New York — Whirlpool’s Maytag subsidiary is pushing to highlight the “commercial-grade elements and technology” found in its residential laundry products as it promotes its Performance series, Bravos, Centennial and Epic Z lines of washers and dryers.
“To offer the highest quality technology to our residential consumers, we incorporate commercial-grade components. The result is Maytag-brand appliances are built to last,” said Ellen Taaffe, VP Maytag mass brands at an event, here, today.
Models in these lines are said to feature a variety of features typically found in commercial-grade laundry products, such as commercial-grade stainless-steel wash baskets, five-rib dryer belts for longer life and quieter operation, and solid-steel base frames and hung suspension systems intended to reduce vibration.
Maytag’s Performance series washers offer a wash-basket capacity of 4.4 cubic feet.
The company’s Bravos washer is said to offer its largest wash-basket capacity of 4.7 cubic feet. It is also the company’s first top-load washer to qualify for CEE Tier III certification, said to be the highest energy-efficiency rating granted by the Department of Energy Consortium for Energy Efficiency.
Both sets of washers also feature a variety of features to sense the size of the laundry load and adjust the water temperature and level appropriately to conserve energy.
The Performance and Bravos lines offer steam technology in both washers and dryers. Like the washers, the dryers are connected to the existing laundry-room waterline so consumers can have on-demand steam cycles at the push of a button without the need do fill a reservoir. The company explained the reason behind its sanitizing steam cycle — said is NSF certified to remove 99.9 percent of tested harmful bacteria — is to allow consumers to sanitize items like pillows or teddy bears that they don’t want to put through a wash cycle.
In addition to steam technology, both sets of dryers offer the Maytag’s GentleBreeze drying system to dry clothes in the same amount of time it takes to wash them and IntelliDry, which senses when clothes are dry to reduce the risk of over-drying and shrinking.
The Performance series laundry pairs are available in four colors: crimson, evergreen, oxide and white. The series is Energy Star qualified. Suggested retails for the washers range from $1,099 to $1,599; the range for the dryers is from $1,099 to $1.499.
Suggested retails for the Bravos dryers range between $899 and $1,199; the washers range between $999 and $1,299.
On the entry level, Maytag’s front-load Epic Z and top-load Centennial lines feature many of the same commercial-grade components and sanitizing steam features of Maytag’s other laundry brands.
The Epic Z’s standout feature is its space-saving design which allows it to be installed stacked in tighter spaces. The washer measures just 36 inches high by 27 inches wide and 30.5 inches deep while still providing 3.7 cubic feet of wash basket space.
The line is available in tree colors: black, white and slate. Suggested prices range between $849 and $999 for the washer, and $849 to $1069 for the dryer.
Finally, the Centennial washers range from $429 to $599. Dryers are available in gas and electric models with prices ranging from $429 to $579 for electric models and from $499 to $649 for gas models.