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In the past few years, small household devices have appeared on the market for ultrasonic cleaning of textiles. In this study, the focus is on devices that can be immersed in a water tub for cleaning textiles by ultrasonics. These new devices were tested to see if they presented an opportunity to save electrical energy. Cleanliness levels were judged by comparison to conventional programs in household washing machines. The two devices tested demonstrated a higher effect than soaking without ultrasonics but a lower effect than any wash program. To get a better overview of what ultrasonics were capable of, additional experiments were conducted, i.e., in an ultrasonic bath for cleaning metal parts. It had a higher ultrasonic intensity and showed that there was still potential to get a higher cleaning effect for textiles at a low energy consumption level. It is concluded that, as far as household washing is concerned, ultrasonic treatments provide opportunities for the reduction of energy demand in low-temperature washing programs with a small textile load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of three handheld ultrasonic devices for the pretreatment of stains on textiles was evaluated under household conditions. Twenty soiled textiles were treated and the mean increase of lightness ΔL* of the soiled textiles was used as a measure for the cleaning effect. It was shown that the combination of a pretreatment and a washing cycle at 20 °C yields a higher mean increase of lightness, ΔL* = 19.5, compared to a 40 °C washing cycle without pretreatment, ΔL* = 15.3. The effect is most pronounced for mixtures consisting of oily soils with pigments, ΔL* = 25.1. During the pretreatment, the soil was soaked in a detergent solution and the effect of soaking was measured separately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Washing machines use different technologies to enhance their washing performance. Despite different names, some of these technologies use additional circulation pumps. These pumps allow spraying of suds into the inner drum and circulation of suds in the gap between the inner and the outer drum. A washing machine without circulation pump was used as a reference. Experiments were carried out similar to typical household conditions using a 40 °C program for cotton. A set of 20 stains was used to evaluate the primary washing effect for different stain groups and of individual stains. The results showed that generally, the circulation pumps did not change the performance. However, for two stains significant advantages could be found only in the case of a system with two circulation pumps for two single stains, CS32 sebum and CS06 salad dressing. It is concluded that the differences between machines from different manufacturers are mainly influenced by variations of the parameters according to Sinner's Circle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]