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The Laundry Solution
By David Gluck
Posted on: 4/5/2002
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Despite its apparently obvious meaning, the phrase "structured water" actually means "give us your money."
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A few weeks ago, while talking about the shelf space in a laundry-room cabinet with Phil, a client of mine, he mentioned that he won’t actually need so much space because he doesn’t use laundry detergent. There would be plenty of room in the cabinet for his “laundry ball.”
“And your clothes come clean?” I asked.
He told me he was skeptical at first and is now convinced that it does indeed work. I, of course, told him I doubted it and gave him every reason I could think of at the time for why I felt that way. He was unmoved by my arguments and eventually he tired of the discussion. I persisted. I suggested a simple test. Do five washes with the ball and five washes without the ball. Another five washes with laundry detergent might be useful, too, even though that would “pollute” his washer. Compare the results…
As luck would have it, Phil’s wife Terrisa gave a laundry ball to some friends of mine. They tried it. After a few weeks Jim complained to Sandy that his underwear was turning gray. Sandy mentioned this to Terrisa who told them it was okay to use bleach with the ball. Jim and Sandy went back to using detergent and Jim is once again happily wearing white shorts. I told Jim of my conversation with Phil and Jim offered the ball to me. I now have “The Laundry Solution,” only slightly used, and the pamphlet that came with it.
The Laundry Solution is about the size of a baseball. It has a translucent plastic cover with a blue liquid inside. The pamphlet consists of mostly testimonials, a question/answer page and directions. There is also a 100%, 60-day satisfaction guarantee and a six-month warranty on craftsmanship. A suggestion is made that this is part of a bigger grass-roots movement to clean up the environment. Nice…
Since I don’t own a scanner and I’m lazy, and since the explanation on the pamphlet for how this thing works is scant, I went to their web site for the real low-down in a continuing effort to provide you with the best in gory details.
Here is a bit of their FAQ:THE MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE LAUNDRY SOLUTION
1. How does the Laundry Solution work?
The laundry solution contains MOLECULARLY STRUCTURED WATER WITH A NON-TOXIC, NON STAINING BLUE DYE which ionizes the water. These ions unlock the natural cleaning power of water. The globe sends out negative charge which splits up the bonding forces between water molecules. Water molecules tend to stick together and form clusters (containing 30 and more molecules). On top of that minerals stick to these clusters. The negative charge which is being released from the globe splits up these clusters and creates smaller clusters consisting of approx. 5-10 molecules. These smaller clusters are capable to penetrate the fabric and clean out the dirt. Water used to be like that 100 years ago. Due to chemical and radio active pollution, damming of the rivers and piping of the water, our water has lost it’s natural cleaning ability which now can get regained with the laundry solution. Sounds good eh? FAQ 4 says something about getting better results with the ball after frequent use… If you want to see the whole FAQ here is a link to the site:The Laundry Solution [Link defunct - Ed.] On to another page of their site and more cool science-sounding stuff:By manipulating the electric fields associated with hydrogen and oxygen atoms, solid crystals are formed in the shape of electric keys. These keys fit into the locks and bonds on other compounds to dissolve away dirt similar to the action of enzymes in the human digestive system.
Termed IE Crystals, these particles, although completely benign to man and the environment, can perform and enhance reactions, formerly only possible by chemicals, soaps and detergents.
“The smaller the particle you can manipulate, the greater the effect.” Dr. Shui-Yin Lo stated. “These electric fields extend only a few billionths of a meter but are stronger than forces currently generated by man-made machines. We use such changes not only to grow IE Crystals, but tailor them to fit different chemical reactions. IE Crystals reduce the surface tension of water and create ‘bubbles’ in water similar to the effect of soap.”
Dr. Lo has labeled the procedures surrounding the manufacturing of these particles “Nanotricity” (from nanometer [one billionth of a meter] and electricity) and has developed numerous technologies which utilize the crystal’s ability to perform work.
Many people are sensitive to detergents. Today’s household varieties are laced with dye’s fragrances, surfactants (chemical added to detergents which aid in breaking down oils and fats), oxidizing agents, etc. Soaps and detergents work by enhancing the water’s native ability to dissolve dirt.
Detergents reduce the surface tension of the water thereby enhancing the dissolving action. Foaming agents create little bubbles to help carry away the dirt and oil from the cloth, so it can all be rinsed away.
“The real work is done by the interchange of tiny electric charges.
These are normally supplied by the detergent and work with water” Dr. Lo continued. “But we can supply these with our IE. They can work just as hard as detergents but are harmless to our world.”
Dr. Lo summed up by saying, “One can get the same effect, without creating the environmental problems caused by detergents. We are not saying that one might not need some additional washing agents for particular stains, just like some detergents won’t remove ink from your white shirt. I’m afraid there are no absolutes here, but to replace the action of detergents — it’s not difficult.” So, there it is…
Now, I am not a scientist, so I did a search and found a discussion on the Laundry Solution by some educators who are scientists. Here are some excerpts from one of those letters:ChemEd-L Discussion List: Re: "The Laundry Solution"
> Dear List Members:
>
> I had a fellow teacher bring me "The Laundry
> Solution" and wanted to know why and how it
> works before she started trying to sell it in
> our area.
