Get It or Gimmick?
At Show, a Quest for The Ultimate Gadget

By Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 23, 2008

ORLANDO

Faster. Better. Easier.

It's a mantra of the American consumer.

With that in mind, many builders at the International Builders' Show in Orlando last week wandered the jammed convention center in search of products that pamper people or simplify life, hoping to get a competitive edge in one of the worst housing markets in years.

The 1,900 exhibitors presented plenty of options, many of them far beyond basic.

Feet cold in the morning? Heat the shower floor.

Need a meal cooked 15 times as quickly as in a conventional oven? Not sure how long to bake that lake trout or roast that standing rib?

Try a retro-looking, speed-cooking oven that comes with time-and-temperature programs for 500 dishes.

Gardening out back when someone knocks at the front door?

No problem. Stay put. Pull out your handheld wireless intercom control, find out who's there and unlock the front door with the push of the button.

"I think people are always intrigued by the technology," said Stephen Treffinger, contributing editor for technology and design at the trendy Domino magazine.

"Many people are renovating," he said. "New construction is down. These kinds of things make people feel like they're doing something super-special. It's almost as good as building a new room."

Stephen Drucker, editor of House Beautiful, said down times can suppress desire only so long.

"It's not unusual for Americans to take a sudden break from buying when the economy first does a somersault," he said. "But as a culture, we're not used to delaying gratification. We want what we want when we want it, and we usually find a way to get it sooner rather than later."

Here is a sampling of products that were on display last week. While they were targeted at builders, they generally can be purchased at local retail outlets, from a distributor or through the maker's Web site.

* * *

At the TurboChef display, big crowds gathered under bright lights to see the single 30-inch orange retro-style oven. (It comes in more than 200 colors.) It didn't hurt that renowned chefs served up treats such as rack of lamb, Maine scallops and chocolate souffle, all cooked in the TurboChef ovens.

A double-decker TurboChef wall oven went on the market in the fall. The single oven will be available in April.

Steve Beshara, chief branding officer, said the demand for the "super-premium product" in luxury homes is still strong.

"We all lead busy lives, and we all like to cook great food and have great wine and live the good life," Beshara said. "One of the challenges of cooking gourmet food at home is the time it takes. The oven gives the home cook the freedom to be the cook she wants to be at home."

The TurboChef, which cooks up to 15 times as fast as conventional ovens, mixes high-speed heated air that circulates at up to 60 miles per hour with precise microwave blasts. Unlike a regular microwave oven, it can brown, sear and caramelize.

It has an iPod-inspired computerized control panel with nearly 500 cooking profiles, including pizza, toast, roast and fish, to set the ideal cooking time.

The TurboChef 30-inch single wall oven sells for $5,995, the double for $7,895. They come in seven standard colors; more than 200 custom colors are available for an additional $795.

* * *

Sometimes being in hot water can be good -- and good for you.

ThermoSpas of Wallingford, Conn., has introduced a 53-inch-deep hot tub designed to let you work out while you soak. Options include a rowing machine attachment and a treadmill.

Billed as "the deepest hot tub in the world," the Aquacisor has 57 jets, five pumps and throttle control valves to adjust the intensity of the massage.

Prices for the Aquacisor begin at $17,000.

* * *

For years, the bathroom was a simple place. The shower was, well, pretty much just a shower.

Clearly, that has changed.

Consider the latest from Kohler: a computerized control panel for the shower called DTV II, short for digital thermostatic valve. Released late last year, the computer controls water temperature and flow, music, mood lights and steam.

"The bathroom has evolved quite a bit over time," said Michael Wandschneider, senior product manager at Kohler. "The shower is, for the most part, part of the daily routine. With a little foresight and planning, you can make your routine anything but routine."

Kohler's DTV II, with water sprays, music, colored lights and steam, costs about $10,000, plus installation.

* * *

They're little things, but hardware maker Amesbury Locca of Sioux Falls, S.D., says they make life easier.

The company is peddling a collection of handy home gadgets: a remote-control door lock, an intercom system with a wireless handheld device and a smoke detector of a different sort. The products were unveiled for U.S. sale at the builders' show but are already on the market in Europe.

