Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM MAY 2022 30 1. NOISE CONCERNS FOR HOME APPLIANCES Home life has changed over the past 50 years with appliances, small and large, providing automated cycles to aid in storage, cleaning, and cooking. Appliances have proven to do these tasks conveniently with more efficiency than people. The convenience of appliances has changed home life by freeing up time for recreation, relaxation and home entertainment. Home designs have also changed to adapt to the change in lifestyles. Locating the appliances close to activity or areas where they are needed is a highlight of home designs. In the kitchen, for example, a common design guidance is known as the "kitchen triangle." The triangle describes the orientation of the refrigerator, cooktop/oven and sink/dishwasher in the kitchen space so there is a flow to the movement between them while cooking and cleaning up. Clothes washers, long relegated to the basement in older homes, have found their way into the main living areas. Many homes have even added a room entitled the "Mud Room" on the main floor near an entrance that contains the washer and dryer. Some have chosen to place a laundry room/suite near the bedrooms in the home to increase the convenience of their use. The price of that convenience is the increase in background sound levels in typically quiet areas of the home. Appliances with their motors, pumps, and fans emit sound that raises background sound levels in the home. Figure 1 shows many of the typical sound levels emitted within a home. 2. ADVERTISING SOUND RATINGS FOR APPLIANCES Consider that the sound emitted by a clothes washer in the spin cycle is approximately the same level as a car passing a person standing on the side of the road or traffic noise 1 . Clothes washers emit sounds of water splashing or spraying along with the water extraction by spinning the clothes at a high speed that adds to the background din that is now an all-too-common part of our lives. This level of sound can be very disruptive in the home, especially if the appliance is located in the main living space or near the bedrooms. It was not that long ago that dishwashers were similarly considered loud and disrup- tive. As touted in appliance advertisements of the time, homeowners couldn't talk on their phone while the dishwasher was running. Manufacturer research identified that the sound level of dishwashers was beginning to influence consumer purchasing decisions. Therefore, marketing began to create impressive names for sound packages to improve the likelihood of purchase. Dishwashers were sold with names A P P L I A N C E T R E N D S THE IMPORTANCE OF QUIET APPLIANCES FIGURE 1 — Noise levels of common household sounds

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