Oh, Do I Ever Wonder…
General Design
I do wonder if wonder washing machines are worth the trouble of washing multiple, small loads of clothes. Yeah, the stats look good: 90% less water, 5 lb loads of laundry cleaned in minutes, and even less detergent used with each load. But the first questions to come to mind are, “how much really is 5 lbs of laundry?” and ” can the manual labor of filling with water, hand cranking and flushing water be easier?” (yes, that is a stack of washcloths beside the dryer, puffed up to all of 4 inches tall).
Yeah, saving electricity is great, using less detergent is great, and who would not want to clean their clothes in minutes? Then, when I assess the idea of nearly water-less clothes washing, my mind goes into overdrive. Where else could I save time and money? I could knit my own socks. Or better yet, cut and dehydrate my own dried fruit for trail mix. If I could only roll my own oats, and tap the maple tree in my backyard to make breakfast each morning. Hym. Maybe not. Crafty versus convenience, and my money is on the lazier side opting for convenience.
Not to say this design will not someday be made into a bigger, better model, which would be both more marketable and appealing to critics like me. Who knows, people once shrugged the prospects of the first cellular telephone, weighing in at a hefty 2 pounds, with a talk time of a half hour and costing $3995. And who doesn’t own a cell phone nowadays?
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