A key finding from the research was that the washing machine needed to be larger with a 5kg drum capacity to cater for the fact that families average at six people in developing countries. The team surveyed over 3000 families in 17 countries on their washing habits in an attempt to improve the design. “Talking to the end users and beneficiaries of our machines is still very important to us.” “We’ve not really changed our methodology since then,” he says. Taking influence from his design process in India, he interviewed 79 families from five refugee camps and, according to Sawhney, the feedback was all positive. When a course mate who was working in Iraq heard about the project, he invited him to bring his prototype over to the refugee camps there to test it. In that same year (2018), he started a master’s degree in humanitarianism, conflict and development at the University of Bath. Shortly after his return to the UK, Sawhney and his team engineered the first washing machine prototype. “I promised a manual washing machine, so I came back to the UK, got a bunch of friends around my kitchen table, and started the Washing Machine Project,” says Sawhney. Having been brought up by his mother and sisters after the death of his father, he explains he was aware of the hard work involved in running a household from a young age. “I saw that she’d spend hours and hours a day hand washing clothes and she’d complain about skin irritation and back pain,” says Sawhney. It was during this busy time that Sawhney met Divya, a single mother of two who lived next door. Sawhney says, “How it worked was on Monday we’d have an idea, on Tuesday we’d prototype that idea, on Wednesday we’d put the prototype into the field with potential users, get feedback on the Thursday and have a new design by Friday.”Īccording to Sawhney, this “living lab” allowed workers to test many different prototypes in a short space of time. Here, he was introduced to a new design process. “I realised three years into my role that I was just making vacuum cleaners for rich people, and I was getting increasingly frustrated with the fact that my engineering was providing solutions for people who already have everything,” he says.Īfter quitting his job, he started working for NGO Engineers Without Borders UK in southern India to make cooking stoves. After studying aerospace engineering at Queen Mary University, Sawhney was accepted onto a graduate programme in Dyson’s research and innovation department. Sawhney explains how the original idea was influenced by observations formed throughout his early professional career. The aim was to create a machine that cut washing cycle times in half and reduce effort of operation. Nav Sawhney and his team founded the Washing Machine Project in 2018, with refugees and those living in homes without electricity in mind. When using this washing machine, it needs to be used near drain so that the unit's draining pipe can disperse water.A manual washing machine, designed to help refugees and communities without access to power, has found a new audience during the cost of living crisis. *This washing machine is a gravity drain washing machine. Please note, the Leisurewize Eco Washer has been specially designed for washing light loads, which is upto 4 pieces of laundry, and should not exceed 2 kgs in weight.
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