Sydney Henderson - AHAM Consumer Blog

Smart Appliances: Smarter Than You Think

Chances are you’ve had an appliance repairman at your home at some point over the years, and it probably involved him taking apart the appliance to try to find out what’s wrong with it. In the future, those days will be gone.

If you haven’t been in an appliance showroom lately, you may not have realized that appliances are getting smarter. And you wouldn’t be alone – even the host of This Old House Kevin O’Connor, found that out recently when his dryer wasn’t working properly.

A recent article in the Sacramento Bee highlights the appliance industry’s continued development of smart appliances – appliances that are able to “talk” to their owners to operate at certain times of the day and to assist in the diagnosing of any problems.

As for O’Connor, he called the customer service number who was able to remotely diagnose his dryer’s problem as being related to a clogged exhaust vent – a task he was able to take care of himself without having to pay for a repairman to visit.

Appliance companies are using this new technology differently. Some allow owners to download free apps and allow them to interact with their appliances using their smart phone, tablet or computer and tell them when the drying cycle is complete, for example. Other appliances come equipped with a data port that allow service technicians to connect via their laptop to scan for any issues, similar to the way a mechanic can scan a car’s computer for problems.

Warwick Stirling, senior director of connectivity and sustainability for Whirlpool, says, “We’re moving from the electro-mechanical to the software-driven space. We’ve found we can get more reliability from
solid-state electronics.”

Click here to read the full article.

Lower Your Utility Bill by Choosing an AHAM Verifide Clothes Washer

The most helpful household appliance, at least when it comes to saving time and backbreaking
work, has to be the clothes washer. Clothes washers have come a long way over the decades, and they’re now more energy efficient than ever—even while the average tub size has grown. In fact, a clothes washer manufactured in 2011 uses
over 75 percent less energy than one manufactured in 1991. Those savings really add up over the years.

Thankfully, when consumers are looking to purchase a new clothes washer, they can rely on those models that carry the AHAM Verifide mark which signifies that it has been verified by an independent laboratory to perform to the manufacturer’s product claims for energy consumption and water use. Additionally, for those clothes washers that have earned ENERGY STAR designation, AHAM’s energy verification of the unit ensures that the product meets ENERGY STAR criteria.

Ralph Hudnall, AHAM’s Director, Product Certification and Verification, explains that the independent laboratory randomly selects units from a list of models when they visit the manufacturers’ warehouses. When the units are taken back to the lab, technicians determine the capacity of the tub volume by measuring how much water and how many pounds of clothes it can hold. Special “test cloths” are used for these tests. These test
cloths, are produced according to an industry standard so that water absorption and weight are the same across all samples, thereby ensuring accuracy. Additionally, the annual energy use is determined by calculating the amount of energy used per wash cycle and then multiplied by the total number of loads of laundry the average household does each year.

“The great thing about the AHAM Verifide program is that consumers can
trust the numbers they see on the yellow energy labels because this program has verified them. They’re not just random numbers the manufacturer has put on there. Particularly in households that have a lot of laundry, choosing the most energy efficient model can be the top priority,”Ralph says.

Click here to search for AHAM Verifide clothes washers and you can find out more about identifying AHAM Verifide products here.

College Students Need Appliances, Too

It’s that time of year when college freshman are moving into dorms and harried parents are trying to make sure their son or daughter has everything they need for the new school year. Besides a computer, probably the most important features in a dorm room are mini-refrigerators, microwaves and any other small appliances students can fit into their already-cramped dorm room.

WRAL in Raleigh, NC has a helpful article and accompanying video
that provides suggestions for parents who want to make sure their kid is
comfortable while away from home. One of the most helpful appliances for any dorm room is a coffeemaker to keep you from dozing off during the 8 o’clock a.m. Economics 101 class. The article states, “Consumer Reports recommends one that brews with pods so there are no messy grounds
to clean up. Plus, its compact size is a real perk for small spaces.”

In case you’re one of those procrastinators and haven’t purchased anything for your son or daughter’s dorm room, U.S. News and World Reports has five
useful tips on what to furnish their dorm room with while on a budget.

What appliances did you have in your dorm room?

A Brief, Interesting History of the Hair Dryer

One of the benefits of home appliances is that they not only make our lives easier, they also keep us looking our best, too. Most women today have never had to experience what life was like before this home appliance revolutionized the way women washed and dried their hair.

