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Your kitchen is full of appliances, but they’re dumb.
Creating a smart kitchen isn’t hard, andeveryone in the home can benefit.
Why a Smart Kitchen?
Your kitchen is a room of productivity and mess.
You cook your meals, clean your dishes, and maybe even eat in your kitchen.
Every cabinet, utensil, and tool contributes to your kitchen experience, for better or worse.
And adding intelligence to your cooking space can improve your recipes and speed up the work.
Kitchens can host some of the most useful smarthome technology in your home.
But it’s not all big, flashy new appliances.
Or, better yet, a smart display like theNest HuborEcho Show.
or “how many cups in a liter?”
when you better convert to another measuring system.
And to keep yourself entertained, you might listen to music while you cook.
And they can speed up the grocery list.
A smart display, like Amazon Show or Nest Hub, is even better.
Josh Hendrickson / How-To Geek
Got a Nest Hub?
Some companies are starting to release smart displays specifically designed for the kitchen, too.
At CES 2019, KitchenAid announced the $200Smart Display.
It’s effectively a Nest Hub that’s splash resistant and comes with exclusive cooking content.
But you don’t need to go as far with smart lights as you might in other rooms.
Instead, you might consider eitherwhite smart bulbsor asmart switch.
June
Some smart bulbs, like those byPhilips Hue, cost that much on their own.
But if you prefer to save money, you could always buy standard LEDs andconvert them to Zigbee.
You’ll spend something closer to the $50 range and get 16 feet of LEDs.
Delta
And even if you do know to cook, you may not enjoy it or find it time-consuming.
Smart ovens are designed to help with all those scenarios.
Most smart ovens look like an oversized toaster oven and work off similar principles.
iRobot
Typically they house a camera pointed at the food you place in the oven.
Artificial intelligence examines the food, recognizes the ingredients, and then determines an optimal temperature and cook time.
TheBrava Oven, however, starts at $1,000 and goes up depending on what accessories you want.
Most smart ovens are countertop units, and won’t replace your full-sized oven.
You’ll use it to fill measuring cups, pots, and clean your dishes.
Inevitably, when you’re cooking, you’ll need water, but your hands are full or dirty.
A voice-enabled faucet takes that convenience a step further.
Imagine saying “fill pitcher” every time you made Kool-aid for your children or iced tea for yourself.
Voice-enabled faucets come with a few drawbacks, though.
The voice commands aren’t very intuitive.
For Alexa, you’d say, “Tell Delta to dispense one cup of water.”
Additionally, you’ll need a convenient plug under your sink, preferably one not controlled by a switch.
The biggest drawback, though, is price.Delta’s VoiceID faucetruns just under $550.
Just plug the lamp or gadget into the smart plug, then plug that into the wall.
You’ll handle the rest of the setup through an app.
For recipes that originate outside the U.S., asmart scalemay come in handy.
They usually connect through Bluetooth and give you a readout on your phone or tablet.
Just pour and watch the results on your screen.
At around $20, a smart scale isn’t a significant investment but may save time and effort.
If you hate mopping the kitchen floor, iRobot’sBraava mopping robotwill alleviate some of your frustration.
Think of this as a wet Swiffer that does the pushing and moving for you.
It’s also one of the cheapest robots offered by iRobot, at just $170 plus refill pads.
The one gear we don’t recommend for your kitchen is a smart refrigerator.
That general reasoning should apply to any intelligence you add to your kitchen.
You want to check that what you use adds enough convenience to justify any complication.
And that the extra tech doesn’t make a machine less secure and more prone to failure.
