"Good Housekeeping" keeps people informed on a good many things. And recently, it sought to help its readers by reviewing a fairly new household technology that lets you do laundry without detergent or hot water. It does this by charging cold water with ozone and other oxidizing elements that provide the cleaning power.
Unfortunately, the review was exceptionally brief, vague, and didn't give any sense of the enormity of this technology -- for instance, not only can it save a household hundreds of dollars a year, but it supports better health and a cleaner environment to boot.
Given that it's highly rated by people who actually use it, and that we love it in our household, I felt it important to offer another viewpoint for those considering this technology. (Yes, we sell one brand of this technology. We sell it because we love it.)
In their review, Good Housekeeping applied 19 stains to various fabrics and tested against detergent. It also used sardine oil to apply a smell to determine what removed odors the best. And they tested towel softness. Their results?
I'm all for educating people about the pros and cons of technology, especially so they don't make bad buying decisions. But ozone laundry technology is one of the coolest things I've come across, and I think it's a shame that a vague and partial review like this one with a platform like "Good Housekeeping" has the potential to lead so many people away from something that could make a really positive difference in their lives.
But I'm so pleased with having it in my life that I'll continue to sing its praises and hope that the message is heard. Again, I think it needs to be used correctly and with realistic expectations. We still pre-treat stains, and because of the static that can build up in a dryer, we use dryer sheets from Whole Foods with a gentle smell from essential oils, and we end up with wonderfully clean and great smelling laundry free of toxins. And we end up saving a whole lot of money every year too.
Check out EcoWasher, the ozone laundry system we sell, which I feel comes with better features than any other brand. You can also explore all ozone laundry systems on Amazon if you prefer (but we'll miss you).
Unfortunately, the review was exceptionally brief, vague, and didn't give any sense of the enormity of this technology -- for instance, not only can it save a household hundreds of dollars a year, but it supports better health and a cleaner environment to boot.
Given that it's highly rated by people who actually use it, and that we love it in our household, I felt it important to offer another viewpoint for those considering this technology. (Yes, we sell one brand of this technology. We sell it because we love it.)
In their review, Good Housekeeping applied 19 stains to various fabrics and tested against detergent. It also used sardine oil to apply a smell to determine what removed odors the best. And they tested towel softness. Their results?
- The devices didn't "zap stains" better than plain water. Well in my science fair experiment with my son, plain water and ozonated water both beat detergent in cleaning a dirt stain. In fact, both cleaned it perfectly well, while the detergent left subtle brown marks. So what does it mean that these didn't clean better than plain water? Does that mean the plain water cleaned well? Or that the units didn't clean well? We've heard from so many people pleased with the cleaning power of this technology, I'm betting the ozone water cleaned well.
And unlike water, we know that ozone water is cleaning, disinfecting, and removing odors. So it is doing more than water alone. And now a pretty important point of context you don't get from this review: ozone water has been used for decades by hospitals and hotels in their laundry process because of ozone's cleaning power. Ozone water is also used in the food industry to sanitize food. It's only recently, though, that this technology was made small enough for home use. Reviews like this make it sound like someone just came up with a pie in the sky idea, but this is nothing more than technology once again making something affordable to the masses and empowering them with a better solution.
On the same note, we do NOT claim that cleaning with ozone is designed for zapping stains. It's designed to replace detergent and hot water, which it does very well. We still recommend pre-treating for stains. - This water made towels softer than water, but not as soft as detergent + softener. First this clarifies that the ozone water is doing something more than water. And while making this comparison, the review doesn't emphasize this: detergent and softener are toxic and remain in your fabrics and get dumped into the environment (in your waste water) and cost a lot of money. In our opinion, ozone cleaned fabrics come out quite fluffy. If there was some small advantage from the toxic option, it still wouldn't impress me. I don't want to breathe those toxins all day long or sleep on sheets with toxins still embedded.
Fabrics and washing machines are also both expected to last much longer when not exposed to these gunky cleaning products, and hot water also helps to break fabrics down more quickly. - They seem to say that this technology removes odors better than water (and that's our experience) but "it didn't beat detergent." I'm confused: does that mean it did as well as detergent? Similar to saying it didn't zap stains "better than" water, this is a vague statement that leaves me scratching my head.
But the other point here is that, with detergent, it's not very possible to see how well detergent removes odors because detergent tends to cover them up. Again, with toxic elements that you breathe all day long because they're embedded in your clothes and sheets and towels.
I'm all for educating people about the pros and cons of technology, especially so they don't make bad buying decisions. But ozone laundry technology is one of the coolest things I've come across, and I think it's a shame that a vague and partial review like this one with a platform like "Good Housekeeping" has the potential to lead so many people away from something that could make a really positive difference in their lives.
But I'm so pleased with having it in my life that I'll continue to sing its praises and hope that the message is heard. Again, I think it needs to be used correctly and with realistic expectations. We still pre-treat stains, and because of the static that can build up in a dryer, we use dryer sheets from Whole Foods with a gentle smell from essential oils, and we end up with wonderfully clean and great smelling laundry free of toxins. And we end up saving a whole lot of money every year too.
Check out EcoWasher, the ozone laundry system we sell, which I feel comes with better features than any other brand. You can also explore all ozone laundry systems on Amazon if you prefer (but we'll miss you).
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