Whirlpool Connected Appliances - What's New for 2020

Whirlpool is over a century old and a giant in the appliance market today. Despite its age, this appliance manufacturer is constantly coming up with new innovations in consumer appliances. In 2018 it began offering Sunset Bronze appliances on the market (now discontinued in late 2019), and they entered the smart appliance market that year as well. Learn more about the new features of Whirlpool connected appliances for 2020 below!

In 2017, Whirlpool added Wi-Fiand Amazon Alexa voice integration to 20 models. In 2018, Whirlpool connected appliances had even more to offer with Google Home integration. In 2019, they released an Apple smart watch app that allows you to do things like check on and change washing machine or dryer cycles and oven temperatures. One benefit of these multiple integration options is that you can stick with the virtual assistant and voice control systems you already prefer rather than being forced to switch over to a new one in order to use your smart appliances. 

Now, what are they up to in 2020? We'll explore what's to come and cover what Whirlpool released in 2018-2019 as well.

Table of Contents

• Whirlpool's Smart Innovations, 2018-2020
• Concept: "Connected Hub" Wall Oven
• Smart Ranges & Wall Ovens
• Smart Refrigeration
• Smart Laundry
• Smart Dishwashers
• The Whirlpool App

What's Whirlpool Been Up To?

Here's the timeline...

• 2018: Whirlpool connected appliances integrated with popular recipe app Yummly (iOS and Android).

  • Scan to Cook: Whirlpool smart ranges and microwaves could scan UPC codes from frozen meals and automatically set the needed cook time and temperature/power level.

  • Smart ranges, wall ovens, and microwaves also have touch controls that "learn" your most common selections and presets.

• 2019: Yummly and virtual assistant integration expanded.

  • They made it easier to ask virtual assistants to do things for you. Instead of saying "Hey Google, ask Whirlpool to preheat the oven," you could say "Hey Google, preheat the oven."

  • Select recipes now offer step-by-step video walkthroughs and voice control options.

  • Yummly began offering Ingredient Recognition: using your phone's camera, the app can help you quickly find a recipe for the ingredients you have on hand, or build a shopping list.

  • Whirlpool announced plans for a connected hub wall oven with a huge touch screen at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show.

  • They expanded virtual assistant support to include Amazon Alexa as well as Google Assistant.

  • They offered their first smart front load washer and dryer and a smart all-in-one washer dryer combo.

• 2020: Whirlpool's plans include...

  • Meal planning with Yummly.

  • A new KitchenAid smart oven released in late 2019 with interchangeable powered attachments for grilling, steaming, and baking inspired by the iconic KitchenAid stand mixer.

  • Whirlpool seems to have discontinued their smart refrigerator models. We'll keep an eye out for redesigned options.

  • ...We'll keep you updated as we learn more!

Whirlpool Connected Hub Wall Oven Concept

Whirlpool is joining the unofficial competition for "largest touch screen on an appliance" with their Connected Hub Wall Oven, which is still just a concept (not released or for sale yet) at the time of this writing and was initially shown off in January 2019 at the Consumer Electronics Show. This is an expansion on their smart wall oven offering: this hub features a 27-inch touchscreen on the oven door. It uses augmented reality to show you how to cook after it's scanned the interior - for example, where to place the built-in temperature probe in a roast chicken - and helps guide you through different recipes. You can even "zoom in" on your food while it's cooking inside without opening the oven door and wasting the heat.

On top of being a cookbook and cooking assistant, this wall oven will hopefully also help you coordinate multiple recipes, suggest meals based on time available for dinner, and show family members' calendars. Now that the GE Kitchen Hub is on the market, it looks like Whirlpool is looking for a touchscreen smart appliance of its own.

As of this writing, there's no news on when this wall oven will be in production or what it will be priced at. Fingers crossed!

Below is a short concept video from the WLabs Facebook page (WLabs is Whirlpool's "innovation incubator" that is developing and testing the wall oven hub concept and plenty of other things).

Whirlpool Smart Cooking Features

Whirlpool's new lines of smart ranges and wall ovens are integrated with the Yummly recipe app in ways designed to make it easier for you to use the recipes you find online. These appliances can automatically preheat and adjust for temperature changes that a Yummly recipe calls for and even walk you through the recipe using a color touchscreen. 

The Yummly app offers a lot of cool features like personalized recipe recommendations, and now it can send the cooking instructions right to your range! This integration makes following recipes so much easier. 

