Probably the light strips they look so good at night and day and I don't even use my ceiling lights anymore lol, also the Google nest hub because I dont need my phone all the time if I want to do anything but thanks Reed for inspiring me to build my own smart home
Shelly relays. They work well with my strong WiFi network, made by a company that cares about offline support and cloud-free, and are installed behind most of my light switches. The switch appearance matches my house because they're the original switches, the relays just "smart-ify" them behind the scenes. I even have some light switches wired to exclusively control smart bulbs this way, even though the switch looks completely ordinary. And of course, everything works without the Internet, and even work when the WiFi is down (albeit without the "smart" enhancements). They've been at least 99.9% reliable over the past 2 years. Something that surprised me as a 10/10 would be some of the SwitchBot Bluetooth products. I've been using some of their thermometers and they've been *super* reliable, their battery lasts a really long time, and they even update pretty quickly. They integrate with Home Assistant flawlessly, assuming you have a Bluetooth radio in your Home Assistant hardware - Home Assistant discovers them and lets you add them with just a click of a button within 30 seconds of turning them on for the first time! And Home Assistant of course is a 10/10, amazing software.
I totally hear you on the Alexa advertisements. So annoying. I got tired of hearing "By the way...", so I created an Alexa routine that runs every day at midnight that tells Alexa "Stop by the way". Works perfectly. I haven't heard this in months.
Need to provide feedback to Amazon. Their default business culture is supposed to be "customer obsession". Feedback on how this presents a negative customer experience from lots of users should get some attention.
Came to the comments to say this! Game changer. 6am every morning HA tells every Echo to stop it. and it's off for the rest of the day. Still would have something local and affordable that works as well as Echo, but we're just not there quite yet. In the mean time, this works to make Alexa not as annoying.
8:41 I’ve added an automation which is like a kids alarm. When my wife and I do some action in the bedroom and a door of one of the kids opens or the motion sensor of r their hallway detects a motion we get an alert with the smart lights in the bedroom. Very helpful:)
Surprised you rated buttons so low! I find they are a great supplement to smart switches and more convenient than pulling out the phone for everything. My most used one is on the fridge to toggle kitchen scenes
Yeah. I literally am about to put one everywhere. My mom is like "we have Alexa, and now you want buttons again? We could have just kept the dumb lights and stuff." But I am planning to put one by my bed to control the lights, fans, air conditioner, air purifier, and playing a specific playlist of music that helps me go to sleep in my room.
and for Home Assistant user, you can actually capture all the buttons off of the pico. So handy to program your own behavior. I programmed my wife night stand light remote to turn my side if her side is already off!
That was the one that surprised me as well. I have hidden buttons everywhere. The use that earned me the approval were buttons that summon the robovac to do a particular room. Ie whack the one in the kitchen and the vac appears and does the kitchen.
Zemismart blind driver is my favourite out of the 40 devices in my home, I never have to open and close the blinds as they run automatically 10/10. Also 10/10 for my Gimdow door lock and 10/10 for my Brilliant Elite smart home switches.
@@gogades - hey yeah that's wild - where are you seeing it for $150? We have a distribution partner up in CA that has them for $75 (just checked their site bc I was going to have words with them if they were gouging that bad). Our only authorized reseller is Aartech. Sorry about the scare, hopefully that cleared things up a bit!
Regarding the Lutron motion lights - I did the same thing for my utility room, but I took it next level. I don't have toddlers anymore so I removed the door latch and just replaced it with a magnetic latch/catch. When I come down with my hands full with laundry, a big Costco order or a bunch of tools, I just bump the door open and the Lutron motion light does its thing. Game changer ! The only problem I've had is that I also tried to open _other_ doors by bumping them, and they didn't use magnetic latches so ..... crash. 😬
Ditch the Raspberry Pi and install HA on something SFF like a refurbished HP Elitedesk Mini. It's basically the same price and the performance increase is massive. Like me, you'll wish you'd done it way sooner.
Yay, I'm always a bit surprised raspberry is always recommended for HA when it's quite expensive and really not powerful. I got my setup for 1/4 the price and several times better performance.
Especially if you run proxmox on it first. The backup and restore alone is worth it. And if you're like me with multiple proxmox servers you can have high-availability on your HA server.
@@benalthofmassive quality of life improvements like making and restoring backups is virtually instant which means you actually do it before messing with things. Boot up is very quick too. And you never have to worry about CPU usage etc. And yeah at the same sort of price it's kind of a no brainer.
Since I live in Poland and dont get any advertisement from Amazon, except reminds to change filters or my packages I rate it 9/10. I actually agree with Ally's rates more than yours, but I love smart home anyway 😁
Great video. I really enjoy the cuts to your wife's reason for rating something differently. My 10/10 is definitely my robot vacuum. It just works so well and helps me keep a cleaner home with less work.
Maaaan! This guy is swimming in some serious tech toys. It's like a dream for most people. Wonder how many were sponsored vs. paid for? I guess with more than a half million subscribers he can afford to buy any kind of sheet he wants.
I did an automation routine on Alexa. Each morning it turns off any by the way announcements from Amazon. Other than notifications for deliveries. Do not get one announcement on any echos or dots.
I had an EcoWitt all-in-one weather station just like the Tempest but got rid of it because those style of stations are wildly inaccurate here in AZ! The temperature was consistently 5deg (or more) too high whenever the sun comes up and the piezoelectric water sensor might as well give random numbers, it is so off. There are a lot of connected Tempest devices around me so I know that Tempest is giving the same very-wrong numbers. I replaced the all-in-one with a suite of separate devices which is much much more of a pain to setup (and more expensive) but at least I know I'm getting extremely accurate numbers (after double-checking with calibrated sensors). Still EcoWitt since those integrate with HA very easily.
