Luxury Induction Cooktop Market Shifts: Analyzing the JennAir and Viking Surge vs. Thermador and Fisher & Paykel Slump

Deep Fill vs. Load Sensing: The Laundry Debate That Refuses to Die

This is probably the most emotionally charged debate in the appliance industry. More emotional than gas vs. induction. More emotional than front load vs. top load. And in 2026, it's still very much alive. Deep fill vs. load sensing — and what it actually tells us about how human beings process trust, visual evidence, and decades of marketing conditioning. Jon Beresford breaks down where the belief that "more water equals better cleaning" actually comes from, why the appliance industry created it, and why they never bothered to update the story as the engineering evolved. He explains what load sensing is actually doing — not minimizing water, but calibrating it to the specific load — and why that distinction matters more than most people realize. He walks through the detergent concentration argument, the optimal threshold problem, and why the existence of a deep fill button doesn't prove load sensing has failed (hint: no one adds a special button for the objectively best option in every situation). Speed Queen comes up — because of course it does. Jon addresses it directly: the brand earns every bit of its reputation, but he asks the harder question of how much of what customers love is actually attributable to the water, versus everything else Speed Queen builds into the machine. The final take: deep fill solves a human problem. Load sensing solves an engineering problem. They're not competing. The debate has survived this long because everyone's been using the wrong scoreboard. 🎙️ Hosted by Shannon O'Hara and Jon Beresford | The Steel Codcast 🔔 New episode every day of the week. Rate and subscribe wherever you listen.

NSF Certification: The Selling Point Most Salespeople Aren't Using

NSF certification comes up on appliance floors more than most salespeople realize — and most of them can't fully explain what it means when it does. In this episode, Shannon and Jon break it down from scratch. What NSF certification is actually measuring, why a dishwasher with a "sanitize" button isn't automatically NSF certified, and what the difference between the two actually means for the customer who's relying on it. The conversation goes beyond dishwashers — Jon covers other appliance categories where NSF certification matters and how the selling conversation shifts depending on the product. He also draws the distinction between NSF certification and an allergen cycle, walks through who this conversation is most valuable for (parents, healthcare workers, households with specific health needs), and explains how salespeople tend to lose the customer at this exact moment — and how to avoid it. Is it relevant to every customer? Jon gives an honest answer. If you've used NSF certification as a selling point on the floor — or if you've struggled with how to bring it up — leave a comment and Jon will reply. Or email Anthony directly. 🎙️ Hosted by Shannon O'Hara and Jon Beresford | The Steel Codcast 🔔 New episode every day of the week. Rate and subscribe wherever you listen.

Our First Ever Mailbag: 10 Real Questions From Retail Partners, Zero Filter

We've been collecting questions from retail partners for months and today we're finally answering them. Ten questions, from the floor — real, anonymous, and in some cases pretty uncomfortable. This is the first Steel Cod mailbag episode. Every question comes from someone in the independent appliance channel who took the time to submit something they couldn't always ask out loud. Jon Beresford answers all ten, and Shannon keeps him honest. The questions cover: where Jon's industry knowledge actually comes from, the honest truth about why induction is still losing on the floor, which brand Jon thinks is the most underrated right now, whether Steel Cod would ever take equity from a manufacturer in exchange for promotion (and why the answer is a hard no), what to do when a rep tells you your entry-level and premium models are basically the same thing, whether showrooms can carry too many brands, how to handle a competitor price match the right way, what to do about a top salesperson who gives customers inaccurate information, the one type of customer Jon used to dread — and what that customer ended up teaching him, and the three traits Jon believes every great salesperson has to have innately. References to past episodes: 👉 Gas vs. Induction full episode: https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-nnr3e-1abb7cd 👉 Chef Rachelle Boucher episode: https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-4uw9q-1ae807a 👉 SKS vs. Thermador episode: https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-fdptj-1aee998 👉 The Customer Who Knows More episode: https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-ykt2c-1af002f 📩 Have a question for the mailbag? Email Anthony. 🔔 New episode every day of the week. Rate and subscribe wherever you listen.

Reliability vs. Serviceability: The Appliance Question Nobody Is Asking

Reliability vs. serviceability — most people think they're the same thing. They're not. And the difference might be the most underresearched part of buying an appliance. In this episode, Jon Beresford breaks down a distinction the industry has been blurring for years: reliability is the probability of a problem occurring. Serviceability is what happens when it does. Consumers devote almost all of their research time to the first one — and almost none to the second. That's a major blind spot. Jon walks through why the definition of reliability has quietly shifted from "less likely to fail" to "should never fail" — and why that's a standard no appliance on earth can actually meet. Then he makes the case that the more important question isn't "will it break?" It's "what happens when it does?" He puts two refrigerators side by side — one with a 2% service rate, one with 8% — and then finishes the story with real-world serviceability outcomes that flip the obvious answer on its head. We also get into why the internet makes this problem worse (it's built almost entirely around failure stories, rarely the recovery), and why loyalty is almost never created when everything goes right — it's created when something goes wrong and the company handles it exceptionally well. For retailers: Jon explains why servicing what you sell is one of the most powerful sales tools you have, and why retailers who can't speak confidently about their service process end up defaulting to reliability numbers because they have nothing else to offer. Reliability isn't overrated. It's just incomplete. 🎙️ Hosted by Shannon O'Hara and Jon Beresford of Steel Cod. 🔔 New episode every day of the week. Rate and subscribe wherever you listen.

The Garbage Disposal Hasn't Changed Since 1953 — Until Now | Tim Ketchum of Composer Appliance

The garbage disposal is one of the most used fixtures in any kitchen — and it hasn't meaningfully changed since 1953. Nobody in the industry pushed for better, and consumers never thought to ask. They just accepted the noise, the smell, the slow drains, and the mystery jams as part of the deal. In this episode, we sit down with Tim Ketchum to talk about Composer — a completely rethought garbage disposal designed by aerospace engineers who looked at what the category had normalized and decided none of it was acceptable. Jon Beresford and Tim walk through everything that's broken about the standard disposal: the 70dB+ noise level (Composer runs below 50dB), the inadequate grinding that's been quietly damaging residential plumbing for decades, and the complete lack of innovation that the industry wrote off as "good enough." Then Tim walks through what Composer actually built instead — a 1 HP motor (double the industry average), an Iris system that keeps grinding contained, a continuous bio enzyme that breaks down food before buildup starts, an automatic water flush, and LED lighting under the sink. Jon also talks about what this means for independent retailers right now. Composer is about to start shipping. The customer hasn't heard of it yet. The competition hasn't caught up. That window — when a product is new enough that the story is still yours to tell — is wide open. The retailers who show up first and tell it right are the ones who own that category long-term. 🎙️ Hosted by Shannon O'Hara and Jon Beresford of Steel Cod, with guest Tim Ketchum. 🔔 New episode every day of the week. Rate and subscribe wherever you listen.