Tag Archives: New Appliances

Meet the New Smart Appliances

Smart appliances are the way of the future. The newest component in the smart home technology craze, several manufacturers have now introduced their versions of refrigerators, Smart Appliancesranges and ovens, and even washers and dryers that communicate with you, each other or your entire home. If you haven’t yet seen these next generation appliances, you’re going to be amazed and delighted at what they can do.

Smart Stoves and Ranges

With the new connected stoves and ranges, you can become a celebrity chef in no time. Download a recipe and the range knows automatically what temperature to preheat and how long to set the timer for cooking. Preheat your oven from your car, or play a game or watch a video on the touchscreen while you stir the sauce. Sensors and probes can monitor the roast and alert you when it reaches the perfect internal temperature. Tie your range into the Nest home automation system and it will learn your family’s likes, dislikes and habits. Would you be surprised if your stove sent you an email midday and suggested a recipe for tonight’s dinner, then texted you a grocery list (after checking in with the fridge, of course)?

Refrigerators

How helpful would it be to know if your kids accidentally left the refrigerator door open while you were not home? Now you can, with the new smart refrigerator models, sometimes called Internet refrigerators. Communicating through a smartphone or tablet app, they can tell you their temperature and humidity level and let you adjust them remotely, as well as tell you when the water filter needs to be replaced. When you’re at home, a display screen with built-in Wi-Fi allows you to download recipes, play music or watch streaming videos. Sensors allow you to program temperature zones and to notify you when you’re running low on foods such as eggs or milk.

Washers and Dryers

Smart laundry machines are perhaps the wisest of the new appliances. Offering remote start and pause functions as well as auto-delay features, these machines can do your laundry during off-peak power times. Sensors communicate with your phone to tell you exactly how clean your laundry is. You can communicate with your dryer, asking it to do a refresh cycle before you get home. If the wash cycle ends while you’re out, you can call for a re-rinse to run just before you return and switch clothes to the dryer. More efficient dryer cycles that you can control remotely allow you to save both energy and money. And, like the others, these machines work with the Nest whole-home system that allows them to learn your patterns and habits.

In northern Utah, Complete Appliance Repair is excited for the next generation of appliances. Before long, your appliances will send a message to the technicians, explaining what’s wrong and telling them which parts to bring. Until that day arrives, contact Complete Appliance for sales, service and repair, even on your smart appliances.

Trends in Refrigerator Door Styles and Features

Refrigerator door styles have become surprisingly diverse and a bit confusing. Once upon a time, you had a simple hinged refrigerator door on the bottom and a freezer door above that, Refrigerator Door Trendsnothing more or less. Today you have literally dozens of styles and configurations from which to choose. So how do you determine what’s right for you? Before you go shopping for your new refrigerator, read on to learn more about your options.

First, What Goes Where?

Start with deciding where you want your freezer. Your choices are above the fresh food compartment, below it, or to the left of it. (No models are made today with the freezer on the right and the fridge on the left.) The freezer-on-top style is the original design, usually not available with many upgrades, but it is the most affordable. The freezer-on-the-bottom style typically has a standard hinged door for the refrigerator and a slide-out-drawer-style freezer. Side-by-side models feature swing-out doors with center handles, and most have some available upgrades and features. But it is the freezer-on-the-bottom design that has gotten fancier of late.

Special Refrigerator Door Configurations

The most popular refrigerator design today is undoubtedly the French door style. In this design, the freezer is on the bottom and the fresh food compartment opens with center handle swing-out doors, much like the side-by-side configuration. The advantage to this design is that the fresh food section opens wide to accommodate the largest of platters and pizza boxes. Some models have even added a kid-friendly pull-out or reach-in food drawer, but the big thing today is the door-in-door models. These models feature two stages of doors, with the inner door being made of a clear material. This way, you can grab a snack or can of soda from the outer door or leisurely peruse the inner contents without compromising the temperature. You can even choose a dual freezer model with two separate drawers, allowing you to maintain two different freezer temperatures.

