A Mom's Time Manager

Don’t you just love living in these times wherein technology really helps make life easier and more convenient. When one becomes a mom though, our favorite “toys” make a shift. Next to my smartphone and laptop, the gadgets I love are found in the kitchen, in the utility cabinet or right now in the laundry area.After loving Electrolux's Vacuum cleaner, I would have to say that I have truly become a huge huge fan of this brand. It's been a pleasure having the opportunity as one its ambassadors to review and test these toys, er, appliances that have functions meant not only to make home management easier, but also to make it pleasurable and less of a chore. I would never have thought an appliance could bring such happiness, but seeing a sleek, strong and shiny machine in the laundry area these days makes me feel like I just upgraded from a sedan to a sports car. Talk about being domesticated! haha:)Check out the nice display during the Electrolux Wear Your Passion launch held a few months ago:THE OLD AND THE UPGRADE: We used to use this old school washing machine with a spinner, and look at us now, baby!The Electrolux washer-dryer is so aptly called the Electrolux Time Manager. Appropriate because {DID YOU KNOW??} when we do surveys among Mommy Mundo moms, "time management" always ranks high among the different areas of concern. The fact that Electrolux thought of calling this product "Time Manager" is a sign to me that they've really got their ears on the ground and their hearts in the right place- in other words, they sure know their customers' deepest concerns, at least where home management is concerned.For a domestic appliance, this machine is a heavy duty one, perfect for an active family of 5. It can wash up to 10kg of load, fully automated and can go from wash to rinse to dry with a push of a button. Settings are also fully customizable so you can adjust time duration of each cycle (for example if you have a super soiled cotton tee- you can adjust the setting to make washing time longer, then drying time shorter) or you can also skip the drying which is what we do on sunny days since we can always hang out the laundry to dry naturally. It even has a sensor that tells you how much load you’ve put in and how much detergent you have to use to get that load clean!The numerous buttons on the control panel can look intimidating. But one visit from our dear Electrolux man, Jac, solved the problem! Jac gave us a step-by-step tutorial, we now embrace this new toy cum "laundry slave" of ours.Jac and I, amidst the glorious sampayan. heehee.The Time Manager has features pre-set functions for different types of fabrics:See the buttons:Cottons- tees, towelsMixed- different fabrics and thickness can be mixed together in one loadDelicates would mean undies, knits even Barong Tagalogs can be launderedQuick 18- 18 minutes wash (though I am not a fan of this function as I like our clothes super clean. This will come in handy for rush jobs like Coby and Gary's basketball uniforms that they wear multiple times in a week)Here are some additional special functions that are worth noting:The REFRESH button is another unique function. This can be used when you have items that have an odor, such as mothballs or smell like it has been placed in a cabinet while it was still damp (know that smell?) It can also be used for fabrics that are wrinkled that you want to wear already, you can just put it in the machine and press refresh and the wrinkles get ironed out.Also amazed that this has a VAPOUR function- this is a function that is meant for people prone to allergies. Add the vapour function to your cycle and it will do an extra two rinses of your clothing and use vapour to remove allergens from your clothes. Wow!When you press "MORE" an uber mom function “BABY” appears! When you use this function it not only does a gentler wash cycle, it washes in warm water and even does an extra rinse afterwards to make sure the items are clear of chemicals that can harm baby’s skin. How perfect, especially for cloth diapering moms who according to my cousin Candy can use up up to 20 cloth diapers a day!There is also the ENERGY SAVING function washes the clothes in shorter duration but all in COLD WASH, thus reducing power consumption.While it has a lot of pre-set functions, it still allows you to adjust the spin mode (according to Jac, 800-1000 is ideal). Once you have optimized uses, you can save your regular settings using the "FAVORITE" button.Drying time can also be adjusted but don’t forget that when you use the drying function the maximum load should only be at 7KG and not at full capacity (10KG). Personally, to save on electricity consumption, I'm reserving the dryer use for cold and rainy months or when we have too much load to wash. For condo dwellers though, the dryer is a necessity as I suddenly remembered my laundromat dates with Gary during our last summer vacation in New York.My post on IG last May 2013: "Buhay Amerika #Labalaba"In terms of maintenance, Jac says we should wipe down the rubber inside the door once in a while and also leave the door open once in a while to let hot air escape and remaining water to evaporate.This eliminates molds from growing inside the machine especially in the rubber seal of the door (take a peek)...The verdict can be summed up in one word: EASY. The machine is easy to operate, it makes the chore of washing clothes easy, thus making life easy. At the press of a button it does all the work for you.If you are like me, whose old machine was the more common top load washer-spinner, I would highly recommend to shift. While before our helper used to have to do manual rinses after spinning because we wanted to get the excess detergent out, now she just presses a button and comes back for the rinsed out clothes after a few hours. If you have a helper who is somewhat of a technophobe, just take the time to train them and when they learn to appreciate how much time and effort is saves them, they will be happy to use the machines too. We live in a townhouse and do not want more than 2 helpers, with a fully automated laundry system, I can maximize my 2 maids’ time as it frees them to do other tasks around the house. More time for more things, for us and for themselves.Another interesting thing to note- my research also showed that front loading washers actually need less water to clean clothes, plus it is more gentle on clothes than top loading machines.Would I recommend this to those who have always used a washer-dryer? By all means, yes. The functionalities are just amazing, and like I said before I am constantly amazed at how well Electrolux has such well thought-out functions- imagine, they even thought about how to reduce allergens and chemicals in clothes of our babies.Finally, the question on power consumption. My friends have asked if there was a considerable increase in my electricity bills since we started using this appliance. Before I started using it, I asked Electrolux for some info on power cosumption of the Time Manager. This is the computation given:TIME MANAGER Consumption: 2200 watts (runs between 280w cold wash only, 1950w heater use)Sample computation at Regular Time Manager program level 1 & highest temperature: 1 hour & 50 minutes280watts/1000 = 0.28kw x 1.50 (1 hr 30mins) x 5.6673 (November Meralco rate) = P2.3801950watts/1000 = 1.95kw x .33hr (20mins) x 5.6673 = P3.646P2.380 + P3.646= P6.026 for every wash of 7 to 10 kg Additional 1 hour average for drying:2200watts / 1000 = 2.200kw x 1hr x 5.6673= P12.468So that's roughly P18.49 or less than P20 in Electricity for a full wash load (washing to drying!)In terms of water consumption, it uses an average of 75liters water (1 liter = .001 cubic meter).075 x P25 (average /m3)= P1.875Right now I'm not able to give conclusive results because as I mentioned, we do not use the drying function regularly- right now we use it only for towels or big items like bedsheets and comforters. Nevertheless, for reference, with our current use, our electricity bill has not increased at all. With the computation above, 6 pesos for electricity + P1.875 for water per load is not bad at all.Oh the joy. Right now I am one happy homemaker, with a happy household helper to boot.---I’m proud to be one of Electrolux’s digital brand ambassadors for its Wear Your Passion campaign. Follow Electrolux on Instagram, share your own passions and get a chance to win cool appliances:)