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• AREA DEVELOPMENT • FARM • COMMERCIAL RESIDENTIAL • ACREAGE 317 5th Street, Ames State of Iowa 515-233-3299 • ® licensed in the
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Story County Sun • Wednesday, March 15, 2017 • Page 11
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Smart appliances
Like it or not, appliances with cameras, screens, Wi-Fi are here to stay
Christina Heath, above, of Grove City, Ohio, has appliances in her kitchen with controls and has no idea what they are for. Her stove has extra settings for things such as chicken nuggets on the control panel and the freezer unit on the refrigerator, shown at left, has a power freeze control. [DISPATCH PHOTOS BY ERIC ALBRECHT]
By Jim Weiker More Content Now
A
fter the new appliances arrive for Christmas, the calls arrive at Capital City Appliance Service. The appliances aren’t broken. “People do not know how to use the machines because they are more complicated,” said Jody Vass, president of the 48-year-old Columbus, Ohio, repair company. “They keep pushing the start button, for example, because it’s not advancing fast enough. You then have to reset the machine.” The days of the one-button appliance are long over. As this month’s Consumer Electronics Show demonstrated, appliances are only getting more technological. Manufacturers at the show rolled out enough home gadgets to outfit the Starship Enterprise. Consider: • A device attached to the inside of a trash can that scans garbage to let users know if items can be recycled or whether they need to be replenished. • A camera that mounts inside a refrigerator to monitor expiration dates on food. • A Bluetooth-connected toaster. • A refrigerator with a 21-inch screen and Wi-Fi. • A Wi-Fi-enabled coffee maker. • A smartphone-controlled slow cooker. • A refrigerator with built-in coffee maker. But are Americans ready to log in to toast a piece of bread? While consumers have embraced home devices with simple technology, such as keyless door locks and programmable thermostats, they have hesitated to plug in others. A Coldwell Banker survey released last year found
appliances were the last “smart” thing consumers wanted in a home, well behind security and temperature control. When Christina and Thomas Heath of Grove City, Ohio, replaced their appliances four months ago, they discovered that finding high-quality, reliable appliances without bells and whistles is like searching for a buggy at a car dealership. “We bought a whole appliance package — new stove, dishwasher, microwave, refrigerator. Every one of them has all these buttons and features on them that we don’t even use,” Christina Heath said. “My old dishwasher was 27 years old. It had two buttons — ‘start’ and ‘open.’ Now, there are seven buttons on the new one. … Can’t I just push ‘start’?” The Heaths understand the features. They just don’t need them. “I’ve got Bluetooth on our pressure cooker, I swear to God,” Christina Heath said, laughing. “I can’t imagine using it.” Appliances have gotten so complex that some dealers and manufacturers send out representatives to show buyers how to use their new machines, said Chad VanMeter of hhgregg. “People usually know what they want when they come in,” VanMeter said. “They looked online. They know what it says it does, but they don’t know how it works.” VanMeter and other experts understand consumers’ frustrations, but they also know the technology is here to stay. “We laugh at the idea of a Bluetooth toaster. But I’m quite sure our grandparents laughed at the idea of an electric toaster,” said David Kender, a senior vice president for reviewed.com, a consumer-product research website. New appliances might not last as long as older ones — by some estimates, the average appliance lasts 10 to 15 years today, about 10 years less than a generation ago — but they are quieter, more efficient and more effective than
ever. Manufacturers also have gotten smarter about when to add technology, Kender said. “What we saw a few years ago was manufacturers taking the elements of products that they thought made them popular and slapping them on appliances, such as beautiful LCD touch screens on a washing machine,” he said. “A lot of those early implementations never took off. The benefit wasn’t readily apparent to those who bought them. They thought, ‘The screen doesn’t make the washer better at washing.’ … “Technology added to a traditional metal box has to make the core purpose of that metal box better. It has to cook better, clean better, wash clothes better. It doesn’t matter how many screens or chips or bells and whistles it has.” Kender sees two features in particular becoming mainstream in the next few years: • The ability for an appliance to “talk” to a service company, allowing a problem to be diagnosed before the repairman arrives. • Remote monitoring, which allows a consumer to check on an appliance — or a safety feature, such as a water gauge in a basement — from afar. Kender also expects Amazon’s Alexa device to rapidly accelerate voice-command technology for appliances, which is now in its infancy. But VanMeter and others know the technology has to make sense. As Kender puts it: “Nobody wants Spotify on their dryer.” — Email Jim Weiker at jweiker@dispatch.com.
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