Amazing video, and funny as well. My wife is the same, hate when I’m spending hours on home assistant setups and debugs. Also she doesn’t use her phone for most features. Fun fact is the most used feature by wife is a button that will track and play a tune to find her phone. She never knows where is her phone, so that might explain why not using it hehe
I put smart door locks on all my doors. Front, back, and garage entry. The garage was the most pertinent, because my better half refused to lock it. 9/10 usefulness.
3:23 what was the light switch on the left? It looked pretty cool with the metallic ring in the middle and looks like it has tons of controls. where can I buy it?
I am so glad you added your wife’s opinion on this. I also appreciate that you are in North America. What is with the other side of the world being totally cool with a 5v wire jungle everywhere? I watched your video on Lutron Switches and agree 100% Why is everything SMART so FUGLY? I just spent $3K on switches for a complete gut on our home. Blank canvas. Pick a box size and run AC Mains wherever you want…. do you think I can find a mains power (blanket slate… lets say 24V) motion sensor that doesn’t look like (I am quoting a local home builder here) a “Tinker Tot Trinket, with an ugly tail”? He went on to also eliminate the goofy stands, etc. To be clear, I am a tinker Tot. To be even more clear, I agree with him 100% as a Tinker Tot. As someone who *tries* to sell and install Smart Home devices using Home Assistant. The OVERWHELMING objection is FUGLY. The next objection (remember that 3K Lutron solution), is price. Now I know you live in the Southern US and AC is pretty much Standard Equipment… but up here in Canada (Edmonton, Alberta, the northern most metropolis) AC is something we use for a couple months in the summer. The reason I bring this up is simple; When a Tinker Tot, or someone even remotely interested in a smart home, walks into a Home Builder’s showroom and runs the numbers on what a Smart Home (just the switches folks) costs, and then looks to see that it is the same cost as installing A/C…. Where do you think the decision maker (wife) goes? Then we add FUGLY factor, and the Smart Home is all but defeated, even in the Tinker Tot’s mind. I want to hear more from your wife friend. HER voice needs to be heard, because it’s HER voice that is KILLING smart home.
I was hoping that this would be more of a "function/value for price/cost based upon real world usage" rather than a mostly personal preference based more upon aesthetics than function exploration. Less emotionalism, more of a "fit for purpose" evaluation. I do completely understand how the best item(s) for the task(s) may not be the best personal choice as one's personal preferences & style does dictate choices at some level & one does need to enjoy the things that are introduced into one's life on a more permanent/semi-permanent basis. I am just not at a level to be able to afford considerations too far beyond function & longevity outside of a rather strict frugality. An enjoyable video nonetheless. It is good to see reasonings as to why changes have been made over time. And not only because little ones can now tap away your settings due to the previously low placement of your dashboard ( 7:00 )
Great and fun look at the smart stuff. I do think what's really interesting is the fine line between convenience and added work when it comes to gadgets. As someone who has quite a bit less smart stuff in the home that you, I find that I am regularly having to adjust and work on things. It's like a second job. Or third. Or something. The one thing that I have never had to work on is the Ring security system. So, that's my 10/10. I love smart doorbells, but I've yet to try one that I would rate 10/10.
Interesting that people use so much off the shelf stuff - well, everything. I understand. But personally its so much more fun to make everything from scratch - just so much more control and debugging is a joy (since you made it).
What finally really started to get my wife on board was when I put a Shelly 1 on the garage door opener so she could hit it from her phone or CarPlay screen. Lights were kinda whatever to her. But being able to open the garage when she wasn’t in her normal car with the regular opener, that was the trick
Love the difference of opinion in your house. We should probably have that sort of conversation in our smart home. I tend to just do stuff and think it's brilliant. I have little to no idea what others in the house actually think 😂. ps. smart buttons are brilliant, especially if you keep them mobile and don't stick them down 👍.
For the devices we have in common, I agree. Roborock, ecobees (I have 3), etc. In process of swapping out our outdoor wyze cameras new house thick brick wifi just not cutting it. I liked where Ally weighed in - the WAF is critical. One of the reasons for the camera upgrade wifey uses them all the time - so need better and faster. Tapos.
You may have done this but it may be helpful to offer up alternatives for the items you rated lower! Great video. We just built a house and I am looking forward to integrating some of these.
I haven’t met a doorbell yet that I really love. I had the UniFi. It bricked itself after a little over a year. When it was working, Home Assistant integration was great (HomeKit wasn’t supported). It did take a long time to bring up footage. Scrubbing through footage could crash the app. Upshot though: it can record 24x7. And it can offer RTSP feeds. So it has a lot going for it. But maybe more like a 7/10 for me.
IMHO: Lutron is dead. Get regular switches and use Hue smart switches. Way more flexible and programable... $40 each. You spent the savings on hue bulbs. Same cost, way more flexible. ;)
Gotta say, for the devices we have in common I think you’re pretty much spot on. The only one I’ve consistently had poor experience with is Bond. We use it strictly for fans. Always been a pain to setup, if it even works with the fan. For me, solid 4 out of 10. Oh, and since you’re keeping score, I think Mollys’ got your number! 🤣
Interesting, I've got Bond too in a 3 story Townhome, and I literally never have issues with it. It's one of my most reliable integrations. I'm mostly just controlling ceiling fans though.
