By Chris Nicholls
SYDNEY: Electrolux has displayed a new laundry room concept at DesignEX in Sydney today, trying to integrate washers and dryers into people’s homes in a more open manner.
Citing 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics figures that showed the average woman spent around half an hour a day doing laundry, Electrolux said they wanted to make the laundry a nicer area to use.
“Laundry spaces were traditionally dark, damp, and unwelcoming, often found in a far corner of a house or squeezed into a bathroom or outdoor room,” said Electrolux Australia and New Zealand managing director, John Brown.
In what could be seen as an attempt to encourage Australians to adopt European-style laundry’s, Electrolux said they would “encourage the recognition of the laundry room as an integral part of the home, increasingly being integrated into larger living or entertaining areas.”
“Today we are looking to bring laundry out of its conventional confines and into more active and open household spaces,” said Brown.
“As space becomes limited and Australians are increasingly time-poor, no one wants to be isolated in a small, cold space for domestic chores. Thankfully recent design developments and technological innovations now allow premium laundry appliances to be found in other areas of the home.
“The Laundry Room concept display allows visitors to experience how Electrolux appliances easily integrate into complement any household space,” said Brown.
Electrolux will showcase two products in their DesignEX display – their Iron Aid dryer, which uses steam to deodorise and help reduce the need to iron clothes, and their new $1,999 (RRP) Time Manager washer, which uses an LCD control panel to allow users to control when the machine switches on or off.
The Time Manager is also Electrolux’s most water efficient washer and spins at up to 1400rpm to dry clothes more rapidly. It will be available in September.