Hitachi heats up the scene with cool new appliances

While whitegoods, the industry catchall name for household appliances for everything from a toaster to a fridge are hardly as sexy, as say, a spanking new smartphone like the recently launched Huawei Mate 8 or upcoming Galaxy S7 edge, they’re still household essentials; no fridge means no way to keep all those frozen Hot Pockets and Mountain Dew chilled in between game matches and no air conditioner in what is, according to climatologists, the hottest period ever on this ball of dirt spinning in the darkness bathed in blazing hot solar radiation is simply a shortcut to heat stroke. Hitachi’s latest round of appliances – the new French Bottom Freezer Refrigerator, the new top-loading Washing Macine and the Scene Camera Air Conditioner aren’t exactly radical deviations off the tried and true but they do add in a unique localised twist that makes them worth a look.

Hitachi’s new French Bottom fridge doesn’t get its name on account of anything salacious; it’s on account of the fact that the fridge opens up in the middle with double doors like a French window for both its upper chiller section and the bottom so you can see everything you have stored within the fridge at a glance.

The fridge comes in two different colours: a mirror black and a two-toned black fading to silver gradient along with several different sizes. The largest is 700L, allowing you to store enough to feed a good sized family or two for quite a while. A unique vegetable compartment offers the equivalent of veg life support, inundatnig your greens with carbon dioxide and keeping them moist and green so that they keep longer and retain their texture and flavour for up to a week longer.

The slide-out compartments are also upgraded with braced rollers so that you can simply pop a drawer open with just your pinky and close it in the same way. The bottom freezer has also been designed to be extra wide – it’s 77cm lengthwise and about half as deep, allowing you to cram in a full sized fish though it’s not big enough to store a frozen turkey whole. It’ll easily let you cram in a chicken whole though without too much problems whilst an integrated Eco mode keeps leccie costs and your carbon footprint low. The 700L R-WB850P5M model retails for RM7,299.

The other interesting device of the day, the Hitachi Ultra-Stream Wash SF-240XWV top-loader washing machine that comes in a shade of silver only though it can be had in different sizes depending on your needs. The largest can clean a 24kg load and is capacious enough that you can clean bedsheets, blankets, curtains and, if you’re not careful the odd family pet or two.

The top lid opens up with the press of a button for one-handed use and the controls have been optimised to be absolutely bungle proof. The Ultra-Stream Wash is also able to self clean itself, has the ability to let you top up the water in mid-wash if it’s insufficient and is one of the few washing machines without a hot water inlet to get an Allergy UK approval, meaning that this is safe to handle laundry for someone with clinical allergies. There’s also a Small Load wash mode that lets the machine handle small 2KG loads without undue complications. The Ultra-Stream Wash SF-240XWV 24kg model retails for RM3,399.

The last appliance of interest was Hitachi’s Scene Camera Air Sleep Air Conditioner. It’s a bit hard to pronounce in one breath but this 1HP air cond essentially integrates a video and thermal camera feed that tracks users in a room in a somewhat Orwellian fashion and intelligently directs the airflow intelligently to the fellow that’s hottest. Literally so. If you’re sleeping the A/C’s thermal sensor intelligently regulates the temperature to prevent temperature spikes that will wake you up in the night. The air conditioner filter grille has also been upgraded into a steel mesh that makes it easier to clean while they’ve integrated what they call a Nano Titanium Wasabi Air Purifying filter keeps the air pong free and fresh. The 1HP RAS-VX10CF model retails for RM1,989.

All the new Hitachi appliances are available at all major outlets. To find out more swing by www.hitachi.com.my

Mr. Toshinori Kaneko, Managing Director, Hitachi Sales (Malaysia) Sdn Berhad showcasing Hitachi’s new lineup of appliance to the public