>
> Question: What is the Laundry Solution?
> Answer: It is Structured water that emits far-
> infrared electro magnetic waves through the
> walls of the container into your laundry water.
Any material at room temperature "emits far-
infrared electro magnetic waves", including the
walls of the washing machine, the water and the
clothes themselves. If IR radiation helps in the
wash (and that's a big if!), one doesn't need to
buy anything for the machine to get it.
> This causes the water molecule cluster to
> disassociate.
Clusters of water molecules, held together by
hydrogen bonding, do exist, but are transient.
Furthermore, the percentage of water molecules
which might be considered to be bound in these
clusters falls rapidly as the temperature is
raised. If a cluster dissociates, it will reform
(and re-dissociate) within a fraction of a second.
It will do this irrespective of whether or not a
plastic globe is bobbing around in the machine.
> allowing much smaller individual water
> molecules to penetrate into the innermost
> part of the fabric.
There are always countless "individual water
molecules" in a washing machine. At the
temperature of the wash nearly all water molecules
will be "individual" in the sense which the blurb
presumably means. However, individual water
molecules will be little more effective at
cleaning than several water molecules bound
together in a cluster. Water on its own cleans
through the bulk action of mechanically flushing
away solids; cleaning at the molecular level
involves the interaction of detergents with
grease, fat, etc. A water-only wash will remove
much of the solid granular dirt in clothes but
even "individual water molecules" will not
dissolve grease or fat.
> Hence you actually see the results of cleaner
> clothes produced with no pollutants for the
> environment or your family. This is the latest
> in 21st century technology!. In addition to the
> above, you can discard fabric softeners and no
> longer need an extra rinse cycle, this saving
> water and money at the same time.
>
> This teacher claims that she could see a
> difference in the brightness of her wash the
> first time. Anyone want to explain what this
> is and why or why not it doesn't make sense?
If she thinks she sees a difference, I won't argue.
I feel confident that my washing machine produces
enough IR radiation on its own without me having to
pay 1500 washes * 5 cents per wash = $75 (Yuk...)
for a water-filled plastic globe. Your friend might
try an experiment: wash clothes with the globe on a
dozen occasions, wash clothes without the globe
(and without detergent) on a dozen occasions, then
invite friends to see if they can detect a
difference.....
Your friend should look carefully into any claims
made by the advertising, including in particular
any printed material she may offer to potential
customers. The product works, so the web page
claims, because the Laundry Solution is negatively
charged, so "forces the positively charged dirt out
of the fabric" (curiously, no mention of the IR
waves here).
However, it is not explained, for example, a) How
the solution retains its negative charge through
so many washes.
b) How the "Structured water" which, if I
understand it correctly, is made through the IR
radiation, retains its structure for so long, in
apparent contradiction with present scientific
knowledge.
c) Why the "positive dirt", once out of the fabric,
does not collect on the outside of the solution
container (to which it is presumably attracted
electrostatically if the claims made for the
product are correct), but remains in the water to
be flushed away.
d) and so on....
The writer of this post goes on to warn that selling a product which makes claims that cannot be substantiated can lead to legal problems. It is signed,Hugh
Dr Hugh Cartwright
Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory
Oxford University, England
hugh@muriel.pcl.ox.ac.uk
http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/~hmc
The discussion takes place at this site:Re: “The Laundry Solution” I collected this at the same site:Of course, What the manufacturer's won't tell you
is that this specially treated water contains
dihydrogen monoxide, A substance responsible for
more deaths than any other chemical !!.
George R Long, Ph.D.
Department of Chemistry
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Indiana, PA 15705
grlong@grove.iup.edu
I checked and it’s true. The good news is you can make tea with it.
And lastly, there is this tidbit:Responding to complaints and queries from consumers,
Consumer Protection asked the University of Utah
Department of Physics and an independent chemistry
lab, San Rafael Chemical Services of Salt Lake City,
to conduct separate evaluations of the claims made
by TradeNet for the laundry balls.
According to Consumer Protection, The Physics
Department's tests found that there was no evidence
of an electrical charge in the ball during use. In
addition the tests could find no infrared emissions
being generated from the laundry ball.
The tests from San Rafael determined that the liquid
inside the ball was blue colored water and was not
"structured" in any way different from ordinary
water. Based on their results of the tests, Consumer
Protection alleges that the claims made by TradeNet
were intentional misrepresentations in violation of
the Consumer Sales Practice Act. The company could
be fined up to $10,000.
And the company was fined $10,000, I might add. I guess TradeNet Marketing is doing alright because they are still making “The Laundry Solution.”
Not to kick a dead horse, but my friend Jim went to the home show in Los Angeles and there, listened to a pitch for an air purifier that works on the “principles of ionization.” It doesn’t require a filter, you just plug it in. Jim asked the salesman how it worked. The salesman told him that it works like the Sun…
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