Chinese kitchens are getting cleaner: A FOTILE romance brought by the “descent of technology”

However, happiness in the kitchen is uneven. There is always a family member who silently bears the responsibility of cleaning.

Today, kitchen appliances are emerging in an endless stream, making the kitchen environment a qualitative leap forward, and cooking and dining are both pleasant experiences. However, with all the 18 Chinese cooking techniques such as frying, stir-frying, and boiling, washing pots and dishes has naturally become a time-consuming and labor-intensive task. If the problem of washing dishes is not solved, the happiness in the kitchen will be discounted.

I once saw an advertisement for Fotile dishwasher, which left a particularly deep impression on me. It said, "To pick up the dreams in your heart, you must first put down the bowl in your hands."

In response to the "happiness paradox" in the kitchen, FOTILE brought a "high-energy answer" at this year's AWE conference - a new generation of dishwashing technology, High Energy Bubble Wash 3.0, and the new 5 series of under-sink dishwashers.

We will find that this is a high-energy exploration completed independently by China's scientific and technological forces in the field of kitchen appliances.

From under-sink dishwashers to high-energy bubble washing, and then to this upgrade, Fotile has traveled for ten years and finally ushered in a unique new peak in the industry. It has completely subverted the traditional Western "pure water washing" technology that has been in use for more than 170 years, embedded the dishwasher category into the lives of the Chinese people, and solved the "happiness paradox" in the kitchen.

Behind the technological pinnacle achieved by FOTILE dishwashers is a process that takes Chinese kitchens as the starting point and family happiness as the end point, seamlessly linking a new category of kitchen appliances into life. Hidden in this is the answer and origin of the ultimate value of kitchen appliance technology.

Why Dishwashers Fail to Adapt to Chinese Kitchens

I am ashamed to say that I am the lazy person who avoids washing dishes at home. After living alone, I immediately arranged for myself to buy a dishwasher. At that time, I was afraid that the product was not good enough and could not really free my hands, so I deliberately chose an imported brand. However, this product, which sounds very good, is not suitable for my Chinese kitchen.

It works, but not that well. I can overcome my own laziness, but I have to think carefully about arranging for my parents:

First, the space is cramped. In old-style decoration, the location of the dishwasher is not planned in advance, which results in the later installed tabletop dishwasher having to occupy precious countertop space, making the already compact kitchen even more cramped. If you cook more dishes, there is a risk of not being able to place them, which greatly affects the cooking experience.

Second, limited cleaning. Chinese cuisine emphasizes the use of hot pot. Stir-frying with high heat is the norm, and sometimes it is stewed for a long time, with hot pot as an occasional treat. To deal with typical Chinese food stains such as hot pot base, overnight rice, and egg custard, the spray water washing of ordinary dishwashers cannot produce a water flow with a large enough pressure. Although the intention is good, the cleaning power is insufficient. From time to time, it has to be manually rewashed for a second time, which is time-consuming and laborious.

The third is the difference in habits. Traditional dishwashers cannot fully fit the Chinese lifestyle. After using them for a long time, you will find some places where you need to adapt to the machine. For example, most Chinese people have the awareness of saving electricity and water, and think that the water flow cleaning method wastes water. They must wait until there are enough dishes before turning on the dishwasher, and the kitchen is still a mess at ordinary times; for example, many southern families will put something on the dishwasher to leave a gap. It turns out that Chinese families are used to using dishwashers as cupboards, but the drying effect of most dishwashers is not good enough, and there will be moisture smell, so they have developed the habit of opening gaps for ventilation.

The reason is that traditional dishwashers are not compatible with Chinese kitchen needs.

From its birth in 1850 to its gradual maturity, dishwashers have always been dominated by Europe and the United States, serving the living habits of overseas families, such as shallow plate tableware, light cooking, etc. The core cleaning technology of "pure water spray" is still used today, but it is not suitable for Chinese kitchens with "heavy oil pollution and compact space".

To solve the dishwashing problem and improve the happiness of Chinese kitchens, new technologies are needed as well as in-depth understanding of life and tailor-made solutions. FOTILE is brewing changes amid such bottlenecks and demands.

