The Ultimate Home Appliances Buying Guide!

It was quite a headache deciding which home appliances to buy after Raevian and I moved into our new house, since there are so many options available! After much research, we finally decided on the specific brands and models. We bought all our appliances from Harvey Norman Millenia Walk, the flagship store of Harvey Norman. This three-storey superstore has wonderful service and great prices! Below is the list of our home appliances, as well as our reviews of the products.

Brandt Hood AD1189X

We decided to buy the Brandt Hood AD1189X, which is a wall-mounted hood. This is because we do not have any overhead kitchen cabinets, and therefore we could not install an under-cabinet hood, which is cheaper. However, our hood also serves as a design element for the kitchen. Also, wall-mounted hoods are more powerful than under-cabinet hoods.

The main reason why we bought this hood is because the width of the hood is just 50cm, which is perfect for us because we do not require a large hood for our small induction hob. Most of the hoods we saw were significantly bigger than 50cm, so we were really happy to chance upon this Brandt hood! The hood comes with a 90cm glass panel by default, but we decided to remove the panel so that the hood would look even more sleek.

After doing some research, we found out that the hood should be at least 60cm above the induction hob, due to the heat produced by the hob. Therefore, our hood is situated at a height of 65cm above the hob. The hood has three speed levels: “One”, “Two”, and “Boost”. We usually just use the Boost level. There are two halogen light bulb as well which provide a light that is evenly dispersed over the hob. The max airflow is 800m³/h, which is not very strong but definitely sufficient for us since we don’t do much heavy cooking.

So far, our hood has been working perfectly for the past two months. It does tend to get a little noisy, especially when we are using the “Boost” level. However, I believe this is common to all hoods.

Brandt Induction Hob BPI6210B

There are three main types of hob: ceramic, gas and induction.

1. Ceramic Hob
Ceramic hobs look almost identical to induction hobs, but it works very differently. Ceramic hobs work by heating up the cooking zone’s surface, which then transfers the heat to the cooking pan. They are more affordable than induction hobs. However, it takes time to heat up and it is not very energy efficient due to loss of heat between the cookware and hob.

2. Gas Hob
The gas hob is probably what most adults in Singapore grew up with. When you switch on the hob, gas flows out of the burners and is lighted up by a flame, producing fire. The gas can be supplied by gas cylinders or piped gas. It is easier to gauge the heat level for gas hobs since you can see the flame. However, due to the open fire, your kitchen will be much warmer. Since a lot of heat is produced, there needs to be a relatively large clearance for surrounding cabinets and the overhead hood.

3. Induction Hob
Induction hobs work by using electromagnetism to create heat inside the cooking pan, rather than heating up the cooking surface. Therefore, the surface will not be hot at all. This type of hob usually has a very sleek design and is especially ideal for open-concept kitchens. The cookware must be made from a magnetic-based material, which is usually labelled on the cookware.

Brandt Hob BPI6210B
We decided to get the Brandt Hob BPI6210B, which is a small induction hob. Since we don’t do much cooking, this induction hob was perfect for us since it is very sleek with just two cooking zones.

We liked that the hob has a dedicated temperature control for each cooking zone. This saves us the trouble of switching between each zone, but more importantly it lets us know which zone we are controlling.

The hob also has “10 safety points” such as the overheating protection, child lock, residual heat indicators, anti-overflow system, automatic-stop system, pan detection and small object detection. We activated the “child lock” once by pressing on the lock icon (itchy fingers) and it took some googling before we figured out how to unlock the hob. We are not sure if the safety points are really effective, but we have been using the hob for around two months and so far it has been working perfectly.

Brandt Oven BXC6537XS

We really love the sleek look of our Brandt Oven BXC6537XS. This is a small oven with digital temperature controls. We didn’t want to get a bigger oven because we don’t foresee ourselves preparing large amounts of food using the oven. This is a catalytic oven, which means that the oven interior is fitted with catalytic liners. These liners are specially designed to absorb grease during the oven’s self-cleaning programme. You can find out more about the Catalytic and Pyrolytic cleaning systems here.

