If you’re not sure you want to get on the smart home bandwagon just yet, maybe decking out your house with low tech objects that look high tech is more your style. Why not begin with a human-powered, electricity-free washing machine that looks like a little robot?
The Drumi/YiREGO
The Drumi washing machine—created by Yirego, a Canadian company that designs sustainable home products—aims to optimize the laundry experience. Gone are the days of sorting garments and having to hand-wash more delicate pieces.
The Drumi, which runs on pedal power, can hold around five liters of water for washing and another five to eight liters for a rinse cycle. A cycle on the machine takes one to three minutes for washing, and another one to two minutes for a rinse, depending on the amount of water and the size of the laundry load. According to the product’s official website, each cycle can hold up to three days’ worth of laundry.
The best thing about the Drumi is that it’s portable—you can bring it with you on the road and never run out of clean clothes to wear. In theory, it’s also an affordable alternative to a regular washing machine, since it only requires 20 percent of the usual amount of water and detergent used in most households.
At the moment, Yirego is only accepting pre-orders for the Drumi within Canada, but the company guarantees that everybody else will be able to purchase one by this summer. It’s currently priced at $107, though you’ll be hurrying up to wait: orders are expected to ship in July 2016.
That is a pretty long wait, but for a mini-laundromat that looks like R2-D2, it might be worth it. Especially if you’re tired of scrounging up quarters for that old coin-op machine.
H/T Gizmodo | Screengrab via YiREGO YiREGO/YouTube