Indian School Girl Creates Washing Machine That Runs Without Electricity

http://trak.in/innovation/indian-school-girl-invents-washing-machine-without-electricity-302013/

by miaowmix • 12 years ago

294 120 12 years ago

Brajeshwar• 12 years ago

Nice. This will also work well in places that has frequent power cuts.

It is kinda funny when I went back to my home-town. Most household have Washing Machines lying around, unused because they don't have the power required to complete a wash cycle.

maqr• 12 years ago

Where are you from? I didn't even know that was a problem that people could have.

1stop• 12 years ago

Did you know there are places where people don't have regular supply of water or food as well!?

I know, the world is an crazy place.

Edit: For less snark see[0] - Large parts of India, middle east and Asia experience this.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_blackout

madhuprasanna• 12 years ago

Very common in India. Only sure things that go inside the washing machine are dirty clothes and detergent. No guarantees about water and power.

This is the main reason I have gone for top loading machine(Samsung fully automatic?? top loading model), so I can catch water in a bucket and pour and keep it running :p.

My washing machine is intelligent enough to handle the power cuts by itself though. I am from Bangalore by the way and staying in an apartment with diesel generator, but it is not in auto stand by. It has to be manually switched on and the power is supplied only to lower wattage power outlets.

It is more irritating, when adsl modem/wifi router goes off and comes up again with diesel backup. All devices lose IP address and starts DHCP again. Soon going to buy UPS for modem/wifi router.

There are much more things, like HP printers jamming, external HDD going down, getting stuck inside elevator, induction cook tops stop working etc.,

lostlogin2• 12 years ago

Our washing machine died. I thought it odd, grabbed a nearby circular saw, tried it, and it went. So it was the washing machine, not the power point. So we bought a new washing machine. As the old one left in the truck, we ran a wash. As soon as it reached the spin cycle it stopped. The power point couldn't take the higher draw, the departed washing machine was fine. Annoying.

aaronem• 12 years ago

What kind of overcurrent protection did the circuit have? A fuse would've blown and needed replacing before the power point could be used again; a circuit breaker would've tripped and had to be reset. Are polyfuses used in that role? Or do they make self-resetting circuit breakers for house current?

kamaal5• 12 years ago

Forget home town, there are frequent power cuts in Bangalore itself. Most of the time 12-16 hours during weekends. I used to get frustrated, as weekends used to be my time when I wash clothes.

Now I have a clever work around, I just put everything in the washing machine in the night at dinner. Then I just wake for a moment at around 3 AM and turn on the washing machine and geyser, by the time I'm awake in the morning the washing machine is done with washing and water is ready hot. I put the clothes for drying and take a bath. By then the power is gone. But then after the major chores are done. Who cares?

gohrt3• 12 years ago

Have people tried using capacitors or batteries to accumulate electricity when the power lines are working? Is it too expensive/dangerous to help cover the outages?

rbobby• 12 years ago

geyser

Is that a local term for hot water heater?

ChuckMcM2• 12 years ago

Nice, my wife got a HandyWash [1] for camping and it works pretty well. With the right sort of assists manual washing is pretty straight forward.

[1] http://www.hometone.com/pressure-handwasher-a-handy-washing-...

Nogwater• 12 years ago

When camping, we used to use a 5 gal. plastic bucket with a hole cut in the lid and a plunger. It actually worked really well if you have 20 minutes to sit around manually washing clothes.

danielharan• 12 years ago

Neat. How long does it take to do a wash with that?

