As consumer expend more time at hom...

As consumer expend more time at home, they are investing in voluptuousness appliances such as whirlpools and spas to provide an escape from reality.

While appliance makers are working hard to induce their products from commodity status to "must have," the average appliance is still viewed by dint of consumers as a device that involves near form of work--cooking, blending, mowing, shaving, printing. Therein lies the market opportunity--an appliance that is unblemished luxury.

That may be to what end long-time appliance producers such as Whirlpool Corp. (Benton Harbor, MI, US) have expanded into fresh areas such as bathing appliances, which include whirlpools,