- In this report
- Overview
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Appliances with advanced degrees
This article appeared in Hoping to lure you back into stores, manufacturers are creating appliances that save you time, cut energy use, or make cooking and cleaning a bit easier. You'll pay for the extra skills, but some might prove worth it. Here are several innovations that caught our eye:
Energy-savers
Smart appliances receive signals from the utility company, alerting you when costs are lowest and reducing energy by adjusting their cycle. When energy use peaks and power is pricey, dishwashers could be preset to delay washing and refrigerators could be preset to delay the defrost cycle. Several communication technologies are competing. As of now, there's no guarantee that a smart appliance will communicate with your utility.
The induction deduction
Our tests found that induction technology makes for the fastest surface heating in ranges and cooktops. Electricity passes through electromagnetic coils under a glass-covered surface, creating a magnetic field that heats pots and pans. When we heated pots of water, induction models were usually 25 percent faster than regular smoothtops. Even low-temp simmering is superb. You'll need magnetic cookware: cast-iron, enameled steel, or some stainless. Among induction models, the GE Profile PHB925SP range and the Frigidaire Professional FPCC3085K cooktop did very well in our tests.
Dialing away washer woes
Your washer conks out, and dollar signs flash before your eyes. But picture this: You push a button on the washer, dial a service center, and hold the phone next to the button. The washer beeps a code, then the service center diagnoses the problem and maybe even fixes it. LG already has Smart Diagnosis on several top-loaders and dryers and on its LG WM3875H[W]CA and WM3885H[W]CA front-loaders and matching dryers. LG planned to have its phone diagnosis service center running by late July.
Minimizing dirt
If a vacuum cleaner compresses sucked-up dirt, it holds more and can be emptied less often. That's what the Kompressor on LG vacuums does. It resulted in a little less mess and fewer flyaway particles when we emptied the devices. It's on the LG LuV200 and the LG LuV300 bagless uprights, which were very good overall.
