Sharp’s new Echo-compatible kitchen appliances do as they’re told

As kitchen timers go you can’t beat an Amazon Echo, but wouldn’t it be nice if Alexa could just take care of the whole shebang? Sharp’s new Smart Works with Alexa range might not be able to fill or stir itself but this quartet of oven (KA-70S50ISW), dishwasher (QW-HD65F444A), fridge/freezer (SJ-F1526ESI-EN), and washing machine (ES-HFT0148AZ) can all be controlled to some degree by your Echo or Alexa-infused speaker. You can set the temperature or choose one of 150 preset cooking options on the oven, pick and activate a mode for the dishwasher, and activate a special Super Cool mode on the fridge using just your voice, but it’s the 10kg washing machine, with its 22 seperate programs, built-in Dash for automatic re-ordering of detergent, and stealthy Nightwash mode that we’ve got out eye on. We don’t know how much they’ll cost yet, but you can’t put a price on a convenience, can you? Maybe that’s why.

Tom Wiggins Contributor

About

Stuff's other Tom has been writing for the magazine and website since 2006, when smartphones were only for massive nerds and you could say “Alexa” out loud without a robot answering. Over the years he’s written about everything from MP3s to NFTs, played FIFA with Trent Alexander-Arnold, and amassed a really quite impressive collection of USB sticks.

Areas of expertise

Gaming (OK, mainly just FIFA), weird Alexa skills, USB sticks