If you’re a stickler for cleanliness, it sounds like a dream invention – a washing machine that destroys bugs in the weekly laundry. It designers at Samsung claim the technology will remove or kill 99.9% of odour-causing bacteria, including e.coli. And they say the system will keep clothes fresh for up to 30 days
Called Silver Nano Health System, it works by bombarding clothes with jets of cold water primed with tiny silver ions. Users do not need to add hot water, bleach or other chemicals. As a result it saves energy and treats delicate items, such as lingerie, more gently, giving them a longer life. There is research dating back many years showing that silver has cleaning properties.
Water treatment facilities that service hospitals use silver ions, which act directly on bacterial cell walls, preventing reproduction. There are suggestions that one form of the precious metal, colloidal silver, can be even more effective than antibiotics when applied to wound infections.
With the Samsung machine, water passes through two pure silver electrodes before entering the drum. Electricity pulses through these electrodes, generating nano-sized silver ions (on millionth of a millimetre in diameter). The resulting ions latch on to and destroy any bacteria.
Samsung says that modern fabrics cannot cope with being washed at high temperatures, which means it is more difficult for consumers to disinfect their clothes. Because of this, most people resort to disinfectant detergants, which risk taking out the colour and damaging the material. Samsung says its machines kill bacteria at low temperatures. The machine bombards the clothes with silver ions for a second time in the final rinse cycle. This coats the items and – for up to 30 days – prevents any bacteria they come into contact with from reproducing. So in theory, the clothes need to be washed less frequently.
The machine is priced at just under $1,400 in the USA. The UK price has not yet been decided, but it is expected to be £800 – £1,000 when launched in April. Samsung UK product manager Andrew Silver said, ‘This is a real breakthrough in washine machine technology and has real benefits for the consumer. Dispelling bacteria within the machine itself provides the person wearing the clothes unrivailed levels of hygiene’. (Source- Dail Mail)
