Kitchen Appliances

Do any of you who are “designing” this stuff (Cooktops, ranges, refirgerators, ovens, etc.) actually COOK?

If so, then why is all of this crap so had to keep clean?

Brand names: Miele, Bosch, Fisher-Paykal, Amana, GE, Windcrest, Viking, Wolf, etc.

check out some stuff by Kuppersbusch, cool cooktops, weird name:

hey Yo,

That’s my post above.

I’m on a rant. It’s time to replace the GE gas cooktop and dishwasher at our house. They’re both early '90’s vintage; pure white, glass surface (cooktop), controls proud of the surface, the slightest spot shows up.

Wifey wants shiney, I wants something that is easy to clean (which in my opinion does not exist). I’m the chief cook, and cleaner-upper, at our house and it just kills me that a piece of equipment that we all use (including their designers) is so hard to keep clean.

Why so many knooks and crannies, square corners, overhanging knobs, and super glossy surfaces … they take forever to clean around.

I’m a gas-guy. Electrics look nice and would be easy to clean, but I just can’t justify burning all that fuel at a power plant, turning it into heat, then steam, generating electricity, pushing it through power lines to my house, and then turning it back into heat … to make steam.

Miele (German)

Fisher-Paykel (Australian) nice stuff overall… . … IMHO

Fisher-Paykel is actually a New Zealand based company. They license some of their stuff to Whirlpool (I think) in the US, Dishdraw etc. :wink:

They have been doing some good research into stainless alloys and coatings which don’t mark as badly as stainless typically does. There is nothing worse than seeing a kitchen full of stainless appliances covered in finger-prints and scratches for cleaning.

rinnai do a glass gas cooktop:

The pot holders are removable so its really easy to clean…

I think its only available in Japan at the moment…

I was cleaning my kitchen earlier, and the range top is impossible to be clean. No amount of special ceramic cleaners gets the surface clean.
Would it not be a good idea if one of us designed a range (radiant type) with sections that you could remove and put into the dish washer, or with a self-clean function like an oven?
BTW I really like that honeycomb looking range.
Eric

Just think of all the trouble they go through to get gas to every house!

They do say gas cooks more evenly, but I’m just not that good a cook. Thay also say those $90 monster cables make a difference in your audio quality, of course it doesn’t really make a difference on my 1997 Aiwa stereo.

I do the cleaning in the kitchen too, so I had to go glass, my thing is this, can’t it be matte so that the littlest drop of water wouldn’t call for getting out the special range cleaning solution and the little non abbrasive pad?

i’m thinkin’ i’m like’n it…

Look at the stainless stuff from DCS.
http://www.dcsappliances.com/indoor/detail.php?id=13

I used to install all the above mentioned appliances here in Arizona.
My fiance works for the Viking distributor in Tempe,AZ.
there are several pros and cons of getting these high end products.
A con is getting them clean. Maybe they should develope a team of sanitary designers. A team devoted to research of how a product should always look new.
Im sure there is one, but I lack the word.
Being a student of ID, I will from now on consider this when that phase of my education arrives at a dilema such as this.

A team devoted to research of how a product should always look new.

THAT’s the problem!

The past fifty+ years of appliance designers CAN design what an applicance should look like when it’s new…

they just don’t know how to design one that can be KEPT looking new.

Stainless steel has to be soft enough to form which makes it hard to keep clean. Glass cleans up nice but takes time to heat up and stays hot after (except with induction elements which require steel cookware and are pricey). Porcelain coated steel cleans up nice but it is more expensive compared to painted steel (which to the consumer looks the same) and can chip when you drop a pot on it. Function, maintanence, price, and style are tough enough to balance, but throw in myopic marketing and short term profit oriented USA management rampant it this industry and you get…shit.

try not to cook

raw foods are more healthier

washing food also decreases nutritional value

try not to chew as well