Speed Queen helped create the fur-free laundry category with its Pet Plus-enhanced DR7 dryer.
Speed Queen and Maytag are at the furfront of hair-free fabric
By Alan Wolf, YSN
Don’t get your dander up by what we’re about to say.
While Americans clearly love their dogs and cats — 64% of U.S. households have at least one — we don’t necessarily love their fur, especially when it’s on our clothes and bedding.
That’s why Speed Queen was barking up the right tree two years ago with its DR7 sanitizing dryers featuring Pet Plus sanitizing and hair-removal cycles. Proven in the field at animal shelters and service dog facilities, the dryers, in tandem with the company’s powerful TR7 top-load washers, have proven themselves a highly effective solution for removing fur and keeping laundry looking and smelling great.
“Since we introduced them in 2021, our Pet Plus cycles of the DR7 dryers have been wildly popular with pet owners,” said Cody Masluk, VP Speed Queen residential.
Related: Speed Queen Helping to Save Our Best Friends
Building on its success, the Wisconsin washing machine maker has stepped up its commitment to pet-friendly laundry by incorporating a flea cycle in its upgraded frontload washers, and has added its Pet Plus’s hair removal and pet items cycles to its step-up DF7 dryers. The flea cycle targets cat fleas, the pest’s most pervasive type, and exterminates them at every stage of their life cycle, the company said.
Speed Queen’s pet focus has not gone unnoticed by competitors. Enter Whirlpool, which has widened the fur-free playing field with its Maytag Pet Pro laundry pairs. The system is built around a specially-designed, removeable filter within the agitator that captures five times more pet hair from the wash than laundry loads using a traditional agitator. The companion dryer also features an oversized lint trap to finish the job.
Engineered by Whirlpool’s advanced development group and introduced last fall, the Pet Pro system “now has former hairy pet owners rejoicing,” the company said.
You can expect to find both solutions for furry fabrics front and center on the Expo floor at next week’s 2023 Summit in Las Vegas.