@@blord1976 Same here, just fans, but a two story single family home. I really wanted it to work. Here’s weird example, I have a fan on the second floor in our exercise room by one manufacturer. I have another two on the back yard patio cover. They are the same manufacturer, but both different from the one on the second floor. Here’s the thing … turning on the one upstairs simultaneously turns on only one on the patio cover. Turn it off turns the one outside off too. 🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️
Well that’s definitely a channel issue. Different manufacturers may still use the same wireless controllers. I would look into trying to change the channel on one of the fans to see if that helps (if possible). If you can’t, maybe look at getting a new controller only for the fan. Most have a few dip switches to set channels, etc. Of course that means you will have to reprogram the Bond too and any remotes.
Sonoff S31 Lite (Zigbee) smart plugs. I have them all over my house. I use them most heavily for controlling lights, misting systems, etc for my terrariums and vivariums. As will as plant lights for my house plants. 10/10
If one is wanting to go with budget light switches (and dimmers) I recommend going with GE SYNC rather than Kasa Smart. I have found Kasa Smart to be highly unreliable and it seems like practically any Kasa device starts going completely unresponsive after about 6 to 12 months.
I had Home Assistant on a Raspi Pi4 with USB SSD just like you and recently upgraded to a Pi5 with the NVME HAT. For somebody with that many devices, I can only urge you to test it out and see how much more snappy the dashboards will get Also, thanks for the video. A lot of good inspiration :)
lutron caseta is my 10/10. we have these on many of our lights as well as the bedroom fan and they're pretty handy to control from wall switches or voice with google assistant. i've even added some of the pico remotes to easily put a wall switch next to the vanity for example so i can turn that light on from in front of the sink without the noise of talking to google about it when i'm up for work before my wife. the one i use next most is probably the garage door which is a genie with the smartness built in. i get notifications on my phone when the garage door opens or closes, so i dismiss the closed ones and check on it if the open stays active too long without being replaced with a closed notification. sometimes it misses the closed notification, so i either go look or if i'm not home i check the driveway camera to verify it's actually closed. it won't let me open or close with voice for security reasons and insists on beeping and flashing the light for 5 seconds before opening or closing from the app so i mostly just use the open/close notifications from it . . . which honestly i could get from a window/door sensor. my most disappointing smart device has been the kitchen faucet from kohler. while we use the motion sensor to turn it on and off and love that, we had hoped the kids would be able to voice control it when they were too short to reach the sensor but the voice control has been spotty at best, leading me to create a phrase that would turn it on for X seconds because it often wouldn't respond to a second command to turn it off. it only worked at all for a few months until neither voice control or the app will do anything at all besides tell me the faucet is offline. haven't really tried it in possibly a year or so though, so maybe it's better now. also maybe they put all their effort into ios and don't care if their android app works properly. the other frustrating smart devices have been shades with somfy motors that communicate through an ezlo 100 dongle. we didn't put these in bedrooms but the living room, kitchen, and stairs are on a schedule to more or less open in the morning and close at night so we don't touch them. when it works. it frequently loses its wifi connection (can still follow the schedule without) and doesn't integrate with home assistant. plus the app has been buggy like forgetting part of the routine if i make an edit and originally having inaccurate sunrise / sunset timing. pretty sure they're z-wave and i could swap something in for the dongle that's better supported (maybe something that can plug in with ethernet) and use a different app with a better experience but i'm having trouble finding the information i need to know what's going to work before buying something and trying it out. would love to put them with the lutron smart dimmers but failed to pair there and then found a post saying the lutron bridge doesn't do z-wave
I have been a Weatherflow user since their Kickstarter, and when the unit goes dead quickly it is usually a failing battery. Which is my one complaint that the user cannot change the battery, though they do give a healthy discount to replace it with a new unit if you contact their customer service.
Ive noticed almost all women absolutely love the frame TV, yet all men prefer quality and funtionality of a standard one. We have a frame 55" in living room and a 85" samsung neo in basement bonus room. My wife and daughter would rather watch that stupid frame all day instead of the gloriousness downstairs. Works out well for me.
I was looking for a response several people had regarding the dashboard. What smart device is that, you do not say in the video? How did you set that up?
Hey Reed you inspired me to go with Tesla for my solar panels. I want a power bank also because they start charging peak pricing between 11:00am through 6:00 PM
I use a Geeni garage door opener. No issues and is a low cost option. Even sends me a messagebif it is left open or if my Internet goes down. I think I paid around $30. Easy to install.
Me and my mom are coming up with wacky ideas for zwave scene controllers outside the scope of scenes, one being to know that the mail hasnt been checked yet, pressing it dismisses that reminder, another reminds us if any doors are left open, pressing it tells us which ones (replaces the nest guard reminder)
Don't you know? 1-10 scale is out. The cool kids all use Tiers. True story though, your channel is awesome. Planning so many things for my home that's currently being contructed.
My issue with the Kasa dimmers is that sometimes they randomly desync between the indicator leds and the actual light state. For example, sometimes when I hit the switch the indicators will start coming on to show the state of the light, but the light itself will never actually turn on. Needs to be turned off and on again to resync.
Thanks. I learned a lot. I think I’m going to adopt the video ambush technique on my wife to try and get quicker answers to questions I ask. No chance this strategy blows up in my face.
Honestly, I have issues with it controlling ceiling fans in a room directly below where the bridge is. I've been meaning to try to solve that but I haven't had time yet.
I have a Rachio smart spigot valve. I give it 8/10. It uses its own weird hub. It should have just been a Zigbee, Zwave, Matter over Thread, or even LoRa device.
Bond bridge - you said you use it to control your fans and external blinds. Does one bridge control all the fans in all the different rooms? Or do you have multiple bridges ?
