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You are here: Home / Archives for GE

GE

GE Profile Induction Range

February 16, 2009 By NightOwl

Induction cooking is continuing its rise in popularity and the manufacturers are responding.  If you’ve been hearing about induction cooking, but haven’t a clue how it works, you can read about it here, where we explain all the details for you.  Including an explanation of why only half that chocolate bar in the picture is melting .

GE is offering their answer to  consumer interest by debuting a freestanding induction range in their Profile series.  GE plans to offer the induction cooking technology exclusively in the Profile Series.

The range comes with a 3700-watt output element and will be available in a variety of colors, finishes and sizes.  This range will be available in Spring 2009.

Filed Under: choosing a Kitchen Appliance, Features, Kitchen, News, Ranges Ovens and Cooktops Tagged With: freestanding induction range, GE, GE appliances, GE range, induction, induction cooking

Appliance Manufacturers are Aiming at Boomers

December 31, 2008 By NightOwl

What’s next?  The Baby Boom generation is everywhere.  As a child of the 60’s I’ve often had mixed emotions towards them – annoyance at how much attention they get combined with gratitude that they cause so many changes that I will benefit from in the future.  One of those changes is happening now in the appliance manufacturing business.  As boomers age, they are increasingly staying in their own homes and have the income to modify those homes accordingly.  Appliance manufacturers want to get a piece of that.  According to the Wall Street Journal, changes are being made.

In the kitchen, General Electric Co. is designing ovens with easier-to-open doors and automatic shut-off burners. A joint venture of Germany’s Bosch and Siemens AG has introduced a glass cook top for its premium Thermador brand designed to prevent boil-overs. Minnesota-based Truth Hardware reports booming sales for its remote-controlled window motors.

“This population is far more demanding and will refocus designers” on individual consumers, says Joe Coughlin, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s AgeLab, which studies design and engineering for an aging population.

Among appliance makers, Whirlpool Corp. has long tested products with potential customers who are deaf, blind or arthritic. The testing with arthritis patients helped prod the Benton Harbor, Mich., appliance maker to offer pedestals that raise the height of washing machines and clothes dryers for customers with back problems.

[Whirpool dryer with pedestal] Whirlpool

A pedestal beneath this Whirlpool dryer reduces stooping when removing laundry.

Whirlpool also offers washing machines with large knobs that make louder-than-usual noise when they’re set, for customers with limited vision or arthritis. “It’s not one of those little prissy knobs,” says spokeswoman Audrey Reed-Granger. One model introduced last year plays musical chimes to indicate washing temperature or other features.

At GE’s consumer and industrial headquarters in Louisville, Ky., designers use “empathy sessions” to help develop new refrigerators, stoves and dishwashers. Industrial-design intern Joanie Jochamowitz, 22, wraps her knuckles with athletic tape and wears blue rubber gloves to simulate arthritis. She shoves cotton balls in her ears to simulate hearing loss, dons special glasses to simulate macular degeneration and puts dried corn kernels in her loafers to simulate aches and pains. She grabs a walker. Then she tries to peel potatoes.

“I don’t want to get old,” she says, as she hobbles around the kitchen, fumbling with potato peelers and stove controls, and nearly spilling a pot of boiling water.

GE began the empathy sessions last year so its young designers could better appreciate how consumers use appliances. “When you’ve got designers that are 25 or 30 years old, it’s very hard for them to understand what someone in their 60s or 70s experiences,” says Kim Freeman, a spokeswoman for GE Appliances.

The company also arranges focus groups where consumers cook a meal in a GE model kitchen while staffers watch through cameras and one-way mirrors. And GE videotapes appliance users in their homes. The summaries from these tapes are used in brainstorming sessions about design changes.

“We note what they are doing. We see if those behaviors happen more than once and why,” says Marc Hottenroth, industrial design leader for GE’s Consumer and Industrial unit.

These efforts have prompted several changes in GE product designs, including brighter LED lighting that improves visibility inside new models, such as one with a French-door refrigerator atop a bottom freezer. This year, GE introduced a single-wall oven with two cooking spaces that can operate at different temperatures. Its research shows boomers cook and entertain more frequently and like the two-ovens-in-one concept. Some models can be raised off the ground for easier access. “You don’t have to reach in as far,” says Ms. Freeman. She says it prevents people from stooping awkwardly, losing their balance and burning themselves on the hot stove.

GE has new dishwashers and washing machines that allow users to put in an entire bottle of detergent a few times a year rather than a smaller amount for every load. The machines are designed to reduce confusion and make housework less of a chore, particularly for older consumers.

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GE product-development

GE

At an ’empathy session,’ members of a GE product-development team tape their knuckles to simulate impaired dexterity.

