The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free. All opinions about the Samsung Kitchen remain my own.
When I was at Mom 2.0 last month, Best Buy had a gorgeous suite set up where we could view all sorts of the latest and greatest products, and you know I was drawn to the Samsung kitchen. I’m a sucker for both technology and food, so it’s a match made in heaven. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with my own kitchen, partly because I see all these amazing features that have been developed since the appliances in my own home were made – and of course, I didn’t get to pick them out because major appliances have always come with my house.
Well, until last week, that is. Last week, the pump motor on our dishwasher gave out, and as best we can tell, the dishwasher is from 2005, so the cost to repair it comes too close to the cost of replacing it with a new dishwasher – at least in my mind. Immediately, my mind raced back to the Samsung kitchen I’d seen at the Best Buy suite and all the awesome details available on the refrigerator, range, microwave, and dishwasher.
Of course, what I really want to replace is the refrigerator because it’s the sexiest appliance in the Samsung kitchen (at least in my mind), but I can’t quite justify jettisoning a functioning appliance. Yet. But mine is getting close to the end of its life cycle, and I’m drooling over the fridge. The Samsung Family Hub refrigerator lets you see exactly what’s in it without my son having to stand in front of it, slack-jawed, trying to decide what to eat with the door hanging open. No, that isn’t a pet peeve of mine. Nor is the food that people insist “isn’t there” which results in it not getting eaten. This fridge has three built-in cameras that take a photo of the contents of your fridge every time the door closes so that it’s always up to date. Really cool? I can access those images on my smartphone via the app so that when I’m out and about I can see if someone at the last of the blackberries or if we’re out of eggs.
Beyond that, you can track expiration dates of foods in the fridge, leading (ideally) to less waste. This smart fridge even allows you to do online grocery shopping and share and compile shopping lists if my husband is the one out running errands instead of me. The touchscreen front display on the fridge isn’t just for managing the food inside, however. The 21.5″ LCD screen is also a hub where you can post calendars, leave notes, share artwork or photos, and more from that same smartphone app. This would be huge for me, as we don’t have a landline and my kids don’t yet have smartphones. On occasion, I leave them home alone for short periods of time (they’re 10 and 12) during the day if I’m running one child to an activity or doing a quick errand. Sometimes, Mister Man gets home from middle school before I finish errands, and I would love to be able to leave them notes as to what time I’ll be home and what they need to do while I’m gone. Drooling? Yeah… just a little bit.
Right now, my fridge is a side by side, which means I have a narrow opening for both refrigerator and freezer. I have long wanted a French door fridge with the fridge on top and beautiful wide doors to open and see everything – and fit larger items for when I’m having a party and often have to get creative – and the freezer below. The only downside to those was the drawer style freezer. I knew things would get lost there, but I was willing to make that sacrifice. The Samsung Family Hub refrigerator got smart, and there are doors on the bottom of the fridge, too. Doors. And shelves. And the doors offer storage, too. No more worries about anything getting lost, and bigger bonus? I can change the temperature of one of the doors depending on my needs (hello, wine fridge for a party!). Anyone want to stop by my house and “accidentally” break my current fridge?
Of course, the Flex Duo with Duo Dual-Door Slide-In Range wouldn’t be amiss in my soon-t0-be Samsung Kitchen either. As much as I cook and bake, I am frequently juggling oven space. When recipes cooperate, I can cook multiple things in my oven at once. But how often do you have items that need the same temperature and aren’t strong smelling? The last thing I want is my roast chicken smell in the lemon squares I’m making. There is a smaller and larger oven, depending on your needs that day, and yes, they cook at different temperatures. I hear the choirs singing already, don’t you? One day….
And with 10 and 12 year olds who are starting to cook and bake (with supervision) on their own, I love that I can monitor whether a stovetop is on from across the room while I’m working on another task. The knobs have way cool blue LED lights that illuminate when they are on, leaving no question as to whether someone forgot to turn off the stove when they finished or forgot to turn it on when they started cooking. (Both have happened, of course – which is why I supervise them closely!) Another way cool fun fact I learned – this is another wifi enabled appliance, so I can monitor my cooktop and control my oven with wifi. No more panicked “Did I turn off the oven?” when I’m out running errands.
Of course, the part of the Samsung Kitchen I’m most excited about right now – because the dishwasher in my house is… me (ok, my 10 and 12 year old) is the Samsung WaterWall Dishwasher. I’m glad I asked questions about the dishwasher while I was visiting the Samsung Kitchen because I’ve been putting that knowledge to use. Unlike other dishwashers, this one has a brand new technology called WaterWall that uses a streaming wall of water (hence the name) that maximizes the water pressure from corner to corner. Have you ever noticed that dishes get cleaner (or not!) depending on where they’re situated in your dishwasher? The revolutionary technology ensures all dishes get the same washing power, no matter where they’re located.
The Zone Booster rocks, too. It allows you to have multiple settings for different zones within your dishwasher so you can wash delicate glassware and pots and pans that require more intense scrubbing in the same load. As unwieldy as the dish organization is in my (currently dead) dishwasher, I fell in love with the flexible setup of the Samsung WaterWall Dishwasher. There is an insert to securely hold your stemware to ensure it stays safely in place, but if you aren’t washing them at the time… simply remove the insert.
This was the first time that I had seen adjustable racks in a dishwasher, and at first, I didn’t quite get it, but this is such a breakthrough. I suddenly realized that the days when we eat on all plates and the bottom rack is full, necessitating a dishwasher run with the top rack nearly empty won’t need to happen anymore. Why not? Because I can adjust the top rack to a lower position, and my plates now fit on the top rack. Discovering solutions to problems I’ve simply accepted as a way of life? Golden. The adjustment was super easy to do, and the tabs you use are sturdy enough that I don’t worry about them breaking, even with the wee ones doing the adjusting.
And the top rack for silverware? Finally, my children will actually have silverware put into the dishwasher in a reasonable manner. Right now (well, until the dishwasher broke), they opened the main door and chucked the silverware close to the silverware holder in the back of the dishwasher. Do you want to know how many times I’ve found forks or knives on the bottom of the dishwasher? Or how often they didn’t get clean because they were all shoved into the same small compartment? The top rack that slides out for silverware to lie flat and actually get clean? I cannot wait. Can. Not. Wait.
Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s Memorial Day weekend, and Best Buy has some awesome appliance sales this weekend. I’m off to go pick up my new Samsung WaterWall Dishwasher and get it delivered. And possibly drool over the Samsung kitchen I’ll own in full one day.
Exactly – it’s such a clever design, and I love that there’s technology, too – and not just for show.