Washing your clothes can be tedious at times, but it's a chore that's necessary especially in our hot and humid weather. That is why every modern home needs to have a washing machine to help get the laundry done. For many years, there were two types of traditional washing machines, the front-loaders and the top-loaders.

Topload Washing Machine

Front-loaders are popular in Europe and Asia and the clothes are placed through a door in the front of the machine. Top-loaders are commonly used in North and South America where clothes are placed in a vertically-mounted perforated basket. The downside to using top-loaders is that they have been known to damage delicate fabrics and are not well-suited to clean large objects like pillows and blankets.

Standard features of both types of washing machines include different wash cycles for different kinds of clothes, water temperature variability, child lock and dryer functions.

Despite so many features, people still have to be careful when washing clothes. It's common to hear people talk about how they shrunk their jeans in the wash or accidentally mixed their whites with their colours, which albeit funny can be upsetting for the individual involved.

To prevent such ‘accidents' from ever happening again, some home appliance companies have developed what's called smart washing machines. These are basically washing machines that ‘talk to you' and make sure the washing is completed to the highest standards. So how do these modern gadgets work?

Well, these state-of-the-art washing machines are fitted with PC and mobile phone technologies that are programmed to read smart tags informing users what is the material of their clothes, how many previous washes they've had and what's the best way to wash them. Subsequently the machine sends you an SMS or email to tell you that the washing is complete.

Front load Washing Machines

Smart washing machines are great for many situations, such as:

• Multi-tasking. After loading the clothes into the machine, you can do other chores or take a short nap. 30 minutes later, a message pops up on the television screen alerting you that the clothes have been washed.
• Should you be out running an errand and you receive an SMS alerting you that your clothes have been washed and dried, you don't want them to sit in the machine and get wrinkled so the technology allows you to send an alert through your mobile phone to tell the dryer to "fluff" the load, which gives you just enough time to finish up your errands and return home.
• When you're busy doing work on your computer and don't want to be disturbed. You get a message on your computer that you're clothes have been washed. Instead of leaving your clothes in the washing machine and letting them go stale, you can alert the dryer to dry the clothes at the click of a mouse. This saves you having to get up and start the dryer.

The technological features present in smart washing machines mean they cost a lot. However, the advantages of having these gadgets far outweigh the disadvantages. Smart washing machines not only save time, energy and unnecessary heartache but in the long term, they are economically viable. You save on your PUB bill because the machine weighs the size of the load and judges how much water to use in the washing process. And since it uses only cold water, it means that smart washing machines are eco-friendly because no energy is used to heat up the water. That should get it Al Gore's stamp of approval!