Hey guys,

I'm curious, what's everyone's thoughts on connected appliances? I feel like I don't see these features requested often by customers, but they seem to be something nearly every manufacturer is pushing towards now. Does anybody have connected appliances and use their features? What works for you and what doesn't?

One of the things sparking my question is that GE just came out with something they call the Kitchen Hub, and we've got it displayed in one of our Houston showrooms. It's basically a big interactive monitor with a ventilation system. I initially thought it was a microwave as well - it's the same size as over-the-range microwaves, but it's definitely not one. I spent a few minutes accidentally trying to pry it open in our showroom until I asked one of our salespeople about it:

https://products.geappliances.com/appliance/gea-specs/UVH13012MSS?icid=KH_top

It's video chat and social media focused, and also has a guided cooking app. Is this something people could picture themselves using in the kitchen? Or is there a different connected appliance you've seen that looks useful? Let me know your thoughts, just trying to get some feedback. Thanks!

Rodney Christiansen, Factory Builder Stores

I have absolutely no desire to pay up for features that I've gone 40+ years without using and which I have absolutely no need for. Who cares if I can preheat my oven from my phone. I can just wait 5 minutes while I prep. If I need a recipe from the internet, I have a phone and an iPad.

Now get me an appliance that'll do the dishes for me and we're onto something...

Just more stuff to break and make the whole unit more costly in my opinion.

BSD said:

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I have absolutely no desire to pay up for features that I've gone 40+ years without using and which I have absolutely no need for. Who cares if I can preheat my oven from my phone. I can just wait 5 minutes while I prep. If I need a recipe from the internet, I have a phone and an iPad.

Now get me an appliance that'll do the dishes for me and we're onto something...

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People didn't think they needed expensive smartphones 10 years ago. Now you have a phone and an iPad. People once questioned the need for a smart assistant, and they're used all the time now. Just 2 days ago I sat through a talk on voice activated assistants on the jobsite and how they can increase productivity and process engagement.

Think of being able to check your refrigerator from the store and saving yourself an extra trip or being able to not just preheat your oven and save 5 minutes, but temperature control your slow cooker or monitor your pressure cooker while you go run an errand. Think of getting alerts if someone left something on or open or if an appliance detects that it is starting a load outside of its normal parameters or it stops reporting (loses power). You could have a sous vide cooker that tells you that your steak is almost done so you can turn on the oven with potatoes and carrots pre-placed in it while you're out. Dinner is waiting when yo get home, and you can turn the oven off if you're running a little behind.

I personally haven't used connected appliances a lot in my own personal time, but I can see where it would be helpful. It's kind of a pain to keep unlocking my phone to look at a recipe or to drag a laptop into the kitchen if I'm cooking something I'm unfamiliar with, so I do think a built in touchscreen with these features above the range would be neat. I wouldn't really picture myself using the video chat though.

The closest I really get when it comes to this connected stuff when I cook is when I use a regular charcoal smoker on the weekend - I've got a bluetooth dual food thermometer, so I can keep in the a/c with a beer while monitoring the smoker temp. I don't remember what brand it is offhand, but it works well enough. I can see how built-in features like that for your appliances, all in one place on your phone, would be useful.

I do agree with the "more to break" sentiment too, but it's a lot harder to get away from any electronics these days - even basic ranges, fridges and ovens have motherboards now. So I think it is important that manufacturers make these features useful and worthwhile, and not just use it to plug an "upgrade".

Part of the problem is that everyone is trying their own thing, too. So if you're mixing and matching appliances, you're mixing and matching connected apps. I don't know much about app development, but I feel like this would be a great time for Apple, Android, or just an independent developer to step in with a universal catch-all app that connects to everything.

~Rodney Christiansen, Factory Builder Stores

ABATTBQ11 said:

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BSD said:

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I have absolutely no desire to pay up for features that I've gone 40+ years without using and which I have absolutely no need for. Who cares if I can preheat my oven from my phone. I can just wait 5 minutes while I prep. If I need a recipe from the internet, I have a phone and an iPad.

Now get me an appliance that'll do the dishes for me and we're onto something...

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People didn't think they needed expensive smartphones 10 years ago. Now you have a phone and an iPad. People once questioned the need for a smart assistant, and they're used all the time now. Just 2 days ago I sat through a talk on voice activated assistants on the jobsite and how they can increase productivity and process engagement.

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You're showing some serious selection bias there,... Also, smart assistants aren't "used all the time now". Many people don't use them. Some because of privacy concerns. Some people just don't like talking to things when there are better ways of interacting with them.

The fact that you sat through a talk on a product doesn't mean that it will get adopted widely or even work well, if at all. It means literally nothing to have a sales team come in and tell you about the thing they are selling which is totally the next big thing. They've developed a product and they're telling you why they developed it.

