It’s been said for a few thousand years now that there is nothing new under the sun. As modern day Internet entrepreneurs scour ever more widely more the next big hit, the truth of that old saying becomes increasingly evident.
Green products have become very popular in recent years. Whether this can be attributed to consumer desire to mitigate our environmental impact, or simply for the sake of being trendy, is unclear. But either way, the result has been a flood of products that strive to appeal to green-friendly consumers. One of the more recent would-be must-haves for such consumers is a product that your great-grandparents would have greatly appreciated: the Drumi, a foot-powered washing machine.
Obviously, manual clothes washing is nothing new. People have been washing clothes by hand for as long as clothes have existed (hopefully). The first automatic clothes washer wasn’t invented until 1937, and most Western households didn’t own clothes washers until well after World War II. When you look at human history, there has only been a very narrow sliver of history during which clothes washing has been a hands-off process.
So it’s not terribly unsurprising that as energy-conscientious inventors have looked for technologies to pull the plug on, clothes washing quickly popped up on the radar. Though there have been a number of manual clothes washing devices available for sale in recent years, the Drumi is probably the first product of that type to try and take advantage of popular Internet marketing to try and generate mass appeal.
Yirego, the manufacturer of the Drumi, chose to make the product exclusively available through the Indiegogo crowdfunding site. The product page features a number of slick videos and animations, making it clear that Yirego is targeting the tech-savvy crowd with its tech-light product. And when it comes down to it, the Drumi is actually a pretty basic, if clever, piece of hardware.
The Drumi bears more than a superficial resemblance to a plastic crock pot, with a clear plastic lid on top. Under the lid is a spherical drum, which holds the clothing. The drum can hold about five pounds of clothing; presumably, this is based on the wet weight of clothes. Their marketing materials indicate that it can hold a pair of jeans, three sweaters, six t-shirts, or 8 pairs of boxers. On the front of the Drumi is a large pedal, similar to the pedals on foot-operated trashcans. When you pump the pedal with your foot, the clothes drum spins.
To use the Drumi, you remove the lid off the Drumi, and then remove the cap from internal drum. You place the clothes you want to wash inside of the drum, and pour in about 5 litres of water. You replace the drum cap, and pour detergent into the cap’s detergent tray. Next, you replace the Drumi’s lid, and twist it to lock it in place. Then, you pump the pedal for 3 minutes, which causes the drum to spin, tumbling the clothes.
Then comes the rinse cycle. You twist a valve to drain to soapy water, and add five more litres of fresh water. You pump the pedal for another three minutes, then drain it again, and pedal for another minute or two to drain the remaining excess water. Then you pull your clothes out and hang them up to dry.
Obviously, this isn’t going to replace the fancy new front loader in your laundry room. But a number of prospective consumers have showed interest in the product, especially avid RV enthusiasts and campers, as well as travelers who want to minimize the time they spend tracking down a laundromat.
It does remain to be seen whether the Drumi will catch on in a big way. It’s not a cheap piece of kit: currently, the machine is being offered for US$239, plus shipping. And it isn’t expected to be shipped until October of 2016. The pain of the price tag, plus the long wait, seems to be having some impact on the crowdfunding campaign: as of this writing, the Indiegogo campaign has only raised 57% of its $100,000 dollar goal.
The other issue that may hurt the Drumi is competition. While the Drumi has some slick marketing behind it, there are comparable products available elsewhere. Even Amazon currently has two models of crank-powered washing machines available on its site, for a much more competitive price of about US$56.
While it’s unclear whether the Drumi will go on to be a profitable product, the fact that it exists at all is one of many data points which suggests that some consumers are willing to put a little extra work into conveniences that are often taken for granted, in order to pursue a more green-friendly lifestyle. Given that many of the long-term plans to find less destructive means of powering the planet rely upon a shift in how people use electricity, there appears to be reason to have hope for the future.