ChuckMcM2• 12 years ago

Since we generally have nylon clothes while camping not long at all. I don't think I've tried to wash denim in it. Basically it takes longer to dry generally than it does to wash it. (and nylon dries pretty quickly)

Hilyin• 12 years ago

Looks awkward as hell, why not just connect a bike connected by bike chain to the washer so your legs aren't all spread wide trying to pedal. http://goo.gl/K6W6gS

netchaos• 12 years ago

There you go, the same girl. http://azstarnet.com/news/world/perpetual-paintbrush-bike-li...

munimkazia• 12 years ago

If it was an open source programming project, this would be my first pull request! But it does mean you have to keep a bike connected to it, which is extra equipment which costs more and takes more space.

coltr• 12 years ago

Good point.

cubancigar11• 12 years ago

We had a project in our mechanical class to create 'stuff' using lathe machine and what not. All 35 in our class were divided into groups of 3 and were supposed to come up with 'novel' ideas.

5 groups (including mine) came up with washing machine :)

userbinator• 12 years ago

You see odd but surprisingly practical inventions like these in China as well - as they say, "necessity is the mother of invention".

known• 12 years ago

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." --George Bernard Shaw

ragsagar• 12 years ago

Couple of years before i saw a school kid with a grinder that works by pedalling in Kerala state level science exhibition. It was very similar to this. These sort of machines are common among these competitions.

kokey2• 12 years ago

I have conflicted feelings about this. On the one hand it's nice to see the creativity and spirit, on the other hand it's sad to have to invent solutions for problems we should have stopped having a century ago, where the solution does not free up time for other things. http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_and_the_magic_washing_...

comex• 12 years ago

Arguably, having the side effect of providing exercise counts as freeing up time for other things.

deckiedan2• 12 years ago

Yes, and while cycling, you can actually do some other things. Reading, watching TV, etc. Although, looking at first world countries, and how society is working, having solutions which force exercise on us would probably be extremely beneficial.

kokey2• 12 years ago

Exercise is only lacking if most of your daily chores and transport are handled by machines, which is not the case here.

Cthulhu_• 12 years ago

TBH, this problem /was/ solved a century ago, if not longer, how do you think your grandparents (or their parents) did their laundry? First you had bashing clothes against rocks, then you got washboards, then you got hand-cranked washing machines. Not as clever as leg-powered washing machines, though, but then I'm sure we would be using those by now if it wasn't for electricity.

MrZongle2• 12 years ago

Agreed; this came to mind as well.

Before electricity was commonplace, people still washed their clothes...even if they didn't have easy access to a stream or river.

This may be a clever refinement of a human-powered washing machine, but it is far from novel.

agumonkey3• 12 years ago

Reminds me of the quite `rinced` Louis CK bit about the mainstream ignorance and disregard toward technology.

ps: The assistant made me laugh. Very ironic.

Mvandenbergh• 12 years ago

This is probably still faster than washing by hand in a basin. If it is, it'll still free up time.

dredmorbius3• 12 years ago

Not only faster but generally more effective and, from what I can tell, more efficient in terms of water use. This looks like it mimics the cleaning cycle of high-efficiency washing machines which dip clothes through a small water/detergent solution rather than fill a large tank as top-load washers do.

r0h1n2• 12 years ago

Agree. Also, it's a bit misleading to suggest she's created a washing machine that "runs without electricity". By the same logic, Fred Flintstone (or someone in his era) should be credited for designing a car that "ran without electricity".

At this stage of mankind's industrialization, it's disingenuous to look at a human powered machine as an improvement over an electricity powered one.

acqq2• 12 years ago

It's a huge improvement over holding the stuff full of skin-attacking chemicals in the hands for extended periods of time. Women in India and not only there have to do that daily.

codingdave• 12 years ago

Not every location in this world has pervasive electricity. For example, many towns in the Amazon have to ship in propane to run generators that run just for a couple hours of power each day. Locations that do have constant power also have a serious infrastructure to create that power, which burns non-renewable resources in quantities that would surprise most people.

Electricity is awesome, but until we truly have renewable power in all areas of the world, devices like this are good things.

walshemj2• 12 years ago

Yes my granny had a manual washing machine and a mangle too.

prakashk• 12 years ago

it's a bit misleading to suggest she's created a washing machine that "runs without electricity"

I don't think it's misleading at all.

