Great connected tech for your smart home kitchen — Appliances
23 May 2021
You may not think about the kitchen as a major smart home space — but it can be. As Debbie and I enjoy entertaining and Debbie loves to cook and I love to eat, we have been focusing a lot of attention on our kitchen design. If it was up to me it’d be something out of the Jetsons but Debbie is holding me at arm’s length on her space. And I say “her” as we’ve divided the spaces up in the house where each of takes lead on design or we share responsibility. When it comes to smart home, Debbie tends to be the voice of reason as I love gadgets which could make it difficult for anyone else in the house but me. So the kitchen is Debbie’s space and rightfully so.
Ironically, kitchens are already one of the most technologically advanced rooms in homes. With so much hardware already taking up space in kitchens it’s surprising that it’s been the slowest room in the smart home to catch on.
While connected refrigerators have been around for a while, they haven’t been much more than a novelty. Really good smart kitchen devices aren’t just smart because they’re connected to the internet, they’re smart because they’re innovative and helpful. And as Debbie and I are planning our retirement, helpful is the key word. Creating efficiency, managing costs and supporting sustainability are at the core of our smart home design efforts — especially in the kitchen.
Whether it’s using AI (Artificial Intelligence)to help you become a better cook, providing entertainment while you’re working away in the kitchen or helping keep your family organized and your household running more smoothly, smart kitchen devices can be really useful.
As I’ve already mentioned the refrigerator I’ll start there. And I’ll start with Samsung as I’ve been a fan of the SmartThings ecosystem of smart home devices. I’ve collected up some examples of great smart kitchen devices available today. Hopefully this will help you find the right connected gadgets when you’re looking to update your kitchen.
Samsung’s range of Family Hub refrigerators and freezers are the original smart fridges. With a 21.5in screen with the ability to mirror a Samsung smart TV, the Family Hub part of each refrigerator is basically a giant tablet packed with apps.
Designed to be the “hub for your family” the tablet features a Family Board, Memo, Calendar and Shopping List apps to help you and your family communicate. Be honest, we all have the magnetized note pad on the fridge or Post-It notes as reminders or notes to others. This is simply the 21st century version of that. Starting to feel the Jetsons?
Built-in recipe apps and streaming music apps include Spotify, Pandora and Smart Recipes. You can also screen-share for Samsung smart TVs so you can watch the TV while you cook, making this an all-around entertainment device, without cluttering the counter.
But the Hub is more than just a fancy smart screen. Three cameras inside let you see the contents of your refrigerator from the smartphone app as well as through the device’s screen. This is an interesting capability for those times when you’re standing in front of the dairy case at the grocery store and asking yourself “do we need milk.” Also through the SmartThings integration, which basically turns your fridge into a hub for the whole smart home, you can view any SmartThings-compatible home cameras, doorbells, and turn lights on and off, all from the display.
There’s also a food tracking system that lets you keep track of the expiration dates of things like condiments in your fridge. The app also features a digital timeline view to allow you to go back and see a visual history of the contents of your fridge. These last couple things were never an issue while our family was growing as it seemed we replaced the contents of our fridge every couple days. But as Debbie and I are empty nesters now we don’t want to be running across mustard in the back of the fridge from 2017.
Samsung’s smart voice assistant Bixby is also built in, so you have voice control over entertainment, news briefings and memo taking, plus more of the usual voice assistant features. It can also recognize different family member’s voices and give them personalized content. Bixby also learns your patterns and recommends automated routine tasks so that you no longer have to spend your time on repeating the same tasks and chores. Sound familiar? For those not opting for the Amazon Alexa, Google Assistantor Apple Siri voice assistants, this is a great alternative in the Samsung ecosystem. To use Bixby Routines, all you have to do is enable the feature in your Galaxy settings under Advanced Features.
While LG has been in the smart refrigerator game for a while, ThinQ adds AI to the mix, allowing it to communicate with other LG ThinQ devices — like informing the dishwasher that a big load is on the way.
LG’s AI platform, the Instaview ThinQ, also has Amazon Alexa built in to read out recipes and let you add items to your shopping list as you run out of ingredients, as well as being a bit of an entertainment hub. There’s a 29in screen on the front, running webOS. There are apps for making notes, leaving doodles for your family or inputting details on the contents of your fridge. A menu of virtual Amazon Dashbuttons lets you reorder whatever you need with just one tap.
Two taps on the display will turn it transparent so you can see inside and check out how much beer you have left. A panoramic camera is in there too so you can view the interior of the fridge from your smartphone. Bluetooth speakers embedded in the top of the fridge let you play music from any compatible device so you can rick out while cooking.
Connecting your oven to the internet lets you start pre-heating while you’re on your way home or check and make sure it’s switched off when you’ve left the house. As these devices can be a little pricey, I’d expect more from a smart oven than just that. But I’ve been impressed with KitchenAid thanks to their flexibility by design.
With a series of powered attachments, their wall oven can become an indoor grill, baking stone and steamer as well as doing all the normal oven things. The attachments plug into a powered hub, plus you can control the whole cooking process on your smartphone. It’s also Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant compatible, so you can direct it all with just your voice. What I like about this smart oven isn’t just about being connected, it’s also about finding other ways to use technology to improve and enhance your cooking process.
