Washing Machine

​​Seven years after impressing us with the world's smallest and lightest washing machine, the team behind the five-ounce (140 g) Scrubba has returned to Kickstarter promising to help hygienically-minded travelers shed even more weight.

The Sonic Soak is designed to act like a tiny, portable washing machine, using sound waves to clean clothes – including your delicates – as well as jewelry, toothbrushes, cutlery, baby items, fruit, veggies and basically whatever else can be thrown into a tub of water with it.

​Aimed at off-grid tiny home dwellers, campers and city folk looking to reduce their environmental impact, and their utility bills, the Drumi originally went up for pre-order back in 2015. Now, the foot-powered mini washing machine is in production ahead of shipping in the coming months.​

Washing machines can be heavy appliances. Very heavy. Some of that weight is due to concrete blocks that help keep the machine stable during spin cycles. Researchers have developed a plastic counterweight to replace the concrete, which is hollow and light until delivery and then filled with water.​

​Samsung has unveiled a new washer-dryer combo that should help laundry day pass more quickly. Along with the main front-loading compartments for washing and drying, the FlexWash + FlexDry boasts smaller separate compartments on top, for washing small loads and drying your delicates simultaneously.

If you want to add a piece of laundry to a top-loading washing machine that's already in a wash cycle, you can just open the lid and chuck it in. Well, Samsung's new WW8500 AddWash now lets you do the same thing with a front-loader.

Looking to let folk double down when the time comes to do laundry, LG has launched a two-drawer washing machine that can accommodate a couple of loads at the once.

In 2012, the Scrubba Wash Bag was launched as the world’s smallest clothes washing machine. Now, the team behind it is launching the Scrubba Pack, which also functions as the user’s backpack.

The Yirego Drumi is a compact foot-pedal-powered washing machine. Requiring no electricity, it's designed for use by students, cabin-goers, car-campers or anyone else without ready access to powered washing facilities.

Samsung has set out to make that pre-washing process easier with the release of its WA8700 top load washing machine, which features an "active wash" sink built right in to its lid.

One of the hassles of doing laundry is the fact that you can't wash all your clothes at once. This week at CES, however, LG unveiled a partial solution to that problem – the company's new TWIN Wash system lets you do two loads at a time.

We've certainly seen portable washing machines before here at Gizmag, although they've tended to be quite small and/or human-powered. The Venus, however, takes another approach. It's an electric agitator, that goes into a bucket supplied by the user.