What is a smart home? Well, you probably already have a smart TV in your living room, and maybe even a smart speaker in your lounge. If you really invest, you can even get smart lighting and smart thermostats. But what is a smart kitchen?
Since the smart home category exploded onto the tech scene, countless manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon, and the options are now plentiful, quickly expanding to include smart kitchen appliances. But which smart home products are worth buying? Which ones are actually useful, affordable, and compatible with what you use every day?
This is the first article in a series about the best smart home products available today. Start in the kitchen, because – like I said before – This is one of the most difficult areas to get right.
These are 11 products that we think are worth space on your worktop.
Anova precision cooker
There are few things more divisive these days than sous vide cooking, which makes it seem much more complicated than it actually is. By sealing the food in an airtight plastic bag and cooking it in a water bath, you can apply very gentle heat and cook slowly with scientific precision.
Private water baths are bulky and old, often thrown into the attic after an optimistic period. Anova's nifty immersion circulator is the size of a cupboard and clips onto the side of an old pot to heat water to your chosen temperature and cook your food to perfection.
If you think sous vide cooking might be for you, choose a WiFi-enabled device. This allows you to control your precision cooker from a distance, so you can put your dinner in the water bath in the morning and set it to cook. Come home from work and eat a juicy steak. This app is more than just a remote control. It includes lots of video tutorials, some really good recipes, and even cooking instruction from his amazing J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, famous for his The Food Lab.
nespresso prodigio coffee machine
Simple coffee machines are one of the few categories of smart kitchen products where there is little choice, but this one is definitely the best. Nespresso is already a well-known name when it comes to home baristabots, and the connected edition of this machine uses the same capsule system, making refills easy to find.
The Prodigio has all the features you'd want in a smart coffee maker. You can make cups, set brew schedules, and reorder capsules remotely via your phone or tablet (iOS and Android).
As for the coffee itself, it's great. Nespresso His capsules are highly valued in the hospitality industry for their consistency and high quality, offering a wide range of different roasts and coffees from around the world. Give the Prodigio a capsule and you'll get back a nice, rich espresso with a mouthfeel worthy of Clooney himself.
iFavine iSommelier
Many of us enjoy a cheeky glass of red wine in the evening, but have you ever tried aerating your wine before gulping it down? A little breathing goes a long way, as oxidation softens tannins and evaporates undesirable compounds, improving the aroma and taste of the wine.
While aeration using regular methods is a little time-consuming and more of an art than a science, iFavine's iSommelier brings smart technology to the table to speed up your drinking experience. iSommelier draws air through a multi-layer molecular filtration system, refines it to 90% pure oxygen, and gently pumps it into your wine. Aerating your wine takes just minutes instead of hours, giving you plenty of time to explore your wine vocabulary.
Also download the iFavine app. You will receive advice on how long to aerate your particular wine. You'll also see a little progress update bar while you try your favorite wine.
smart garden 3
Adding a handful of herbs to sauces and salads can transform a dish. But how often do you find herbs limp and festering at the bottom of your salad drawer? Growing your own makes a lot of sense. You'll save a few pennies and get what you need when you need it.
Not everyone has the time to grow herbs from seed to stir-fry. The advantage of Click and Grow's Smart Garden 3 is that the intelligent planter acts like a nanny for your sprouts and takes care of all the hard work for you. A water tank stores enough water for a month of growing, LED lamps emit an “enhanced light spectrum” to stimulate growth, and smart soil features a NASA-inspired nano-membrane. The pack delivers nutrients to small plants on a regular basis.
With a wide variety of seed packets available, you don't have to be a herbivore to grow tomatoes, chili peppers, peppers, and more in your smart garden. There is also an accompanying app that allows you to monitor small plants from a distance.
Smarter refrigerator camera
This might be a bit of a controversial choice, as spending £100 on a wireless camera for your fridge seems a bit silly. But when you compare it to the price of a proper smart refrigerator, which is often in the thousands of dollars, it seems much more reasonable.
Fridgecam is designed to let you see inside your refrigerator while you're on the go. For example, you can see if you need to buy butter or how much wine you have left. It also claims to be able to recognize food and expiration dates, and send notifications when you need to finish your bacon (hallelujah).
Yes, this truly solves a world-first problem. But its creator, his Smarter (which also makes the acclaimed iKettle), is now third generation products (with an improved app), claims it should save you hundreds of dollars a year. In other words, even if it inflates significantly, it should still pay for itself. If you're considering a smart refrigerator, start with this and see if you're willing to spend a few thousand dollars more.
nest protect
Nest Protect is an overall well-designed product. It looks better on the ceiling than most yellowed smokeboxes, acts as a hallway nightlight as you pass under it, and has a beautifully simple app that features the soothing line “Everything's okay” (of course , assuming it is not burned).
