Xeros "waterless" washing machine

[aquacycle]

Hi all,

Thought I'd post this just incase anyone hasn't seen it. A good friend of mine recently attended a lecture a Leeds University about this. Sounds like an interesting idea, but not sure how well this will work in terms of hygiene - especially in hospitals, schools, hotels etc where hygienic laundry is much more important than it is at home (for some people, anyway).

Still, makes for some interesting reading.

The 'waterless' washing machine that could save you money

New machine by Xeros cleans clothes with beads and a tiny amount of water and may cut household bills by 30%

www.guardian.co.uk

 

[askomiele]

Guess in terms of hygiene there are several ways to achieve it. It's not a complete waterless system. Clothes still get saturated and the beads only replace the detergent. It saves water by reducing the need for rinsing (although i'm not really convinced about a no rinse wash, more like a one rins wash), and less energy because the clothes only need to be saturated, not plunging in a huge bath. Hot water and additives can achieve hygiene i guess. I send an e-mail last year where I asked some questions (even if they ever tought of introduction the technologie to CBW) but never got any answer. Was your friend convinced by that technologie?

 

[marthalover4eve]

lol

my nan wants one of them and i told her "well you aint having one" lol

 

[rapunzel]

It states that after the washing cycle is completed the beads drain away, just like the water does in a conventional washing machine. I am sure the environment needs trillions of used laundry beads floating around in our water ways. As to cost, if these beads can be reused hundreds of times before they are discarded, their pricing will reflect this. If they are recycled or disposed of in other ways, than via household plumbing, that will also be reflected in the price.

Now, how can this product save 30% of my household bills? Doing laundry doesn't constitute a third of my total household expenses. Maybe 5% or 6%, no more than that and I average approx. 8 loads a week in a full size top loader. Do other households really spend 30% of their total expenses on laundry?

 

[rolls_rapide]

What a load of rubbish.

They clearly didn't think that through.

They'll charge an arm and a leg for the machine. The beads will end up disappearing from the machine (trapped inside pockets, folds and open seams). Then the consumer will have to buy more beads, and that will cost a small fortune in itself.

And how do you deal with heavier staining? They say mud, etc was tested, but I'm not convinced - at all.

 

[strongenough78]

I've seen these on the internet a couple years ago. In fact I think it was even a discussion on here. I don't get how nylon beads will extract stains and odors out of fabric. I'm all for water conservation, but to an extent. I don't like the front loaders and barely saturate the clothes as well as the HE top loaders. Water is a must.

 

[bertrum]

http://www.xeroscleaning.com/

Looks like they even lent there proto-type machines to some commercial dry cleaners who gave them glowing reviews.

Looks like its a huge machine, can see this working for the commercial market, the website doesnt show the domestic machine in any detail if one even exists.