Refrigerator Extras, Add-ons and Luxury Features

Ice and water in the door used to be a pretty special feature, but today that’s standard equipment. Now you can select models with special zones (kid zone, family zone and cooking zone, each of which can have different temperature and humidity settings). Manufacturers are appealing to younger, tech-savvy buyers by adding all kinds of gizmos. Some models can make your grocery list for you, order your food from the market or track your dietary stats based on the food you’ve pulled out during the day. Other models offer a high-definition LCD screen in the door, complete with a digital tablet where you can write a note to the family. No more Post-its or refrigerator magnets needed.

Complete Appliance Repair has been selling and servicing appliances — new or old, fancy or plain — in Salt Lake City for decades. Their experienced technicians will provide an exceptional level of customer service and keep your appliances running like a champ, no matter what refrigerator door styles you prefer.

Hot Kitchen Trends for 2015

The hot kitchen trends this year are all about improving the user experience and increasing the value of your home. The National Kitchen and Bath Association has published its trend report Hot Kitchen Trends for 2015for 2015, and the most popular kitchen color schemes are white, gray, black, blue and green, and the styles are contemporary and clean. Bronze, red and terra cotta are out, as are Tuscan and country or rustic design themes. But beyond color, the top trends are all about storage solutions and, of course, the appliances.

Multiple Appliances

Designers understand that many families, especially large families and those who enjoy entertaining at home, struggle with appliance capacity. Consequently, they’re working multiples into today’s kitchen designs. Dual dishwashers are the most popular, especially the new drawer-style models. Multiple ovens are also popular, with some architects incorporating a set of wall ovens along with 60-inch professional stoves. Finally, people are bringing the secondary fridge in from the garage and adding wine and beer coolers or specialty produce refrigerators to the kitchen.

Open Shelving and Furniture-Style Cabinetry

In lieu of upper cabinets, designers are using open shelving. It opens up the kitchen and creates a more modern look. Although people tend to shy away from open shelving, you can find a way to showcase your beautiful china and glassware and stow the less aesthetic items in closed cabinets below. Islands and wet bars are being styled to resemble furniture rather than traditional cabinetry. Drawer base cabinets are increasing in popularity as well. Drawers offer more flexible and efficient storage with less wasted space than cabinets with fixed shelving.

“Intelligent” Steam Ovens

The first new oven technology since convection and dual-fuel took the world by storm a decade ago, steam ovens are popular for the versatility they offer the home chef. Combine steam and convection with digital technology, and you’re on the cutting edge of appliance trends. Eliminating the age-old problem of dried out food, steam ovens combine heat, moisture and air to produce perfectly cooked food. Steam ovens preserve food’s nutrients too, with some reports showing 22 percent more in foods prepared with steam ovens as compared to traditional ovens.

Flexible Pantry Storage

Everybody wants storage, and lots of it, but no two people have the same kitchen storage needs. The adoption of flexible pantries and other storage space means that all of your small appliances, food and equipment has a home, but when you’re ready to sell your home, your buyers will enjoy the same benefit. If space allows, designers are incorporating prep surfaces, bar sinks and electrical outlets as well as windows for natural lighting. Sliding barn-style doors allow you the choice to shut the pantry off or open it up to your kitchen space.

Complete Appliance Repair, serving Salt Lake City and the surrounding communities, understands that you want the best kitchen your budget can provide. Their experienced professionals will work with you to select and install your new appliances and help you make today’s hottest kitchen trends a reality in your home.

Selecting a New Range Hood

Your range hood is one of your kitchen’s true multitaskers. Removing smoke, odors, grease and even excess heat from your kitchen, the range hood not only keeps your kitchen cleaner and Range Hoodsmelling better, it also keeps you from being overcome by fumes. As a bonus, it sheds light on your cooking surface and it may even house that invaluable microwave. If you’re in the market for a new vent hood for your home, read on for some basic information about the different types and features available today.

