All Your Appliance Questions, Answered: Meet Chuck Hiatt of Appliance Gallery
A few weeks ago, we sat down with Chuck Hiatt of Appliance Gallery to get the scoop on all things appliances—especially how the process works for custom homes. Keep scrolling to read more!
Springhouse: So, tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get where you are now?
Chuck: I was born in Dayton, but I was living in Denver years ago working as a consultant. I then got recruited to start an in-house finance company for a corporation that owned 15 to 20 appliance stores. About three months into the process, they said they were going to go with a third-party finance solution. When this happened, I asked where I stood, and they said I could manage one of the stores. I went through their training process and ended up managing their flagship store in Denver. I eventually came back to Dayton for family reasons, but I still liked the appliance business. So, I looked up John, who owns Appliance Gallery, and we came to an agreement—I've been here for seven years now.
Springhouse: Good to have you here! Do you have a specialty?
Chuck: At Appliance Gallery, we do everything from commodity appliances, all the way up to ultra-luxury. Because we're kind of a boutique with one location, we do a lot of luxury, because there just aren't a lot of sources for that type of material here. I'd say about 65–70% of our business is luxury appliances. However, we still have Whirlpool, Frigidaire and GE when the need arises. We have as much as we can on display for people to look at.
Springhouse: How often do your displays change?
Chuck: We're changing constantly. Last year, we had a huge year, so we redid about almost half of the entire showroom. We rebuilt it, including new cabinetry and new appliances, upgrading to more updated model numbers. We are trying to get more cutting-edge, trendy stuff.
Springhouse: What's trending right now?
Chuck: There are a few big trends that some people are getting away from, especially in new builds. They're getting away from the big 48 to 60-inch ranges and going more towards range tops with wall ovens. With range tops, you can get that 48 to 60-inch wide cooking surface, but your ovens go from being under that to on the wall, for convenience. They don't really feel they need to have that big focal point. Another trend is steam cooking. A few years ago, you never heard of it, and now almost all the luxury brands make convection steam ovens, which are really unique pieces. Those are built into a wall.
Springhouse: How about colored appliances? Are you seeing much of that?
Chuck: We are. In the mid-range brands, like GE, they came out with their new cafe line last year, which offers a limited number of colors with the appropriate trim, like brass or copper. To get real custom color, you move into luxury, like Viking or BlueStar. Miele actually has colors for their wall ovens, but they're all grey glass or black glass or white glass, which is very trendy. Typically, it's going to be an upcharge for custom color.
Springhouse: Is everyone still doing double ovens? Are they useful?
Chuck: Less than in the past. Everyone used to love double ovens, because they had the extra capacity when they needed it at Christmas. But most people find that they only use it once or twice—maybe three times a year. That's why combination units have come into style, like a full-size convection oven. Above that, you can either put in a microwave, a speed microwave or steam oven. With a speed microwave, you can microwave, broil, or bake in it. So, if you're cooking a turkey in your main oven and you need to cook a casserole, you can use that microwave above as your oven. But it also functions primarily as a microwave, so you don't have to have one sitting on your counter somewhere.
Springhouse: We still struggle with placement of our microwaves in the kitchen. Drawers are beautiful, and I love them for very high-end clients—but they're still pretty expensive, aren't they?
Chuck: They're very expensive, actually. The only company that makes microwave drawers is Sharp—every other brand just puts their own face on it. So it doesn't matter which one you buy, it's the exact same drawer, which can range anywhere from $1,200 to $1,600 or more. I advise people to buy a Sharp microwave drawer at the lowest price, because it's going to be the exact same thing. If you don't want a microwave drawer, you can make an opening in your cabinetry under the counter and put a standard countertop microwave there on a riser, then finish it off with a trim kit. It'll still look built in, but it’ll be a push button microwave like you have on your countertop. This would be your lowest priced option, typically around $400–$500. Over-the-range microwaves are going out of style, but they still have their place. They function as lighting and ventilation—but they don't really do effective ventilation since they're so shallow. You don't capture anything from the front burners of your range or your cooktop. So, they're minimally efficient at best. Design wise, they're not very attractive, right? I'd much rather have a hood up there and put a microwave somewhere else, either a drawer or the countertop microwave with the trim kits.
Springhouse: Are refrigerators with side-by-side French doors staying around forever?
