I tried out Foldimate's laundry-folding bot at CES 2019
At long last! Foldimate has a working version of its laundry-folding robot, but they still wouldn't let us see inside.
It looks like a printer, but claims to fold your clothes for you.
We've seen a non-functioning version of the Folidmate laundry-folding robot at CES many a time.
It's a rectangular gadget vaguely shaped like a mini-fridge that's supposed to fold your clothes for you.
This year, Foldimate has a working version of its bot that can handle various types (and sizes) of clothes. Foldimate specifically says its device can fold a "full load of laundry," which they say is about 25 items, in under five minutes.
I got to try it out for myself at CES 2019. You can load shirts of varying sizes, one at a time, into Foldimate and it does the rest. Foldimate didn't let us look inside its product to see exactly how it's folding the clothes, so I still have questions. But, I tried everything from large long-sleeve button-down shirts to small short-sleeve shirts and the result every time was a crisp, clean fold.
The downside is that it can't fold certain things -- sheets, towels, baby clothes, and more. And, you still have to stand there while you feed the clothes individually into the device.
Foldimate is still technically a prototype, but the company hopes to have a retail version of this laundry-folding bot by the end of 2019 and will cost roughly $1,000.
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