In this video, The Big Takeaway is your wife’s perspective. Highlights that many smart devices are perceived as useful or not. I put in some smart dimmer switches in some of the rooms… never use them. I just thought I would at the time of getting them.
Love this video idea, Reed! I also have the Tempest but I’ve never had it go offline due to lack of charge. Surprised it’s happening to you in Arizona. Maybe try a different placement?
I'd love an updated video comparing Google home and the echo devices! I'm curious how they have changed over time. I recently got an echo after being a Google home family for years and I'm curious your thoughts
Sorry tried to read thru the messages but if this was said good. If not yay. The tempest had an issue the charging. Call the customer service line and they should be able to troubleshoot and assist. Mine is working great now.
Loved the video! My 10/10 device in my home is my Kasa light bulbs. They are wifi but they have been flawless. Do you use hue with the bridge or just paired them directly to zigbee?
Hmm, I have constant issues with Ring disconnecting from Home Assistant. Also, spending 2 hours debugging things in Home Assistant *probably* isn't home assistant's fault (although I did have my HA botch an OS update and that took several hours to repair).
Hey Reed, You are using the Ring Alarm Keypad. Can you also use this with HomeAssitant if you want to use it for automation? Do you generally have to take out a subscription for the Ring keypad, or can you just do that? I'm looking for a keypad that I can use with HomeAssistant without having to take out a subscription with Ring or have other products from this company. Does this keypad work completely without a cloud connection to Ring in HA? Thank you.
There was a cinema in my town that started selling ice-cream with toppings ... we quickly realised we could buy one scoop of ice-cream and fill up the tub with toppings 😎
Hey reed!! Have you heard about Google home deleting integrations and refusing to reconnect? I’m trying to troubleshoot this now, I have about 30 devices on my local smarthome instance that have been kicked out of Google home for no reason. My roborock vacuum was also kicked and I can’t even add it back!
You can start small and expand. Add a couple wifi switches to a single room like the kitchen or family room. Porch Lights are another good entry level target. Be careful though, it's addictive.
Yeah I did something like that a long time ago but that could be a fun challenge for a full 24 hours. We might have 3 angry kids on my hands but it could be good for them!
How do you solve your outdoor things not getting stolen? cameras. video doorbell, sensors .... Quite alot of money. I want to get a outdoor camera for my porch, but I havent foud one in castiron or stainless steel. Have you got a solution for that.
Love to see a video on your 3 hours it took to get home assistant working the other night your wife was talking about. Was it during an update or did something quit working?
I'm surprised that you're still running your Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi, I had to upgrade to a Dell Optiplex as my Pi sometimes shutdown randomly (probably due to me running too many automations...)
I am rebuilding my Smart home as I just moved and I’m mainly trying to find matter devices so they can be brand diagnostic but as far as the connectivity method, I’m having trouble finding a lot of thread based devices and I’m worried about getting too many Wi-Fi devices has this been a problem for you having most of your devices connected via Wi-Fi?
Hey Reed, great vid as always. Curious about the Ring alarm, do you use ring sensors with that or have it and a variety of sensors tied back to home assistant?
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Let's hear it: what device is a 10/10 in your smart home?👇
Probably the light strips they look so good at night and day and I don't even use my ceiling lights anymore lol, also the Google nest hub because I dont need my phone all the time if I want to do anything but thanks Reed for inspiring me to build my own smart home
Home assistant
The vibration sensor that I attached to my 125 year old pull bell (doorbell)! And Home Assistant and motion sensors
Shelly relays. They work well with my strong WiFi network, made by a company that cares about offline support and cloud-free, and are installed behind most of my light switches. The switch appearance matches my house because they're the original switches, the relays just "smart-ify" them behind the scenes. I even have some light switches wired to exclusively control smart bulbs this way, even though the switch looks completely ordinary. And of course, everything works without the Internet, and even work when the WiFi is down (albeit without the "smart" enhancements). They've been at least 99.9% reliable over the past 2 years.
Something that surprised me as a 10/10 would be some of the SwitchBot Bluetooth products. I've been using some of their thermometers and they've been *super* reliable, their battery lasts a really long time, and they even update pretty quickly. They integrate with Home Assistant flawlessly, assuming you have a Bluetooth radio in your Home Assistant hardware - Home Assistant discovers them and lets you add them with just a click of a button within 30 seconds of turning them on for the first time!
And Home Assistant of course is a 10/10, amazing software.
The all important question, what rating did Ally give you? 😉(Thanks for another get vid)
I totally hear you on the Alexa advertisements. So annoying. I got tired of hearing "By the way...", so I created an Alexa routine that runs every day at midnight that tells Alexa "Stop by the way". Works perfectly. I haven't heard this in months.
Woah I'm going to have to try that!
Strange. I disable "By the way" in the Alexa app months ago and have never heard an advert since then.
Need to provide feedback to Amazon. Their default business culture is supposed to be "customer obsession". Feedback on how this presents a negative customer experience from lots of users should get some attention.
odd, I don't get that.
Came to the comments to say this! Game changer. 6am every morning HA tells every Echo to stop it. and it's off for the rest of the day. Still would have something local and affordable that works as well as Echo, but we're just not there quite yet. In the mean time, this works to make Alexa not as annoying.
The wifes input was very useful to hear. We can get caught up in what we think is awesome, but others aren't so hot about it. 11/10
8:41 I’ve added an automation which is like a kids alarm. When my wife and I do some action in the bedroom and a door of one of the kids opens or the motion sensor of r their hallway detects a motion we get an alert with the smart lights in the bedroom. Very helpful:)
Dudes really be pushing buttons to activate "coitus mode" 😂
Lmao love the gaslighting "User error" etc for all the reviews 🤣🤣 my wife is also an Aly and we have similar conversations
Ally makes a great point about Home Assistant. :D
Love mine, of course.
