Refresh Your Clothes!

Harnesses the mystical power of plasma to destroy odours

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Every now and then, a product comes along that is so clever, you are blown away. Even if you subsequently realize that it may not be all that useful for most people. The Bosch FreshUp (£249.99, bosch-home.co.uk) is one such product. The nearest thing we can compare it to is high-tech Febreze, which is a fabric cleaner designed for sofas and curtains but which some people – skanks, let’s call them – use to freshen up their clothes, by masking the smells emanating from them.

Bosch FreshUp removes rather than masks smells, however, and the way it does so is ingenious. This handheld device slightly resembles one of those handheld crumb removers that you occasionally still see used to clean tables in restaurants. When you power it up, it creates plasma. Yes, plasma: the mysterious ‘fourth state of matter, after solid, liquid, and gas.

Well, it turns out that plasma, as well as helping to give us life and make TVs in the mid-2000s, is also able to completely dissolve odour molecules. Who knew? So as you run the FreshUp over your clothing, any lingering smells – from smoke to body odour – are removed completely. With lighter fabrics and lesser smells, this is generally done with one application.