Chuck: French-door refrigerator sales make up probably 80% of our freestanding refrigerator sales. They're probably only 15% though for built in—meaning the 84-inch tall, heavy-duty counter models like Sub-Zero and Thermador.
Springhouse: What about appliance controls or knobs? The big controls have been pretty popular for a while, because they’re supposed to feel really heavy duty and commercial. Some people are saying that a lot of them actually don't feel this way. What are your thoughts?
Chuck: Most of the commodity brands have gone to a chrome-coated plastic. When you look at a Whirlpool, GE or Frigidaire model, rarely do they have metal knobs. Over time, they're not going to hold up. You'll end up ordering new knobs or something. Once you get into the mid-range brands like KitchenAid, or Bosch, you'll start seeing metal knobs. They're known to be more durable. The mid-range brands will perform much better. Luxury brands are all going to be metal, which is much heavier duty. As far as getting away from plastic controls, they'll always be there, because that's how those brands can stay at those price points. They take out costs wherever they can, and they'll continue to do that.
Springhouse: Can you replace those knobs?
Chuck: You can, actually. Here in Dayton, Ohio, there's a company called Dayton Appliance Parts. You can order any part for any appliance you can think of. If you have a knob that breaks, you can try to go on the manufacturer’s website, where some of them will allow you to purchase parts directly. If not, you can call Dayton Appliance Parts. You’ll just give them the model and serial number and they'll send you an exact replacement.
Springhouse: Appliance Gallery represents a lot of different brands. Do you have a gallery of all different brands or do you just show models of certain ones? Do you have a favorite brand?
Chuck: I do. In our showroom, though, we have our showroom separated into three different rooms. We have a mid-range room with brands like Bosch, KitchenAid, LG and some GE. This room also has some hoods and cooktops. Then we have the next room, which is a luxury room, with Sub-Zero, Thermador and BlueStar. Next, we have a room with freestanding refrigerators. And then in our front room, we have Viking, Fisher and Paykel, which is a great New Zealand company. And then we have a whole room just for outdoor kitchens. We sell a lot of luxury outdoor kitchen brands, and we've got them set up in about an 800-square foot area. People can browse and dream about how they want to build their outdoor space. Short answer? The only two brands we don’t sell Samsung, because we don't believe the quality is there, and Electrolux, because the quality is lacking. Other than that, we have access to pretty much anything.
Springhouse: What homework should people do, particularly with brands before they come in and see you?
Chuck: Yes. First, make an accurate list of what you really want. Decide if you want a range, or a cooktop and wall ovens. Decide if you want freestanding refrigeration and counter depth or full depth. Once you know that, it's a very simple process to narrow things down and arrive at a brand. When people come in, I ask open-ended questions, like What kind of cooking do you do? Do you do any high-heat cooking or Wok-cooking that generates a lot of airborne solids in your kitchen? This helps me identify what kind of ventilation they're going to require. From there, it's what's in your budget. You really do get what you pay for in appliances. There are packages out there that will meet everybody's budget—from a couple thousand up to $50,000. I need to know where you're going to draw that line so I can identify what's going to meet your needs at the best price.
Springhouse: That budget number could come from a number of different places, right? For our construction clients, we’ll give them an actual budget allowance that's in the contract. If it's a design client, where we're not building it, we will give them a rule of thumb, where traditionally it’s about 2 to 3% of the entire construction budget for appliances. This depends on the client—maybe their kitchen is basically going to sit there because they eat out all the time, making the number go down to 1.8%. For others, they might have two kitchens and a bar downstairs, which will make the number jump to 5%. Does that rule of thumb sound in the right range?
Chuck: Yeah. I always say 3% is a good rule of thumb. Anything above that is the client’s responsibility to make the decision to go above their allowance level. As far as budgeting goes, we make sure that whoever they're working with talks about whatever available incentives there are, because that's going to affect the bottom line. If you have a $15,000 budget, and with the current available incentives and one brand, I can get that down to 12 versus 15. You may have more room to buy that refrigerator for your basement or whatever.
Springhouse: How do you feel about the incentives?
