We are curious about people. How they live, where they live, what they do and how they use things. This is where hidden insights wait to be uncovered. We are curious not only with the function and performance of our products but with the emotional role they play in peoples lives. For us, design is not a self-serving goal; it is a human endeavour to make life better. Continuous innovation is part of the Fisher & Paykel design philosophy.
We live in a designed world and we believe everybody deserves good design. The ongoing collaboration between design engineers and customers has changed the course of appliance design for us as a company and for those who use our products day in and day out. Our future will be built on fostering this spirit of collaboration and curiosity.
Innovation comes from curiosity. By understanding our customers - the way people use kitchens and appliances, how they cook and eat - we have discovered insights that have made us rethink how to design appliances. We also know that we need to think about the entire context of the appliance. We study trends and developments in the house and kitchen design as a whole so that our appliances fit into and respond to the changing environment of the modern kitchen. As a premium brand, the quality of the details in our appliance is significant. From using high quality metals and glass to the careful weighting of a dial, we focus on creating a tactile sense of premium cues at every touchpoint.
World-Leading Innovations
Fisher & Paykel have been leading the world in appliance innovations since the early 1980s. Products like the DishDrawer™ Dishwasher and the CoolDrawer™ multi-temperature refrigerator have not only pioneered new, compact technologies, but have changed appliance design forever. But it is what is on the inside - our SmartDrive™ motors and ActiveSmart™ refrigeration technology that really differentiates us as a company of creativity.
SmartDrive™
Our first significant leap of innovation was in washing machines. Our engineers had developed knowledge of electronic drive systems when the company designed flexible manufacturing equipment for our assembly lines. It occurred to us that we could apply that knowledge to driving appliances and so the Brushless Direct Current Motor was invented for washing machines. This allowed the development of the revolutionary Smart Drive™ technology, which is the platform for all of our washing machine ranges.
DishDrawer™
Dishwasher
Around the same time, this same washer technology was evolving into an entirely new idea - a dishwasher in a drawer - what we called a DishDrawer™. Over time, Fisher & Paykel have refined the technology in DishDrawers™ to create the quietest, most efficient and best cleaning 7th generation DishDrawer™.
ActiveSmart™
In refrigeration, world-first ActiveSmart™ technology was developed that improves refrigerator performance. ActiveSmart™ continuously adjusts the flow of cold air into your fridge and freezer by responding to your daily use and climatic conditions, ensuring it constantly maintains optimum temperatures throughout your fridge for the freshest, finest, nutrient rich foods.
CoolDrawer™
Taking the idea of the flexible DishDrawer™ and ActiveSmart™ refrigeration technology, our engineers developed the CoolDrawer™, a multi-temperature drawer-based fridge. It can be placed anywhere in the kitchen, home or entertainment area and the CoolDrawer™ provides five temperature settings to deliver total flexibility - fridge, freezer, chill, pantry and wine mode, combining intelligence with convenience.
CookSurface™
In cooking, we developed CookSurface™ where retractable trivets allow a flat ceramic glass surface ensuring easy cleaning. We changed the way people think about gas cooktops.
Award-Winning Design
As well as continuously developing new functional technologies, Fisher & Paykel has recently won international awards for the design of their 60cm Built-in Oven, Gas on Glass Cooktop, Kitchen Companion Products range, CoolDrawer™ and CookSurface™, supporting their commitment to creating products that look as beautiful as they work
Innovation at every level
Our culture is one of open innovation, which allows people to work collaboratively to find insights and ideas that connect with our customers and respect our planet. Our belief in innovation and creativity isn't limited to our design teams; we foster resourceful and imaginative thinking across the company. Even in the early days of the company, founder Woolf Fisher would ask advice from his executives, but would also talk to the cleaner, Colin Bolton, who often had clever ideas borne from a different perspective. These days, we have maintained this egalitarian approach to ideas. Our popular food blog, Our Kitchen, came not from a marketing brief, but from an idea in the design team. Fisher & Paykel supported the concept and gave our staff - from departments as varied as food testing to accounts - time to work on the blog, resulting in a project that is authentic and inspiring.