‘Waterless’ washing machine

Posted by anthonykuo , Jul, 2009 @ 9:45 am

Water scarcity is becoming a growing issue, as the planet heats up. Yet every day, we use gallon after gallon of water washing laundry. The Xeros Waterless Washing Machine is a design that helps alleviate this problem. Apparently a dryer isn’t needed either, which makes this an even greener solution. Appartment Therapy Unplugged introduces the technology:

Where water and detergent are typically used to wash our soiled duds, the Xeros technology turns to reusable nylon polymer beads; nylon polymer have an inherent polarity that attracts stains and can absorb them from slightly dampened garments. These beads are remarkable not only for their clothes cleaning property, but also for the fact they can be reused for 100 uses before needing replacement (we hope they’re recyclable also), resulting in a 40% reduction in carbon emissions compared to the regular washing and drying machine combination. And using a system that doesn’t require deep submersion and agitation will likely result in longer life of your clothing, as washing/drying speed up the degradation of fabrics.

Plans to release a commercial version of the new cleaning technology is late 2010.

Tags: green, laundry, washing machine, water