Types of Range Hoods

Whatever your kitchen configuration and needs, there’s a hood for that. You can select a hood that attaches to the bottom of a cabinet (undercabinet style) or one that attaches to the wall above the stove (chimney style). If your cooktop or range is located in an island, you can purchase an island-style model that attaches to the ceiling. Downdraft hoods, for use with cooktops only, pop up from a concealed location when needed. Finally, low-profile ventilator hoods known as power packs or inserts are designed to integrate unobtrusively into over-range cabinetry, using a flush installation.

Range Hood Ventilation Options

The way your range hood is vented determines, to a great extent, its effectiveness. The most effective models are those that are ducted to the outside. If the duct run is long due to the hood’s location, choose a more powerful model than would otherwise be necessary. If you are simply unable to run duct, non-vented models are available. Whereas vented models use aluminum filters, ductless range hoods use charcoal filters to clean the air, then recirculate it back into the room. Along with the recirculated air comes at least some of the odors and heat that a ducted model would transfer outside. Some models, called convertible range hoods, can be used either with ducting or without.

Range Hood Filters and Features

Today’s hoods offer several lighting options, including standard (incandescent) lighting, LED, compact fluorescent and halogen. Many have an added safety feature that senses heat, switching on the filter fan if the temperature exceeds a certain level, then turning it off again once the temperature drops. The most popular range hood option in the United States is the microwave type, but now you can also choose a convection oven/hood combo as well. Experts agree that combo hoods are not as effective at filtration, but the convenience factor makes this style a good trade-off for many people.

Complete Appliance Repair, serving Salt Lake and the surrounding communities, can install a new hood for you, as well as provide parts, maintenance and repair services. For all your home appliance, heating and air conditioning needs, Complete Appliance Repair is your locally owned and operated expert. When you’re ready to purchase a new range hood, let their experienced professionals help you make the right selection.

Kitchen Appliance Trends for 2015

This year’s hottest kitchen appliance trends were unveiled earlier this year at the 2015 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and although stainless steel has been the favorite of both consumers and kitchen designers for the better part of two decades, some appliance Modern Appliancesmanufacturers believe they have potential successors. Read on for an overview of what you are likely to see more of in the coming year.

The Debut of Sunset Bronze

Appliance manufacturer Whirlpool introduced its Sunset Bronze line at CES this year, and it’s a major departure from anything else currently in production. Sunset Bronze is a brushed metal finish with a warm champagne gold-colored coating. Whirlpool’s product specialists say that this finish reflects the colors around it. The biggest benefit is that this product line was designed to resist fingerprints. Essentially only three color families are available today (white, black, stainless), and Whirlpool hopes to make it four with Sunset Bronze.

Contour Glass

Electronics giant LG introduced an ultra-shiny, black, glass-front refrigerator known as the Contour Glass line. A slightly nubby, black-patterned finish is covered with a single sheet of tempered glass, providing both a deep, rich finish and an easy way to clean fingerprints and other smudges. Reviewers have praised this new, modern design as an instant classic, but it’s actually been popular in both Europe and Asia for several years. Many of the home renovation television shows have even started using the Contour Glass products, guaranteeing a broad level of exposure.

Iced Glass, Slate Finish and Pops of Color

LG’s Contour Glass product resembles a line launched by Whirlpool in 2012, with finishes called White Ice and Black Ice. Both colors feature bright silver trim and finishes. GE’s Slate line is a great alternative if you like the look of stainless. Inspired by the color and texture of stone, Slate is a warm and inviting matte finish that hides fingerprints and dirt. Finally, expect to see a lot of color in the future of kitchen appliances. Everyone from GE to Viking is offering bold, brightly colored appliances.

Complete Appliance Repair, serving Salt Lake City and the surrounding communities, knows you like to stay on the leading edge of appliance trends, even if your budget doesn’t. If you fancy adding one of these new trends to your kitchen, let Complete Appliance assist you. If you prefer to wait a few years to see which trends really catch on, they understand that too and are committed to keeping your current kitchen appliances running and looking good.