A Style From Yesteryear Is Again in the Forefront
As so often happens in design, what’s old is new again. In the 1940s, relatively expensive front-loading washing machines were introduced, combining fully automatic washing and spinning in a single drum, a big step away from hand-washing in washtubs or even the first motor-driven washtub with a hand wringer, which was invented about 1900. As the years passed, however, front-loading machines gave way to top-loading ones, which by the 1960s became the industry standard.
Today, the front-loading washer is again the latest in design, both for looks and efficiency. Some manufacturers, notably Korea-based LG Electronics, are taking clothes cleaning into the future by creating a machine that both washes and dries clothes in the same model. Introduced last November, the LG Wash & Dry Combo with SenseClean has a direct drive system that provides a brush-less, belt-less operation that LG claims has a greater rate of reliability than conventional washing machines. All of that’s certainly a long way from what Catharine Beecher (1800-1878, sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe) meant when she called laundry “the American housekeeper’s hardest problem.”
According to LG, most washing machines use a system in which the motor is connected to the drum via a belt and pulley, resulting in a loss of energy, lots of noise and vibrations. The washer/dryer, however, delivers power to the drum through a motor attached directly to its center, thereby reducing vibration levels by as much as 60%. The machine adjusts motor power according to the amount and type of laundry, so fabric damage and tangling are lessened. Clothes are rotated during cleaning, not agitated. Then they are rinsed and dried in one operation.
“Lots of combination units are stacked on top of each other,” says Daniel Lee, marketing and communications director of LG Electronics. “But we made things even simpler by having one unit.” Of course, the downside is that you cannot start a new load of wash while drying another.
One of the most important aspects of the machine, besides the obvious space-saving one, is the potential for energy-saving. LG estimates that this drum design lowers electricity usage by 38% and reduces water consumption by 17% when compared with other washers. This is just in time for the new U.S. Department of Energy guidelines that require appliances to be more energy efficient by 2004. And usually the clothes dryer is the second-biggest electricity-using appliance, after the refrigerator in the home, costing about $85 to operate annually, or $1,100 over its lifetime, according to Department of Energy statistics.
In energy efficiency, new front-load machines by a variety of manufacturers are leading the way. According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, the re-emergence of front-loading washers is an exciting development because they use much less water to clean clothes and still clean them better than conventional, top-loading models. LG’s Wash & Dry Combo has been given the EPA’s EnergyStar, a label the government puts on energy-efficient products (www.en ergystar.gov).
What’s surprising about the washer/dryer is that it can wash more than 15 pounds of laundry, including items like curtains and bed linens, even though the machine is 24 inches deep, the same as traditional washing machines. Of particular interest to people who live in small houses or apartments, the LG condensing drying system uses cold water instead of forced air ventilation. Cold water flows through a condenser beside the tub, and, according to the product information, “hot humidity from the tub condenses into the cold water and then flows out of the drain.” As a result, the model doesn’t have to be next to an outside wall with an air vent.
Other space age features include a digital readout that lets the user program the finish time or learn how much time is left of operation. A child-lock system prevents kids from pressing buttons and changing the program during operation, and a drain filter collects objects like loose change and can be easily removed and cleaned.
This week at the International Housewares Show in Chicago, LG also introduced a washing machine and a refrigerator that can be turned on via Internet from a home computer and that they’ve been “tweaking,” according to Lee. “That’s the direction the kitchen and the home are going in the future,” says Lee. “Eventually the whole home will be connected to the Internet. We want to be in the forefront of that.”
The suggested retail price for the Wash & Dry Combo is $1,399, which is about what it costs to buy two units. It’s available at independent retail stores or www.lgappliances .com. For vintage washing machines: www.oldewash.com.
Rem Koolhaas, the Dutch architect who recently won the commission to redesign the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will lecture at UCLA’s Dickson Auditorium at 5 p.m. on Jan. 27. Koolhaas was awarded the Pritzker architecture prize in 2000 and has been on the faculty of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design since 1995.
Tickets are free, but seating is limited and will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. Parking is $6 and is available in Lot 3; enter the campus at Hilgard Avenue, off Sunset Boulevard.
“American Modern, 1925-1940: Design for a New Age” will be the topic for John C. Waddell on Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Bing Theater. Waddell’s collection formed the basis of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition “American Modern, 1925-1940,” which opened at that museum last year.
Reservations are $10 for Decorative Arts Council Members and $15 for general admission.
The museum is located at 5905 Wilshire Blvd. Call (323) 857-6528.
A free lecture titled “First City of the World: Rome and the Grand Tour” will be presented by Edgar Peters Bowron, Audrey Jones Beck curator of European Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston at the Getty Center on Sunday at 4 p.m. He explores the allure of the Grand Tour with a focus on 18th century Rome and those who visited the city, their sightseeing, studying, shopping and their response to the art and antiquities found there. This lecture complements the Grand Tour exhibitions and opens the Grand Tour Series. Call (310) 440-7305. Getty Web site www.getty.edu.
The Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum has extended the exhibition “Toy Mechanics” until Feb. 24.
Kathy Bryant can be reached at Kbryant@socal.rr.com.