{"id":1484,"date":"2020-03-09T14:12:25","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T18:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sense.com\/consumer-blog\/how-laundry-day-disappeared\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T11:26:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T15:26:23","slug":"how-laundry-day-disappeared","status":"publish","type":"consumer-blog","link":"https:\/\/sense.com\/consumer-blog\/how-laundry-day-disappeared\/","title":{"rendered":"How Laundry Day Disappeared"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before the electric washing machine, a laundry load demanded four hours of manual labor and lots of hot water. Today your laundry choices make a big difference in cost and energy savings.<\/h3>\n

The typical household washes 300 loads of laundry<\/a> a year. Got dirty clothes? Throw them into the washer with detergent, push the buttons, and they\u2019ll come out clean a half-hour later. It seems simple enough, but today\u2019s washer reflects a century of innovation, with many changes that made washing machines more efficient.<\/p>\n

The introduction of home electricity in the early twentieth century led to an explosion of innovation that heralded the Second Industrial Revolution. By the 1920s, electric water heaters, air conditioners, washing machines and home furnaces had all been invented and were creating a mass market for home appliances. Among all these inventions, the washing machine may have done more than any other device to reduce household labor.<\/p>\n

According to Susan Strasser, a University of Delaware American history professor and author of Never Done: A History of American Housework<\/em><\/a>, \u201cMondays used to be the standard laundry day, and it could take all day.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Before the washing machine\u2019s invention, cleaning the family\u2019s laundry demanded hot water, strong soap and washboards, paddles or plungers. It was backbreaking labor, mostly performed by women, and made only slightly easier by wooden tub washing machines invented in the 19th century. A single laundry load could take four hours. After the invention of the electric washing machine, it took only 41 minutes.<\/p>\n

The original Thor washing machine.<\/i><\/p>\n

In 1908, the Hurley Machine Company of Chicago, Illinois, introduced the first electric-powered washing machine, the Thor. According to washing machine historian and museum keeper Lee Maxwell<\/a>, a Westinghouse motor and a mechanism made up of chains and pulleys turned a wooden drum 8 revolutions in one direction, then reversed the action. With the mechanisms exposed and no on-off switch, Thor could be a dangerous contraption that might snag the operator\u2019s clothes or hair. Happily, manufacturers saw the opportunity for a better approach using stainless steel tubs with the mechanism enclosed.<\/p>\n

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In 1922, Thor 32 was \u201cthe last word in clothes-washing efficiency.\u201d Household efficiency expert Mrs. Christine Frederick wrote You and Your Laundry<\/a>, to explain new laundry techniques.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 1911, Frederick Louis Maytag<\/a>, an Iowa inventor, added an electric washing machine to his line of farm machinery, and in 1922, Maytag introduced the Gyrafoam, which boasted the first vaned agitator. Mounted in the bottom of the steel tub, it agitated to gently force water through the clothes. The gyrator and a rotating drum are design features that persist today in top-loading washing machines.<\/p>\n

Washing machines caught on fast. Imagine – instead of washing clothes manually, you could put hot water in the machine, plug it in, and come back 20 minutes later to run the clothes through a wringer that did not need to be hand-cranked. By 1920, 1300 companies were producing washers. Maytag quickly took the lead, making a fifth of all washers in 1924. By 1927 Maytag had sold more than a million washers, an amazing number when you consider that the country\u2019s entire population was 119 million.<\/p>\n

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Another significant innovation took place right before World War II when Bendix introduced the first automatic washer<\/a> in 1937, followed by General Electric<\/a> and Maytag models for the consumer market. Automatic machines had a timer and could autofill, rinse and spin-dry. Housewives could put their laundry into the machine and leave it unattended until the load was done, so by the 1950s, laundry had been reduced from a day-long ordeal to a couple hours.<\/p>\n

In Evolving Households: The Imprint of Technology on Life<\/a>, Economist Jeremy Greenwood argues for an even larger impact–that household appliances liberated married women from household tasks and led to a dramatic increase in their labor-force participation.<\/p>\n

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By the 1940s, the Whirlpool Surgomatic boasted \u201ctouch button\u201d controls and featured external rollers to squeeze the water out of wet laundry.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s washers boast a suite of automated features that make laundry relatively quick and easy. With 300 laundry loads a year, around 10% of a typical home\u2019s electricity goes to washing and drying clothes, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. You can reduce that cost by making smart choices.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s ENERGY STAR<\/a> program has been very successful at reducing the water and energy cost of washing machines. In 1990, an average washer used 2.67 kilowatt hours (kWh) per cycle. Compare this to a typical washer in 2010, which consumed just .66 kWh per cycle \u2013 a 75 percent decrease<\/a>. ENERGY STAR certified clothes washers use about 25% less energy and 33% less water than regular washers. Over the lifetime of the product, models that have earned the ENERGY STAR rating can save $380 in energy costs alone.<\/p>\n

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Is it time to update your washer? Washing machines that are 10 years old are significantly less energy efficient than current models. If you have a decade-old clothes washer, it’s costing you, on average, $185 a year. When shopping for a new washer, do your research and look for both ENERGY STAR ratings and utility or state rebates.<\/p>\n

Choosing more efficient washers has a big impact. If every clothes washer purchased in the U.S. were ENERGY STAR certified, it would save $3.3 billion in energy costs each year and avoid more than 19 billion pounds of annual greenhouse gas emissions. That\u2019s like taking more than 1.8 million vehicles off the roads.<\/p>\n

Here are some tips for reducing the energy waste of your weekly laundry load:<\/p>\n