Housewares expo shows the shape (and colour) of things to come

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This article was published 24/04/2004 (8173 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CHICAGO — To soothe or stir? Two competing visions for the home emerged in products introduced at the recent International Home & Housewares Show, where about 60,000 manufacturers, store buyers and distributors gathered over three days devoted to household products that will make their way into U.S. stores this year — although Canadian consumers may have to wait a little longer.

Quieter vacuum cleaners and air purifiers and illuminated colour-therapy displays bowed alongside a riot of colour in small kitchen appliances and accessories.

At KitchenAid’s booth, a colourful display of stand-mixer casings arranged in rows evoked childhood memories of opening new boxes of crayons.

At Dualit, the company’s toasters, so iconic in chrome, stopped some visitors in their tracks when shown in 13 shades, including pastel pink, yellow and celadon.

“People are ‘counterscaping,'” pitchman Jon Newman said at Hamilton Beach’s booth, where small appliances were offered in hues from apple green to pale raspberry. “It’s like landscaping. Instead of putting appliances away, they’re leaving them out on the counter.

Not far from him, some Hoover and Electrolux vacuums boasted attractive colour and quieter operation. But they didn’t promise as much fun as Color Cubes.

In a darkened room deep within HoMedics’ booth, visitors gazed up at a wall of illuminated grids as sitar music played in the background and birdsong issued from fountains. All the grids changed colours.

Unlike previous shows — which dramatized a vacuum cleaner’s suction by having it lift a VW Beetle — this edition was relatively stunt-free.

The big buzz was that the Tide Buzz Ultrasonic Stain Remover really does the job. In demonstrations, it zapped stains without scrubbing or soaking. Fluid was sprayed on a stain, ultrasound applied with a hand wand, and stains filtered through the fabric onto a disposable pad.

Then there was Salton’s Home Hub system, which pilots and updates “smart” appliances — a microwave, a coffeemaker and a bread-maker, for starters. Both the microwave and bread-maker read bar codes on prepared or packaged foods to gauge cooking needs.

All three appliances can function without the Home Hub component, but with it they’re updated on new foods. The Hub also plays CDs and MP3s, has a radio, and offers the weather, time, financial data and news.

Coffeemakers that brew one cup at a time, using a single-serving pod instead of loose ground coffee, were hot. Melitta’s One:One hit the U.S. market in the fall and can brew tea as well as coffee. New shades, kiwi and mango, are due in June.

— Philadelphia Inquirer