These smart cooking models are compatible with:

• Google Assistant

• Amazon Alexa

• Nest

You can tell your oven what to do without getting up from your chair! Plus Whirlpool's smartphone app allows you to preheat the oven or adjust its temperature with your smartphone. A proximity sensor built into the touchscreen adjusts the size of the screen's text based on how far away from it you are so you won't have to squint to see the next step in a recipe!

For more details, you might want to check out the Whirlpool WOS51EC0HS smart single wall oven as an example of what you can expect from Whirlpool's smart appliances. Whirlpool also owns KitchenAid, and has been doing some interesting things with the KitchenAid brand as well. The new KitchenAid Smart Oven+ wall oven offers powered attachments for grilling and steaming, and a baking stone. Check out the KitchenAid KOSE900HSS in person if you can!

CLICK HERE TO EXPLORE WHIRLPOOL SMART RANGES & WALL OVENS!

CLICK HERE TO EXPLORE WHIRLPOOL SMART MICROWAVES!

Whirlpool Smart Refrigerator Features

Whirlpool's initial smart refrigerator concept for 2019 incorporated a small touchscreen above the water dispenser that could do things like reorder items through Amazon Dash integration, set timers for marinating meat, and other features. However, these models have disappeared off of the market as Whirlpool focuses on smart laundry, cooking, and dishwasher appliances. It will be interesting to see if they begin offering a new set of smart fridges later in 2020!

Whirlpool Smart Laundry Features

Combination washer dryer units are rare but not unheard of from brands like LG and Kenmore. Starting at $1,700 MSRP, the Smart All-In-One Whirlpool WFC8090GX (now discontinued) is a compact front-load washer and ventless electric dryer with smart appliance integration with the Apple Watch, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa, and you can control it from your smartphone as well. You can check the status of a wash or dry cycle, start or pause a cycle, and more even if you're not at home. Whirlpool also simplified voice commands to their Smart Laundry line for use with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. The touch controls are integrated into the door.

The Smart Laundry line also includes top load and front load washers and dryers (gas and electric) with touch screens that adapt to your most-used cycles and suggests customized presets based on your routines. Starting at $1,399, these models have a lot to offer. The front load washers all come with a Load and Go XL bulk detergent dispenser and are nicely sized models at 5.0 cubic feet. Most of the smart laundry options are front load models but there is a top load washer, electric dryer, and gas dryer available in the lineup. 

If you want to spread out the task of doing laundry, select models in this lineup allow you to assign laundry tasks to other people in your household - so they can receive an alert to transfer a load to the dryer or to fold a load when the drying cycle is complete.

CLICK HERE TO EXPLORE WHIRLPOOL SMART WASHERS & DRYERS!

Whirlpool Smart Dishwasher Features

Using the Whirlpool app, you can start a cycle remotely, download custom cycles, and more. You can also control your dishwasher with your voice via Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. You can also use Amazon Dash Replenishment to automatically reorder detergent when you're running low!

What's Up With the Whirlpool App?

Many appliance brands have apps for controlling smart appliances and providing a connected home experience. Unfortunately, Whirlpool's app has not performed well on Android or iOS in terms of ratings - although in the past few months their rating on the Apple app store has noticeably improved.

Although Apple does not show the estimated number of downloads like the Google Play Store, the trend we've seen is that less than 2% of people who downloaded the Android version of the app actually left a review. When checking out app reviews, keep in mind the following factors:

• People are more likely to leave a review of a bad experience than a neutral or good experience.

• When and how an app prompts the users to leave a review can also impact the types of reviews captured.

• Thousands of people have experiences with apps that (to them) aren't worth leaving a review.

• There are many potential points of failure in smart home setups, and some problems may be outside of the control of an app's tech support team.

All this is to say, we can't completely dismiss the Whirlpool app based on the reviews alone. The 99% of people who downloaded the app did not have a positive or negative experience significant enough to leave a review. It's possible that some of them installed the app and didn't use it - but it seems reasonable to expect that most people who buy smart appliances want to use the smart features! We hope as Whirlpool connected appliances become more popular, we'll see the reviews balance out, and more evidence that Whirlpool has robust tech support to handle customer problems.

Based on some manual, rudimentary tracking and old drafts of this blog post, below is the recent history of the Whirlpool app...

Conclusion

It can be hard to find details on Whirlpool connected appliances since many of them are relatively new and information is limited! We expect that more information will become available as the manufacturer continues to release new, upgraded models. We're definitely excited to see these new features and options.

What do you think of these new features in Whirlpool connected appliances? Leave us a comment below - We'd love to hear from you!

Editor's Note: This blog was originally written in October of 2018 and has been completely revamped and updated for accuracy as of the publication date noted above.