If electricity and electric cars were available and commonplace in Fred Flintstone's era, and he designed a car that used no electricity, then he could and should be credited for designing a car that "ran without electricity".

Now, if someone said this machine ran without energy, that would me not only misleading, but a lie.

At this stage of mankind's industrialization, it's disingenuous to look at a human powered machine as an improvement over an electricity powered one.

That's a legitimate point, and one that is worth discussing about.

adamwong2462• 12 years ago

That's not fair at all! Look at our affluent, american lifestyle. We use massive amounts of electricity, water and chemicals to wash clothes, then get in our petroleum powered machines and drive to a place called a "gym" where we pedal a bike that goes nowhere. And we pay for the privilege!

Perhaps the solution is NOT to make trivial tasks ever more trivially easy? Perhaps humans need a little resistance training in their daily lives? There is a point where things are too easy and the average american's health is proof of this. This product can improve the lives, not just of those without electricity, but also those with electricity.

lozf2• 12 years ago

Written like someone who has no experience of how common power outages are in many parts of India, not to mention the cost / scarcity of what "rich westerners" recognise as a Washing Machine.

  -- sent from a hut on the beach in Goa.

evrenesat• 12 years ago

Free up time to go to gym and burn the calories we got from junk foods that we eat to compensate and cope with our terrible modern life problems?

loceng• 12 years ago

Well, it frees the user up from having to go to the gym later to do some cardio exercises.. Half-joking.

chenster• 12 years ago

Hey, loooky here, an electricity-free, zero-emission, exercise, "green" boat made from bicycle!

http://cubeme.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/diy_amphib...

gsk• 12 years ago

This is great. Years ago I used to help out at Honey Bee Network http://www.sristi.org/hbnew/ and saw hundreds and hundreds of innovative solutions by people from all over India. If you can navigate the rather clunky interface at the website, there's a lot of great solutions for problems that millions of people in low-income population face.

Here are some: Motorcycle cultivator http://www.sristi.org/hbnew/hb_inno_detail.php?ID=DTP0010000...

Bamboo bicycle http://www.sristi.org/hbnew/hb_inno_detail.php?ID=KNW0020000...

jqm• 12 years ago

These things really work (I used one in an apartment).

http://breathingwasher.com/

And, they cost a lost less than that bicycle contraption. Takes about 5 minutes to wash a few pairs of pants and some shirts. Gets them amazingly clean.

jff• 12 years ago

Everything old is new again: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Washing_m...

spullara• 12 years ago

One could argue that it was a pretty severe oversight in the original design that you had to use your arms instead of your legs to turn that one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v1rSA4FqlM

taktiktook• 12 years ago

Not quite. Back in those days it was considered unladylike to use your legs to operate a machine. First sewing machines used hand operated wheel to run, which were very hard to use. It was only later people started to use the foot operated ones. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jonescs.jpg

miaowmix• 12 years ago

Well said, I agree completely!

aditsgupta• 12 years ago

Necessity is the mother of all inventions! I'm from India and I know how much impact this might have on the rural community here.

kamaal5• 12 years ago

Though this must be appreciated, but this isn't new. Even in India. This thing has be done many times and failed to gather much support, basically at some point you begin get frustrated to be putting so much mechanical effort while an automated solution exists and can't be put to use because of power shortage. Most people don't have hours to be cycling to wash clothes, because if they wanted to- They might as well wash them manually with their hands(Note, this is super common in India).

Its a bit like programmers doing manual work, what could be automated. And it looks cheap and is frustrating.

Either way, India is in desperate need for energy related hacks. Solar energy offers a lot of hope. Even things like LED lights, better battery technology, bicycle pedal assists et al can do great help in India markets.

thewarrior2• 12 years ago

For an example of real original thinking from India see this

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-01-30/news...

I tried posting it here but didnt get too many upvotes.

kamaal5• 12 years ago

Great Idea, but the initial capital expenditure will be very high and at some time prohibitive enough.

I think the government can help in waiving off taxes for sale of LED lights(This can cause great savings in power consumption), pedal assist bicycles and for things alike.