Bosch Washer WAT24480SG

For our washer, we went with the Bosch Washer WAT24480SG. This is a front-load washing machine with an 8kg load size. This capacity is perfect for the two of us (we wash our clothes every other day). We got a front-loader instead of a top-loader because it’s known to be more thorough in cleaning. It is also more energy-efficient.

Normally, we fill up the washer to about 3/4 full, and the washing cycle takes about one hour. If we are washing dirty clothes, we will use the “pre-wash” cycle which gives a more thorough wash and takes about 1.5 hours. The washer also allows us to adjust the water temperature and spin cycles.

Our Bosch washer has been working perfectly for the past two months. Our clothes always come out very clean. Our favourite feature of the washer is that it is extremely quiet. The downside is that it is more expensive than a top-loader. The washing cycles are significantly longer too.

At first, the faucet connected to our washing machine water pipe was leaking quite badly. Later on, we found out that we needed to use white tap (also known as Teflon Tape or PTFE tape) to wrap around the faucet’s threads before connecting the water pipe.

Bosch Dryer WTH85200GB

All types of dryers work by drawing air from the surroundings and into the machine. The air is then heated and blown through the clothes to dry them. There are five main types of dryers: Vented, Condenser, Heat Pump Condenser, Washer-Dryer, Gas Dryer.

1. Vented Dryer
A Vented Dryer takes the warm damp air produced by the drying process and expel it from the machine through a hose. Therefore, it needs to be installed near an external wall or window. Vented dryers are the cheapest type of dryer. However, it is very noisy and energy-consuming.

2. Condenser Dryer
Instead of expelling the damp air like a vented dryer, a Condenser Dryer absorbs moisture from the damp air and stores the water in a small tank. This type of dryer is more convenient than a vented dryer because it does not need an outlet to expel the moisture. All you have to do is empty the water tank regularly.

3. Heat Pump Condenser Dryer
Like the two other types of dryers, the Heat Pump Condenser Dryer uses hot air to dry your clothes. However, this air then goes into an evaporator which removes the moisture and store it inside a small water tank. The remaining air is then re-heated and sent back to the drum to continue drying your clothes. This cycle repeats continuously. Like the condenser dryer, it does not need an outlet to expel the moisture; you just need to empty the water tank after every few drying cycles.

Due to this recycling of air, heat pump dryers use much less energy than vented or condenser dryers. The air in heat pump dryers operates at a lower temperature, so it is gentler on your clothes and is quieter too. However, this also means that it will take longer to dry your clothes. Due to the advanced technology used, it is also more expensive. After some consideration, we decided to get a heat pump dryer.

4. Washer-Dryer
Washer-Dryers combine the functions of both a washer and dryer (condenser or heat pump) into one machine. It is useful if you have space constraints. However, I wouldn’t recommend this type of machine. This is because the dryer component usually has a reduced capacity so you would need to remove some wet clothes before you can dry it. This means it could take up to 5 hours to complete the entire washing/ drying process. The price tags are usually quite high too.

5. Gas Dryer
A Gas Dryer works by using gas to heat up the air used to dry your clothes. Therefore, it uses much less electricity than the four type of electric dryers above. Like the vented dryer, it also requires an outlet to expel the damp air. The advantages of this dryer are that it dries clothes faster than electric dryers, and the cost of gas is significantly lower than electricity. If I’m not wrong, the only gas dryer available in Singapore is the Rinnai RD-600CG, sold by City Gas. We didn’t consider this dryer because we didn’t like its design. Also, we would need to incorporate a vent to expel the damp air.

Bosch Condenser Dryer WTH85200GB
After some deliberation, we decided to buy the Bosch Dryer WTH85200GB, which is an 8kg heat pump condenser dryer. This capacity is just nice for the both of us (we wash and dry our clothes every other day). We chose a heat pump dryer because we use the dryer quite frequently, and so we wanted the most energy-efficient machine. In this way we would be able to save on our electricity costs.

On a full load, it usually takes about 1.5 hours to dry our clothes. We like the “anti-crease” feature which runs at the end of every drying cycle, which helps to make our clothes significantly less creased. However, ironing is definitely still required for certain types of fabric.

