonic is  good for whatever metals.

The prinicniple in ultrasonic cleaning is the vibration , first you have two distinctions to make absorbent  and not absorbent materials, then hard and not.

Ultrasonic cleaning finds it's use typically for hard surfaces and non dirt absorbers, so supertficial dirt that only will and can be superficial, not absorbed and part of it, then you have to consider another aspect, some materials even though being hard not absorbent will vanify the sonic action as they will absorbe the sonic and will not vibrate....and AFAIK it never had a large application outside of metals fot that very reason.
Sonic cleaning is not only for jewels, but finds applicaton in many other fields involving metal cleaning.
Coming from a family of jewelers and goldsmith, and what is considered the "town of gold and jewels" I was raised among sonic  jewels cleaners and you  can hear their very disnticnctive sounds as you walk by the roads of this town coming from factories and shops, they're  commonly referred as "insaponatrice"- "soaper"  in slang term among jewels folks.... we have 3 sonic machines..
Jewel and metal cleaners will require soapy water and hot water (they typically heat their own) anyway..

As I was saying the sonic cleaning could mostly and largely take application in the metal cleaning because  metals were about the only material that could satisfactorily  take  advantage of this "force",  the principle as I was saying is the  sonic vibration,  these vibrations will do about nothing to a cloth and it's dirt, because clothes  (both wet or dry) absorbe  and vanify in first the vibration, for second water soaked clothes are almost like being water themselves. and for last but not least important the  most of  dirts absorbe vibrations and won't vibrate the same... you have to e find a way  to "vibrate" either  the dirt or the item....
Metals are the material that most react to a  sonic vibration, infact the principle relies in the fact that vibrations will reflects on the metals and it's actually the metal vibration who will detach dirt (superfical dirt)  gunk and whatever on them....it's the object that vibrate for reflection and do the job, in very poor words "kind of shake the crap off it"... not the dirt or water.
This is what I knew....
An hint: They says that all the  plastic jewel cleaning machines they sell now for domestic use  (even though labelled as professional) are nothing but a joke, let alone the battery operated ones... 
Jewels cleaning typically involves a few more operation than just dropping them in the machine also...
It's a 5 minutes job anyway, when we had the shop we charged like 2-3  bucks for object, many times we also did for free......

All but a professional machine is throwing money.....
This is how a REAL professional one looks like:

Home

Luigi Dal Trozzo, dal 1918 forniamo gli orafi di tutta Italia. Attrezzature per orafi ed argentieri.

www.luigidaltrozzo.it

All the rest are toys....

 

[this post was last edited: 1/9/2015-10:01]

 

[jerrod6]

Wasn't this bead thing tried a few years ago and turned out to be a failure?  Perhaps it was some company selling washer beads and not an equipment manufacturer, but whatever, it didn't work. 

Just imagine beads cleaning dirty underwear...Oh.... yah.

 

[pierreandreply4]

it will never beat a good old fashion washer that use water and detergent and i am talking about both type of washers toploads and front load and with beads how would you know if the water is the right temp as we each have or preference in terms of water tempature for washing

 

[mark_wpduet]

I actually have

an ultrasonic fruit/veggie washer and I put all kinds of things in there. It uses Ozone as well somehow - not sure, but it works great.....

Never thought about that in laundry though......

and the beads.....don't think so

 

[mrb627]

Side Note...

Speaking of Fruit and Veggie washer, why haven't we seen a dishwasher with a short unheated program designed for washing fruits and veggies?

Back on topic, I don't expect the bead technology to ever make it to the domestic market. Simply too complicated and I expect the little pellets are probably a toxic risk to small children and pets.

Malcolm

 

[kenmoreguy89]

Ultrasonic vegetables cleaners are sold in asia from awhile, but they never exited that market much....
This is for many reasons....

Veggies cleaning can take advantage of the cavitation effect, effect that is supposed to be in every ultrasonic cleaning device, but that in reality result be more effective for certain appliacation/stuff than for others....

As I was saying ultrasonic in metal cleaning is big because you also get a vibrating effect, in vegetable cleaning you get just plain cavitation cleaning...which is good to some extent but not totally...
Cavitation effect borns due to pression-depression effect caused by sonic waves, that will create micro bubbles due to the constant change in pressure of water created by the sonic wave against a solid surface...not inside, but surface is the key word in sonic cleaning.
While in metal cleaning cavitation may not be enough  for many  tough dirts  " not soakable" it is supported by the vibrating effect that helps in releasing them, and also hot water, and surfactans that will helps with the wetting...  in vegetable cleaning   you just don't and can't get the vibrating effect, but  the mild (mild due to the nature of vegetables surfaces and composition) cavitation is usually enough since the little bubbles will enter those dirts vegetables are typically soiled of  which are soakable and easy ( indeed mud soil etc)  and  will be able  lift them up for the most of them, also many vegetables have porous  hard surfaces which makes the imploding effect of bubbles more  effective since water will find a way in the porous surface and it's dirt lifitng effect will be even easier.... 

It's fair saying ultrasonic machines became "okay" for  the vegetables surfaces cuz it's easy to clean off their typical "dirt"  and  anyway just not  the ones covered totally  in mud but anyway pre-rinsed/washed, and in Asia (Japan) since they just have a thing for making of everything electronic whether it  being actually worth it and  useful or not..... 
 

I don't see them being okay for certain kinds of stuff like mushrooms though...but that's a guess due to the fact that many are so soft in texture.
Good is the ozone feature though, single ozone purifier were sold also.

I  have known:
In clothes cleaning you  can't get the vibrating effect and also the cavitation effect because clothes are not a material that can react to the vibrations/waves...sonic cleaning works  on hard surfaces, an hard surface that will make possible to the waves to crash to and create cavitation bubbles as water go through constant compression and decompression, clothes not, fibers will be compressed and decompressed flexed as the waves hits them and cavitation is not much possible, unless you stretch them so much and to a point to become like hard surfaces, but that will mean that the deep dirt will be stuck inside will just remain stuck...it will clean the outside dirt, but not the inside one satisfactorily.
The key word in sonic cleaning  after all is surface....

[this post was last edited: 1/10/2015-23:28]

 

[aquacycle]

This has been on-going for years. See link to a thread from 2008.

And You Think Your Front Loader Doesn't Use Enough Water?

The University of Leeds in the UK has developed a front loader that uses one cup of water per load. Said to be produced next year. See the link for more info. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1025043/Spin-dry-The-washing-machine-needs-just-cup-water.html

www.automaticwasher.org

 

[stricklybojack]

.
I believe in the beads.
All industries love format changes. Once they have sold everybody He machines something else will be needed to make them obsolete, this looks perfect.
The dry cleaner guy seems to be sold on it...can't be worse than some of the poorly implemented water saving retro fits that have been marketed for years now.