Cleaning like you’ve never seen: ultrasonic wave mini washers

If you’re kinda clumsy like we are, laundry day comes around too often. Wearing something white’s asking for trouble. Same for off-white, beige, nude, and whatever colour ‘eggshell’ is trying to be. There’s a 99.9% chance we’ll spill or drop something, get splashed, fall over, or somehow pick up a massive stain without noticing.

So when we heard about ‘ultrasonic wave washers’, we felt like our lives were gonna change forever. Maybe yours will, too.

Super ultra hyper effective cleaning

The ‘ultrasonic washer’ product name‘s mostly used by Sharp. They make washers in a few different styles, sizes, and colours. Other brands produce their own similar washers, but when you’re googling around you’ll see a lot that look like this:

Some of the designs say ‘supersonic’ on them in English, instead of ‘ultrasonic’. You guessed it, translating directly from Japanese isn’t always simple.

超音波 (chouonpa) – ultrasonic wave

超音速 (chouonsoku) – supersonic speed

Same first 2 kanji, different translations. Anyway, it’s not about how ‘super’ or ‘ultra’ your sonic waves are, it’s how you use them. Clean those annoying stains on your clothes in 3 steps:

1. Soak the fabric in shallow water (the bathroom sink works well for this).

2. Run the washer slowly along the stain, like you’re tracing it or trying to shave it off. Go back over if needed.

3. Rinse it off with clean water from the tap.

Sharp’s shown their ultrasonic washers working like a charm on shirt collars, foundation, pasta sauce, coffee, water-based paint, ballpen ink, red wine, lipstick, and ketchup.

But take note of the stuff you can’t wash this way:

• Anything waterproof, or that can’t be washed in water (‘dry clean only’) – it’s gotta soak to work
• Anything that’d shrink, fall apart, or change shape in water (like wool)
• Japanese-style clothes (incl. kimonos and yukatas)
• Leather
• Decorated bits (beads and jewels, embroidery, ribbons, etc.)
• Clothes that’ve faded over time

It also won’t take out dyes, bleached spots, or stains caused by glues and solvents (plus any substance with those in). So be careful with those oil paints and hair colours, yeah?

How do ultrasonic wave washers work?

It’s some impressive technology.

Switch the washer on, and the tip starts moving really fast. Think ‘38,000 times a second’ fast. It isn’t noisy – ultrasonic’s a higher frequency than most humans can hear.

The vibration creates loads and loads of tiny bubbles in water. Those bubbles ‘attack’ the dirt on your clothes, breaking it down and blasting it away. Watching an ultrasonic washer working is weirdly fun, like being shown a magic trick.

Dare to eat in public!

For people who can’t help but spill stuff all the damn time, going out for lunch is risky. As soon as that stain hits, you’re stuck – out in public – with no simple way to try and clean it. And the longer you wait, the chance it’ll come out in the wash gets lower and lower.

Do you run to the toilet and scrub it in the sink? Good luck here in Japan, where many public toilets don’t stock soap. In restaurants where they do have hand wash, you’ve got to brave the ‘walk of shame’ back to your table in damp clothes.

Most mini ultrasonic washers are portable, for this face-saving reason. The Sharp models hold a charge, and easily fit in your bag or pocket. They look like little cans of hairspray. (Whatever you do, don’t mix those up.)

With the optional water puff on hand, you can clean up at your desk, a cafe table, or a park bench. Depending where the stain is, you might not need to take anything off. Rub the underside of the stain, and the dirt’ll fall off into the puff.

We can think of hundreds of times this would’ve saved us (and our outfits). Tackling a stain right away’s a real advantage. That way, you rescue your clothes, your afternoon/evening – and your pride.

Transform your clutzy life and your laundry pile

Clean up those key wardrobe pieces with some crazy fast bubble magic. Search for ‘ultrasonic wave washers’ and order on DEJAPAN.

If you need an adaptor for the USB charger cable plug, or a voltage step adjuster, don’t forget to add those to your cart.