Smell the coffee and clear the air with new household appliances by Miele, Dyson and Somabar
Premium household brands have launched new appliances to make life that much easier
Starting the day without a perfect cup of coffee or tea doesn’t bear thinking about. Happily, the basket of new offerings from premium household brands such as Miele and Dyson includes a machine that eliminates the thought process.
After stumbling from bedroom to kitchen, sleepyheads are greeted by the simple and intuitive interface of Miele’s CM7 coffee maker. The patented CupSensor function automatically adjusts the spout unit to the height of the cup or glass, so there’s no spillage or temperature loss. All you have to do is choose which of the 20 different beverages you feel like – including special coffees and crafted teas – and let your mechanised barista do its work.
A nifty feature is that this coffee maker will brew two cups at once. It also offers a double-shot option: the beverage is brewed for a shorter time but with double the amount of coffee, offering a particularly aromatic blend without any excessive bitter notes. There’s no elaborate maintenance required, either – this appliance takes care of that too, including automatic descaling. The freestanding bean-to-cup gourmet coffee maker looks sharp on the bench with an elegant casing in obsidian black.
Now that you’re awake, some sobering news. Appliance manufacturer Dyson and a research team at the Hong Kong Baptist University have revealed an inconvenient truth about the health of our domestic domain. The air pollution inside your home can be up to five times worse than outside, they say – which is troubling, considering that most people spend around 90 per cent of their time indoors.
According to their findings, 84 per cent of the Hong Kong homes tested had volatile organic compounds exceeding the recommended requirements for indoor air quality. Some households recorded a higher level of fine-particle pollution (PM2.5) than the roadsides of Causeway Bay and Mong Kok.
The culprits can range from toxic fumes released from cleaning solvents, deodorants and scented candles, to gases from cooking, mould, pet hair, pollen and allergens – all invisible to the naked eye, but travelling easily through the air.
The problem, the researchers explain, is that modern buildings are often sealed in order to retain heat and block noise, but this can also trap ultrafine and potentially harmful particles inside. This led Dyson to design its new Pure Cool Link purifier fan, which detects and automatically purifies indoor pollutants, self-adjusting the airflow to maintain the target air quality.
Using a unique, 360-degree glass, high-efficiency particulate air filter, the technology is designed to capture 99.95 per cent of ultrafine allergens, odours and pollutants as small as 0.1µ from the air – keeping them in the filter. Sensors inside the machine detect changes in conditions, projecting cleaner, purified air around the room evenly and quietly.
The appliance, which doubles as a cooling fan in summer, also pairs with the new Dyson Link app, developed for iOS and Android, which allows users to remotely monitor the inside air quality, even if they are out of the house. The app keeps a history, so you can track peak pollution times, such as when cleaning or cooking. Through a partnership with air quality data analytics company BreezoMeter, the app will allow users to keep an eye on the live outdoor air quality in a location of their choice.
Another new product from Dyson helps to remove pollutants in the first place. The brand’s latest-generation cord-free vacuum cleaner, the Dyson V8 Motorhead, operates via a small but powerful digital motor to remove ground-in dirt and pet hair from carpets.
So your house is clean, the indoor air is pure, a day’s work is done - it must be cocktail hour. You could call in at one of the city’s cool speakeasies on the way home, or program via app your own robotic bartender. The Somabar, taking pre-orders via a kickstarter campaign, is designed to mix more than 300 different cocktails, or even create your own recipe. Unveiled at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it could, perhaps, be the ultimate appliance of next summer.
