We’ve seen washing machines add bubbles and steam over the years, and this year even add a tiny washing machine for underwear, too, but a Samsung innovation seeks to scrub stains before the wash, doing the hand wash so your delicate hands need not go near the sink.
Samsung’s way of dealing with this is to engineer the washing machine so that it scrubs your clothes for you gently, recreating what your hands would do, but making it so that you don’t have to do anything and leaving you to go enjoy your life.
The technology in question is called “Activewash”, and takes the conventional top-loading washing machine and adds a small sink at the top of the washing machine.
When the Activewash cycle is switched on, the small sink activates a water jet to simulate vigorous movement in the water, while a textured scrubbing surface along the inside of the sink is used with that water movement to gently scrub the clothes, an action that essentially recreates what your hands would normally do.
When the process is finished, the soaked laundry can be poured into the machine, water and all, allowing the process to start up and have the clothes cleaned using the washing machine, with no extra mess from external tubs outside of the laundry room.
It’s worth noting that you don’t have to run all your clothes through the scrubbing mode that is Activewash, as the basin for this can be flipped up and ignored.
Alternatively, it appears as though you can load the washing machine with clothes that don’t need the Activewash treatment, and then put a few in that do, flipping the built-in scrubbing sink down and starting the process with those affected clothes, before the machine drops the clothes in once the cycle is over to wash the entire lot.
Ultimately, the idea is one that could grab people who are tired of stained clothes, dirty sporting gear, and anything else that generally requires soaking ahead of time, though we’ll reserve judgement until we see the washing machine working with some particularly dirty clothes to see just what it can do.
The good news for people interested in the idea is that it will be coming to Australia, with Samsung’s Australia’s Head of Home Appliances, Mike Lilly, letting us know that “the Samsung Activewash top-loader washing machine will be launching in Australia later this year,” with pricing and availability to be confirmed closer to launch.