Products have solutions: Fotile’s differentiated approach to solving problems

There are no overseas companies or typical products to learn from when it comes to dishwashers suitable for Chinese kitchens. This means that Chinese kitchen appliance companies must return to the origin of Chinese kitchens, delve into the details of Chinese dining life, and imagine and create from 0 to 1.

In 2011, Fotile formed its own R&D team and decided to invest in dishwasher R&D, a field that many Chinese companies had failed in before. Fotile's R&D team visited more than 1,000 households in 25 cities and held 274 project seminars. Finally, in March 2015, they invented the world's first under-sink dishwasher.

This product innovation has broken the Chinese people's inherent impression of dishwashers.

The sink dishwasher has a high degree of integration, and it combines multiple functions such as sink, dishwashing, and washing fruits and vegetables. It is particularly suitable for the small kitchen layout of Chinese families. Unlike large dishwashers in Europe and the United States and popular tabletop dishwashers in Japan and South Korea, the sink dishwasher is easy to install, and the old-fashioned Chinese kitchen can also be easily upgraded; it is easy to take and put, avoiding bending over, which greatly facilitates the elderly, pregnant women and other groups in multi-generational families...

Behind the successful category innovation are a lot of user research and technological breakthroughs. For example, to avoid cross contamination between dish stains and agricultural residues on fruits and vegetables, the shared pipe design of traditional dishwashers cannot be used. For this reason, FOTILE created an "open dual-pump, pipe-free structure" cleaning system, which became the technical basis for sink dishwashers to achieve fruit and vegetable cleaning.

FOTILE's under-sink dishwashers have completely ignited the previously tepid market. In 2016 alone, the dishwasher market grew by 103% year-on-year, with more than 10 new brands entering the market. Since then, domestic dishwashers have achieved nearly 10-fold growth in just five years, a grand occasion that FOTILE itself probably did not expect.

As the original inventor of under-sink dishwashers, FOTILE has evolved and iterated its products to this day, and has also provided a more extreme product solution in the new generation of under-sink dishwashers E5/Z5:

In response to the integration needs of Chinese kitchens, we launched a cross-border three-in-one design, which integrates a dishwasher, a fruit, vegetable and seafood washing machine, and a sink, achieving a more extreme use of space; we added a detachable storage basket, allowing the tableware to live in the LOFT, making daily taking and putting away easier.

In response to the pain points of Chinese kitchens, such as the variety of kitchen waste and the difficulty in handling it, the exclusive patented waste water drainage system, combined with the open system, can effectively isolate larger waste and automatically discharge small waste, reducing the tediousness of subsequent maintenance and making it more worry-free.

In response to the habit of using dishwashers as cupboards in Chinese kitchens, the humidity cruise and 3D circulation drying system provide efficient drying and long-term dehumidification, and perform quite well in cleaning and sterilization, reducing secondary pollution and odor caused by bacterial growth in humid environments. The tableware can be stored for up to 7 days, which not only brings an ultimate dry experience to ordinary users, but also meets the usage needs in the humid southern regions, making the product truly suitable for Chinese people.

In general, FOTILE's in-depth insight and exploration into Chinese lifestyle has finally allowed dishwashers to find the right way to enter Chinese kitchens.

Powerful technology: Integrate cutting-edge technology into everyday life

In the fiercely competitive dishwasher market, Fotile's other killer weapon that has kept it in the leading position is its underlying technological innovation, which continues to bring more cutting-edge problem-solving ideas and builds a competitive barrier.

In 2018, FOTILE applied the high-energy bubble washing 1.0 technology to the K3 series of sink dishwashers. Ultra-fine bubbles collide with the surface of fruits and vegetables, and generate energy when they burst to remove agricultural residues. This breakthrough completely overturned the traditional Western "pure water washing" technology that has been in use for more than 170 years, and has now been upgraded to version 3.0.

To sum up the innovative ideas of FOTILE's high-energy bubble washing technology, it can be summed up in four words: technology "coming down to earth".

FOTILE has creatively applied the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs in aerospace, deep-sea exploration and other fields to the new scene of the kitchen, integrating hard-core technology into the daily life. The breakthrough and improvement of the bottom cleaning technology has become a milestone node of high-energy bubble washing.