I am truly a gadget freak. Even my washing machine needs to be gadget-like.

When I moved into my new place here, we decided that we should get a new washing machine, because the one here was older than the apartment. So we went shopping. After looking through the usual suspects: Whirlpool, National, etc. we came upon the Siemens brand.

They have all the usual models that look similar to many of the others, but there was one that really stood out. It was the brand new Serie IQ 1630. It had a blue LCD screen as a control, silver/chrome finish and was just pretty stunning. I was sold.

Too bad it didn't come with an Internet connection. Sure, laugh, but I just saw an Espresso machine that connects to the Internet. What for, I'm not sure, but I would like the same for my washing machine. (Maybe some sort of intelligent feedback or upgrading of software. The Siemens website has mention of a PC update but I don't know what that's all about.)

Form

Ok. It looks like a standard washing machine - big white box. But those silver buttons, the blue light, that chrome-like door and of course the amazing LCD display. Wow. Very nice attempt at making an otherwise boring device just a little bit more interesting.

Function

It washes clothes but more than that, it does it "intelligently". You can preset the spin cycle from an extreme "hand-washing" delicate 400rpm to a "get-out dirt" spin rate of 1600rpm. The machine will automatically adjust the amount of time and water for when we stuff it with 2 weeks worth of laundry or just throw in my set of dirty golf clothes for the day. It indicates to you how much detergent to put in, how much more you can stuff the machine, etc. There's pretty much a sensor for everything and the onboard electronics will take care of most everything.

The IQ 1630 gives you a cool countdown timer which indicates when your load will actually be finished. During the entire process, the machine tells you what stage its at -Rinse, Final Spin, etc. When it's all over, the machine will give you a little "beep" sound to let you know it's ready for the next load.

They just made a very normal routine of doing laundry that much more cool. I like it.

Factor

So this is a bit extreme for a gadget. But you know what, it's really neat and very different. Hey, it's a smart washing machine. Ok, so it's not that brilliant, and it's not much of a gadget. But us gadget freaks do laundry too, and if you're going to have a washing machine, this is the ESSENTIAL one to have. Enough said.