The Washing Machine

All consumer electronics have moved away from the real-world cases to complex products with lots of bells and whistles that fail frequently. I would like to propose a washing machine design based on my use cases.

The objective of this washing machine is to clean and dry the cloths effectively with highest reliability and lowest disturbance. The machine will not have detergent drawer and will not spin dry. Its user control will only have push buttons and LEDs. It will have a mechanical on/off button and a wireless enable switch. The clothes will be washed up to 35 degrees Celsius which is approximately the body temperature. The clothes will be dried using a heat pump assisted air dryer. The reasoning behind all these as follows:

- In real life, when a cloth has a critical stain, it is treated before wash with special chemicals. Therefore, a washing machine do not require a prewash. Additionally, there are detergents with softeners. As a result, there is no need for a detergent drawer which attracts mold and gets very dirty and is hard to clean.

- Almost all washing machines have a rotary switch. They are susceptible to accidental rotation. Once they are rotated, the program is completely altered. On the other hand, a push button can be deactivated when required. The selection would be displayed as a LED when needed. The washing machine will only have buttons for classical use cases. Additional features will be accessible via mobile app. As a result, there is no need for complex button schemes and displays on the machine. The screen of a phone or tablet will provide the best user interface to access additional features if needed.

- Mechanical switches permanently turn off a device and functionality unlike push buttons. Therefore, wireless connectivity can be permanently disabled if needed.

- Detergents of today are activated even at very low temperatures. As a result, there is no need to heat up the water above 35 degrees and deform the clothes as well as consume power. Additionally, the washing machine will have a small heat pump to heat the water with less electricity compared to a resistor.

- Modern houses are getting smaller and smaller in Europe. As a result, there is no room for a dryer or place to hang the clothes after wash. The washing machine should dry the clothes after washing without the destructive spinning method. The heat pump and an air blower inside the drum reservoir will air dry the clothes. Eliminating the spinning also reduces the power requirement for the main motor of the machine.

- For a better cleaning, the drum of the machine will be large. The dry weight of the clothes will be measured before washing and the user will be alerted on overload conditions before the washing begins.