What do you wash your clothes with? Water, would be the most obvious answer. Wassup laundry, however has a different response. They now wash clothes with air.
“We have introduced Qlnz technology patented in association with Aeronero, the company that came up with this solution. Here, water is created from humidity and moisture in air, through the process of condensation,” explains Balachandar R who started Wassup in 2012. These machines are connected to washing machines and carry out the process of atmospheric water generation. What’s more, the soap water that comes out is recycled and it becomes water with 95% efficiency,” he says.
Aeronero was started by Kumar Loganathan, Jyotsna Kumar and Durga Das in 2019. Incidentally, Durga is also Wassup’s co-founder.
In the laundry business, water is the main raw material and also the biggest issue, says Bala adding that they can use up to 1,000 litres of water everyday. “This new technology helps save 30 litres of water in every cycle and it combines water generation as well as recycling,” he adds.
Durga invested in this technology 14 years ago, when she was working with scientists in the US. “We were way too early,” she says. “Few years ago, when a water crisis hit Chennai, people woke up. I decided to get back into the game and set up Aeronero. The company started making machines and supplying them to the Southern and Eastern Railway, to corporates and homes.
“Water generated through this process has low TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) value and therefore reduces use of detergent and bleach. This means the longevity of clothes increase,” says Durga.
Wassup is now present across seven locations in the city, with the newest one just launched in T Nagar.
When Balachandar was scouting for locations, he said getting access to water was often a challenge. Now, thanks to this waterless technique, he can open at any location. “Since the entire technology can fit in a two feet-by-two feet space, one doesn’t even require a large area, in case they plan to start a laundry business,” says Balachandar.