Surprised you rated buttons so low! I find they are a great supplement to smart switches and more convenient than pulling out the phone for everything. My most used one is on the fridge to toggle kitchen scenes
Yeah. I literally am about to put one everywhere. My mom is like "we have Alexa, and now you want buttons again? We could have just kept the dumb lights and stuff." But I am planning to put one by my bed to control the lights, fans, air conditioner, air purifier, and playing a specific playlist of music that helps me go to sleep in my room.
Totally agree: the whole point of a smart home is NOT to have to pull your phone out!
and for Home Assistant user, you can actually capture all the buttons off of the pico. So handy to program your own behavior. I programmed my wife night stand light remote to turn my side if her side is already off!
That was the one that surprised me as well. I have hidden buttons everywhere. The use that earned me the approval were buttons that summon the robovac to do a particular room. Ie whack the one in the kitchen and the vac appears and does the kitchen.
What do you use as the Dashboard? Great video 👍👍
I rate this video a 10!
Zemismart blind driver is my favourite out of the 40 devices in my home, I never have to open and close the blinds as they run automatically 10/10. Also 10/10 for my Gimdow door lock and 10/10 for my Brilliant Elite smart home switches.
I always look forward to the end of your videos! They’re always so funny! Keep doing it!
Haha thanks!
Thanks for the shout-out and the 10, Reed! It's an honor to be in your house :)
Eric
I would be interested in trying them but $150 in Canada ? Yikes.
@@gogades - hey yeah that's wild - where are you seeing it for $150? We have a distribution partner up in CA that has them for $75 (just checked their site bc I was going to have words with them if they were gouging that bad). Our only authorized reseller is Aartech.
Sorry about the scare, hopefully that cleared things up a bit!
@@Inovelli thanks I'll check it out. That's what came up on Amazon up here but I'll check with the authorized distributor
@@gogades sounds good - any questions, I'm happy to help!
Regarding the Lutron motion lights - I did the same thing for my utility room, but I took it next level.
I don't have toddlers anymore so I removed the door latch and just replaced it with a magnetic latch/catch. When I come down with my hands full with laundry, a big Costco order or a bunch of tools, I just bump the door open and the Lutron motion light does its thing. Game changer !
The only problem I've had is that I also tried to open _other_ doors by bumping them, and they didn't use magnetic latches so ..... crash. 😬
Do you happen to have a link to the magnetic latch you used?
this was fun and useful. and +1 for the contrasting viewpoints from Ally.
Watching your channel with my wife and we loved you got your wife’s ratings perspective. Way to go!
Ditch the Raspberry Pi and install HA on something SFF like a refurbished HP Elitedesk Mini. It's basically the same price and the performance increase is massive. Like me, you'll wish you'd done it way sooner.
I'm running on a Dell Optiplex i5 with a small M2 SSD I got off of ebay, very solid and the more you automate and integrate the more compute you need.
Yay, I'm always a bit surprised raspberry is always recommended for HA when it's quite expensive and really not powerful. I got my setup for 1/4 the price and several times better performance.
Especially if you run proxmox on it first. The backup and restore alone is worth it.
And if you're like me with multiple proxmox servers you can have high-availability on your HA server.
Where do you see performance improvements? Just overall faster reaction time?
@@benalthofmassive quality of life improvements like making and restoring backups is virtually instant which means you actually do it before messing with things. Boot up is very quick too. And you never have to worry about CPU usage etc. And yeah at the same sort of price it's kind of a no brainer.
How many years worth of power bills could you pay for with what you spent on 3 Tesla powerwalls???
Since I live in Poland and dont get any advertisement from Amazon, except reminds to change filters or my packages I rate it 9/10. I actually agree with Ally's rates more than yours, but I love smart home anyway 😁
Oh that's nice it doesn't have ads over there! And she will be happy to hear people are on her side 😂
Nice to know that there's more polish audience here :)
Great video. I really enjoy the cuts to your wife's reason for rating something differently. My 10/10 is definitely my robot vacuum. It just works so well and helps me keep a cleaner home with less work.
Maaaan! This guy is swimming in some serious tech toys. It's like a dream for most people. Wonder how many were sponsored vs. paid for? I guess with more than a half million subscribers he can afford to buy any kind of sheet he wants.
I did an automation routine on Alexa. Each morning it turns off any by the way announcements from Amazon. Other than notifications for deliveries. Do not get one announcement on any echos or dots.
Qwe
I had an EcoWitt all-in-one weather station just like the Tempest but got rid of it because those style of stations are wildly inaccurate here in AZ! The temperature was consistently 5deg (or more) too high whenever the sun comes up and the piezoelectric water sensor might as well give random numbers, it is so off. There are a lot of connected Tempest devices around me so I know that Tempest is giving the same very-wrong numbers. I replaced the all-in-one with a suite of separate devices which is much much more of a pain to setup (and more expensive) but at least I know I'm getting extremely accurate numbers (after double-checking with calibrated sensors). Still EcoWitt since those integrate with HA very easily.
“You had to debug it for a solid 2 hours”
I know! Wasn’t that great?
“….”
--
How that conversation would go with my wife 😅
What is the smart home dashboard on your kitchen counter running on? Is that a tablet with a charging stand?
Google Nest Hub Max
Great video Reed. It’s always great to see the blitz of a variety of products.
Amazing video, and funny as well.
My wife is the same, hate when I’m spending hours on home assistant setups and debugs. Also she doesn’t use her phone for most features.
