
Best Smart Home Appliances 2020
“The future is now old man” yells Dewey, sitting atop his brothers shoulders in the popular sitcom Malcolm in the Middle.
While Dewey was right, we don’t think he had any idea what the future was going to look like; neither did Dr. Jaap Haartsen in 1994 when he invented Bluetooth. From the first mobile phone with Bluetooth capacity in 2000 to Bluetooth headsets and to Wi-Fi radio, Bluetooth has made tremendous progress over the years.
Not only has Bluetooth made communicating and pairing our sound devices easier, it’s also very capable of making your life at home much easier.
Today we are going to show you some products that will instantly add utility to your everyday life.
Smart devices
Smart Thermostat: No more midnight trips to the thermostat because you woke up in the middle of the night shivering. Controlled with your phone or even voice, smart thermostats allow for supreme control of the temperature; some even come with additional sensors you can place throughout your house to ensure your home is always at the perfect temperature.
Smart Lock: It’s very understandable that people gave doubts about these types of systems. A simple technology breach or failure could render your home exposed to intruders or lock you outside of your home. Therefore you must shop for the proper systems to ensure no points of failure.
Smart locks allow control from a distance; you won’t have to have get out of bed to see if you’ve locked your door at night. When paired with smart doorbells, you can remotely allow access to anyone you want to enter your home. No more forgetting your keys!
Smart Doorbell: A technology that’s already captured a large share of the market, smart doorbells offer homeowners an additional set of eyes. Depending on the type of device, the device notifies the homeowner when it detects motion or when someone rings the doorbell. The homeowner then can have a conversation with whomever rung the doorbell and can even alert emergency services if they feel threatened.
Google’s Nest Hello doorbell even uses facial recognition!
Smart Plugs: Probably the easiest new piece of tech to install; you simply plug it in to an outlet, then plug whatever you want controlled into the smart plug. With a compact design that doesn’t block adjacent ports, smart plugs connect with your phones and allow homeowners control over their appliances. You can hook up your coffee machine with a remote timer to brew coffee as soon as you open your eyes; if you’re tired of your kids playing Xbox during bedtime, you can hook up their gaming system to a smart plug and control their gaming time. Possibilities are endless!
Smart Light Bulbs: Best invention since sliced bread? Probably not. Pretty dang close? Yep.
Manual light switches become a problem when you’ve gotten cozy in your bed but forgot the lights were on: you ruin your sleep just walking to the light switch and back. Or maybe you forgot to turn off the lights in the basement, and don’t want to turn them off and and then throw yourself up the stairs before the monsters get you (we know you still run up the basement stairs but we won’t tell). The utility homeowners receive from smart lights is extensive and obvious.
Smart home camera- Imagine having a crystal-clear view of your home and the area surrounding it, accessible to you at any time. With smart home cameras, you can capture every second of the day in crystal clear 4K or UHD quality. Most smart cameras come with motion tracking wireless connection, the higher-tier cameras offering automatic zoom, color night vision, and even an integrated spotlight/siren.
A must if you’re wanting to invest in home security. Oh did we mention you can access the live feed and all previously recorded content at any time, only using your phone?
Smart Cookers- Ever heard of sous vide cooking? This method of cooking consists of placing food in a plastic pouch or glass jar and cooking it at a low temperature for a long time. Instead of stopping by McDonald’s after work, why not prepare the cooker in the morning, activate it remotely during work, and come home to a fresh, warm meal?
Robot Vacuum- Hundreds of dollars for robot vacuum can seem a little extravagant, but let’s take a closer look. Think of sweeping your home as a job, in which one gets paid hourly. To keep your home very clean, you must sweep often and well; one problem lies in the fact that you’re not getting paid to clean the house. So you’re not getting paid to clean the house and you’re giving time towards cleaning your home when then are much more important things in your life more deserving of your time (family, relationships, meditation, etc.). So instead of spending a lot of time to do a job that you’re not even getting paid for, why not outsource the job to a robot vacuum? Besides cleaning the dust trap, you will spend very little time attending to your new friend; plus, they’ll never ask for a raise, take breaks, or talk smack about you behind your back.
Robot vacuums also do eventually pay themselves off. This can either be by the time that a robot vacuum can save you, or by the money you will save if you were to hire a maid.
Robot Lawn Mower- It’s a robot vacuum on steroids that drinks three protein shakes a day. A little pricier than robot vacuums, you’re probably looking to spend a minimum of $1k; let’s talk about it before you shut the idea down. These are long term investments, if you value time, especially with your family, you will very likely consider investing in one of these bad boys. Controlled by an app, users can start/stop the mower, monitor progress, create schedules, and see a map of where their vacuum has been to.
New technology = room for improvement. Robot lawn mowers are a very new technology but they’re still user friendly; you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to use one. Easy to program, not only do robot lawn mowers cut your grass to perfection, they do it quieter than a traditional lawn mower.
Recap
Remember, you can spend money and get it right back; once you spend time, it’s gone forever. Let us repeat that, time is the only thing you can spend and never get back. Most of these appliances are methods of saving you time, which is why they come with a larger price tag. If you truly value your time, and the time of the people sharing your home, most of these investments will be easy decisions to make.
The future truly is now. Call it wanting a smart home or call it wanting to be lazy, the products really do speak for themselves.
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