Reviews for induction stove, clothes dryer and dishwasher

Today, I've written about our Bosch induction stove top, Bosch heat pump clothes dryer and Miele dishwasher. Water and energy efficiency is the most important thing to me when I buy a new appliance. I searched through our old water and electricity accounts yesterday and discovered that there has been no increase in our water or electricity consumption since we bought these appliances. For years we've used between 150 and 200 litres of water per day and between 140 and 200 kWh of electricity. Both those figures are under the average usage for a two person household in Australia.

Bosch PIJ611BB1E 60cm induction cooktop

Earlier this year we replaced our gas cooktop with a Bosch PIJ611BB1E, 60cm, induction, three burner cooktop. We paid $999 for ours but I notice they're currently listed on the Bosch Australian site $1699 and on Appliances Online for $1265. It always pays to look around for the best price.  I'm very happy with the stove.  We chose the three burner because we're past the stage of needing more burners to cook meals. So far I haven't regretted that choice.

The first thing I cooked on the new stove was custard and I burnt it so badly that Hanno had to remove the burns with his electric drill with a metal brush attached. Oops.  That taught me that I wasn't cooking with gas any more and I took more notice of what I was doing.  The main feature of the stove, in my opinion, is that it has an extremely wide heating range - from 1, which I use to keep cooked food warm if I can't serve it straight away, to 9 which you can really only leave at the temperature for a short amount of time because it's super hot. The heating goes up in half increments so you go 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 etc. Now I generally start off on nine when I'm boiling vegetables, leave it until the water starts to bubble (about two minutes), then I turn the temperature down to about 5 to continue cooking.

Amazingly, there is an even hotter setting than 9 - Power Boost. I can't trust myself to use it wisely 🙄 but one of my sons has a similar Bosch stove and he told me he can heat a saucepan of water to boiling point in 90 seconds.  If you use the timer, it automatically turns off the stove at the assigned time. It also has a child-proof lock that you can use if there are children around and easy touch controls at the front of the stove.

Overall I'm very pleased with my stove. Once you get used to the very high heat settings and how to use them, it's easy to cook meals and keep them warm. There are only two things I can think of that may be a problem - if you spill milk or water on the stove, or if it boils over, it would run everywhere. On the model we have there is no off control on each of the burners. If I have three burners going and want to turn one of them off, I have to keep my finger on the reduce heat control until it's on zero. However, you can turn all the burners off at the same time with the off control.

You need specific types of pots and pans to cook with induction heat. I have used copper-based steel pots (Scanpan and Essteele), as well as enamelled steel and cast iron. This is from the Bosch website.  In general:

• To cook on an induction cooker or hob, you need cookware made from stainless steel with a magnetised base, enamelled steel or cast iron, as well as special cookware. 
• Not suitable for induction hobs is cookware made from aluminium, copper, glass/ceramic, crockery and stainless steel with a non-magnetised base.

You can check your old cookware by testing with a magnet.  If the magnet holds onto the base of the saucepan, it should be suitable for cooking on the stove.

One of the best features is how easy it is to clean. I usually wipe my stove down at night with a damp rag with a drop of washing up liquid. But even when doing a full clean after frying or making pancakes, it takes less than two minutes, maximum.  There are special wipes and liquid you can buy to clean induction stoves but I don't think they're necessary.  Keep it simple.

Bosch WTW87564AU 9kg Serie 8 Heat Pump Dryer

It was a big step for us to buy this appliance. We'd lived with a dryer that we didn't use for many years, then got rid of it - the dryer I bought to dry nappies, then stood idle for 20 years. I prefer sun dried clothes and the sun is free. However, when we aged a bit we both had balance problems - looking up or up and down caused problems, so we decided to look around for a dryer.  

I was really surprised to find there was new technology used in dryers.  Heat pump dryers are designed to work without conventional heating and the existing heat is reused constantly, reducing energy usage.

The dryer is quiet and quick. I put ours on a mixed load setting with complete drying and a full 9kg load takes less than 90 minutes to dry.  It has a sensor that measures the level of moisture in the clothes and turns the dryer off when that level of dryness is reached.  If you like ironing damp shirts, for example, you can set the dryer to stop at that level of dryness. I like that the level of heat is minimal so clothes don't shrink due to over heating.

If we didn't have the health problems we do, we wouldn't have bought this appliance but with it we remain independent and don't have to keep asking our family to help us.

Miele Under Bench Dishwasher G6100SCU 

We bought our dishwasher in 2015 after voluntarily living without a dishwasher for a few years. Over the years the technology had improved a lot and when I researched our buy, I was pleased to find both excellent water and electricity efficiency. With hand washing, our water bill had been rising steadily and when we bought the dishwasher it slowly went down.

The dishwasher is quiet and easy to pack, has a wonderful cutlery drawer that I also use for jar lids, bottle tops and little bits and pieces. It does a perfectly clean wash EVERY time.

My DIL Sunny was against buying a dishwasher for their new home. She said the dishwashers she'd seen in houses didn't wash properly.  But when they lived here with us for four months before moving into their house, she fell in love with our dishwasher. She loved the cutlery drawer (I do too) and she said it cleaned just as good as a commercial dishwasher (she's a chef). So they took the details of ours and bought a later version of the same machine.  We're both still happy with our purchases.

This dishwasher is three years old now so I looked to see if it's still available. I couldn't find it on any of the large appliance sites. There are still Miele dishwashers with cutlery drawers, so if you're looking for a dishwasher, I do recommend the cutlery drawer, so check out the current models online - for energy and water efficiency, price and reviews, before you buy.

I've just discovered a review of my AEG oven which we replaced February 2016, it's here.

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