You can't just name a couple products and services that worked and say that whatever other specific thing will catch on, ignoring the hundreds of thousands of "next big things" that didn't work as advertised or didn't catch on. It's like all the solar roads supporters who said "they said the same thing about the internet"... that doesn't make whatever the new thing is a good idea.

I can see preheating the oven, and sous vide makes sense because it tends to involve long cooking times (you might not know what sous vide actually is because you don't finish a steak in one), but "IoT all the things" has nothing to do with actually helping the consumer. It is 100% driven by a desire to get yet another device into your home that can record information about your habits which the manufacturer can turn around and sell as analytical data. Information about you is another revenue stream and that's why everything has smart components being added to it. No one asked for a smart refrigerator, or a smart vent hood, or a smart microwave...

Who wants to leave food sitting out at room temp all day so they can come home to part of a meal cooked? Slow cookers are popular because you cook things in them that can cook all day while you are away,... you don't need to monitor them. That's the whole point. Being able to see into your fridge doesn't actually solve any problems anyway. What about the things at the back of the fridge? What about things in your pantry? If you aren't sure that whether you need something that is refrigerated and has a certain place at the front of the fridge that you can see from the camera that you didn't put on some sort of list which simultaneously isn't important enough for you to remember, then sure, it can save you a trip (or more likely not using that product until you go to the store again). How often does that particular scenario come up? Would you pay $1000 to avoid it?

If you're going to spend $30 extra on a slow cooker,... don't buy the smart one. Buy the higher quality one. Don't get a smart refrigerator, get one that actually has features that you use. Instead of the fancy Samsung washer with 5000 cycles and steam and everything else, buy the simpler one that will do just as good a job and might actually make it to 10 years old without requiring repair...

I'm a pretty techie person and I spend a fair amount of my time thinking about process improvement and investigating new products in that realm, but the real life benefits just aren't there with the vast majority of smart appliances. It's crap added so that they can sell information about the customers. I saw the product the OP is talking about and taking up a space that could be a built in microwave with a giant smart phone is a horrendous waste. If you're going to have a combination vent hood/something above your stove, make it a microwave, not an android tablet supported by GE. They make some good appliances, but they're not exactly known as a high technology company when it comes to computers.

Factory Builder Stores said:

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It's kind of a pain to keep unlocking my phone to look at a recipe or to drag a laptop into the kitchen if I'm cooking something I'm unfamiliar with, so I do think a built in touchscreen with these features above the range would be neat.

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I can totally see how having a screen in the kitchen could be helpful if you cook from recipes frequently. I would say an under cabinet tablet mount would be a better solution. You can change your settings so it doesn't lock, or log out of all your important accounts and throw the last generation iPad many people have lying around into it and use that.

The problem with that smart hood is that people are going to have their appliances installed for at least 10 years,... For computers, that's the equivalent of like 100 years. Building something that will legitimately be obsolete in 6 years max into something that will almost certainly last over 10 years is a bad plan.

Thought about it. Still don't care.

The smarts I want are things like the temp in the freezer is above threshold (potentially a few sensors) because door did not seal, or auxiliary water shutoff on washer because the floor is flooded because of leak or drain clog. I don't need a webcam in fridge (maybe the pantry) to tell if I need milk at HEB.
But none of this has the flash to make go wow at your store so I end up cobbling stuff together. When the smart appliance allows me to tell it to make dinner via alexa you will have my interest, maybe.

give me something that works instead of expensive fluff that breaks and is out of date and unsupported in 2 years.

We are currently building our custom home. We point blank told the builder and electrician that there is no need for too much of that. The wife and I both work from home so there's no big reason to do things remotely (ironically I work in the telemetry industry for center pivots control and monitoring).

I have a connected range. I didn't buy it for that, just happened to be a feature on the range that my wife wanted. I'd say we use it maybe 2x / month. It's nice to have, but I wouldn't make a purchase decision based on that.

Soon we'll need to input a username and password to grab a beer from the fridge or heat up a hot pocket

Rufnek said:

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Soon we'll need to input a username and password to grab a beer from the fridge or heat up a hot pocket

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I'm waiting for it to also prepare the hot pocket and serve me the beer and hot pocket...

I'm kind of torn on this. I don't think I need it by any means and if it comes down to it, I'd probably skip the up-charge. However, we like the availability of this in our Joule and I can definitely see the appeal as this technology begins to improve even more and focus in on the actual beneficial aspects....

I actually made sure to purchase a range that did not have any LCD screen or connect features. I realize that technology has made us big consumers and we likely won't keep appliances for more than 10-20 years. However, just imagine whatever you buy today vs what they'll have in 5-10 years. This is one of those cases where, as others have said, I want to push a button, set a timer, run, start-stop.

I didn't like the gimmicky feel of the crap their peddling now.