Local columnist Lisa Turner is a manufacturing engineer, contractor and former home inspector. Read her past articles in: www.HouseKeysByLisaTurner.com. Email: Lisa@Lisaturner.com.
Every year there is something new on the market to make your home more convenient. Since I love gadgets, especially home-based gadgets, I make up excuses to try things. There are a few things that aren’t worth spending your money on. What is worth considering and what is not? This week let’s talk about what is not worth getting.
The smart refrigerator. To me, a smart refrigerator should lock as soon as I get close to it. Even better, it should lock when other members of the family get close to it. This would be as simple as having facial recognition or thumb print recognition.
Seriously, the smartest refrigerators have gotten is to have a clear window in the door and be able to make “two-inch spheres” of ice for craft cocktails. This model is an LG and will set you back a whopping $4,400. I’m not kidding; this information is from a page in Men’s Journal. In the picture I am looking at now, the clear window shows a complete hodge podge of food inside this “smart” refrigerator. No thank you, I don’t need the special ice or the view of a mess.
Robot vacuum. Swear by your robot vacuum? I swear at my robot vacuum. It gets stuck under furniture, has to be emptied after 45 minutes and doesn’t know how to descend or climb stairs. It eats the edges of the carpet, making a screeching sound and can’t get into the corners.
In the space of about twelve minutes I can use a non-robot vacuum to get into all the areas the robot skipped and get the exercise I need, all at the same time. I can even go up and down the stairs.
Smart camera doorbell. I resisted getting the doorbell cam, thinking it wouldn’t be everything the companies say it is. Having to have the latest tech, I bought and installed the Ring Doorbell and it’s a lot of fun. The only problem with it is that it’s impossible to “answer” the door.
When someone comes to your door, the smart doorbell sees them and then sends a signal to your phone via Wi-Fi. Here in the mountains, by the time your Wi-Fi sends you a signal, minutes have passed and the person at the door has given up. By the time you bring up the picture of your front door and the microphone button to speak, the visitor may be gone. If you’re at home at the time, then the sequence will be faster. The whole point of having a Wi-Fi doorbell is so you can answer the door when you’re on vacation in Italy.
One thing I will say about the door cam is that it does record motion and sound, so you can pull up the video and see who was visiting your front door. A downside is if you installed the battery-operated doorbell, like I did, you do need to charge it every month or two. I recommend getting a spare battery.
Next week I’ll talk about smarthome items you might actually want to consider.