Fun fact is the most used feature by wife is a button that will track and play a tune to find her phone. She never knows where is her phone, so that might explain why not using it hehe
I love how straight to the point this video is. 👍
I put smart door locks on all my doors. Front, back, and garage entry. The garage was the most pertinent, because my better half refused to lock it.
9/10 usefulness.
3:23 what was the light switch on the left? It looked pretty cool with the metallic ring in the middle and looks like it has tons of controls. where can I buy it?
Haiku fan controller
I am so glad you added your wife’s opinion on this. I also appreciate that you are in North America. What is with the other side of the world being totally cool with a 5v wire jungle everywhere? I watched your video on Lutron Switches and agree 100% Why is everything SMART so FUGLY?
I just spent $3K on switches for a complete gut on our home. Blank canvas. Pick a box size and run AC Mains wherever you want…. do you think I can find a mains power (blanket slate… lets say 24V) motion sensor that doesn’t look like (I am quoting a local home builder here) a “Tinker Tot Trinket, with an ugly tail”? He went on to also eliminate the goofy stands, etc.
To be clear, I am a tinker Tot. To be even more clear, I agree with him 100% as a Tinker Tot.
As someone who *tries* to sell and install Smart Home devices using Home Assistant. The OVERWHELMING objection is FUGLY. The next objection (remember that 3K Lutron solution), is price. Now I know you live in the Southern US and AC is pretty much Standard Equipment… but up here in Canada (Edmonton, Alberta, the northern most metropolis) AC is something we use for a couple months in the summer. The reason I bring this up is simple;
When a Tinker Tot, or someone even remotely interested in a smart home, walks into a Home Builder’s showroom and runs the numbers on what a Smart Home (just the switches folks) costs, and then looks to see that it is the same cost as installing A/C…. Where do you think the decision maker (wife) goes? Then we add FUGLY factor, and the Smart Home is all but defeated, even in the Tinker Tot’s mind.
I want to hear more from your wife friend. HER voice needs to be heard, because it’s HER voice that is KILLING smart home.
I was hoping that this would be more of a "function/value for price/cost based upon real world usage" rather than a mostly personal preference based more upon aesthetics than function exploration. Less emotionalism, more of a "fit for purpose" evaluation.
I do completely understand how the best item(s) for the task(s) may not be the best personal choice as one's personal preferences & style does dictate choices at some level & one does need to enjoy the things that are introduced into one's life on a more permanent/semi-permanent basis. I am just not at a level to be able to afford considerations too far beyond function & longevity outside of a rather strict frugality.
An enjoyable video nonetheless. It is good to see reasonings as to why changes have been made over time. And not only because little ones can now tap away your settings due to the previously low placement of your dashboard ( 7:00 )
Great and fun look at the smart stuff. I do think what's really interesting is the fine line between convenience and added work when it comes to gadgets. As someone who has quite a bit less smart stuff in the home that you, I find that I am regularly having to adjust and work on things. It's like a second job. Or third. Or something. The one thing that I have never had to work on is the Ring security system. So, that's my 10/10. I love smart doorbells, but I've yet to try one that I would rate 10/10.
Interesting that people use so much off the shelf stuff - well, everything. I understand. But personally its so much more fun to make everything from scratch - just so much more control and debugging is a joy (since you made it).
What finally really started to get my wife on board was when I put a Shelly 1 on the garage door opener so she could hit it from her phone or CarPlay screen. Lights were kinda whatever to her. But being able to open the garage when she wasn’t in her normal car with the regular opener, that was the trick
Love the difference of opinion in your house. We should probably have that sort of conversation in our smart home. I tend to just do stuff and think it's brilliant. I have little to no idea what others in the house actually think 😂. ps. smart buttons are brilliant, especially if you keep them mobile and don't stick them down 👍.
For the devices we have in common, I agree. Roborock, ecobees (I have 3), etc. In process of swapping out our outdoor wyze cameras new house thick brick wifi just not cutting it. I liked where Ally weighed in - the WAF is critical. One of the reasons for the camera upgrade wifey uses them all the time - so need better and faster. Tapos.
You may have done this but it may be helpful to offer up alternatives for the items you rated lower! Great video. We just built a house and I am looking forward to integrating some of these.
We are newbie Snowbirds and the Schlage smart locks are pure platinum. Remote access control FTW! (along with many cameras!)
I haven’t met a doorbell yet that I really love. I had the UniFi. It bricked itself after a little over a year. When it was working, Home Assistant integration was great (HomeKit wasn’t supported). It did take a long time to bring up footage. Scrubbing through footage could crash the app. Upshot though: it can record 24x7. And it can offer RTSP feeds. So it has a lot going for it. But maybe more like a 7/10 for me.
IMHO: Lutron is dead. Get regular switches and use Hue smart switches. Way more flexible and programable... $40 each. You spent the savings on hue bulbs. Same cost, way more flexible. ;)
Gotta say, for the devices we have in common I think you’re pretty much spot on. The only one I’ve consistently had poor experience with is Bond. We use it strictly for fans. Always been a pain to setup, if it even works with the fan. For me, solid 4 out of 10. Oh, and since you’re keeping score, I think Mollys’ got your number! 🤣
Interesting, I've got Bond too in a 3 story Townhome, and I literally never have issues with it. It's one of my most reliable integrations. I'm mostly just controlling ceiling fans though.
@@blord1976 Same here, just fans, but a two story single family home. I really wanted it to work.
Here’s weird example, I have a fan on the second floor in our exercise room by one manufacturer. I have another two on the back yard patio cover. They are the same manufacturer, but both different from the one on the second floor.
