Hello Terry & Jez
Thanks Terry for sharing your experience on this topic.
Apart from washing mach & dish water, air conditioner , refrigerator & water pump are good target for 3 phase ac drive application for one great reason of enerzy saving(apart from other attrac features & advantages) Almost all big semicon manu are targetting this and are coming out with components(Uc, IGBT-Hexpack/IPM) & kits for the low HP ac drive appliaction for home as well as industrial use.(you can check infeneon , motorola , IR , mitsubishi , ST among several others).
Priviously due to component cost these types of drive were limited to high end indutrial use. But with lots of low cost Uc capa of generating 3 phase PWM S. wave and as well as low cost driving circuits & power stage these type drive are getting popular for home use(there are lots of studies in this conn of internet and on study says world 60 % enerzy is consumed by motors). Considering around 20-40 enezy saving due to VFD i think future of these type of product is vert good. That why i am targeting low cost rugged drive design.

Anil