Salad spinner-type device makes clothes-washing more efficient

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>> Hello everyone and welcome to Sumi's Smart Picks. I'm Sumi Das and each week I'll tell you all about a clever product that in one way or another helps us live cleaner, greener lives. My pick this week, the laundry pod. According to the California Energy Commission, the typical American household does nearly 400 loads of laundry a year. And if you're using a conventional washing machine, each load uses about 40 gallons of water. The laundry pod uses about a gallon and a half. How? It works kind of like a big salad spinner for your dirty clothes and in fact, as I open the lid here you'll see that it looks exactly like an oversized salad spinner. So this is what you do. You fill the laundry pod halfway with water and add about a tablespoon of detergent. That's another plus. It uses less soap. You can wash up to 10 articles of clothing at a time. Just throw them in. Put the lid on. Lock it. Let them soak for about 2 to 3 minutes then turn this handle very slowly for a couple of minutes. Afterwards you're going to open this door on the side, pull out the hose and you're going to drain the soapy water by turning this knob. To rinse, you're going to close the drain valve. Fill the laundry pod halfway with clean water. Lock the lid and turn the handle again for a couple of minutes but this time you're going to do it quickly. Then drain the water again. Hang them to dry on a rack or a clothesline and you'll save even more energy. We like that this is light. It's only about six and a half pounds when empty making it portable for road trips or an extended camping trip. As you might guess this isn't the best solution for heavily soiled clothes. The laundry pod isn't as effective as a conventional washing machine. Basically this emulates handwashing but turning this handle is much easier than washing clothes by hand. The 10 garment limit is a bit of a drawback but for midweek washes, college students, or new parents with a constant flow of dirty baby clothes, the laundry pot could help erase some of the guilt you feel about all the water, electricity, and money you typically waste on loads of laundry that are only half full. So that's my pick for this week, the laundry pot. Check back next week for more.

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