How can AI help your regular washing machine load? That’s a question LG looks set to answer at IFA with new machines.
Doing your washing is one of those chores that take a lot of energy, even if you yourself don’t need to do too much. Grab the load, throw it in the machine, select the cycle, and put your detergent in. You don’t need to spend much physical exertion of energy doing it, but your machine may consume a lot of energy in the process.
Now there’s a push to see whether AI can help with some of the actual energy your machine uses, as LG talks up what we can expect at IFA this year, the world’s equivalent to a mid-year (or near end-of-year) consumer tech show with gear leading up to the holiday season.
Ahead of that event in September LG will have a new combination washer-dryer in the LG HeatPump WasherDryer, a model that brings energy usage down with a purported highest efficiency rating for its wash-to-dry cycle, as well as a design that can have it small enough to be installed under a counter in a kitchen.
To get some of the power usage down, LG is using AI to control the motion of the washing machine, with some of the motions now based on the weight of the laundry load and the fabric softness. Essentially, instead of having the same heavy spin cycle for every load, LG’s AI direct drive technology is controlling the motion relative to what is in the machine at the time, which may affect energy usage on the whole.
That same AI is being used to adjust energy usage when drying, with an AI inverter working with an “AI Dry” feature to detect laundry weight, fabric type, and humidity of the load to adjust the drying speed and cut back on energy usage.
The new machines also include a gentle motion approach with a “Microplastic Care Cycle” designed not so much to care for microplastics, but rather to cut back on friction and reduce the chances of releasing microplastics from certain clothes.
LG’s combo unit won’t be the only model to arrive, either with a smaller 24-inch “WashTower” on the way, made up of individual washer and dryer units made to be small and stack on each other, designed specifically to fit into smaller households that clearly still need to get the launch done.
No word on pricing just yet, but with IFA around the corner, information about local availability can’t be far behind.
