Today Whirlpool announced today they are adding an air fry feature to a number of their connected appliances via an over-the-air software upgrade.
The new feature, delivered as an upgrade to five of their most up-to-date built-in appliances, will be added to the following products:
- Whirlpool Smart Slide-in Gas Range with EZ-2-Lift Hinged Cast-Iron Grates (Models WEG750H0H and WEGA25H0H)
- Whirlpool Smart Slide-in Electric Range with Scan-to-Cook Technology (Models WEE750H0H and WEEA25H0H)
- Whirlpool Smart Single Wall Oven with True Convection Cooking (Models WOS72EC7H and WOS72EC0H)
- Whirlpool Smart Double Wall Oven with True Convection Cooking (Models WOD77EC7H and WOD77EC0H)
- Whirlpool Smart Combination Wall Oven with Touchscreen (Models WOC75EC0H and WOC75EC7H)
Whirlpool isn’t the only appliance brand delivering air fry over the air. GE Appliances started sending the software upgrade out in April of 2021 to 200 thousand or so connected oven customers.
What’s the reason for the air fry upgrade air assault? For one, it’s an easy upgrade from a hardware perspective for a connected convection oven, since air frying is really just using convection baking. Because of this, no additional hardware is needed (unless, of course, you want to buy an ‘air fry basket’), making the upgrade mostly a software upgrade that adds air fry-specific cooking logic and new user commands to the UI.
For Whirlpool, which isn’t officially exhibiting at CES this year, the news represents a fairly low-key set of new feature upgrades for the third year in a row. The company, which announced a big lineup of new products three years ago at CES 2019, hasn’t had a major overhaul of its smart appliance lineup since that time.
Maybe later this year or at CES 2023 Whirlpool will add some bigger upgrades. May I suggest a combi oven?
