Appliance reliant

Britain has become a nation reliant on appliances, unable to carry out basic tasks without the help of a gadget, according to new research.

A survey of homeowners carried out by household appliances retailer, AppliancesDirect.co.uk, as part of its Power On: The Evolution of Appliances report, found that almost 46% of Brits would not be able to reheat food without a gadget to do it for them.

This is not the only basic task they would struggle with, as 40% would struggle to make toast without an appliance, despite this only requiring a grill. And a quarter of Brits wouldn’t be able to make a cup of tea or coffee – a task that in most cases involves simply boiling water with a pan, without using a kettle.

Almost one in four confess to not knowing how to wash their clothes without having a washing machine on hand to do most of the work and one in five wouldn’t know how to dry their clothes without a tumble dryer.

Washing machines (81%) topped the list of appliances British adults confessed they couldn’t live without, followed by dishwashers (36%), toasters (33%) and coffee machines (18%).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, millennials – those aged 18 to 30 years old – many of whom will have grown up with mobile phones and internet access, are the generation that would fare worst if they had to do without electrical appliances.