Wash clothes with less water

Consumers might be able to wash their clothes with only 1 cup of water by mid-2012, but the company behind the change isn’t giving many details.

Xeros is working with Stephen Burkinshaw, who is a polymer chemist at University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. Burkinshaw discovered that a nylon polymer can absorb stains chemically in certain conditions.

Bill Westwater, who is CEO of Xeros, says nylon beads that are used in the company’s specially designed washing machine would reduce the need for 90 percent of the water that conventional washers use. The Xeros washer’s inner drum, he says, efficiently separates the beads, which can’t be achieved in conventional washers. Westwater projects a summer 2012 U.S. release for the washer.

Westwater says the beads will be recyclable and last for hundreds of washes, but he wouldn’t tell us how replacement beads would be available, when replacements would be necessary or their cost.

Len Swatkowski of Plumbing Manufacturers International, who is a longtime appliance engineer, says consumers should be cautious of this machine unless it passes the soil removal test—an industry standard for washers. As of press time, Xeros hadn’t told us whether it passed.

Westwater didn’t provide a price for the Xeros washer, but he says it will cost as much as a premium washer, which typically costs around $1,000.

A. Barkley