How does the new Dyson washing machine work in relation to conventional ones

A.� The new Dyson washing machine, the 'Contrarotator', has two drums, which rotate in the opposite direction at the same time whereas conventional machines have only one drum which moves in the same direction.

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Q.� Why are two drums better than one

A.� By having two drums the Dyson machine replicates the more efficient aspects of hand washing over machine washing. By rotating the new machine's two drums in the opposite direction at the same time, dirty clothes move around a lot more, as with hand washing.

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The machine apparently produces double the amount of cleaner clothes at lower temperatures and in less time than conventional machines, making it much more efficient.

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The 'Contrarotator' took four years and a million man-hours to design.

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Q.� What is so good about hand washing

A.� The Dyson team discovered that washing by hand was much more effective than even the best performing conventional washing machine: 15 minutes of hand washing produced better results than 70 minutes in a machine.

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The reason being that with hand washing the clothes are constantly moved around which flexes and manipulates the fabric and so the detergent can really get to work within the fabric fibres.

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Q.� What about soaking dirty clothes

A.� The Dyson team discovered that this is actually an inefficient way of getting rid of dirt. Clothes lie still, so the weave of the fabric doesn't open up to detergent.

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Q.� What's wrong with conventional washing machines

A.� Because the single drum only goes in one direction, clothes simply drop back to the bottom after each revolution. There is little movement so dirty clothes need to be washed for a long time in order to be clean which isn't very energy efficient.

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by Lisa Cardy