JennAir in Benton Harbor Debuts Connected Appliances, Along with Limited-edition Luxury Models

2013

JennAir, a designer and manufacturer of household appliances in Benton Harbor, Thursday revealed three new limited-edition appliances — the Cuts leather column refrigerator and freezer panels, the Smoke and Brass professional-style range, and the Burlesque Refrigerator. The appliances are part of the company’s new Bound by Nothing creative campaign.

In addition, JennAir introduced a digital platform that allows consumers to control appliances remotely, engage the JennAir call center, request specialists, enhance food journeys, and access personalized insights. The platform works via home WiFi, iOS or Android devices, or voice commands with Amazon Alexa or Google Home.

The digital offerings entail:

Google Home: Amplifying a purposeful smart home ecosystem, owners can call on the Google Assistant across Google Home devices to remotely enable appliances, through voice commands.

Amazon: With voice command capabilities across JennAir kitchen appliances, owners can control cooking, dishwasher, and refrigerator settings via “Ask Alexa.” Beyond voice commands, Amazon enables “smart” shopping experiences, like supply auto-replenish through Amazon Dash Replenishment.

Apple Watch: Integrating appliance connectivity into the Apple Watch platform opens doors for owners to receive real-time, actionable notifications, even while on the go.

Nest: A Nest integration anticipates needs across the kitchen, including sensing via the Nest Learning Thermostat when the house is unoccupied, providing alerts when the dishwasher has completed its cycle, or adjusting temperature to balance increased heat produced by the oven.

“Experience is everything, and that is never truer than in the kitchen,” says Dan Clements, global director of JennAir advanced design. “Today’s luxury consumer curates art for their home, which drove us to push the limits and ask why that couldn’t be true of the kitchen.

“Our design team is comprised of tastemakers who spend time closely examining key urban and global fashion trends to create a palette of the colors and textures our audience craves. Embracing our ethos, we are pioneering the unexpected — from hues to shapes to textures — and living unrestricted in the kitchen.”

The limited-edition JennAir column refrigerators and range include:

Cuts Leather Columns: Leather is sourced from high-end Italian tanneries that work with haute fashion houses. Of the 400 sets to be available, consumers can create a custom look, pairing hand-selected refrigerator hardware with columns to meet a range of tastes and styles. Furthering the bespoke experience, the columns can be installed with a dual-leather look, offering separate columns for refrigerator and freezers. The leather columns will be available in designs in plush, saturated hues including Croc, Cognac, Carbon, and Caviar. The new leather columns will be available in late 2018.

Smoke and Brass Professional-Style Range: The 48-inch professional-style range delivers a hand-applied finish of layers that create depth on a traditionally bright, polished surface. Finished with a machined handle, no two Smoke and Brass professional-style ranges will be the same, offering luxury tastemakers a kitchen asset to truly call their own. With only 50 planned for consumer availability, each range will be stamped to signify its hand-crafted origin. Available in late 2018.

Burlesque Refrigerators: Only 13 are planned for creation globally, with three already reserved. Moving beyond the current suite of JennAir products, the interior offers a burgundy-hued interior inspired by the deep reds often seen in luxury cars and the lush, velvet interior of an antique jewelry box. Each of the units has a MSRP of $30,000, and will be hand-stamped with a unique identifier.

To learn more, visit JennAir.com.