Wash your clothes at home with... air

Very soon, you won't have to bother to fill up your washer with hot water to wash your laundry. Or any water, for that matter. Sanyo Electric Co. has developed a totally cool household washing machine: It uses air to wash clothes. The washer, called Aqua, is the first drum-type household washing machine to use air, specifically ozone, to keep clothes clean. With "air wash," air containing ozone is sprayed on items inside the machine's drum. According to Sanyo, Aqua's technology can easily handle items that are difficult to clean with water at home or items with noticeable odors, such as from cigarette smoke, sweat, pets, etc...

As no water is used in the process, it could save you a nice chunk on your water heating bills. This will become even more relevant in the context of the advancing world water crisis in a not-so-distant future.

Furthermore, Aqua's cleaning and drying cycles will have no impact on the environment. That is because ozone is made purely with oxygen and electricity, and it is converted into pure oxygen at the end of the cycles. Nice!

Aqua will debut on the Japanese market on March 11, 2006, and will retail for ¥250,000 (or US$ 2,155 at ¥110 to the dollar). Ouch, but I'm sure the prices will come down within a couple of years. The machine has a washing capacity of nine kilograms (20 lbs) and a drying capacity of six kilograms (you do the math :)).

Now THAT is an innovation (at least in your average consumer household). Check out the details here. I think it was not an accident that it was developed in Japan, where they have to deal with scarcity in most natural resources on a daily basis.