

Giving away an Idea: The Dyson of Laundry Machines - csmeder
http://chris.smeder.com/essays/2_laundry.htm

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dkokelley
My time saving hack: Don't buy/wear white clothes. I have black socks, and no
white shirts. I can do my laundry in one load. Saves me about 50 minutes from
the eliminated load, plus any inefficiencies from waiting to switch the loads.

The biggest time-sink for me (and something I'd consider spending money to
have removed) is folding/sorting/putting away the clothes. I have a bad habit
of keeping clean clothes in the hamper and moving the dirty ones to the floor,
just because I don't bother to spend the 15 minutes folding my clothes.

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anamax
Why not two baskets (or hampers), one for clean, one for dirty? That makes it
easier to take the dirty to the laundry.

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dkokelley
Because I don't mean to keep the clean clothes in the basket. I plan on
putting them away, but I don't get around to it, and then the clean clothes
get wrinkled to the point where I don't bother putting them away - I just put
them in the wash with the dirty clothes from the floor.

I'm thinking of moving to more hangable clothes (button up shirts, etc.) so
that I can skip the folding step.

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randallsquared
Most clothes stop looking wrinkled within an hour or two of putting them on,
so if you have a commute, it might not matter whether you fold them.

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bmunro
Dyson actually have a washing machine already:

<http://www.dyson.com/insidedyson/article.asp?aID=cr01>

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weaksauce
That is interesting that they could not find a way to reduce the costs to an
acceptable level. Especially since their products seem to be 2-3x more
expensive as the next viable alternative.

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dryicerx
Interesting idea, although I am not sure this is a big existing problem (it's
convenient, but not by leaps).

I think the bigger problem that needs a solution is the steps that are needed
after the washing, that still require manual labor: folding, hanging, or just
flattening or simply flattening them as we lazy ones do. Since no matter how
much you want everything to be wrinkle free, they never come out that way.

If I can have a fully automated ironing|hanging|folding machine, that would
hit the sweet spot for a lot of folks.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMnNHA_GrT8> there is that, but still requires
you to lay the cloth flat (I want zero labor).

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csmeder
This is too hard for me to implement by myself so I'm giving away this idea in
hopes that some one runs with it.

Well, I doubt anyone will, but what do you think of it? I've had the idea for
quite some time now, I'm curious what you guys think.

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cwan
These exist: e.g. <http://www.lgwasherdryer.com/>

The first time I'd ever seen one of these things was in Dubai at a
hotel/apartment. I'm surprised they aren't proliferating through Asia given
the limited amount of space but I figure give it time.

Incidentally, the cost on these washer dryer combo's aren't excessively
high... in fact probably just a relatively small premium above what a good
washer or dryer cost.

~~~
jws
Those LG washer dryer combos are condensing dryers. Possibly energy saving,
but also consumes water to dry the clothes. Pretty slick technique.

People living in deserts (Dubai excepted, SOCA included) probably don't want
one.

<http://www.lgwasherdryer.com/pdf/condensing_dryers.pdf>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothes_dryer#Condenser_dryers>

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eplanit
It's a perfect illustration of a time vs. space trade-off.

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gcb
You would be paying premium for baskets (as happens w/ anything that fits in a
product. E.g. Ink cartridges, car parts) for the benefit of speeding "throw
cloths in machine" wich usually takes 2seconds on my top feeding cleaner/dryer
machine.

now, taking the clothes out and ironing them... I will still have to do w/out
any change to the process

