Design WOO

With homeowners getting conscious about the appliances they use and their energy consumption, there has been a sudden shift in trends toward devices that in one way or the other help conserve the already scarce natural resources. When water conservation is the need of the hour, washing machines should be looked up to. To a homeowner’s delight, industrial designers are working hard to develop washers that not only promise to save water but reduce energy consumption as well. Here are a few such concept designs that should help make your laundry room greener in the near future:

• EcoDual Washing Machine:

Designer: Max Germano

The Concept: The idea behind the EcoDual washing machine is simple – reduce water consumption by as much as 50 percent. The EcoDual is designed with two separate tanks, with a washing capacity of 6kg and 2kg respectively. For heavy washing, the user makes use of the larger tank and the smaller one is used for washing delicate clothes. The washing machine collects water in a tank located at the bottom part of the washer, which is then filtered and reused in subsequent washing cycles.

• Swirl:

Designer: DesignAffairs Studio

The Concept: Swirl is a conceptual washing machine that has been designed to be used in places where water isn’t easily accessible. This zero-electricity washing machine features a swirled sphere-shaped basket and a lid. When doing laundry, the user can stuff the sphere with clothes and roll the Swirl to a water source to fill it. Once filled with water and clothes, the washing machine can be rolled back, in a process to rotate the drum to wash clothes. When not being used, the Swirl can be used as a clothes basket or a water barrel.

• Laundering Pedal-powered Washing Machine:

Designer: Shang-Che Wu

The Concept: The Laundering washing machine doesn’t require electricity to wash and then dehydrate clothes. The concept uses pedals to drive a coaxial bi-directional rotating mechanism that generates high cleaning two-way flow to clean all dirty laundry. The concept aims to reduce washing time and save water and electricity, making it ideal to be used in developing and underdeveloped regions.

• No-Soap Washing Machine:

Designers: Jung Hyun Cho and Bo Ram

The Concept: The No-Soap washing machine is an innovative concept that doesn’t make use of any soap or any detergent for washing clothes, ensuring that the user can simply wash clothes and use the gray water in a garden. The machine runs on water changed by electronic decomposition, breaks down protein, uses high water pressure for cleaning clothes, and finally disinfects them with an ultraviolet sterilizer. The machine is so fast that it completes all these processes in just a minute and uses vacuum suction for eliminating water.

• Maglev Washing Machine:

Designer: Jakub Lekes

The Concept: The Maglev Washing Machine has been designed to improve the effectiveness of the washing process while reducing the consumption of water and detergents. Functioning like a Maglev train, the washing machine makes use of rails with electromagnets. These electromagnets are divided into two groups, one of which caters to levitation in the magnetic field created by electromagnets in the body of the washing machine. The second group of electromagnets makes a movement of a drum in the magnetic field and its rotation around all directions. There is no contact between the drum and body of machine, which means there is tremendous reduction in sound.

• Re-Cycle Washing Machine:

Designers: Fernanda Villanueva and Arturo Ariño

The Concept: Designed to reduce the use of fresh water, the Re-Cycle is a sustainable washing machine that comes with a three-in-one laundry center. The water used for washing clothes doesn’t go to waste, but is recycled and then reused in the next wash. This futuristic washing machine will not only help in saving the water, but space as well as energy, as it rotates clockwise and propels the water from the washing machine to the tank and vice versa, using the force of gravity.

• SquashWash Washing Machine:

Designer: Kristin Mueller

The Concept: The SquashWash concept tries to save water and energy by using an innovative but simple compression and salad spinner technology. All the user has to do is to stuff in a few clothes, add water and compress the machine by either standing on top of it or pressing it down with their hands.

• AirWash Waterless Washing Machine:

Designers: Gabriel Tan and Wendy Chua

The Concept: The AirWash Waterless Washing Machine has been designed for the home of 2020. The washing machine uses negative ions, compressed air and deodorants to clean clothes. The concept has been inspired by the waterfall, which may seem ironic giving the lack of water the machine requires. AirWash can be used for cleaning garments of all kinds, even delicate fabrics, making conventional dry cleaning obsolete

• Alternative Clothes Cleaner:

Designer: Harsha Vardhan

The Concept: The Alternative Clothes Cleaner washing machine has been designed to double as a large seat. The washer has two modes, active and passive. No detergent or water is necessary to clean clothes as the machine’s inner chamber that acts as a pressure washer to clean clothes with ionized air, which also rules out drying of any kind to save energy.

• Washup Washing Machine:

Designer: Sevin Coskun

The Concept: Washup is an appliance that is a mixture of both the toilet flush and the washing machine. The idea is to help conserve water that goes down the flush by using gray water from the washing machine. The design suggests a sustainable lifestyle by storing used water from the washing machine that is then used for flushing.

Related entries:

1. Squash Wash Lets You Wash Clothes Without Consuming Electricity
2. Green Cab all-electric concept taxi helps keep highways clean
3. Easy Living Washing Machine by David Genin
4. Laundry Room Layouts: Cabinets, Storage & Shelf Systems
5. Dirty Linen Goes Straight To The Closet!