Appliance manufacturers hope these design changes will buoy revenue. Sales and profits in the U.S. appliance industry are down this year because of the housing bust, the stock-market slide and the economic slowdown.  But for the long term, the appliance industry expects big returns because of baby boomers and hopes of a housing rebound.

Filed Under: choosing a Kitchen Appliance, Dishwasher, Dryers, Features, Household, Kitchen, Laundry, News, Oven, Ranges Ovens and Cooktops, Safety, Washing Machine Tagged With: age modified appliances, aging at home, appliances for handicapped, appliances with modifications, baby boomers, GE, GE appliances, whirlpool, whirlpool appliances

GE Delays Sale of Appliance Division

December 22, 2008 By NightOwl

The on again off again sale of GE’s appliance division is off once again.  (Say that three time fast.)

As we have been following the story here at appliance.net, GE  put its appliance sector up for sale last May.  There have been rumors of purchase offers, including one from Chinese manufacturer Haier who retreated in November as the US economy stumbled.  Now GE has announced its plans to hold off on any sale or spin off, citing the deepening recession.

Company spokeswoman Kim Freeman said GE executives “still feel the strategy is the correct strategy. It is just the wrong time.”

“The challenging economic environment makes a spin or a sale now extremely difficult,” the GE statement said. “Remaining part of GE and staying totally focused on operating the business effectively is the best move for the business as we prepare for what is shaping up to be another very tough year in 2009.”

The company offered no indication of when it might pursue breaking off the division. A statement on the decision said GE would “aggressively align our business with the current market.”

Last week, GE began laying off salaried workers at the division as part of a 5 percent reduction in Consumer & Industrial’s global work force of about 45,000.

GE also said it plans to continue paying a dividend in 2009, offering investors 31 cents per share each quarter.

Filed Under: Features, Household, Kitchen, News Tagged With: GE, GE appliance division, GE appliances, GE for sale

Recall: GE to Inspect and Repair Wall Ovens Due to Fire and Burn Hazards

November 19, 2008 By NightOwl

Name of Product: GE®, GE Profile™, Monogram® and Kenmore® Wall Ovens

Units: About 244,000

Manufacturer: GE Consumer & Industrial, of Louisville, Ky.

Hazard: The extreme heat used in the self-clean cycle can escape, if the wall oven door is removed and incorrectly re-attached by the installer or the consumer. This can pose a fire and burn hazard to consumers.

Incidents/Injuries: GE is aware of 28 incidents of minor property damage in which adjacent kitchen cabinets have been damaged. No injuries have been reported.

Description: This recall involves GE wall ovens sold under the following brand names: GE®, GE Profile™, Monogram® and Kenmore®. The wall ovens were sold in white, black, bisque and stainless steel. The following model and serial numbers can be found inside the oven on the left interior wall. For microwave combination ovens, the serial number can be found on the left interior wall of the microwave.

 

Brand Model Serial Number Begins With
GE/Profile JCT915, JT912, JT915,
JT952, JT955, JT965,
JT980*, JTP20, JTP25,
JTP28, JTP48, JTP50,
JTP86
TD, VD, ZD

AF, DF, FF, GF, HF, LF, MF, RF, SF, TF, VF, ZF

Monogram ZET3058, ZET938,
ZET958
Kenmore (All model
numbers start with 911)
4771, 4775, 4781, 4904,
4905, 4923*
2T, 2V, 2Z

3A, 3D, 3F, 3G, 3H, 3L, 3M, 3R, 3S, 3T, 3V, 3Z

* Lower oven only

 

Sold at: Home builders and appliance stores nationwide from October 2002 through December 2004 for between $900 and $3,600.

Manufactured in: United States

Remedy: Consumers should immediately inspect the oven to make sure they do not have an incorrectly re-attached wall oven door, which will not open into the flat position. If the wall oven door is incorrectly re-attached, consumers should not use the self-clean cycle and call GE for a free repair. Consumers can continue to use normal baking or broiling function in the oven until the oven is repaired.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact GE toll-free at (888) 569-1588 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday ET, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.GEAppliances.com

Filed Under: Cooking, Features, Kitchen, News, Oven, Ranges Ovens and Cooktops, Recalls, Safety Tagged With: GE, GE appliance recalls, GE recalls, GE wall oven recall, wall oven, wall oven recall

GE Wants to Try a New Refrigerant

November 17, 2008 By NightOwl

GE is asking for federal approval to use, in the U.S., a type of refrigerant that has low global warming potential and is widely used in Europe and Asia.

