Full steam ahead for a new cycle of washers and dryers

Frank Lee has just convinced me to move out of my apartment and into a house just so I can have my own washer and dryer.

Lee, the public affairs manager for LG Electronics Canada, smiles when I confess this. We’re inside Rollerland at the PNE, where LG is showing off its new line of appliances and home-theatre electronics. I couldn’t care less about the 50-inch widescreen televisions; it’s the stainless steel, steam-powered washer-dryer set that has me salivating.

Living in rental apartments for the past 15 years, I haven’t exactly been following appliance technology. So it’s news to me when Lee explains that the paradigm shift in cleaning clothes came about when engineers realized that instead of trying to force clothes through water, it was more efficient to move water through clothes. Not only that, the cleaning results improved dramatically. So LG and other manufacturers disposed of the agitator that was standard in washing machines and started cascading water from above. Those machines were introduced to North America about five years ago.

LG introduced steam technology last year, and Lee says it enhances cleaning even more. “It’s like taking your clothes to the spa,” Lee says. Water vapour eases fibres apart to allow soapy water to move more easily through the cloth.

The new line of LG washers and dryers include a steam-fresh setting, which will sanitize, deodorize, and dewrinkle clothes in a 20-minute cycle. Lee says that 65 to 85 percent of the items being washed are not really soiled, so refreshing them with a blast of steam extends the lifespan of your clothes, keeps extra soap out of the water system, and uses less water than a normal laundry cycle. But as far as I’m concerned, the greatest benefit is no more ironing—not that I ever ironed before.

However, LG’s new machines do cost more than your average front-loader. Depending on the model, a washer-dryer set costs between $2,200 and $3,100, while a fancy stainless steel one hits $7,500. To offset that, Lee claims a family of four would net $3,000 in energy savings in the first two years, plus a reduction in water use.

BC Hydro spokesperson Susan Danard said in a phone interview that the Crown utility supports any appliance with an Energy Star rating, which is granted by a third party. She said that in the absence of this third-party verification, BC Hydro won’t endorse a company’s claim that steam washers will lead to cleaner clothes and more energy savings than a standard front-loading machine. BC Hydro recommends that all laundry be washed in cold water, because of the energy required to heat water for warm and hot-water cycles.

LG’s machines use a heating coil to generate steam, which uses electrical power over and above what is required to wash, but less water is used to wash clothes that make use of the steam technology. The 20-minute steam-fresh cycle, for example, uses less than a litre of water. Lee agrees that cold water can be used to wash all but the most dirtied laundry, but says that steam can enhance cold-water cleaning too. “Steam is employed to varying degrees depending on what cycle you use,” he said, on his cellphone in Toronto during a follow-up call.

Although some other appliance manufacturers, such as Whirlpool and Kenmore, are also integrating steam, Samsung is using silver ions to sanitize your underwear. Its SilverCare technology is an effective sanitizer even in cold water, but there are concerns about the environmental impact of the excess silver being released into the ecosystem through the washer’s water waste.

The Consortium for Energy Efficiency, a nonprofit corporation in Canada and the U.S. behind the Energy Star program, plans on testing Samsung’s SilverCare technology. In the meantime, I’m trying to find a house in which to install my new washer-dryer set. I’ve got my eye on a matching refrigerator.