Swash laundry system refreshes without washing

Whirlpool and Procter & Gamble have teamed up to save you money on dry cleaning, especially if you spend $500 a year or more on shirts, suits, dresses, and other finery. Their solution? The Swash Express 10-minute clothing care system that they say speeds up laundry the way microwaves speed up cooking. When Consumer Reports heard claims that the Swash was "revolutionizing clothing care," we had to put it to the test.

This isn't the first time Whirlpool and P&G have tried to bring dry-cleaning systems into the home. Fifteen years ago P&G came out with Dryel, a dry-cleaning kit that you toss in the dryer, but later sold the brand. Whirlpool has made two previous efforts—the Personal Valet, $1,000, and the Fabric Freshener, $250—but neither caught on with consumers. Will the third time be the charm with the $500 Swash?

Despite its name, the Swash doesn't actually wash clothes. Instead it freshens them and smooths wrinkles and restores their shape so that lightly worn clothing is ready for another outing without taking a detour to the dry cleaner. "Say goodbye to excessive washing, drying, steaming, ironing, and dry cleaning," says the website. The manufacturer claims the Swash works on most fabrics, including wool, cashmere, and delicate lace. It's not recommended for velvet, suede, silk, leather, or fur.

Our tests

Resembling a tall radiator, the Swash is designed to fit in a walk-in closet or next to a wardrobe and plugs into a normal wall  outlet. At 4-feet tall, it's pretty compact when closed but requires about 5 feet to fully open. We set one up in our laundry lab and collected some slightly rumpled shirts, suit jackets, and jeans from members of our staff. Following the manufacturer's instructions we hung the items in the box one-by-one and clipped them to the sides. The final step involves inserting a proprietary "Swash" pod filled with a scented solution. The pods, which are made by Tide and cost $7 for a box of 12, release a light mist during a 10- or 15-minute treatment cycle.

Did it work? For the most part. Odors were removed or masked, wrinkles smoothed out, and jeans snapped back into their original shape. But you should take care not to treat clothing that's dirty or stained as the temperature inside the box—150° F to 190° F—gets high enough to set some stains or make them more visible. Another drawback is that the clips used to secure clothing in the box can create new wrinkles.

If you have a big closet and a large yearly dry-cleaning bill that's more than the cost of a Swash, it may be worth considering. Or you could just hang your clothes in the open air  or run them through the clothes dryer on the no-heat setting.

—Mary H.J. Farrell (@mhjfarrell on Twitter)