5 Smart Home Upgrades That Are a Waste of Money, According to Users

The smart home gadget market is flooded with technologies promising to simplify daily life. From automating room lights to controlling entire properties through virtual voice assistants, countless options exist to make life easier. However, not all upgrades deliver real value. Some are simply a waste of money, offering little more than a higher price tag and features that quickly become irrelevant after the initial excitement fades.

According to user feedback, many of these devices fail to justify their added cost. While some smart home owners might find utility in these products, for the vast majority, the best course of action is to save money and invest in devices that actually make a difference. In practice, their cost rarely justifies the benefits they provide.

Smart Fridges

The concept of a smart fridge is intriguing, offering connected functions beyond basic food preservation. However, it often turns out to be a waste of money due to the disparity between the expected lifespan of an appliance and the technology it houses. While a fridge is designed to last over a decade, the processor and online functionalities can become outdated much faster.

Users also complain that the software might stop receiving updates long before the device stops functioning as a fridge, rendering its smart features useless. Additionally, features like internal cameras often fail with daily use. While the idea of checking your fridge’s contents remotely is appealing, the user’s view can be obstructed by objects covering the lens, making the feature less practical over time.

Ultimately, the best way to avoid wasting money in your kitchen is to skip the smart fridge and invest in a standard one that better fulfills the core function of cooling and maintaining food quality without the added cost of unnecessary technology.

Smart Washing Machines

Many consumers say that smart washing machines rarely justify their higher price, even when they offer convenient features like cycle completion notifications. While this feature is nice to have, especially in homes where the laundry room is far from the living area, the cost of this convenience is usually not worth the appliance’s price.

For those seeking a similar experience, cheaper alternatives exist. For example, you can buy a smart plug to save money and configure it to send a notification when the washing machine’s energy consumption drops. You could even go DIY and build your own Raspberry Pi project that sends laundry cycle alerts. This trick can work with other appliances like dishwashers or garage doors and costs only a fraction of the price of a smart model upgrade.

Another long-term issue with smart washing machines is maintenance. Repair costs for these items, especially when out of warranty, can rival the cost of buying a new one, according to owners. Even if they come with interesting functionalities, users should carefully consider these details before deciding whether such appliances are worth the investment for their smart home.

Smart Toasters

Despite being less expensive than other smart home products, smart toasters still rank among gadgets that don’t justify their price tag. While they offer a few interesting functions and customization options, users say they don’t do anything extraordinary where it matters most—delivering better toast.

In fact, a conventional toaster can perform many of the same tasks as a smart one. The touchscreen interface can also add unnecessary delay to a task that should feel instant, as navigating menus can take longer on smart toasters. Another issue is that toasters generate a lot of heat in a short time, so adding more electronic components increases the chance of failure.

For anyone looking to upgrade their smart home with new gadgets, the wiser alternative is to invest in products that offer more value and better connect spaces on their network.

Smart Vents

One of the main problems with smart vents is that they promise efficiency and comfort but often fail to address the root of the problem. Many users report that these devices don’t solve issues related to their HVAC system, such as air leaks, poorly sized ducts, or insufficient returns. Automating the opening and closing of vents only attempts to compensate for these issues artificially.

Even when they deliver results, the gains are typically modest. In many cases, the corrected temperature difference is small, while new inconveniences appear, such as noise during operation, compatibility issues with existing ducts, and apps that feel non-intuitive. Integration with some smart thermostats can also create contradictory behavior, requiring advanced automation or frequent manual adjustments, which goes against the simplicity smart homes promise.

Additionally, the cost of smart vents can add up quickly, especially when factoring in additional sensors, hubs, or cloud services. Considering the limited return, it makes more sense to apply that money to more fundamental solutions for the home’s structure, such as HVAC balancing or thermal sealing, which offer more consistent results.

Smart Kettles

A smart kettle is one of those smart home products that draws attention more for the appeal of automation than for the practical benefits it delivers daily. User reviews often point out that smart kettles save very little time in practice, as the appliance still needs to be filled manually before use. Once that step is done, starting a traditional kettle usually takes no more effort than pressing a physical button.

If someone fills the kettle for the next morning, the time saved is minimal, as the few minutes of waiting can often align with performing other routine tasks in the kitchen. While smart kettles may find a niche audience among people who need precise temperature control for coffee or tea, they often remain a poor investment for most smart homes.

How We Ranked These Upgrades

There are many smart home gadgets that look cool and seem like must-haves at first. To organize the products on this list, we looked for a wide variety of opinions on the internet, especially from user feedback. Reddit posts and comment threads served as our primary source, and we examined common smart home categories, like kitchen devices, as well as lesser-known options that came up in user discussions.

To make our choices more consistent, we prioritized patterns that appeared across multiple posts, especially complaints tied to price, few real upgrades compared to standard versions, and how all the smart features were used. In cases where user experiences were heavily dependent on installation quality, like with HVAC systems, we also considered whether the product seemed to solve a real root problem or merely added complexity to the issue.

This list isn’t definitive by any measure, however. Some of the smart home gadgets mentioned here can be worthwhile in the right household, but these picks are most often described as unnecessary for most homes.

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