9 Smart Home Devices You Didn't Know Existed

These devices might solve a problem you never knew you had

Updated on January 29, 2023

Still not sure you need to set up a smart home? After all, you can still reach the light switch and you know how to turn up the heat by yourself. It might surprise you to learn that smart features are now everywhere from the bed to the pet feeder. We've rounded up nine devices that show just how deeply smart home tech has penetrated every room in the house.

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Smart Bed

Sleep trackers are a common use for smart technology, so smart beds are a logical outgrowth for people looking to track their sleeping habits. Although a Fitbit or Jawbone can track how much you stir in your sleep, a connected bed has a lot more data to work with.

The Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed tracks how you sleep and automatically adjusts firmness, foot temperature, and support. It even sends a report to your smartphone every morning on how you slept the night before.

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Smart Toilet

The Kohler Numi smart toilet, for example, offers a slew of features including a motion-activated seat and cover, deodorizing filter, ambient lighting, warm-water cleansing, heated seat, UV sanitation, and built-in Amazon Alexa.

This gold-standard toilet also comes with a hefty price tag. So if you feel like that's flushing money down the drain, check out the numerous other smart toilet seats available at lower prices.

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Smart Garage Door

You've probably driven back home a few times to double-check that you closed the garage door. Alleviate the doubt with a smart garage door such as this one from Vivint, which you can sync with the rest of your smart home suite using Z-Wave. The result: You can open and close your door from anywhere using your smartphone and receive notifications when your door is opened or closed.

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Smart Toothbrush

If you don't want to wait six months to have your dentist tell you that you're not brushing the right way, a smart toothbrush might be what you need. Colgate has the hum smart toothbrush that uses a motion sensor, accelerometer, and gyroscope to track your brushing, and the companion app gives feedback on how you're doing.

Get to brushing!

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Smart Toaster

With the Breville Smart Toaster, you'll never scrape off blackened bread again. This smart toaster lowers and raises the bread like an elevator at the touch of a button, and its Lift and Look feature lets you quickly check your toast-in-progress.

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Smart Pet Feeder

By connecting to your smartphone, the PetSafe Smart Feed allows you to feed pets remotely, track how much they eat, and measure out portions remotely. Multiple family members can track and adjust your pet's diet and customize feeding via smartphone or even Amazon Echo devices. Just ask Alexa to feed your pet and get back to work!

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Smart Fork

While a smart fork might sound like a joke, it can be a godsend for those watching their diets. The HAPIfork monitors how quickly you're eating, reminds you to slow down, tracks how you eat for an entire meal, and sends a report to an app on your phone via Bluetooth.

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Smart Frying Pan

hestan-cue-smart-cooking-system-hero — The Spruce / Donna Currie

Smart pans are frying pans with built-in weight and temperature sensors to help you track every aspect of your cooking. The pans sync with a cooking app that walks you through a variety of recipes, giving you feedback when the pan is too hot or cold. These are designed to offer super-precise cooking and can work with any kind of induction cookware.

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Smart Flood Sensor

If you want to be notified of flooding even when you're away from home, a smart flood sensor is the way to go. The well-reviewed D-Link Water Sensor connects to your Wi-Fi network and can send a message to your smartphone anytime it detects flooding. It doesn't require a hub and can be hacked using IFTTT.

Letting Smart Gadgets Help

Many (if not all) of the devices on this list may seem wildly unnecessary, but they are all designed to help solve real problems. The moral of the story is that if you have a problem, there's a chance someone has come up with a smart device to solve it. So whether you're brushing your teeth too hard or burning your toast too often, the solution might already be in your pocket.

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