One of the products unlocks the front door when you press a button on a miniature gizmo similar to the ones used to unlock car doors. It has a range of 50 yards, which means that on a rainy day, you can pop the front door open from your car and scoot in the house, groceries in tow, without delay.

Afterward, the door automatically locks. But as with ordinary locks, you can still use a key or leave the door unlocked by turning the button on the knob.

It's available as a stand-alone device or built into a wireless handheld remote control for a house intercom. With that, you can be upstairs or outside, talk to someone on the front porch and unlock the door. It has a 200-yard range.

Additionally, Amesbury Locca has figured out a way to save people from climbing on a chair or waving a broom to kill the I-can't-stand-it-anymore noise of a smoke detector that has been accidentally triggered by, say, burnt toast.

Simply plug into a wall socket a wireless 3-inch-by-3-inch device with a little mute button that you can use to silence the battery-powered detector. Once the smoke from the toaster clears, the detector automatically resets, according to Amber Grayson, the company's sales and marketing director.

The Amesbury Locca Access remote-control lock sells for about $300. The Connecta, made up of a wireless, handheld intercom device, an intercom box and a remote-control door lock, sells for about $600. The Protecta smoke detector and control system will cost about $90 when it is available in June.

* * *

No question, people love gadgets.

But a gadget for shutters, those simple wooden window coverings that people have used for centuries?

Well, Sunburst Shutters of Las Vegas has introduced a remote control for indoor window shutters.

From anywhere in the house, you can close or open the shutters to adjust light levels via remote control. John Barnes, vice president of marketing, said you can use one channel to simultaneously open or shut the louvers on dozens of shutters, or you can control each window individually. The product went on the market last month.

It costs about $400 to motorize a two-panel shutter. Remote controls cost $37 to $115. The panels cost extra.

* * *

When was the last time you received a call from one of your appliances?

Briggs & Stratton of Milwaukee six months ago introduced a small boxlike device that connects to an outdoor generator and will call your phone, using a prerecorded message, to let you know if there's a problem with the system or if it kicked in because of a power failure.

It's a persistent little thing. It will dial up to three numbers and keep calling every few minutes until it gets a real person, according to David Flowers, a sales manager for home generators at Briggs & Stratton.

As an added feature, when you're away from home, you can call the system and set your home thermostat, even if you're not using the generator.

The Briggs & Stratton Gen Alert Plus box costs $499.

* * *

You may want to tell your friends you don't deliver.

For years, Wood Stone of Bellingham, Wash., has been manufacturing commercial stone-hearth ovens that run on gas or wood. Local customers include 2 Amys pizzeria of the District and Mia's Pizzas of Bethesda.

The company has begun making similar ovens for homes, with some modifications: The home ovens have glass doors and timers.

The ovens can be installed indoors or in the back yard. They cook not only pizza but also flatbreads and more.

Even though these stone ovens aren't brand-new, they grabbed attention at the trade show, where there were plenty of other products vying for the business of luxury-home builders.

Phil Eaton, a regional sales manager, said residential sales continue to rise each year, with the target customer living in a million-dollar-plus home.

"That segment of the population always seems to have money and is willing to spend it," he said.

He said he'd like to get into more Washington area homes, including one notable one.

"We're aiming for the White House," he said.

Wood Stone Home Ovens cost from $14,400 to $17,700.

* * *

Nuheat may not be able to give you courage, but it can keep you from getting cold feet.

The Canadian company, which makes a heating system to warm up stone, tile and wood floors, is now offering a "wet application" that heats tiled shower floors and tiled shower benches.

Suzie Cho, Nuheat's marketing manager, said the product, which consists of insulated wires installed below the surface, is particularly good for spots that hot water may not reach on bigger shower floors and tiled shower benches.

Most buyers already have heated bathroom floors, she said, and want to step onto a warm shower floor. The product has been on the market since November.

The Nuheat Cable System for showers costs $275 for an eight-square-foot floor, plus installation. A thermostat is $175.

* * *

Tired of standing in a chilly basement while you do the laundry or putter at your workbench?

Hunter Fan, maker of ceiling fans and lighting fixtures, last month introduced the Illumi-Heat, a bowl-shaped, metal-trimmed overhead light fixture that doubles as a heater. Both the light and the heater can be separately adjusted by remote control.

The Illumi-Heat sells for $119.