UK student's WashDryIron does just that

While the brains at Whirlpool, Samsung, GE, and the like havebeentoilingfor years to improve upon the staid washer/dryer combo ("now with nanofilters!"), it took a UK college student to design a new laundry solution that actually succeeds in saving the owner significant time/labor. Oliver Blackwell of Devon came up with the creative-but-awfully-named WashDryIron, which performs all three titular functions in one machine without the need for operator intervention, for his final project at the University of Plymouth. Rather than tossing your clothes into the machine a la traditional washers, each item is attached to a hanger in one of several independently-controllable compartments, where they are washed and air-dried right where they hang. This method supposedly eliminates color runs, shrinking, and wrinkles, and also allows different fabric types to be washed at the same time. Blackwell will be showing off a prototype at next month's Ideal Home Show, where he hopes to impress some of those same manufacturers who have thus far failed to come up with something this innovative.

[Via Techdirt]