Hacker News Reader

Comment by gatsby | Hacker News Reader

Laundry.

Even with modern technology, the process is ridiculous. Collect the clothes in a hamper, carry clothes over to washer/dryer (sometimes this means walking down the street to a laundromat if you live in a large city), select all the right settings so you don't ruin your clothes, add detergent/fabric softener/bleach/etc, start first load, wait 30-45 minutes, move everything into a dryer, clean the vent, select the right cycle, wait another 30-45 minutes, put clothes back into a hamper, and repeat. Finally once it's all done, carry the clothes back to the closet and fold/hang everything.

View on HN

Oddly enough, the most difficult part of this would probably be folding the clothes. Take a towel for instance. When I want to fold a towel, I begin by searching for the corners of the towel. As it turns out, this is a rather difficult problem for robots to solve.

Unfortunately, however, robots might be the most practical solution to this problem.

It could definitely be achieved, it's just a matter at engineering a new type of washer/dryer. What I don't understand is why washers and dryers are separate entities. Yes, engineering a machine that both washes and drys clothes would be difficult, but I'm confident that it could be done.

This is definitely one of the more difficult options!

Agreed. Given the range of sizes and types of washable/foldable items (i.e. you fold a sheet differently than a pair of jeans, and socks are folded differently than a tshirts), it would take some pretty interesting technology to solve this problem. However, provided that most washers and dryers cost $500-1000+ each, there would be a lot of money available for this technology and likely a very high demand.

It's already been done: http://www.cnet.com/8301-13553_1-10009797-32.html

Like you said, it's the folding that's hard.

Someone else posted that farther down. The problem is that the capacity is so low. People want capacities that are to the tune of 5.0 cf for a washer and 8.0-9.0 cf for a dryer.

The model in that article is only 2.44 cf. That is to be expected though, seeing as I don't know of anyone else making a similar device, but we still need to improve before sales would make it worth manufacturing in mass.

Combo washer/dryers are probably more common in Europe than separate machines, and come in a big range of capacities. It's just hard to make a big one work on a North American 120V 15A circuit.

I think a more realistic solution to fully automating laundry would be something like the LG TROMM Styler. It's a wardrobe that dry-cleans clothes.

This could work if you had a lot of clothes and didn't wear anything too often. Dry cleaning clothes too frequently will ruin them.

Why is it any more difficult to build a machine that works on a 120V 15A circuit? I never studied circuits, so consider me a layman.

I had a theoretical project when I was younger to alleviate clothes folding. Essentially, you would have a vertical stack of thin layers.

When you wanted to put your clothes away the machine would lift all of the layers up until you got to an empty one. Put the shirt down, it snaps a picture of it and catalogs it. When you want to get dressed, you flick through your catalog, select a shirt and it lifts all of the layers to get to that article of clothing. Essentially you wouldn't need to fold clothes, simply lay them out.

This is actually a fairly feasible solution. It isn't that much different than a typical industrial robotic arm.

You should turn your theoretical project into a company. People will pay a lot of money for innovation and convenience.

Folding clothes always makes me think of this advanced t-shirt fold technique. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5AWQ5aBjgE)

In the UK we have washer / dryers. They're not great. They tend to be condensing, not vented, dryers. (Vented dryers are better) And there's more to go wrong. Separate machines are better.

That was magical. I must learn how to do that.

One more thing: ironing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com