The Steam Team
From the kitchen to the laundry room, appliance manufacturers find it hard to resist steam's potential
Precooking food in the steam oven, then finishing up by grilling outside yields big flavor. "It will change the way you cook ... period," says Dave Stimmel, designer and frequent contributor to HGTV's "Kitchen Trends." Image courtesy Miele
Fed up with limp, overcooked vegetables, dried-out leftovers and foods that owe their great taste to buckets of butter and grease? Tired of high dry-cleaning bills and still needing to iron for hours to get all those wrinkles out of that cotton shirt?
Don't get steamed about it ... Well, actually, today's appliance manufacturers might prefer it if you did get steamed.
From Italian kitchen expert Indesit Co.'s Ariston brand to all-American Sears, Roebuck and Co.'s Kenmore line, steam appears to be today's hot new feature in ovens, dishwashers, washers and dryers.
Like a teakettle kept on boil, the steam appliance trend keeps getting louder. Late last year, South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. introduced the LG SteamWasher, while high-end German appliance house Miele Inc. birthed its third-generation steam oven, the DG2661. Earlier this year at the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in Las Vegas, Indesit unveiled its new Ariston 24-inch, built-in steam oven, LG added the LG SteamDryer to its laundry room offerings and Sears showcased its new "Steam Team" Kenmore Elite washer and dryer.
The reason for the rash of steam appliances is as old as the concept of steam power itself: "Today's consumers are continuing to demand more functionality and performance from their home-appliance products - they seek products that are easier and more convenient," says Tim Kavanaugh, director of merchandising at LG Electronics Digital Appliances Division.
And both the ovens and washers/dryers provide just that - a certain amount of ease and convenience, plus they hit some hot-button issues that seem to be guiding more and more consumer buying these days: health and the environment.
"Steam ovens appeal to a few particular groups of people who are shopping for appliances. One group is people who are just excited about new technologies - people who, because it's new, want to include it in their kitchens," says Susan Serra, certified kitchen designer at Susan Serra Associates Inc., Northport, N.Y., and industry blogger.
"Another group is interested in health benefits," she says. "The healthy cook or the healthy eater will be interested in steam heating because it will reduce fat, especially the fat in meats and poultry, and that is a huge issue now."
In general, steam ovens function by heating water to temperatures great enough to generate steam. A mechanism then injects that steam into the actual oven, surrounding the food on all sides. The process results in an "immediate and intense exchange of heat" says Gail Drury, certified kitchen and bathroom designer with Drury Design Kitchen & Bath Studio, Glen Ellyn, Ill., sealing in the vitamins, flavors and colors, so you're left with moist, savory chicken, broccoli or whatever you choose. That translates into reduced reliance on calorie- and fat-laden butter and oils to provide taste and tenderness.
In addition, steam results in all sorts of peripheral benefits. Leftovers come out tasting freshly made because they aren't dried out when reheated, as they are in a microwave oven. The nature of the steaming process ensures no flavor transfer, so theoretically you can cook beef brisket, cabbage and molten chocolate cake simultaneously without mingling their tastes. And you can do it fast. Cooking times are cut in half or more, kitchen experts say.
"It will change the way you cook ... period," says Dave Stimmel, owner and chief designer of The Stimmel Consulting Group, Ambler, Pa., and frequent contributor to HGTV's "Kitchen Trends." Besides cutting cooking time in half, Stimmel says, "you'll never grill the same way again. I will throw my ribs in the steamer for a few minutes first, then outside onto the grill to get done. They are so tender and juicy inside."
Besides owning one of his own, Stimmel incorporated a counter steam oven from Germany's Gaggenau in his 2005 and 2006 Kitchen and Bath Business magazine "Kitchen of the Year" award winners (and the Gaggenau built-in steam oven in his 2004 award winning design). The Gaggenau units feature a built-in drain that allows you to do things like push a button and drain the water for boiling pasta.
"No more big boiling pots of water to carry," Stimmel says. "Plus the speed at which it brings water to boil is just impressive."
For washers and dryers, it's not so much the speed that sells but cleaner clothes and greater environmental friendliness. Steam washers and dryers are perfect for consumers looking to "greenify their lifestyles," says LG's Kavanaugh.
The LG SteamWasher uses one less gallon of water per wash cycle when compared to the traditional front-loading machine. The Kenmore Elite HE5t exceeds Energy Star standards by 49 percent in water use and 38 percent in energy. Plus, Sears claims the steam feature kills bacteria and eliminates odors.
From a cleaning perspective, manufacturers say that steam penetrates fabric to remove dirt and stubborn stains and better dissolve cleaning agents. LG's SteamFresh cycle for dry clothes uses steam to reduce wrinkles and refresh clothing without the use of water or detergent, cutting down on dry cleaning and making ironing much easier.
Residential steam washers and dryers are largely first generation; consumers will ultimately decide whether they warrant the $1,300-$2,000 price tag. And as far as ovens go, steam is not a magic potion that will suddenly make you a chef, make you healthy or eliminate kitchen work. Models, capabilities and specs vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.
Certain models are steam-only, while others combine steam with an electrical heating element or convection. Some models need to be plumbed, while others have water containers that need to be filled prior to every use. Some are countertop, some built in.
Despite broadening versatility, some steam ovens still limit the types of products you cook in them. A steam oven without some other type of heating element isn't going to give you the crisp, brown crust you're looking for in bread or good chocolate chip cookies.
Although Drury sees them as becoming more of a standard appliance - "Steam ovens are now where warming drawers were about five years ago" - currently she views them as a way to incorporate a second oven without the space of a large conventional double oven.
And as an auxiliary oven for specific tasks, they aren't exactly cheap. Prices are beginning to moderate, but can range from about $1,000 for the countertop Sharp Superheated Steam Oven with combination electric heat, from Japan-based Sharp Corp., to around $4,000 for the Gaggenau ED 220/221 built-in Combi-Steam steam and convection oven.
For many, particularly healthy eaters, the cost is well worth it. And if diet trends hold, kitchen designers see more steam ovens in the future.
"You see it across every single age group," says Serra. "Young people are surprisingly interested in healthy eating. Even if they are not buying kitchens yet, they are becoming more knowledgeable about nutrition, more interested in healthier foods, more demanding ... baby boomers also now understand that they've got to eat better and [healthier]."
The bottom line, says Serra, is that the steam oven market "is absolutely going to grow."
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