Nest Protect uses audio alarms and phone alerts to let you know if there are issues like low battery, smoke, or carbon monoxide. You can also turn off the alarm from your phone (useful when your dinner is burnt and you don't want to sit down in your chair). If you have multiple alarms, it will tell you where the problem is. Nest products are also great for integrating with other smart home ecosystems.
This is a long-life battery powered version, but there is also a similarly priced version that can be wired to mains power. We've tried this ourselves and unless you're an electrician, we highly recommend using Nest's installation service. Or, like we did, get out of the police department and replace the battery.
Amazon Dash Button and Dash Wand
Amazon Dash Buttons are virtually free. Because even though you pay $5 upfront, you get the same amount off on your first order using the button.
If you often use Amazon to order kitchen supplies, you may find the Dash button very useful. These are one-push buttons connected to the internet that automatically order items from Amazon. The Dash Button is battery powered, so you can stick it on the side of your product and press it as soon as it runs out. There is an indicator light to indicate whether the order was successful or not.
Most of the buttons are brand names and the selection of products you can order is limited, but the Amazon Dash Wand allows you to order products through a barcode scanner or with loud chatter. can help fill that gap. Just to be clear, you are not purchasing the product from the beginning. Simply add the item to your basket and make it available for immediate purchase. Still, ordering regularly from Amazon and using Amazon Fresh can save you real time.
Tefal Cook4Me Connect Cooker
Like the coffee machine, this is a great product with added useful smart features. So even if you rarely use the app, you won't regret buying it. The Cook4Me is essentially a fancy pressure cooker that prepares meals for up to six people and keeps them warm until you're ready. The machine comes with recipes, and you can send even more (many!) recipes directly to the cooker from the iOS/Android app.
Strictly speaking, it doesn't handle the entire process for you. You'll still have to chop your own onions and prepare everything you'll use for the meal, but Cook4Me definitely handles the actual cooking process for you, and since it's a pressure cooker, it's less work than a standard braising dish in the oven. You can speed it up significantly.
Cook4Me seems designed for the YouTube generation. They hold your hand firmly throughout the cooking process, even if you have no idea what you're doing. You can monitor your food from the app so it never overcooks or gets cold. It's big and expensive, but a godsend for lazy chefs.
Drop a connected scale
No one really needs a kitchen scale to connect to the internet, but the way the Drop scale works makes cooking even more fun. Your iPhone or iPad becomes your screen (Android doesn't have one yet) and shows you a step-by-step visual recipe to help you measure out just the right amount. If you want to increase or decrease a recipe, or find something is missing, Drop will easily adjust other ingredients and suggest substitutions.
The scale itself is attractive and durable, with a wipe-clean finish and no cables. The latest update to the app also adds cocktail mixology, the same easy and fun form of many food recipes. It's a little pricey for a scale, but if you're going to buy it anyway, the Drop is worth the extra.
amazon echo
Amazon's alexa virtual assistant Although she can't help you in the kitchen, she makes sure you don't have to use your own. It's a lifesaver, especially if you're in the middle of eating sticky bread. Talk to her with voice commands (takes a bit of getting used to, especially if you're British), set multiple timers, see how much time is left, set alarms for specific times, convert recipe book measurements But this is the kind of thing that would infuriate the US cup measurements – converting them to proper metric units without math.
Ask her to add items to your shopping list, reorder items on Amazon (useful if you run out of clingfilm mid-cooking, for example), and best of all, take advantage of her huge set. can do. skill Get ideas for recipes and drink pairings (like the app). The latest and greatest of them all, Amazon Alexa, now supports his Sonos, allowing him to request music via his Echo and send it anywhere around the house. Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones? American Pie, Don McLean? Red Red Wine UB- I'll stop now.
What worked and what didn't work
It's easy to get caught up in the hype and excitement of smart homes, but brands know this. Tech manufacturers seem to be making high-stakes bets with the content of our homes: Will we have Wi-Fi? That's not the question they should be asking. You can tip almost anything. should.
This list could have been created by finding the best products available in each category (most connected dishwasher, most connected refrigerator, etc.). But for many products, even manufacturers seem to have trouble explaining why their products are connected.
That's why we stick to products that actually add smart features. useful, It's more convenient than non-smart alternatives, and it's more than just “there's an app”.
As a category, smart homes still have a long way to go. Thankfully, so have our previously successful product lines.
Next, go to the bedroom. See you there.
