As a tech writer for more than 10 years, I’ve been fortunate enough to test a lot of products. It’s been a perk of the job and I’ve been able to find great devices and gadgets to recommend to readers. I’ve also been able to find terrific options for my own home and I have been lucky enough to utilize them in setting up my home, particularly the smart home capabilities.
Smart home devices can be tough to rate and judge because they could work in one person’s home with their home setup better than in yours. However, if you just don’t like a specific feature about the device, it should be considered not worth your time and money. Some of the products I’ve had over the years just weren’t for me and they have not made my life any better. Unfortunately, I still think about them from time to time.
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A smart thermostat was actually more of a hassle
I get the pros, but I can’t get past the cons
Credit: Christine Persaud / MUO
These selections are ones that did not work for me. They might work better for your situation and your home. If so, I’d love to hear about the success stories in the comments. It also doesn’t mean I won’t stop trying new products, even ones like these.
Smart thermostats can lower your energy bill by understanding your home and your preferences and adjusting themselves automatically to accommodate them. You can set your thermostat from your phone or ask your smart speaker or hub to adjust it with your voice.
Thermostats that you don’t have to stand in front of to change are easier to control and can help you save money. For me personally,
I just want something that is going to work consistently and not be a burden.
I’ve tried smart thermostats in my home. The initial setup was more difficult than I’d imagined. The one I tested wasn’t compatible with my HVAC system, but I didn’t realize that until I’d gotten the device. Once I got the correct one, it wasn’t too hard to install. But I did have trouble hooking one up to my smart home system, as the area of the house where the thermostat sat is not near my router.
With it having to rely on Wi-Fi to work well, I had to add it to my Wi-Fi extender to work as well as possible. Then, when my Wi-Fi went out, I wasn’t able to access the thermostat. I didn’t love the idea that a local outage could cause my house to rise to hot temperatures in the summer.
The fact that both my wife and I work from home, we are always in the house. This means that we keep the temperature set to a certain degree most of the day. This limits the amount of savings we can actually get from a smart thermostat, as it doesn’t need to adjust for an empty house. All in all, I’m just sticking with my standard thermostat.
An outdoor motion sensor hasn’t done what I wanted it to
Too many mess-ups for my liking
I really wanted to have nice outdoor lights surrounding my deck. My wife and I love to spend time outside during the summer on our deck. We have a Ring Flood Light Cam Pro that looks out into the backyard, making it easier for my dog to go to the bathroom at night because it turns on with motion. However, it is a spotlight and is incredibly bright.
When you’re sitting outside, it can be really harsh if you’re trying to enjoy a low-key evening. So some string lights seemed like the right idea. I figured adding an outdoor motion sensor would help turn the lights on and make the moment nice. I’ve had hit-or-miss results with motion sensors, but I thought it might be a good idea.
Rather than getting up off the couch, I could potentially wave, and they would turn on. The motion sensor I tried was the Govee Outdoor Motion Sensor. I did not have success with this.
The sensor rarely actually picked up motion, even when I walked past it. It didn’t matter if it was light or day. It just never consistently worked as well as I’d hoped. I would always have to go back through the Govee app to try to recalibrate it.
I ended up just syncing the lights to my Amazon Alexa smart home system, rather than relying on the motion sensor. It does the trick.
A smart home controller wasn’t the quick fix I’d hoped for
It didn’t save me the time I wanted
Credit: Chris Hachey / MakeUseOf
Trying to get the most out of your smart home can be tricky. You may want the devices to communicate with one another, which is why you might rely on a smart home hub or devices that run on protocols like Thread or Matter.
However, you may still have devices that you need to control through the manufacturer’s app, which can make it feel like you aren’t actually setting up a smart home at all. Having to open up different apps to make things work is more of a hassle than it’s worth.
That’s why something like a smart home controller could be a huge fix. Rather than needing to go to your phone and open up individual apps, you can control all of your devices from one controller.
The controller will sync up with lights, cameras, TVs, and all kinds of gadgets and you can turn them on and off or adjust the settings from this single remote. Being able to do it all with one device makes it feel like you don’t even need a smart home hub.
While the idea makes sense in theory, the setup of all these devices to one remote was a nightmare. It wasn’t a universal process. Each device needed a bit of finagling to actually work with the remote.
Once they were up and running, some of the devices worked great. They responded well to the remote and there wasn’t much of an issue. However, other devices lagged and some didn’t work at all. While the device was able to store a lot of different devices, it became hard to remember which ones actually worked and which ones weren’t worth it.
I don’t doubt that something like this could be better in the future. But right now, the frustration mounted.
A touchless paper towel dispenser was a no-go
I got so frustrated with this
Credit: Chris Hachey / MakeUseOf
Want to make your kitchen feel more like a store bathroom? Add a touchless paper towel dispenser to it. Alright, maybe that’s oversimplifying things a bit, but having a paper towel dispenser that you don’t need to rip off is a unique kitchen gadget for sure.
It has a sensor and you wave your hand in front of it to trigger the action of dispensing some paper towels. Sounds like it should work well, right?
That’s only partially true. I became more and more frustrated with this, as it really didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. In theory, a wave of the hand and you can rip off a few paper towels. But, you still have to rip off the paper towels in the end. So, the only action this is saving you from doing is unrolling some paper towels.
If you don’t rip it perfectly, the dispenser becomes jammed. This happened frequently, which made me wonder constantly why I was even bothering with this.
Not all smart home gadgets are what they’re cracked up to be
I had high hopes for some of the smart home devices on this list. Unfortunately, they didn’t pan out. That’s part of the gamble of trying to figure out which gadgets will work best in your home. While I have a smart home filled with very useful smart devices, others haven’t lived up to the hype. Buyer’s remorse is a tough thing to experience as well, but it’s a part of the experience.
