Am I the last person to hear about this:  an ozone generator that cleans and disinfects laundry better than chlorine bleach, saving tons of water and energy!? Why is this not being shouted from the mountain tops?

According to Edro DyanWash, one of the makers of the ozone generators, “The resulting gas is very reactive and is nature’s own way of destroying pollutants and cleaning the atmosphere. DynOzone works best at colder wash temperatures—hot water breaks it down before it can perform as intended—as it attacks most organics soils and kills bacteria more effectively than chlorine bleach at similar concentrations. DynOzone is completely biodegradable and when it completes its function reverts back to oxygen, leaving no chemical residue behind. The overall effects of DynOzone result in reductions of wash cycle time, less hot water required, and better chemical utilization while producing hypoallergenic laundry.”

So, why haven’t I heard of this before? Maybe I haven’t been listening. A quick Google search turned up loads of companies offering this, mostly for industrial purposes (hospitals, prisons, hotels): AquaRecycle;  US Energy Solutions;  Aquawing;  Girbau Laundrozone. Hospitals like it, since it can actually be more effective at disinfection than traditional methods. And it’s been around a while: I found articles going back 15 years and companies who have been around 30 years who are using ozone to save energy and water in the laundry. And people are still talking about it: a recent New York Times blog post talks about how using this kind of thing is saving U.S. prisons money.

Huh. Well, I must have been under a rock. Can I get this for my house, I wondered? I did some more searching. On Electrogizmo.com I found out about a home appliance option by Sanyo. When I searched to learn more about it, I found this article from 2006. 2006! Where was I?

Now, maybe I’m not that uninformed, I told myself. Maybe it was only available in the green-focused Japan. Or maybe it didn’t work very well, and that’s why I haven’t heard of it. Both seem to be true, according to this press release from the Sanyo website. This past year they revamped their original model to make it better…and it’s still only available in Japan.

So, I’m hopeful that a U.S. offering will be coming to my local Sears soon, and that SOMEBODY will tell me about it. If you hear about it, please let me know.