Although a hair-drying device was first invented in the late 1880s in which one hooked up a heater to a dome-like device that would go around a woman’s head, there was no forced hot air like we know today. The hand-held hair dryer didn’t come around until about 1926.

As the New York Times article notes, washing your hair on a daily basis wasn’t very common until this gadget came along:

“‘What you used to do is you would sit in front of a heat source or outside in the sun and comb or brush your hair until it was dry,” says Rachel Maines, a visiting scholar at Cornell University who studies the history of technology. “If you had long hair, you would wash it once a week, if you did it that often. Having clean, shiny, fluffy hair — that’s a 20th-century thing.”

The article also has a brief interview with a British lady who collects antique hairdryers.

If you want to take a walk down Memory Lane, here are two really great commercials for a 1965 commercial for a Lady Sunbeam Jet Set Hair Dryer and a 1965 commercial for a table-top GE hairdryer.

AHAM President Joe McGuire Discusses New Clothes Washer Sustainability Standard

In a July column in Appliance Design magazine, AHAM
President Joe McGuire highlights the first-ever sustainability standard for
clothes washers developed jointly by AHAM, CSA Group and Underwriters
Laboratories.

McGuire writes, “The goal of this
standard is to provide meaningful environmental performance information to
manufacturers, governments, retailers, and consumers about clothes washers and
to drive innovation and continual improvement in the sustainability of these
products.?? This standard follows last
year’s release of the first-ever sustainability
standard for refrigeration products.

“The standard is intended to be used to
evaluate products for six key attributes: materials, manufacturing and
operations, energy and water consumption during use, consumables, end of life,
and innovation, as a bonus attribute,?? notes McGuire. The new standards can be especially helpful to
consumers who wish to have additional information when purchasing more
environmentally-friendly products. For
example, the end-of-life category, consumers can evaluate clothes washers based
upon the amount of recyclable materials they contain.

Click
here to read more of McGuire’s column. If your company is a supplier to the
appliance industry and you wish to purchase either the standard for
refrigeration products or clothes washers, you may do so here.

How Clean Is Your Kitchen?

When it comes to the kitchen, most people probably say that
their countertops and dinnerware are clean. However, according to a recent article in the MinnPost which highlights a study from NSF International, a non-profit focused on public health and safety issues, we should focus on some unexpected places in our kitchens as well.

According to the study, the “Top Five Germ Hotspots” include blenders, spatulas, knife blocks, can openers and refrigerators. The findings from this report will undoubtedly get you reaching for your cleaning utensils because
the germs and other pathogens found in those hot spots are some of the nastiest around: salmonella, Listeria, E. coli, yeast and mold, according to the report.

Though the study consisted of a small sample– just 20 families swabbing 14 kitchen items, the results were astounding. Twenty-five percent were contaminated with both E. coli and Salmonella, 100 percent of items were contaminated with yeast and mold, and 10 percent with Listeria.

The study’s authors had suggestions on ways we can ensure our kitchens are cleaner: “The lesson we can all learn as consumers is to follow manufacturer’s directions when it comes to cleaning and sanitizing kitchen
tools and appliances. For instance, blenders need to be disassembled, and the gasket pulled apart from the base, to be cleaned. Refrigerator vegetable and meat compartments need to be cleaned and sanitized regularly. Like all kitchen tools, can openers need washing and sanitizing after each use and rubber spatulas that are detachable should be pulled off the handle to be cleaned. Lastly, rubber seals should be thoroughly cleaned.”

Click here to learn more about the study.

Want a Kitchen that Would Make Gordon Ramsey Jealous? Now You Can

As reality cooking shows depicting amateur chefs using refrigerators, ovens and ranges that would make anyone jealous, even Gordon Ramsey, appliance manufactures have jumped on board to develop home appliances and accessories that look like could’ve come from a high-end restaurant in New York.

A recent Wall Street Journal article highlights how the industry is appealing to consumers who have the means to create a “dream kitchen” that not only looks beautiful, but is functional as well.

“We are in a movement where we’re suddenly focused on what the kitchen should truly be,” said Eric Ripert, the famed chef at New York’s Le Bernardin. “And what we’ve seen is that most residential kitchens, while sleek, are totally dysfunctional. They were built by an architect to be beautiful, not to be used by a cook.”

In addition to foot controlled faucets, some of the other additions now include cabinets designed like wardrobes where one can hang up their pots and pans so they’re out of sight from guests as well as stainless steel countertops that not only brings a professional appearance, but resist bacteria too.

The full article can be viewed here.

