Waterless Washing Machine Levitates Laundry and Cleans It With Dry Ice

WOW this is almost amazing.....I was totally on Board then you said concept....Thanks POPSCI for getting me all excited in the post then letting me down....call me when u have something thats actually working.

Yeah, good old electrolux drumming up publicity with make believe. That would be like me saying I have a great new toaster oven that uses directed hot air jets to levitate the toast while toasting it to perfection, never once touching any elements... oh wait...

now, my question is this: would it work on cloths that are dry-clean only?

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It's already in use at every dry cleaner in the country regarding the CO2 cleaning. However, the neat levitating Supercooled idea is really neat. Clothes should come out like new and without the wear and tear of a washing machine using physical force of water to clean. Saves a lot on soap too to protect environment. And CO2 is just surplus we have tons of it! Good idea if they can produce them cheap enough for home use!

Liquid Nitrogen and dry ice are two completely different compounts, N2 vs CO2. I mean... come on, that is middle school science stuff guys...

Will it work for my children?

Yes, and cats! Just have to wait till 2050 when they finally "make" it.

I love it! Awesome concept :-)

Whoo, I want one!

guys it's not going to take until 2050 to get this thing, and besides popsci has always been the best place to find interesting finds and crazy ideas.

the author highlighted the only thing stopping this from being in every apartment is that the power needed is too large to be totally practical. everything else we already have and let's face it the hipster cred of having a waterless clothes washer is crazy.

as soon as we find a way to power this thing it'll happen, don't get your panties in a bunch and don't be disheartened. fix your problems instead of bitching about them.

to mars or bust!

Way cool technology!

By the way dragonfang, the liquid nitrogen is for the super-cooling of the superconductor, so that is obtains superconducting properties and the dry ice is for the cleansing of the clothing.

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@ghost

Power isn't your only issue. It is not as though you can just throw energy at the used carbon dioxide gas and turn it back into solid form. The process to create dry ice requires liquifying the CO2 gas at low temperature and high pressure, so now you're looking at insulated pressure vessels above and beyond those needed to store the liquid nitrogen used to chill the unit, machinery to pressurize the used gas, etc. That becomes a space issue, a cost issue, and probably a safety issue in someone's home laundry room.

Not necessarily a best practice to pack a significant volume of gases that can asphyxiate you into a small room in a non-controlled environment.

I don't think you'll ever see this concept leave the 'pipe dream' stage of development. The major concept (CO2 based cleaning) would be far more simply implemented by cutting out this levitation and dry ice nonsense, and in fact are already in use. The size of the systems that would be needed to support these fanciful features would turn a small appliance into a miniaturized industrial complex.

while I appreciate the optimism, I think the 'fanciful' nature of this design is not really because it is based on non-existent technology, but more that it expects to back that technology in an unrealistic product package with an unrealistic power requirement. It's the same reason why we don't have the nuclear powered car's that were envisioned decades ago (a bit over simplified, but will do for this topic). The technology is all there, but in order to fit it all in the product, you turn a family sedan into a behemoth danger-tank.

On another note... I think greenies lose sight of the 'green' nature of this product. Yes it doesn't have to heat or use water of chemicals, but it does take a huge amount of electricity (comparatively) to operate. That electricity is generated somewhere, and likely comes from coal in most places. Interesting trade-off.

I have an even better machine that makes this one look like crap. It is a 4 dimensional cube where laundry goes in one side, gets stretched into 4 dimensions (thereby dislodging all the dirt) only to come out the other side in it's original three dimensional form. It is powered by nuclear fusion (also love) plus it smells like lemon.

At this point it's just a concept .

I so want one :)

This is so ridiculous. How on earth can this work with physics from earth.
EPIC FAIL.

I thought the Japanese had this technology already? I love there counter top dish washer that sterilizes dishes in 10 minutes, The refrigerator that dispenses cold soda fountain, the toilet with a warmer seat, all those great things....can't wait for this to really materialize.

And yes a maidbot to fold my laundry.

This is something that can save me money on my water bill

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