The company has filed a petition with the Environmental Protection Agency to allow it to use isobutane, a hydrocarbon, in household refrigerators. Hydrocarbons like propane and butane have been used in fridges elsewhere in the world for years as replacements for HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) and HCFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons).

Although HFCs and HCFCs were originally introduced to replace chemicals that contribute to the depletion of the ozone layer, they are thousands of time more powerful than carbon dioxide in contributing to global warming. Hydrocarbons have no impact on the ozone layer and have a much smaller impact on global warming than HFCs and HCFCs.

Ben & Jerry’s recently gained permission from the EPA to test up to 2,000 ice cream cases chilled with butane, and Greenpeace, which developed the GreenFreeze technology used in hydrocarbon-based refrigerators, has been pushing companies to bring the fridges to the U.S.

If the EPA approves GE’s request, the company plans to use isobutane in a new GE Monogram refrigerator planned to launch in early 2010. GE also plans to use cyclopentane, another hydrocarbon, as the insulation foam-blowing agent in place of an HFC foam blowing agents. The development team behind the fridge also plans to seek ecomagination certification, GE’s in-house process for evaluating and labeling energy-efficient products. The company has seen success with its ecomagination line, expecting sales of ecomagination products to reach over $17 billion this year.

You can read the whole story here.

Filed Under: Features, Heating and Cooling, Household, Humor, News, Refrigerators and Freezers Tagged With: GE, GE appliances, global warming, refrigerant

Haier Still Considering GE

November 14, 2008 By NightOwl

News had it that Haier planned to make an offer for the appliance division of GE, but Haier said it plans not to bid for General Electric Co’s appliances unit until it sees clear signs of a U.S. market recovery, according to a Reuters report.

A bid for GE’s appliances business, which the U.S. giant put on the block in May, could be Haier’s last opportunity to buy a household U.S. brand, part of its ambitions to reach global consumers rather than just Chinese, the report said.

According to the Reuters report, a source who worked with Haier executives to evaluate the potential GE deal said the other concern for Haier is how to pay for it, as Haier would rather not borrow from commercial banks.

In May, GE’s CEO Jeff Immelt named companies including Haier, South Korea’s LG Electronics, and Turkey’s Arcelik ARCLK.IS as possible bidders for the second-largest U.S. appliance maker after Whirlpool Corp. No formal bids have been announced yet, and the plans of the other possible bidders have not been confirmed. With sales of $7.2 billion last year, the unit is worth an estimated US$4 billion to $8 billion.

Filed Under: Features, News Tagged With: GE, GE appliances, Haier, Haier appliances, Haier GE

GE to Launch New Line of Smart Appliances

October 8, 2008 By NightOwl

In the first Quarter of 2009, GE will introduce a suite of ”smart” appliances.  Energy Manage-ment Enabled Appliances. These GE appliances will be enabled to receive a signal from their local utility. The appliances will receive the control message and react based on the appliance internal programming. It requires no consumer interaction.

”Now that ENERGY STAR® appliances are recognized by 75% of American consumers, the next step is to reshape when energy is being used,” said Kevin Nolan, Vice President Technology for GE Consumer & Industrial. ”Peak hour energy demand is growing faster than total energy demand. It is imperative that we begin to shift some of the energy load from peak hours to other parts of the day – – helping to avoid the need to build new power plants to meet the demand,” he explained.

For example, the automatic defrost feature on GE refrigerators is initiated by the internal electronics based on the number of refrigerator door openings and other input signals. If the refrigerator can delay the defrost cycle from occurring during peak energy usage hours, consumers will save money by paying for the same amount of energy later in the day when the rates are lower.

In addition to ”smart” refrigerators, GE will enable ranges, laundry pairs, dishwashers and microwave ovens to receive and respond to communications from the utility company. Consumers will be notified of a rate change or of critical peak pricing by the display on their appliances letting them know when higher rates are in effect. Appliances will be programmed to avoid energy usage during that time but consumers may choose to override the program – giving them ultimate control.

Filed Under: Dishwasher, Dryers, Features, Gas Range, Household, Kitchen, Laundry, News, Refrigerators and Freezers, Washing Machine Tagged With: "smart" appliances, GE, GE appliances, GE dishwashers, GE refrigerators

Win a New GE Profile Washer/Dryer Pair

August 20, 2008 By NightOwl

Visit Times Square on August 26th, 2008 for a free demonstration of GE’s newest washer/dryer pair. Between 8 a.m. ET and 4 p.m. ET, be sure to enter this event’s sweepstakes for a chance to win your own GE Profile frontload laundry pair with a SmartDispense pedestal and dryer storage pedestal.