Dwell, a magazine devoted to the modern home, has an interesting
video from architect Jeffery Beers describing his beliefs on kitchen design
and how this room should be the most social room in the house.

Study: Small Appliances Make Popular Gifts for Weddings, Bridal Showers

Attending a wedding or baby shower this summer? If so, there’s a good chance that you will be bringing a gift with you. Some of the most popular gifts for newlyweds are small appliances, and according to a new study
conducted by The NPD Group, U.S. consumers spent $112 million on gifts of small appliances for bridal showers, engagements and weddings.

According to the study:

“Electric knives were the number one gifted small appliance for bridal occasions during that 12-month time frame, according to the research, followed (in order) by espresso makers, stand mixers, waffle makers
and garment steamers. For all gifting occasions, the top category was massaging appliances, followed (in order) by snow-cone makers/ice shavers, popcorn makers, stand mixers and waffle makers.”

The study also notes that U.S. consumers spent a total of $1.8 billion on appliances for all occasions. The entire article can be found on Home Furnishing News’ website.

What kinds of appliances would you like to receive as a gift? AHAM wants to know.

Help Power Your City with Your Food Waste Disposer

Does your kitchen sink come equipped with a food waste disposer? If so, each time you throw food scraps into it, you could be helping to produce clean energy.

When food scraps enter the sewage system, many local water treatment plants use them to produce biogas – a combination of methane and carbon dioxide – that results from the breakdown of organic waste. These water treatment facilities can thus use biogas to not only power their plant, but also send any excess energy into natural gas pipelines and the electricity grid.

A recent article in United Airlines’ Hemisphere magazine notes the increasing popularity of using food scraps to produce energy:

“Having caught on to the value of organic waste, a number of cities are looking for ways to increase the amount that flows to their sewage plants. Across the U.S., nearly 850 wastewater treatment plants use biogas as a source of energy. Some municipalities are even tapping local businesses’ byproducts, using everything from brewery hops to over-the-hill supermarket produce in order to ramp up biogas production. In fact, the race to make biogas is altering the image of the sewage treatment industry, which is rebranding itself from ‘wastewater management’ to ‘water resource recovery.’”

An article on the Triple Pudit web site also discusses the benefits of foodwaste disposers:

“Even the most well-informed of green-tech junkies likely overlooked a pair of reports published in early 2011 that could have major implications for the way humanity disposes of its food waste. Taken together, the two reports, one from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the other from sustainability consultancy PE Americas, draw a vivid conclusion: Garbage disposals…could help slow climate change.”

According to the Massachusetts report, “If additional organic waste streams are diverted to these facilities to supplement municipal wastewater solids, even greater efficiencies and energy potential can be attained for energy generation onsite and resale to the grid. Such a program leads to environmental benefits from methane capture, renewable energy generation, and organic waste volume reduction.”

For more information on food waste disposers, visit AHAM’s information page on the benefits of food waste recycling. The Sallan Foundation also has an interesting article about how some communities are dealing with this issue. So the next time you throw yesterday’s leftovers down the kitchen sink, you could be helping to power your city!

Are You Ready for a Heat Wave?

It’s that time of the year when many consumers find themselves in the market for a new room air conditioner. Upon walking into a store to purchase one, one of the first things a consumer may notice is the AHAM Verifide label on the product’s box. Room air conditioners carrying the
AHAM Verifide mark have been tested by an independent laboratory to verify that the unit will perform according to manufacturers’ claims for cooling capacity in British Thermal Units (BTUs), Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) and electrical energy in Amps. Additionally, those models carrying the ENERGY STAR logo have been rated as being 10 percent more efficient than non-ENERGY STAR-qualified room air conditioners.

Ralph Hudnall, AHAM’s Director of Product Certification and Verification, explains that the independent laboratory’s testing conducted on room air conditions are designed to be as close to the consumer’s use as possible, and each model tested undergoes the exact same test to ensure uniformity.

Ralph explains, “At the lab, there are two adjoining rooms with one room configured as though it’s outdoors (hotter) and the inside room is the room that is to be cooled. Various sensors are set up to make sure the environmental conditions are correct and each unit is operated for 24 hours.” Upon completion of the tests, the results are verified against the manufacturer’s claim and, if approved, the unit is given the AHAM Verifide seal.

More information about selecting an AHAM Verifide room air conditioner can be found here, and additional information about ENERGY STAR can be found here. This Old House’s website has some tips for choosing the right room air conditioner.

In Every Home