Either way I don't think big changes will happen until we see great deal of innovation in the energy sector.

virtualsue• 12 years ago

My daughter has a small pedal powered washing machine that she uses in her house in Leicester (UK). I liked the article and the girl's mechanical ingenuity but the idea itself is very old!

dotemacs• 12 years ago

Anybody else notice that the water from the washing machine is being discharged, untreated, into the stream near by?

kbutler• 12 years ago

I expect that where only 14% of the rural population of India has access to a latrine (http://water.org/country/india/), washing machine effluent is not a significant concern.

curiouscats• 12 years ago

And how do you think it was without the machine? Often it is doing the cleaning in the stream, beating the cloths on rocks.

enscr3• 12 years ago

Instead of running washing machines on electricity and then running on electric powered machines in gym, how about manually cycling a washing machine like this. You hit 2 birds with one stone.

Granted it's not practical in every household, but it's not a bad alternative for some.

agumonkey3• 12 years ago

We need generic magnetic resistance (instead of weighted) machines charging batteries.

enscr3• 12 years ago

I've wondered, but too lazy to calculate that how much electricity could be generated by machines in gym. Probably not a lot, but the whole idea of a green gym could encourage people to work out more.

Edit : Google search shows some in practice : http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2032281...

sdfjkl• 12 years ago

The first thing this made me think of was the countless old/broken washing machines ending up on the dump, with perfectly intact, shiny stainless steel drums that could've been used in this.

agumonkey3• 12 years ago

Next : use a set of rocking chairs connected to a flywheel distributing kinetic energy to whatever appliance needs it, bring your family and enjoy.

mrmondo• 12 years ago

I'm unsure as to why it's important to state that she is Indian in the title?

bliss• 12 years ago

Nationality is a pretty common way, if not the most common way to describe someone. What's wrong with it's inclusion?

heroh• 12 years ago

he's likely mad that the new CEO of Microsoft is Indian

no more tech support jokes

rlongstaff• 12 years ago

The GiraDora manually powered washing machine was announced a couple of years ago - I don't know what happened to it, e.g. did it never get funding?

http://inhabitat.com/human-powered-giradora-washer-needs-no-...

eklavya• 12 years ago

I think it can be improved so that you don't have to put the whole machine between your legs by using more of the cycle (chained pedal rotation). Good to see people trying to make lives better for themselves and their community.

enscr3• 12 years ago

Cool but lots of similar stuff around

https://www.google.com/search?q=bicycle+washing+machine&sour...

smoyer• 12 years ago

Here's another example of a bicycle powered washing machine - in this case, using the tub and impeller from one commercial machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYmK9Rsh4Pg

Eye_of_Mordor• 12 years ago

Does she plan on inventing one for ironing?

test1235• 12 years ago

Yeah - you throw an iron and your clothes into a drum which you can spin by pedalling.

The idea is only a prototype, however, and might need some fine-tuning.

disputin• 12 years ago

Not sure about invented. I guess it could be invented on a local scale, but I saw something similar in South Africa in the early 90's.

marquis3• 12 years ago

It's not so much that this exists: it's that she built something. Kudos to that.

Of course this idea isn't new. I use one of these when camping: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYq34Bxkp5w&t=3m55s

masukomi• 12 years ago

you bring that massive thing with you when camping?! ... I think we have different definitions of "camping".

marquis3• 12 years ago

You've never been camping with 30 members of your family before huh.

dalacv• 12 years ago

didnt they have this on gilligan's island like 50 years ago?

jk• 12 years ago

Please note that this is something Remya created around 2003; more than 10 years ago. I am not sure how it was posted in 2013.

seshakiran• 12 years ago

ok now. a satirical comment. :)

very good. now take this and create a company that improves your health while washing your clothes. Affluent people will buy. In my earlier days, we used to use something called as "hands" to wash clothes.

Indian School Girl Creates Washing Machine That Runs Without Electricity

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