Here’s the thing … turning on the one upstairs simultaneously turns on only one on the patio cover. Turn it off turns the one outside off too. 🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️
Well that’s definitely a channel issue. Different manufacturers may still use the same wireless controllers. I would look into trying to change the channel on one of the fans to see if that helps (if possible). If you can’t, maybe look at getting a new controller only for the fan. Most have a few dip switches to set channels, etc. Of course that means you will have to reprogram the Bond too and any remotes.
@@blord1976 Ah! Thanks … maybe you’re right! 👍🏻 Just went you think it’s a simple fix! Lol
if there was a simple HA touchscreen all loaded ready to go straight out of the box? I'd give that a 10/10 ! Same for local voice control!
I hope you are subscribed to Paul hibbert he just released exactly that video
Sonoff S31 Lite (Zigbee) smart plugs. I have them all over my house. I use them most heavily for controlling lights, misting systems, etc for my terrariums and vivariums. As will as plant lights for my house plants. 10/10
Nice video Reed!
By the way I got to cite you in my University assignment about smart home technology.
If one is wanting to go with budget light switches (and dimmers) I recommend going with GE SYNC rather than Kasa Smart. I have found Kasa Smart to be highly unreliable and it seems like practically any Kasa device starts going completely unresponsive after about 6 to 12 months.
awesome setup, basically everything that I have and rated exactly how I would rate.
I had Home Assistant on a Raspi Pi4 with USB SSD just like you and recently upgraded to a Pi5 with the NVME HAT.
For somebody with that many devices, I can only urge you to test it out and see how much more snappy the dashboards will get
Also, thanks for the video. A lot of good inspiration :)
lutron caseta is my 10/10. we have these on many of our lights as well as the bedroom fan and they're pretty handy to control from wall switches or voice with google assistant. i've even added some of the pico remotes to easily put a wall switch next to the vanity for example so i can turn that light on from in front of the sink without the noise of talking to google about it when i'm up for work before my wife.
the one i use next most is probably the garage door which is a genie with the smartness built in. i get notifications on my phone when the garage door opens or closes, so i dismiss the closed ones and check on it if the open stays active too long without being replaced with a closed notification. sometimes it misses the closed notification, so i either go look or if i'm not home i check the driveway camera to verify it's actually closed. it won't let me open or close with voice for security reasons and insists on beeping and flashing the light for 5 seconds before opening or closing from the app so i mostly just use the open/close notifications from it . . . which honestly i could get from a window/door sensor.
my most disappointing smart device has been the kitchen faucet from kohler. while we use the motion sensor to turn it on and off and love that, we had hoped the kids would be able to voice control it when they were too short to reach the sensor but the voice control has been spotty at best, leading me to create a phrase that would turn it on for X seconds because it often wouldn't respond to a second command to turn it off. it only worked at all for a few months until neither voice control or the app will do anything at all besides tell me the faucet is offline. haven't really tried it in possibly a year or so though, so maybe it's better now. also maybe they put all their effort into ios and don't care if their android app works properly.
the other frustrating smart devices have been shades with somfy motors that communicate through an ezlo 100 dongle. we didn't put these in bedrooms but the living room, kitchen, and stairs are on a schedule to more or less open in the morning and close at night so we don't touch them. when it works. it frequently loses its wifi connection (can still follow the schedule without) and doesn't integrate with home assistant. plus the app has been buggy like forgetting part of the routine if i make an edit and originally having inaccurate sunrise / sunset timing. pretty sure they're z-wave and i could swap something in for the dongle that's better supported (maybe something that can plug in with ethernet) and use a different app with a better experience but i'm having trouble finding the information i need to know what's going to work before buying something and trying it out. would love to put them with the lutron smart dimmers but failed to pair there and then found a post saying the lutron bridge doesn't do z-wave
Awesome video- what tablet are you using for Home Assistant? Looked like an Ipad
I have been a Weatherflow user since their Kickstarter, and when the unit goes dead quickly it is usually a failing battery. Which is my one complaint that the user cannot change the battery, though they do give a healthy discount to replace it with a new unit if you contact their customer service.
What's the "dashboard" thingy?
Ive noticed almost all women absolutely love the frame TV, yet all men prefer quality and funtionality of a standard one. We have a frame 55" in living room and a 85" samsung neo in basement bonus room. My wife and daughter would rather watch that stupid frame all day instead of the gloriousness downstairs. Works out well for me.
I was looking for a response several people had regarding the dashboard. What smart device is that, you do not say in the video? How did you set that up?
Hey Reed you inspired me to go with Tesla for my solar panels. I want a power bank also because they start charging peak pricing between 11:00am through 6:00 PM
I use a Geeni garage door opener. No issues and is a low cost option. Even sends me a messagebif it is left open or if my Internet goes down. I think I paid around $30. Easy to install.
Me and my mom are coming up with wacky ideas for zwave scene controllers outside the scope of scenes, one being to know that the mail hasnt been checked yet, pressing it dismisses that reminder, another reminds us if any doors are left open, pressing it tells us which ones (replaces the nest guard reminder)
Don't you know? 1-10 scale is out. The cool kids all use Tiers.
True story though, your channel is awesome. Planning so many things for my home that's currently being contructed.
My issue with the Kasa dimmers is that sometimes they randomly desync between the indicator leds and the actual light state. For example, sometimes when I hit the switch the indicators will start coming on to show the state of the light, but the light itself will never actually turn on. Needs to be turned off and on again to resync.
Thanks. I learned a lot. I think I’m going to adopt the video ambush technique on my wife to try and get quicker answers to questions I ask. No chance this strategy blows up in my face.
