One of the personal care activities that most people hate or are too lazy to do is ironing. Many avoid the chore and walk around in a wrinkled shirt and slacks, or just avoid buying clothes that require ironing to begin with. There could soon be a solution. Effie, an automated ironing system that looks like something straight out of The Jetsons, is looking to save you the headache of pulling out that squeaky old ironing board.
The device, which looks like a small wardrobe closet, can iron up to 12 different items of clothing at once. All you do is hang each item on a special hanger and then place it into the device. It can handle garments made of polyester, cotton, silk, viscose, denim, and more. Effie does the job in about 3 minutes — about as long as it takes for you to dig the iron out of the closet, turn it on, and wait for it to heat up. The device promises to get rid of all creases and wrinkles and reduce time spent ironing by 95 percent.
United Kingdom engineers created Effie because ironing is apparently the U.K.’s most hated chore.
The idea for the device came in 2015 with the intent of creating machines that would fully automate the home one chore at a time. Engineers Rohan Kamdar and Trevor Kerth decided to begin with laundry due to how time-consuming ironing is. They used small-scale, rapid prototyping tools to create Effie, including 3D printing, acrylic laser cutting, and plastic vacuum forming. They then used specialized software to make each part digitally, and assembled them virtually to make sure that all pieces and technologies worked well. A patent is pending for the device.
“Since we were able to quickly test multiple versions and different features of effie, we are confident that the final form is a device that users will be excited with, and which will save them so much time and mental anguish,” Kamdar said in a statement.
The device is a prototype right now, but you can sign up for updates and provide backing.
