Store displays

[fan-of-fans]

Something I was wondering a while back. I remember when our Sears store was open, all of the refrigerators were plugged in, but turned off. So when you opened the doors, lights would come on, water/ice dispenser light could be turned on, display panels lit up, etc. Not sure if the ranges were connected or not for oven lights to come on.

I know on our Hotpoint range, there was a mention somewhere of a showroom wiring setup or something where only the oven light would turn on, but the burners or oven couldn't be. And guessing panel light if equipped could turn on as well.

But at places like Lowes, Home Depot none of the fridges are connected, lights don't come on. I really preferred the way Sears did it, made the fridges look a lot more appealing and realistic than looking at a dark shadowy interior.

I don't think the appliance stores in my area have them plugged in either.

 

[goatfarmer]

But then there would be people like me, who turn on fridges if they are plugged in.

 

[tomturbomatic]

In our Sears store

On Saturday evenings about an hour before the store closed, the water was shut off to the demonstration washer-dryer combo and it was allowed to go through spin and dry so that fabrics would not sour over Sunday, when the store was closed, I guess.

 

[circlew]

My 1953 Westinghouse range has instructions on the back for connecting it to 120 volts for display purposes. The oven light, backsplash light, and outlet will function.

 

[rpms]

I was at Home Depot this week looking for a new dishwasher.
The one I was looking at the racks came flying out.
The sales guy said sorry about that. People steal the rack clips and buttons off stoves all the time. He said the stove behind me was perfect that morning and by 11 a.m 4 knobs were missing

 

[sfh074]

My Samsung (POS) fridge .....

has a store display mode you can set the control panel to.  A weird button press sequence and basically turns it to just all lights and no action. You have to know the sequence to return it to normal as well. Probably all Samsung fridges have this "feature" in the software.

 

[DADoES]

 
F&P washers, SmartLoad dryers, and DishDrawers have a store display mode that allows playing with the settings but they won't start/run a cycle.  The button lights and/or LCD and backlight flash in a rolling pattern after a few mins of no activity to attract attention.

I have in the past seen refrigerators at Home Depot and Lowe's powered on such that the interior lights and control panels worked, and some running and cold.  Haven't been to one in a while but last time I recall an LG SxS powered on with a large window in the fresh food door to view a storage compartment, which also functioned as a controls display and as a media screen.

 

[mattl]

Samsung...

I bought a $2500 door in door SxS fridge because no one could get it out of demo mode. I took a chance and paid $95 for it. I too could not get it out of demo mode after many hours of trying. Registered it and called for service. It took the service guy 5 minutes to get it up and running.Been working fine since.

 

[DADoES]

 
F&P exits display mode by disconnecting / reconnecting the power for ~10 seconds.

 

[perc-o-prince]

Miele has demo mode on most of their appliances- can usually be accessed through programming mode.  Alternately, the salespeople and/or showrooms made up pigtails with a 120V cord and plug going into a gang box that had the appropriate outlet for the 220V appliance to plug into. Only one leg of the outlet was energized- the one that ran the electronics and lights. W/o the other leg, heating elements, magnetrons etc wouldn't energize.

 

I went to a number of service calls where the "problem" was demo mode! I loved those!

 

Chuck

[this post was last edited: 10/26/2020-15:37]