So far, our dryer has been working well for the past two months. It is very quiet and the clothes always come out dry. However, when we wash large items such as bedsheets, we realized that the sheets will still be slightly damp after one drying cycle. This was probably because our super-king bedsheets exceed the dryer’s capacity. After running the bedsheets through another drying cycle, they became completely dry.

Panasonic NR-BX468GWS1 Refrigerator

At first, we were pretty overwhelmed by the large variety of fridges available. Luckily, we came across the Panasonic NR-BX468GWS1. The main reason why we chose this fridge was because of its beautiful and sleek design. It has a simple elegant door and stylish control panel.

The fridge has a Prime Fresh compartment which freezes the food to -3°C instead of the typical -20°C in usual freezers. This means that the food are not frozen until it is too hard, and it is possible to cook the partially-frozen food without defrosting it. For us, we will usually store our raw meat in that compartment if we know that we will be cooking it on the same day. This helps to keep the food fresh without it getting too hard.

The fridge also has a normal freezer section, located at the bottom. We like that it is located below because our frozen food are usually heavier and it would be more inconvenient if the freezer was located on top. There are multiple compartments in the freezer section, which is good because it lets us store the items separately to prevent mixing of odors.

There is a Vegetable Compartment as well which maintains a 90% humidity level so that the moisture of fruits and vegetables are retained, keeping them fresh for a longer period.

The fridge uses the Ag Clean technology, which has anti-bacterial and deodorizing effects. So far it seems to be working because we don’t get any unpleasant odors at all from our fridge.

LG 65UJ632T LED TV

There are three main types of “4K UHD” televisions in the market now: LED, QLED, and OLED.

1. LED
The LED (“Light Emitting Diode”) TV display technology is the oldest among the three types. It is also known as the “LCD” TV display. The technology works by delivering light from LED backlight arrays to an LCD panel in which RGB (Red Green Blue) pixels are integrated. Most 4K UHD TVs sold today use this technology, and it is also the most affordable type of TV. This is a very well-established display technology and the picture quality is quite high.

2. QLED
QLED (“Quantum Dot Light Emitting Diode”) is a TV display technology created by Samsung. It uses the same basic technology behind LED TVs, but also utilizes quantum dots to enhance performance and produce clearer, sharper and more saturated colors. The picture quality is significantly better than LED TVs.

3. OLED
The OLED (“organic light emitting diodes”) TV technology is far superior than both LED and QLED. The OLED panel is made up of millions of tiny “organic light emitting diodes” that light up when an electric current runs through. These OLEDs can be controlled as individual pixels, which mean that when a pixel shuts off, it turns completely dark. Currently, the OLED TV display produces the best picture quality in the market, and consequently it has a very high price tag too.

LG 65UJ632T LED TV
After shopping around, we decided to get the LG 65UJ632T, which is a mid-range 65 inch LED TV. Like many other TVs in the market, this is a SMART TV that allows us to access apps such as Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, etc.

We decided to get this TV because Sony, Samsung, LG and especially Vizio are known for producing quality mid-range LED televisions. The LG model that we chose had a nice design, and the price was quite affordable as well. We were deliberating between the 55-inch and 65-inch size for our 35m² living room, and decided to go with the latter. After the installation, we are glad we went with this size. It feels just right and we are pretty sure the 55-inch would have looked too small in our living room.

We didn’t get the OLED and QLED TVs because nowadays Raevian and I consume most content via streaming (YouTube, Netflix, etc), and these content do not have super high picture quality anyways.

To access the local Singapore digital channels, we bought a nifty digital TV antenna from Qoo10. We bought the TYPE B (DIGITEC DTA 320). It has a magnetic base so it can be conveniently placed on the TV mount behind our screen. So far it has been working great, though there were a few times when we experienced signal loss.

Conclusion

We hope this article will help you in your home appliances buying process. It can be quite overwhelming because there are so many choices, but hopefully with a bit of research you will be able to find the most suitable product for your house. We bought all the appliances above from Harvey Norman Millenia Walk, which has wonderful service and great prices. We were served by David (hood, hob, oven, washer, and dryer) and Judy (television). We were extremely satisfied with their service. We will update this article again after a longer period!

This article is part of our completely free and super informative Singapore Home Renovation Guide. Why spend weeks researching when all your renovation information is simply a click away?