Grav-WASH-ity

Better Sustainable and Practical Options for Laundry for Communities without Electricity

Problem: Approximately 25% of the world’s population lives without electricity, meaning that they must wash their clothes without electric-powered washing machines.

Goals: Create a way to clean clothes without electricity that is durable, reliable, eco-friendly, affordable, and functions without the user present.

Grav-WASH-ity, founded by Sophie Goldberg ’25, is working to prototype a non-electric washing machine that utilizes gravity, with the use of books, sand, or rocks, for example, to create cylindrical kinetic energy.

  1. Purpose
    • Clean clothes without electricity
    • Durable, reliable, eco-friendly, affordable
  2. Function
    • Utilizes gravity of any kind (books, sand, rocks)
    • Create cylindrical kinetic energy
    • Gears, axles, and a chain cause the drum to spin

Important Features:

  1. Gear Ratio:
    • Size
    • Turns gravitational power into rotational energy
  2. Scalability:
    • Multiple machines powered by one gravity source
    • Business opportunity
    • Maximize efficiency
    • DHE task: make as little weight as possible function for multiple machines (maximize weight)

Innovation:

  1. Nothing like this on the market!
  2. Non-technological options include cleaning clothes in a lake which poses its own issues
  3. Other alternatives like bike washing, mini washers, and swirl machines are expensive, not highly durable, and require that the user is present for the entire wash cycle.

Collaboration:

This project is in collaboration with the Maia Impact School in Sololá, Guatemala. The project decided to collaborate with Maia Impact because of its proximity to remote villages with limited access to electricity and the resulting significant need for an alternative method of washing clothes. Grav-WASH-ity aims to work closely with Indigenous Mayan women to bring cultural and economic perspectives to the project.

Future Goals:

  1. Longer wash cycle
  2. Water collection / sanitization
  3. Water filtration for recycling
  4. Scalability
  5. Maximize efficiency and wash time

How Can You Get Involved?

  1. Innovation manager
    • Prototype perfection
    • Gear ratio & pulley — mechanical engineering
  2. Cultural manager
    • The cultural significance of this problem — respectful integration is key!
  3. Governance & Financial manager
    • Collaboration with foreign governments / NGOs
    • Economic inclusivity
  4. Environmental manager
    • Minimize environmental damage from soap
    • Water filtration system

Any questions or want to get involved? Reach out to our project managers and let us know!

Sophie Golberg: sophie.r.goldberg.25@dartmouth.edu

Andrew Wilson: andrew.d.wilson.26@dartmouth.edu