Ozone-infused water. Sounds science-y. Sounds awesome. Sounds like it’s right up our alley.
You know that I know that you know that I know that we LOVE technology and science. We’re nerd, geeks, whatever. And when the PureWash Pro showed up on our doorsteps all we had to see was a little slogan that said “A Smarter Way to Do Laundry – Cleaner Clothes with Oxygen, Not Detergent” for us to know we had to try it out.
What we found out that slogan means is that the PureWash Pro infuses 100% safe, natural oxidation (o3, or Ozone) into the water as it goes into your washing machine which dissolves and removes residue and cleans, sanitizes, and deodorizes your entire laundry.
Hmmmmm.
Well it’s what hotels and institutions have been doing for years. They don’t spend a jillion dollars on detergent and bleach, they have industrial-sized ozone generators that infuse their laundry water with Ozone to kill bacteria, germs, odors, all that. The sheets you’re sleeping on at the hotel have been washed like this so you better hope this technology works.
We understand all that, but we’re also skeptics, so we installed it and got busy doing laundry to see if there was any evidence that it actually did anything.
First let me show you the 10-minute installation:
What you need.
- Cordless screwdriver (for sure)
- Drillbits (if you’re going into drywall or cement block)
First let’s start with what’s in the box.
This is what’s in the PureWash Pro box.
Step 1: Mark the wall for the bracket.
Put the template on the wall where you want to mount the PureWash Pro and make sure you have enough clearance around it. Make sure there’s an electrical outlet within reach. Then mark the holes on the wall for the mounting bracket with a marker or something so you know where to drill/screw. KEEP IT LEVEL.
Step 2: Mount the bracket.
I marked where the holes are from the template, but I’m neurotic so I also held the bracket up, made sure it was still level, and marked it again. In my installation I wanted to get two anchors into the mortar joint and one into the block. It’s a pretty light unit so I wasn’t worried about using the mortar joint with the plastic anchors they supplied. Full disclosure: my masonry bit was dull as heck and I didn’t think it would get me 3 holes in the block itself so the mortar would have to do.
Below is the bracket installed. Make sure you mount it with the tabs OUT so the unit will slide onto the bracket. It would feel REALLY wrong to install it the other way so it would be hard to mess this up.
Step 3: Set the water flow.
On the back of the unit you turn a selector to TOP LOAD or FRONT LOAD.
Step 3: Set the water flow. On the back of the unit you turn a selector to TOP LOAD or FRONT LOAD.
Step 4: Install unit, hookup water.
- Shimmy the unit on the brackets.
- Turn off the water at the cold feed for the machine.
- Remove the end connected to the cold water faucet on your washing machine and connect it to pureWash where it says “TO WASHING MACHINE”.
- Connect one end to the cold water faucet and the other to pureWash where it says “COLD WATER IN”.
Does it work?
Well, yes. You can’t throw your toddler’s stretch pants that have stains all over them and expect them to come out like new, you need to treat the stains or use a little bit of detergent to wash “dirty” clothes. BUT what you CAN do is use it for your sheets and towels and “normal” dirty stuff.
My own personal test was washing my gross sweaty gym clothes. BEFORE the pureWash Pro I was coming home with my sweaty ball of gym clothes and socks, washing them with a little detergent and after 3 months or so they stopped getting clean. Well they’d be clean, but like I’d put them on and after 2 minutes at the gym they’d REEK again. Guess what, AFTER I installed the pureWash and have been washing them every day they come out smelling fresh and don’t re-stinkify during workouts. I’m no scientist, but it’s like the OZONE water strips out the sweaty, oily body gunk molecules or something.
ALSO, the clothes come out smelling clean. Not clean like laundry detergent, but like clean fresh clothes. It’s weird.
Maybe you’re whining, “But I have a septic tank”.
1. Quit yer whining. 2. The o3 actually does all of its work in the machine and reverts back to 02 in the machine. Then the oxygen-rich water that flows from your washer into the septic tank fuels the aerobic process, enhancing the ability of your septic tank to break down waste. At least that’s what we copy/pasted from the pureWash FAQ.
TL;DR Version: What we found is exactly what pureWash says:
pureWash is proven to be very effective in freshening, odor removal and cleaning everyday soiling. It is not a replacement for stain treatment which requires pretreatment and/or detergent. A small amount of detergent improves the effectiveness of pureWash. pureWash is highly effective as an antimicrobial for bacteria reduction.
They’re around $300, go buy one.
