Alexa, tell me why anyone buys a smart toothbrush. Here's which connected home gadgets actually earn their keep — and which are expensive paperweights.
A common smart-home confession: owning a smart light bulb that still gets turned on with the physical switch on the wall. "Alexa, turn on the— oh forget it." click
The smart home revolution promised us the Jetsons. What we got is a house full of gadgets with different apps that occasionally work when the Wi-Fi feels like cooperating. But — and this matters — some of these gadgets are genuinely life-changing. The trick is knowing which ones.
Robot vacuums. Easy to mock, hard to give up. Schedule one to run while you're at work and come home to clean floors without lifting a finger. This is peak civilization.
Smart plugs. Two dollars of technology that lets you control any dumb device from your phone. The Christmas tree lights. The bedroom fan. The coffee maker. It's the gateway drug of smart home and it costs less than a latte.
Video doorbells. Remember when someone knocked on your door and you had to physically walk over and open it with no idea who was on the other side? Like some kind of medieval lottery? Video doorbells fixed this. Worth every penny.
Smart fridges. Brother, I do not need a screen on my fridge. I do not need my refrigerator to have an Instagram account. I need it to keep things cold. That's the whole job.
Smart water bottles. These exist. They tell you when to drink water. We have reached a point as a civilization where we need an overpriced bottle to remind us to perform a basic survival function. I'm going to go stare at the ocean for a while.
Wi-Fi enabled slow cookers. What remote adjustment are you making to a slow cooker? It cooks. Slowly. That's the whole thing. You don't need to adjust it from the office. It's fine. It's been fine for 50 years.
The good smart home stuff goes on sale HARD during Prime Day and Black Friday. Robot vacuums especially — we're talking 40-50% off. Echo devices drop to near-giveaway prices because they want you in the ecosystem. And smart plugs in multi-packs become almost free.
Don't buy smart home gadgets at full price. They're always on sale somewhere. And please, for the love of all that is holy, don't buy a smart toothbrush.
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