The Washer:

Uses H2ition to sense the right amount of water and temperature for each load (ENERGY STAR® qualified)
Communicates electronically with the dryer to preset dry cycles and help save time
Stain Inspector ™ provides more than 40 different preprogrammed stain treatments
Offers SmartDispense technology, which when used with the optional pedestal can store and dispense 6 months worth of detergent and fabric softener

The Dryer:

Uses a reverse tumble to offer the fastest, most even drying
Includes a built-in dryer rack and hanger clip for more drying options
Has a 7.5 cubic foot capacity

Filed Under: Dryers, Features, Laundry, News, Washing Machine Tagged With: GE, GE appliances, GE contest, GE dryer, GE sweepstakes, GE washer, GE washer/dryer

Will GE’s Appliances Suffer Under a New Owner?

June 23, 2008 By NightOwl

By now, GE’s upcoming sale of their popular appliance division is common knowledge and many people are wondering what will become of one of the most popular brands in the US when it is sold.  GE appliances rank highly with sources such as Consumer Reports.  When news that GE was considering a sale of the appliance arm, the magazine reported how various GE appliances stacked up against rivals. Most did pretty well.   GE had many highly rated (though a few poorly rated, including a ‘not acceptable’ in upright freezers ) models in many product categories and across price points.

According to the Wall Street Journal’s Deal Journal, for the most part, those considered to be potential bidders for the GE business–Sweden’s Electrolux, LG Electronics, BSH Bosch & Siemens Hausgerate of Germany, to name a few–match that. The outlier? Haier. Haier’s Genesis is No. 22, or fourth from the bottom in the rankings of top-loading washing machines and dead last in both large countertop microwave ovens (No. 15) and side-by-side refrigerators (No. 34).

The obvious question? Would a Haier-GE combination lead to an improvement in Haier’s own brand or would it pull down the reputation of the GE brand? Unfortunately, the question isn’t, well, academic. The folks at consumer-satisfaction surveyer J.D. Power & Associates said studying whether or how an acquisition of a high-quality brand by a lower-quality brand affected either brand would be nearly impossible, since it would be difficult to identify what was an effect of the deal or integration as compared with the myriad other issues that affect quality, like design, manufacturing, parts/raw materials.

Of course, Haier has has been down this road before, coming close to but ultimately failing to acquire another well-regarded U.S. brand, Maytag, in 2005. Then Haier’s plan was said to follow the Lenovo way, referring to the Chinese PC maker’s slow conversion of IBM Thinkpads to the Lenovo brand after it acquired the Big Blue business. For its part, Haier declines to confirm whether it was indeed bidding for the GE business or comment on how it would handle the integration should it comsumate a deal.

Filed Under: Features, Kitchen, Laundry, News Tagged With: appliances, Bosch & Siemens, consumer reports, electrolux, GE, GE appliances, Haier

GE Monogram with Advantium Speedcook Technology

June 19, 2008 By NightOwl

The Monogram Wall Oven with Advantium Speedcook Technology has led the way in oven performance, harnessing the power of intense halogen light to deliver results in minutes with this exclusive GE technology. Today, the Advantium pushes the boundaries of culinary innovation even further with a  repertoire of cooking capabilities and enhanced design options.

Performance Capabilities


New Monogram Advantium ovens now offer four separate cooking modes:

• Award-winning Speedcook technology delivers oven-quality results up to eight times faster than conventional cooking methods, with no preheating.

• True European convection mode bakes, roasts and browns foods.

• Microwave mode provides a fully-functioning microwave mode that allows fast, precise reheating and defrosting.

• Warming mode keeps prepared dishes at ready-to-serve temperatures.

Enhanced Design Options with Larger Interiors

The  performance capabilities are matched by the bold exteriors, which complement other Monogram cooking products:

• Integrated-style models make an architectural impression with sleek, horizontal lines set off by tubular handles and a machined stainless steel control knob.

• Professional-style modelsare designed with chamfered edges and a robust, die-cast control knob.

• Glass touch controls, stainless steel vent/grille and an expansive viewing window on each model.

• Larger interior cavity easily accommodates roasts or casserole dishes on a 16-inch diameter tray that holds a 9-by-13-inch pan, while the addition of a removable rack allows for multi-level convection baking.

Monogram Advantium ovens with integrated styling are offered in stainless steel (ZSC2201NSS), black (ZSC2200NBB) and white (ZSC2200WBB). Professional models are available in premium-grade stainless steel (ZSC2202NSS).

Filed Under: Cooking, Features, Gas Range, Kitchen, Microwave Oven, Oven, Ranges Ovens and Cooktops Tagged With: GE, GE Advantium, GE appliances, GE Monogram, Speedcook

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