On Wed, 2009-06-24 at 11:34 -0300, Gerhard Fiedler wrote:
> The appliance that could save billions of liters of water has been
> developed at least 50 years ago and is ready to be purchased at least
> since that time. If all the vertically rotating washing machines were
> replaced by typical horizontally rotating ones, the savings would be as
> much if not more. Yet it doesn't happen... for some strange reason :)

I don't see the reasons as strange.

The fact is different regions have different factors that influence
appliance design. 

In many areas of the world water is a scarce expensive resource. In
others it's not.

Where I live water is so cheap one barely notices when the water bill is
paid (the water bill in my area only arrives every 3 months, and it
often less the $100). As a result, the added expense of a horizontal
washing machine simply makes no sense for most from a purely economical
point of view. While the prices have come down, the fact is they are
still more expensive then the "water wasters", and over the life of the
product, because of our low cost for water, you'll never recoup those
costs.

Now, cost is almost never the only factor, and often isn't the primary
factor, so most mid to upper end machines are now of the "european"
design.

TTYL

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