One of the more unusual gadgets around, LG’s 5 Garment Styler aims to keep your clothes wrinkle free in a tech savvy wardrobe.
Most wardrobes lack electricity for a good reason: they’re basically just shelves. They could be shelves behind a sliding door, or even shelves inside a room of their own.
Wardrobes don’t typically need electricity beyond light, and that’s totally normal.
But LG’s latest gadget gives the wardrobe electricity for a different reason: it’s a steamer for your clothes.
Announced this week for Australia, LG is launching what is basically a laundry appliance for the home that isn’t a washing machine of dryer.
Rather, the LG 5 Garment TrueSteam Styler (which is its actual name, long as it is) is more like a slim-line closet that steams garments on the inside, and includes a high-pressure steam gun to clear up any kinks and wrinkles on clothes the steamer may have missed.
For the steamer itself, the system acts like a bit of a dry cleaner, albeit one made for home, including an inverter heat pump to dry clothes without tumbling or direct heat, something LG says is useful for shoes, sweaters, pillows, toys, and delicate fabrics. Basically, it’s built to handle clothes that wouldn’t normally touch a dryer.
Officially, LG’s 5 Garment Styler handles five items and one pair of pants, which probably makes it more of a 6 garment gadget, despite its name.
It’s worth noting that this idea isn’t entirely new, and LG isn’t the first to get there. Samsung released something similar roughly five years ago, but it has been a while since we’ve heard it was updated.
For LG’s take on the idea, making it work are controls on a touch panel, as well as support for an app, working through the LG ThinQ app also used by the company’s TVs.
The idea is simple enough, but the price could be the thing that stops people in their tracks.
While the idea of a dry cleaner isn’t the sort of thing you can normally bring home, LG’s closet steamer carries a local price of $3499, making it more expensive than most washer dryers, and an accessory not everyone will have the spare cash for.
In short, it’s one of those gadgets that like LG’s transparent OLED TV won’t be for everyone. And just like that TV, select retailers and stockists will have it, heading to those places now.
