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Sanyo Japan was showcasing their new line of washing machines, AQUA this morning. The one that catches the most attention would be the ability of dry cleaning clothes at home. You heard that right, the wet-washing machine is able to dry-clean your clothes too, and they’re using Ozone. Sanyo was able to lower the temperature down to 50C, making leather jackets (and shoes) or silk ties fit to be tumbled in those washing drums.
Apart from cleaning clothes that cannot be cleaned with water, Ozone is also good at removing stains, and we’re talking about tomato meat-sauce and mustard; they were frank enough to admit that water would do a better job in certain stains such as mud and oil.
Lastly, perhaps the part that the Australians would care the most about would be water conserving. The AQUA washing machines can filter and then reuse tub/shower water to wash your clothes. The filter consists of the usual mechanical filter as well as the ozone filter, and apparently it works pretty well here in the video. After going through your clothes one time, the water will get filtered again, and reused, and so on. The AQUA machine can save up to 96% of water that the older models used, saving $125 in an average Japanese household per year.
The AQUA washing machines will stat selling in late April, suggested retail price is $2500. —Sam Chan
