dimchae - first kimchi refrigerator

Korean food culture cannot be explained without kimchi. Kimchi is a fermented, healthy dish made mainly from ‘kimchi cabbage,’ which is differentiated from other types of cabbages, flavored with various ingredients such as red pepper, garlic, salt, fish sauce, ginger, and etc. 

There are over 200 sorts of kimchi, according to the ingredients, but the method of storage is as important and how it is made. The flavor and the taste of kimchi depends on the time and method of storage, fermentation, and ripening. 

The traditional way of keeping kimchi was in an onggi, a special pottery which kimchi was put in, and stored in a hole dug up in the madang, which is most equivalent to the front yard. 

This method kept the temperature of kimchi at approximately 7 degrees Celsius which is the precise level of the best tasting kimchi. However, as time passed by, the housing culture changed from houses with madangs to apartments.

The typical refrigerators were not equipped to keep the temperature at a constant level, and thus, it was difficult to sustain the taste of ripened kimchi which used to be stored in onggi and madang. In 1984, Geumsung Corporation launched the GR-063, the first kimchi refrigerator, to solve this problem. 

This was an innovative, high-end machine which stored up to 18kg of kimchi, and Daewoo Electronics did not hesitate to create a kimchi refrigerator brand of their own. However, the consumers were not yet ready to abandon the concept that kimchi had to be stored in an onggi. 

It was only after a decade had passed that the kimchi refrigerator had become a popular item to the public, and the leading company was not big conglomerates such as Samsung or LG, but Mando, which is an air conditioner manufacturing company. 

Mando used its air conditioning technologies to research and develop a refrigerator which can resurrect the traditional way of storing kimchi, including the fermentation technology, in the form of a refrigerator. In the end, Mando came up with a model that was differentiated from the other refrigerators which opened like drawers or swung open like doors. 

The scientific principle that air with lower temperature is heavier than warmer air, prevented the cool air from surging out of the container. Mando named the brand as “Dimche” which was what kimchi was called in the King Joongjong’s era of the Chosun Dynasty. 

Dimche’s marketing strategies involved the consumer’s social network like ‘experience marketing’ which let 3000 families of NGOs, famous chefs, politicians, and housewives to try out the machine for free, then gave benefits of a 50% discount to those who were satisfied. Dimche targeted the housewives that were about 45 years old, who had experienced and was used to the kimjang culture. 

For these people, the merits of keeping kimchi fresh and tasty was appealing. Also, the new lifestyle that was introduced by the creating of a refrigerator ‘only reserved for kimchi’ allowed a sharp spike in sales and also created a new product family of “Kimchi Refrigerators.” Afterwards, the percentage of households owning a kimchi refrigerator amounted to 81.3% in 2010, and the kimchi refrigerator became the fastest big size home appliances to break through the 80% distribution rate. 

The success of the kimchi refrigerator formed a production boom in home appliances that was rooted in the change in dining and lifestyles such as rice, banchan, cosmetic refrigerators. Kimchi refrigerators also widened its compartmentalized space for products such as wine, meat, vegetables, and other food products.