Chuck: Typically, the way they work is at least one to two quarters in advance, the brand is going to give us advanced notification of when incentives are coming down the pike. So we will start talking about those before the actual start date of those appliances. Then, within that period of time, we will be talking about all available incentives for all available brands. If it's a new build, however, when the appliances are delivered, versus when they're ordered, there could be a change in incentive. What we encourage people to do put their deposit down before the incentive ends and then we’ll hold the appliances in our warehouse for the client until they need it. We probably have 50 houses full of appliances sitting here waiting for completion, so that we can deliver.
Springhouse: That's a great perk, and not everyone does that. Is there anything people should be asking you, but don't?
Chuck: If you're going to get a fringe brand, like an import brand you've seen online, make sure there’s an established service network for that brand. Too many times, people buy a really trendy product, and when something goes wrong with it, they can't find anybody to service it. If that happens, you’ll have to pull someone from Indianapolis or Chicago to come down and fix it, which they're not likely to do unless you pay for it, even if it is under warranty.
Springhouse: At Appliance gallery, how does service work?
Chuck: Every brand has their own authorized service in every metropolitan area by contract. Short answer: we don't do service here, because if we did, we would have to handle too many contracts.
Springhouse: Yeah, that makes sense.
Chuck: I do have one more thing that I wanted to bring up, and that’s ventilation. Too little thought goes into ventilation. If you're going to have a big range, like a 36, 48, or 60-inch range, it's always better if it's on an outside wall so it can vent straight out or straight up. If you have bedrooms above and you're on an inside wall, it can be a problem trying to get effective ventilation, because you're going to go up and try to run it through the floor joist to the outside wall. Every 90-degree turn you put in, you're going to lose about 18 to 20% of your airflow. So in the design process, if you’re putting in massive appliances, I would always put it on an outside wall. If you're generating that much heat, you need to have really good ventilation. Otherwise, every six months, you're going to be wiping down your cabinets from the grease.
Springhouse: Interesting, and I know there are different speeds of motors. What do you recommend?
Chuck: Typically, if you're going to do anything 36 inches and below, they'll usually come with a 600 CFM blower, which is plenty. Even if it's not on an outside wall, they'll do an internal blower which is inside the hood. It'll blow it all the way out. If you're doing 36 to 48, there are inline blowers that you can put anywhere in the duct runs, so you could run your duct into the attic, mount a blower there, and from that go outside. Or you could do it in your basement. And that'll reduce the noise in your kitchen a little bit. But about 90% of the noise from ventilation is from airflow across the filters, so moving the blower doesn't really reduce noise that much. The most powerful blowers are external blowers that are mounted in housings that go either on your roof or on the side of your house, and they will pull everything through. If you're doing a 48-inch range, you want at minimum of 1000 CFM—and they have internal inline and external in that size. If you're doing a giant 60-inch range, I would probably do an external at a 1200 or 1300 CFM with a big 10 to 12-inch duct. A 600 CFM, you can run through a six-inch round duct. Once you get up to 12 or 13, you're going to want a 12 inch.
Springhouse: At what point do we have to worry about pulling too much conditioned air out of a tight house?
Chuck: That's a great question. Right now in Columbus, it's code that if you have anything over 400 CFM, you need to install what's called a makeup air system, which means every cubic foot of air that you pull out of your hood, you have to bring into your house. It's a fairly simple process. There's a module you can buy to install in your basement next to your furnace. It would be mounted to an outside hole and tied into your cold air return, then it would be wired to your hoods so that when you turn that on, that flap would open and air would come into the house through the cold air return. So it would be heated. You're not going to be drawing straight cold air in your house. If you get up to 1000 or 1200 CFM, and you don't have makeup air, you can create a dangerous situation because it'll pull from your chimney and plumbing. You can get gas pulled into your house. Right now in the Dayton area, it's not code to do makeup, but I always recommend if you're doing 1000, CFM or above, I would do it anyway.
Springhouse: Chuck, where can people find you?
Chuck: We're in Moraine, Ohio, on West Dorothy lane. We've been in the same location for 28 years. You can also visit us at appliancegallerydayton.com.
Springhouse: Thank you for being with us today! We’ve learned a lot.
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Although we covered a lot in this post, you may still have some other questions about all things appliances. Whether you’re involved in the custom home process now, or even just considering it, join our free Facebook group—we’ll help you answer any questions you might have! Also, feel free to invite anyone that you think would benefit from this collaborative. You’ll not only get advice from me, but from other people who have been through this, too.
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