While the smart drying rack industry is growing rapidly, the product quality is uneven, and consumers need to be cautious when purchasing.
A comparative test unveiled the "fig leaf" of the smart drying rack industry, and also made consumers who are keen on smart home appliances feel "cool".
In April this year, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission tested 25 batches of smart drying racks, and found that 17 batches of samples did not fully meet the requirements for electrical safety and performance. Among them, there are many professional brands such as Mrs. Good and Mrs. Jingui; traditional brands such as Panpan and Hangdian; Cross-border brands such as NetEase Yanxuan and Wrigley.
Behind the continuous increase in sales of smart drying racks, the product quality and after-sales service of some brands have been repeatedly questioned by consumers.
Multiple batches of smart drying racks had problems in testing
The smart drying rack is a kind of balcony smart home appliance that generates driving force to lift the drying rack through the motor. With the blessing of intelligent voice control, intelligent lighting, disinfection and sterilization, drying and air drying, it brings consumers a strong sense of freshness and convenient use experience.
However, the hot-selling smart drying racks on the market seem to be less reliable.
Referring to GB 4706.1-2005 "Safety of Household and Similar Electrical Appliances Part I: General Requirements" and QB/T 5202-2017 "Household and Similar Electric Clothes Dryers", the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission found that 10 batches of samples had electrical safety problems in the test, involving input power and current, internal wiring, grounding measures and other items. There is a risk of overload in the use of the sample, and there is also a risk of electric shock in the sample.
Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission pointed out that the internal wiring is not only in contact with the sharp thread, but even directly with a cable tie to tightly fix the internal wiring on the thread, after pressure and friction, once the insulation layer is destroyed, it is easy to cause a short circuit, igniting the surrounding plastic parts, and then causing greater danger.
In addition, there were 17 batches of samples with performance problems, involving dimensional deviation, rated load, overload and other items. Some samples cannot be lifted normally after hanging the rated weight load; There are also samples that fall too quickly during the run and are out of the limit range.
The Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee pointed out that 7 batches of products could not be lifted normally after being hung with unilateral loads, and even caused damage.
It is worth mentioning that at present, the national standard specifically for smart drying racks has not yet been promulgated, and this performance test refers to industry standards. To some extent, this reflects the uneven quality of the products on the market. Even if consumers choose well-known brands such as Good Wife, NetEase Yanxuan, Supor, etc., they may still encounter a "rollover" situation.
In view of the above situation, NetEase Yanxuan showed a test report to reporters, making it clear that NetEase Yanxuan smart drying rack has passed the drying rack industry standard (QB/T 5202-2017) test before it is launched, and the product meets the standard requirements. NetEase Yanxuan attaches great importance to product quality and user experience, has a strict quality management process for products, and has strict testing and verification of products and production processes.
The reply also mentioned that NetEase Yanxuan Smart Drying Rack will be sold out and removed from the shelves in 2023, and if consumers encounter any quality problems during use, NetEase Yanxuan promises to provide corresponding after-sales services such as maintenance within the service scope to protect the rights and interests of consumers.
Higold Group replied to consumer reports that it attaches great importance to the testing situation of the Jiangsu Consumer Protection Commission, and has conducted an internal investigation as soon as possible and sent the product to a professional third-party testing agency for testing.
Good Wife, Oaks, NVC, Supor and other companies did not respond to the interview letter from Consumer Reports. In addition, the reporter noticed that the category of smart drying rack had a higher failure rate than other electrical appliances in the past sampling. In the 2023 Shanghai Electric Drying Rack Product Quality Supervision and Random Inspection, 7 batches of 45 batches of products were found to be unqualified, with a failure rate of about 15.6%; In the supervision and random inspection of the Nanjing Municipal Market Supervision Bureau in 2023, 6 batches of 20 batches of products were found to be unqualified, with a failure rate of 30%; In the supervision and random inspection of the State Administration for Market Regulation in 2022, 24 batches of 52 batches of products were found to be unqualified, with a failure rate of about 46.2%.
Considering that the intelligent drying rack products have not been included in the national compulsory certification product catalog (CCC certification), consumer reports suggest that you can give priority to products with China Quality Certification Center certification (CQC certification) when purchasing, because CQC certification is a voluntary certification, and the quality of products that dare to pass the certification is still trustworthy.
The Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission also gave suggestions on the use of smart drying racks, such as paying attention to the maximum load of smart drying racks when using them, and not overloading them; Clothes should be evenly distributed on the clothes pole to avoid concentrated hanging of clothes, resulting in unbalanced load and affecting the service life; The smart drying rack with warm air drying and ultraviolet sterilization functions should be turned on when the clothes rod is raised to the top to prevent accidental injury to surrounding personnel.
The R&D expenses of the leading wife "stagnated"
The traditional laundry equipment in a Chinese home may be a rope, a bamboo pole or a metal pipe. However, with the rise of professional drying rack equipment and the development of technology in the past 20 years, drying racks have advanced from the original floor-mounted, floating and hand-cranked types to electrically driven electric drying racks.
At present, the smart drying rack has achieved a market scale of nearly 10 billion, and its positioning has been extended from hardware products to household appliances and smart homes. In the study, Aowei Cloud Network estimated that the sales of smart drying racks are expected to exceed 10 million units in 2024. According to CSHIA Research research data, the sales of smart clothes dryers will continue to grow in 2023, with a strong market foundation, becoming one of the fastest-growing smart home categories with a growth rate of 22.1%. In 2023, the market size has reached 12.7 billion yuan, and the overall number of sets will reach 9 million, and it is expected that in 2026, the market size of smart clothes dryers will exceed 20 billion yuan, with an average growth rate of more than 20%.
数据来源：CSHIA Research
The first-line brand tests of smart drying racks such as Mrs. Hao, Mrs. Jingui, and Netease Yanxuan are not satisfactory, which on the one hand reflects that there are still problems in the production management of big brands and need to be improved urgently; On the other hand, it reflects that driven by the wave of smart home, the market is developing rapidly and consumption is hot, which has led to disorderly competition in the industry, and various brands want to get the "first cup". According to iResearch's "2023 Drying Scene Trend Insights", there are only 3 companies with a production capacity of more than 500,000 units among the production enterprises; 10 with 100,000 to 200,000 units; There are 60 companies with 30,000 to 100,000 units. The smart clothes dryer brand presents a situation of one super and many strong, and the head brand Mrs. Hao leads the way with a market share of 40%, far ahead of the second echelon such as Hanba, Panpan, Orlante, and Lianyi.
As an industry leader, the good wife listed on the A-share market has great reference significance for its business data and model.
According to the 2023 annual report of Mrs. Hao, the operating income was 1.688 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.16%; net profit was 327 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 49.71%; The net profit after deduction was 323 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 46.18%.
The outstanding performance of the good wife is inseparable from the promotion of the smart home consumption boom. According to Statista, the global smart home market is expected to grow from $126.1 billion to $207.8 billion from 2022 to 2026, and the domestic smart home market is expected to reach $45.3 billion in 2026. And the penetration rate of smart homes in China is only 13%, which still has huge market potential.
But the company, which has thousands of patents, seems to be starting to shift its focus from R&D to marketing. In the past three years, under the condition that the operating income has maintained a steady growth, the sales expenses have increased at a high rate, with a year-on-year increase of more than 25%, while the research and development expenses have hovered around 50 million yuan. Among them, R&D expenses in 2023 will be less than one-sixth of sales expenses, and only about 3% of operating income.
The service and quality of the good wife should not be ignored.
In December last year, Mr. Wu, a consumer, told reporters that the good wife set the door-to-door installation time without communicating with him, and changed it again and again. A succession of uncommunicated installation appointments made Mr. Wu disappointed with Mrs. Good's service.
Some complainants also told reporters that the installation master arranged by Mrs. Hao was not friendly, and threw things directly into the ground when removing the old hangers, and kept scolding in his mouth.
In the results of the 2022 Shanghai Product Quality Supervision and Random Inspection (the tenth batch), 1 smart clothes dryer of Mrs. Hao was found to be unqualified, and the item was "Signs and Instructions".
In the eyes of consumers, no matter how bells and whistles the product functions are, it is not as reliable as the product, which is also a problem that the intelligent drying rack industry needs to solve urgently.