YOU SAY GOODBYE, WE SAY HELLO: Sadly, Maytag recently lost its second, long-suffering Maytag Repair Man, actor Gordon Jump, who did yeoman’s work (just by sitting on his duff) to promote the brand’s image as super-reliable. Maytag’s first repair man-in-waiting, also deceased, was funny man Jesse White.
The happier news is that Maytag is about to introduce a high-tech invention to push the company ahead of the pack of home laundry equipment producers. It’s a unique, two-in-one unit called the Neptune Drying Center.
FIXING WHAT AILS YA: Billed as the first “multipurpose” dryer on the market, the Neptune Drying Center offers a solution to a laundry quandary – namely, that conventional dryers, even those with the most delicate of low-temp cycles, can damage some clothing.
Maytag researchers found that 77 percent of consumers hang-dry one or more items from a wash load to prevent shrinkage or pilling, with the majority hang-drying six items per wash. And 54 percent of the washing public follows label instructions to dry some garments flat.
Lacking a spacious laundry room, we often drape those dripping wet clothes over drying racks and chairs, on shower-curtain rods and the kitchen table. And air-drying garments inside can take a day or more.
THE BETTER IDEA: Maytag’s solution with the Neptune Drying Center is a unique, climate-controlled drying cabinet stacked on top of a traditional tumble dryer.
Now your delicates can be neatly stashed and gently treated inside the cabinet – either hung (with special hangers) or dried flat on five mesh shelves that can be removed to make more hanging space.
Working rather like a convection oven, Maytag’s drying cabinet moves warm, steam-infused air around and through the clothes.
Another cute touch is the “Wrinkle Release Rod” on which clothes are hung. It gently sways back and forth to ape the movement of line-drying clothes fluttering in the wind.
The cabinet also has hooks on the inside door for hats, scarves, tennis shoes and more.
Maytag estimates a drying job in its cabinet will be accomplished in one to four hours, depending on the density of the garments.
A DRY-CLEANING ALTERNATIVE: Better still, the drying cabinet also can be used to “refresh” clothes that aren’t stained, just infused with unpleasant odors – like that favorite jacket you wore to a bar that now stinks of secondhand cigarette smoke.
Ordinarily, you might be inclined to send it to the dry cleaner, but the Maytag drying cabinet offers the option of steam cleaning/de-wrinkling the garment using an optional fragrance drying sheet.
VITAL STATISTICS: The Neptune Drying Center offers 24.3 cubic feet of total drying space, between the 7-cubic-foot tumbler and 17.3-cubic-foot cabinet.
And yes, the two units can be operated simultaneously.
While taking up the same 33.5-inch-wide by 29-inch-deep “footprint” as a conventional dryer, a drying center will need a tad more than 6 feet of upright space to accommodate the stacked units.
The Neptune Drying Center goes on sale in November, with the package (in white or bisque finish) expected to sell for between $1,199 and $1,349.
ANOTHER ROOM HEARD FROM: Maytag also has a cool(ing) new appliance for the family room or dedicated home theater. Dubbed the SkyBox, it’s a refrigerated drink vending machine designed for sports (or movie, or sitcom) fans who can’t bear to tear themselves away from the big-screen TV, even to quench a terrible thirst.
Smaller in height and width than a traditional soft-drink vendor, SkyBox can dispense up to 66 12-ounce cans or 33 12-ounce bottles, or combinations thereof.
>From fortwayne.com