One of the big elements of our kitchen design is removing counter-top clutter — usually with built-in elements or through clever storage. But I can’t talk about smart kitchen tech without mentioning the June Oven. Even though it’s a counter-top unit, it features a lot of capabilities — convection oven, air fryer, dehydrator, slow cooker, broiler, toaster and warming drawer — all packed into one appliance. As a smart countertop oven, June brings the convenience of connected cooking with an Alexa skill that lets you pre-heat your oven with your voice, or use the app and have it ready when you get home. Carbon fiber heating elements preheat three times faster than other ovens, and a built-in HD camera not only lets you keep a close eye on your food, but also uses AI to recognize over 50 common foods and suggest the correct automatic cook-program for you.
A small, Android-based touchscreen lets you control everything on the device if you want, and features pre-set cooking recipes for everything from cookies to steak, plus one-tap cook programs for over 200 types of food, guaranteed to help even novice cooks prepare a decent meal.
Amazon is slowly but surely making its way into every aspect of the home and upping its connected smart kitchen game. No example makes that clearer than the AmazonBasics Microwave. This is the first of many appliances Amazon and its partners are ushering into the smart home.
AmazonBasics Microwave simplifies cooking by letting you microwave using your voice and an Echo device. Just say, “Alexa, reheat one cup of coffee,” and Alexa will start reheating with the appropriate power and time settings. Quick-cook presets mean there’s no need to guess cook times or heat levels when you’re defrosting vegetables or microwaving a potato. Plus, Alexa is always getting smarter and adding new presets.
To start cooking, you can use your voice or just press the Ask Alexa button and say your cook time. The button will instantly wake up your paired Echo, just like saying “Alexa” does. Oddly though the Fire TV, Fire Tablets, Echo Look, and Amazon Tap devices are not supported with the Ask Alexa button.
If you’re a big microwave popcorn fan you can sign up to automatically reorder popcorn and save 10% on popcorn orders. When you make popcorn using your voice or the Popcorn button, AmazonBasics Microwave will reorder when you run low.
Designed as a hub for kitchen and smart home, the GE Kitchen Hub is a 27-inch Android-powered touchscreen and ventilation system. Alongside the giant screen, two cameras — one for video chatting and another for viewing food on your cooktop — help you with your cooking chores. You can access over 5,000 recipes with step-by-step instructions in the Flavorly app. Learn new techniques, store favorite family recipes and control your oven with your voice. As you cook, the high-powered, 4-speed, adjustable ventilation system removes smoke and odors, while the air curtain around the screen and cameras protect it from heat, steam and grease. It complies with UL standards for vents above ranges and cooktops.
The Hub also features voice-command capabilities via Google Assistant, as well as access to Android apps for recipes, music, movies and social media. It’s essentially a really big Android tablet in the middle of your kitchen — but it doesn’t take up any counter space.
The Hub works with GE’s U+ Connect platform to integrate with other Haier/GE appliances including washers, dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, air conditioners, wall ovens, cooktops, microwaves and ranges — so you can control them all from the screen.
As Debbie is designing in a coffee bar as part of the kitchen, the Y5 capsule machine is an excellent solution option. It combines great technology with an outstanding reputation for perfect brewing. It has a great modern design but adds state of the art functionality with a water tank that’s conveniently positioned at the front, along with a touch-sensitive interface that’s responsive and easy to understand.
It is enabled with Amazon Dash Replenishment Service (DRS) which means it will automatically reorder capsules from Amazon when you run low on coffee through the ‘My illy Machine’ app.
As you can see there are a ton of options regarding kitchen smart appliances. It really boils down to your needs/expectations, budget, space and connectivity. Debbie and I haven’t fully defined our needs at this point for kitchen appliances — or I should say Debbie hasn’t — again, her space. From a budget perspective, we won’t start with a smart refrigerator as Debbie has one she really likes but I’ll make sure we have infrastructure in place to support a smart replacement at some point. As for the other appliances, I’ll leave the decisions to Debbie on what she chooses for her kitchen.
The infrastructure to support the kitchen will be my responsibility. As many of the smart appliances are wifi enabled and most all will be eventually, it makes smart kitchen easier. My preference is to hard wire the devices however, for better throughput and to simplify the wifi environment. Many of the smart appliances have or will have ethernet ports to enable this approach so they will become part of my overall wired network plan.
As far as latest updates on our build project, Debbie and I are working on elevation (exterior) options. We particularly enjoy this as it involves a lot of elements of curb appeal, design and aesthetics. Once we get closer to wrapping this up we’ll work on the technical and smart aspects of the exterior — smart lighting, smart sprinkler system, cameras, etc.
We’ve also engaged a contractor to start site prep on our lot. As it’s been pretty rainy here — like most of Texas and Louisiana — the ground has been too wet to get heavy equipment in there to start leveling. The rain has held off a couple days so if the sun comes out, the work may be able to get started in the next week.
On behalf of Debbie and I, thanks to all for the comments, questions and messages. Please keep them coming as we enjoy the interaction with you all. And if there any specific smart home topics you’d like me to cover please let me know. Until next week …
In full disclosure, I’m not an affiliate marketer with links to any online retailer on my website. When people read what I’ve written about a particular product and then click on those links and buy something from the retailer, I earn nothing from the retailer. The links are strictly a convenience for my readers.
