Wash Wizard Scam

I saw an advert about a business based on selling a device called a Wash Wizard. This wash wizard device was reported to reduce the amount of detergent you needed in your washing machine to successfully wash your clothes.

The wash wizard I tried was a round plastic ball about 2.5” to 3” in diameter (40mm to 75mm) filled with a blue liquid.  There may be similar devices; I understand there is a donut shape one.  But basically the device is a plastic container (which could be any reasonable shape) with a liquid in it which I imagine could be any colour, and the feature of the device is the ability to save on washing powder by offering some means of cleaning the cloths without, or with very little powder.

I rang up and ordered one on approval. My wife tried it in the washing machine, and was impressed with the results! She said the cloths had washed OK and she hadn’t used any detergent she was amazed, as was I.

Luckily we have a big family, and wash clothes nearly every day, even twice a day on occasions. Continuing to use the wash wizard, my wife started to notice that the cloths were not being washed properly. I was puzzled, because of the initial success, and now it didn’t seem to be working.

I rang the chap who had sent me the sample, and asked how the device worked. He said that the water within the plastic ball had been treated with magnetic resonance from a nuclear power source and this had affected the water in the wash wizard, so that when you’ve brought the wash wizard near any other water the surface tension of that water would be destroyed. As you may know this is the principle of soap, it destroys the surface tension of water, allowing it to penetrate the cloths and perform the cleaning operation. Water is one of the best solvents around, able to dissolve many things as long as you can remove its surface tension.

This was a plausible explanation to me, with my scientific background. But I am not one to take things at face value and I sat down and thought about an experiment to prove whether the wash wizard was working as indicated or not.

I thought what I need to do is bring the wash wizard near some water and see what effect it has on the surface tension. So I set a tap dripping gently, and allowed a drop of water to form on the surface of the wash wizard. I noticed that the drop formed a bead of water as you would expect on any surface other than an absorbent surface. Obviously the surface tension was working correctly in the water, so the wash wizard was not performing as indicated!

Now there was only one other problem. How had to wash wizard managed to wash to cloths initially? Well I sat and thought about it and I came to the conclusion that the wash wizard had never worked. What I believe was happening was that the washing machine and cloths, contained a residue of soap from previous washes and this residue of soap was what had washed the cloths initially.

My advice to anybody is if you are offered any similar device, then do not pay for it up front, but by all means try it yourself and see if you come to the similar conclusion that I came to. The ideal test would be for somebody to try one in a brand new washing machine. Alternatively, run a washing machine empty for several loads until no soap deposit remains in a machine. Then try the wash wizard and see what happens!