Jonathan Takiff: 'WHITE GOODS' GO HIGH-TECH

THE GIZMO: Kitchen and laundry appliances are called "white goods" by retailers. Firstly, because the items always come (and once upon a time were available only) in white. Second, because these refrigerators and stoves, washers and dryers traditionally were as boring and indistinguishable as containers of milk.

But in recent years, goaded largely by upstart, now market-leading South Korean makers LG and Samsung, white goods have been introducing nifty, high-tech features. For 2012, top-of-the-line models will be almost as colorful to behold and enjoy as the animated toys and cars in a Pixar movie, the better to turn on today's perpetually plugged-in consumer.

MAYTAG LEADS A CHARGE: While maybe not the sexiest, Maytag's AquaLift technology for automated oven cleaning is among the most practical of new features. And it was dreamed up in the USA.

Materializing Feb. 1 at a big-box store near you, this "first in 50 years" improvement combines a newfangled nonstick oven liner with a novel water mist and a surprisingly low 200-degree heat cycle.

When all's said and done (in just a couple of hours), you still have to wipe out the oven. But no caustic chemicals are involved. And none of that burning smell, nor the permanent scarring of the oven door's glass window that occurs with conventional 800-degree self-cleaning.

That's why Maytag is blowing up the cooking window in new models to practically the full size of the door. Gas and electric ranges with AquaLift start at $799; about $1,800 will buy one with the magical Induction Power Center cooktop that heats (rapidly) only where a metal pot is placed.

The new ovens are "designed, engineered and assembled with pride in Tulsa, Okla." The same tech will show up in other Whirlpool Corp. ovens from KitchenAid, Whirlpool and Jenn-Air.

MAKING CONNECTIONS: Initially viewed with suspicion by U.S. retailers, South Korean appliance companies started making inroads by producing refrigerators, microwave ovens and dishwashers to order for better-known (in some cases "premium") brands.

During the learning process, the interlopers laser-focused on what the U.S. market desired - larger-capacity appliances with simple controls and spiffy LCD screens. Now LG and Samsung are eating their former U.S. partners' lunch, leading the industry in large-size laundry and multi-door refrigerator/freezer sales, respectively.