Love your vids, and including the family!!! Ill look at the Ecobe
How far can the Bond Bridge go? Thinking about multiple rooms and floors.
Honestly, I have issues with it controlling ceiling fans in a room directly below where the bridge is. I've been meaning to try to solve that but I haven't had time yet.
Nice Reviews on a plethora of devices. Also. 100% have to agree. That's a sad looking banana split lol.
Love our light switch dimmers!! 10/10
I have a Rachio smart spigot valve. I give it 8/10. It uses its own weird hub. It should have just been a Zigbee, Zwave, Matter over Thread, or even LoRa device.
Bond bridge - you said you use it to control your fans and external blinds. Does one bridge control all the fans in all the different rooms? Or do you have multiple bridges ?
In this video, The Big Takeaway is your wife’s perspective. Highlights that many smart devices are perceived as useful or not.
I put in some smart dimmer switches in some of the rooms… never use them. I just thought I would at the time of getting them.
What device are you using for your Home Dashboard?
Love this video idea, Reed! I also have the Tempest but I’ve never had it go offline due to lack of charge. Surprised it’s happening to you in Arizona. Maybe try a different placement?
I'd love an updated video comparing Google home and the echo devices! I'm curious how they have changed over time. I recently got an echo after being a Google home family for years and I'm curious your thoughts
Sorry tried to read thru the messages but if this was said good. If not yay. The tempest had an issue the charging. Call the customer service line and they should be able to troubleshoot and assist. Mine is working great now.
Loved the video! My 10/10 device in my home is my Kasa light bulbs. They are wifi but they have been flawless. Do you use hue with the bridge or just paired them directly to zigbee?
Hmm, I have constant issues with Ring disconnecting from Home Assistant. Also, spending 2 hours debugging things in Home Assistant *probably* isn't home assistant's fault (although I did have my HA botch an OS update and that took several hours to repair).
What do you use as your smart dashboard?
Love the Bond Bridge. It occasionally will fail to control a device though. The local API is fucking awesome.
6:42 What is the make/model of those back patio shades that you control with the BOND bridge?
Yes please
We have Insoroll Oasis shades. Ours have Lutron controllers but they have a different controller avaialble.
So if the bond is controlling a device that uses IR such as ceiling fan that means I have to have one in every room with a fan?
Hey Reed,
You are using the Ring Alarm Keypad. Can you also use this with HomeAssitant if you want to use it for automation? Do you generally have to take out a subscription for the Ring keypad, or can you just do that? I'm looking for a keypad that I can use with HomeAssistant without having to take out a subscription with Ring or have other products from this company. Does this keypad work completely without a cloud connection to Ring in HA? Thank you.
There was a cinema in my town that started selling ice-cream with toppings ... we quickly realised we could buy one scoop of ice-cream and fill up the tub with toppings 😎
Garage door question. Why not use the My-Q that you have in the garage door openers?
Hey reed!! Have you heard about Google home deleting integrations and refusing to reconnect? I’m trying to troubleshoot this now, I have about 30 devices on my local smarthome instance that have been kicked out of Google home for no reason. My roborock vacuum was also kicked and I can’t even add it back!
Beard coming in 🔥🔥
I love smart home but can’t afford to make it big do you have a budget version?
He has a few videos like this and I believe they're in playlists too
I'm into owning and stabling horses but can't afford to make it big, do you know where I can get the budget version?
You can start small and expand. Add a couple wifi switches to a single room like the kitchen or family room. Porch Lights are another good entry level target. Be careful though, it's addictive.
Unifi vs eufy doorbell, which one do you think is better?
This was super fun, love the video
Can you do a going off grid for 24 hours challenge?
I think he did that for 48 hours.
My bad, it was not him.
ruclips.net/video/kKCmbTQdP5A/видео.htmlsi=cWkRF2YnKTE0bKPR
Yeah I did something like that a long time ago but that could be a fun challenge for a full 24 hours. We might have 3 angry kids on my hands but it could be good for them!
How do you solve your outdoor things not getting stolen? cameras. video doorbell, sensors .... Quite alot of money. I want to get a outdoor camera for my porch, but I havent foud one in castiron or stainless steel. Have you got a solution for that.
Debugging home assistant 😂. She got us there
Would really love to incorporate any of the inovelli line but you can never get em.
Love to see a video on your 3 hours it took to get home assistant working the other night your wife was talking about. Was it during an update or did something quit working?
What exactly do you use the network rack for? I'm just getting into the smart home, basically just have smart light switches, blink security atm
4/10 for NFC tags because you forgot where you put it? Seems like an user error to me 😂
Super fun video! Love watching your stuff
I'm surprised that you're still running your Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi, I had to upgrade to a Dell Optiplex as my Pi sometimes shutdown randomly (probably due to me running too many automations...)
Homeassistant on a raspberry pi or on a nas? I'm running on the Nas for now but what's better
I want to use a mix of unify and reolink cameras too, how do manage it in terms of NVR or storage?
I am rebuilding my Smart home as I just moved and I’m mainly trying to find matter devices so they can be brand diagnostic but as far as the connectivity method, I’m having trouble finding a lot of thread based devices and I’m worried about getting too many Wi-Fi devices has this been a problem for you having most of your devices connected via Wi-Fi?
Hey Reed, great vid as always. Curious about the Ring alarm, do you use ring sensors with that or have it and a variety of sensors tied back to home assistant?
Why Honda Odyssey? Serious question, we are looking at minivans right now and can't decide. :)
Why is Michael Keaton doing smart device ratings?
Have you made a video about your server rack, with the Ubiquity Unify Dream Machine Pro ?