New research has revealed a year in the life of the nation’s household appliances – and the humble KETTLE emerged as the hardest working, with tea loving Brits boiling it over one thousand times a year.
In an average year, we will also put on 364 loads of washing, cook 468 meals in the oven, bust out the vacuum cleaner 416 times, and load the dishwasher 468 times. The microwave will heat up 624 meals and leftovers for us a year, according to the study.
Yet despite how hard our appliances work for us, 24 percent admit they don’t appreciate them, while 71 percent confess they regularly get annoyed with their white goods and 42 percent have lashed out and screamed at them, according to the report by AO.
According to the poll, 65 percent of Brits have changed the way they use their white goods, as a result of the cost-of-living crisis, with over half (56 percent) admitting they are consciously trying to not use them as much. 47 percent now switch off appliances at the plug when they are not in use, with a third (34 percent) filling the washing machine to the brim with bigger loads.
Even though a third (30 percent) say they are using their appliances more now than three years ago, 62 percent of the 2,000 Britons polled don’t know how to use all the functions, with a further 95 percent confessing that they use the same setting every time.
This could be down to the fact that one in ten (13 percent) have never read the user manuals for their household appliances, with a further tenth (10 percent) admitting that they have thrown all of them in the bin.
A decision that 49 percent have come to regret when faced with appliance issues, with a WHOPPING 92 percent agreeing that the only time that people read manuals is when an appliance breaks down.
Gwil Snook, appliance expert at AO:
“The research shows that appliances play an important role in our lives, yet we don’t appreciate them or know how to get the most out of them. Appreciating appliances comes down to more than just celebrating the work they do for us. Maintaining them and giving them a regular clean all contribute to making them more efficient at the jobs they do around our homes.”
Two thirds (67 percent) think that you can tell a lot about a person’s style by their household goods, with 39 percent even going so far as to secretly judge someone based on their appliances.
This research of 2,000 Britons was commissioned by AO and conducted by Perspectus Global during April 2024.
