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This tiny, discreet device allows you to remotely monitor the temperature and doors from anywhere on earth, using your smartphone, tablet, or computer. It’s the perfect companion for monitoring your home, vacation cabin, shed, garage, or anywhere else important. It connects directly to your existing wifi network and comes with a free companion app for Apple or Android devices, letting you customize alerts and enjoy real time monitoring.
This mimics some of the functionality you can get from a motion- or contact-sensor-based automation. Using sensors in some Google Nest products combined with your phone’s location, you can set up a routine to activate smart lights, plugs, switches, cameras and thermostat. But this is limited only to leaving or arriving so you can’t have lights turn on just when you enter a room or any of the other useful things smart sensors can do while you’re in the house. A motion sensor detects when something crosses its path and can be used to turn on smart lights whenever someone enters a room. But it can also trigger an Automation or Routine, which will cause one or more smart devices to react.
Temperature Sensor
With smart open/close sensors attached to each, you no longer have to worry, as you can simply fire up the app and check. Are you always going out without your keys or forgetting to take your umbrella with you? You can set a motion sensor connected to a front door to send you a message.
The full-featured app is a bright spot, too, with easy app control of your lights via convenient color dial and lots of nice extras like animated effects and an autoscheduling Day & Dusk mode, as well. Beyond being ridiculously cheap, these things are pretty darned good light bulbs, too. For starters, each one offers a full spectrum of white-light color temperature settings ranging from a warm, candle-like 2,700K to hotter, whiter daylight tones that approach 6,000K. You'll have a hard time finding another smart bulb that does that for less than $20, let alone one that does it for less than $10.
Other smart light switches worth considering
Because it is inexpensive, you can place it closer to windows, in semi-outdoor areas, and in other places where moisture would cause you to worry about more expensive sensors. Another fascinating capability of this sensor is its ability to detect the sound of other alarms in your home going off. When Minit “hears” another alarm in your home, it can tell what the alarm is (though you’ll have to preset it to do so accurately) and will send you a push notification telling you that the alarm it detected is sounding. This way, you can get a fire alarm alert or a motion detection alert from another room, and so on- all from the same device. While it is strange looking, it’s not unattractive- and it is downright powerful.
Smart sensors form a key part of any smart home, whether they're simply sitting around and monitoring what’s going on, looking for when a window or door is opened, or checking the current temperature. A moisture detection sensor can give you a heads up if your home is at risk due to freezing pipes, or even a broken waterline. These sensors alert you to leaks in your home so can fix the problem immediately and not after the damage has been done. The sensor can be placed around water heaters, dishwashers, refrigerators, sinks, sump pumps and anything at risk for water leakage. If the sensor detects unwanted water a notification is sent to you, so you can hurry home to check out the problem. A carbon monoxide detector measures levels of CO in the air and will warn people if levels are dangerous.
Plan your Smart home experience
The panels can display a wide variety of animated effects, including a library with hundreds of user-created options that are free to try for yourself. They also feature a built-in microphone that lets them animate in rhythm with whatever music you're listening to or whatever game you're playing. You can turn them on and off with a tap and choose between presets with the built-in buttons on the base panel, but they also support lighting controls with voice commands via Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant.
However, you may not know that this accessory actually measures light levels as well, and its readings are available in HomeKit. This allows this already awesome sensor to work with automations, giving you the ability to activate things like your blinds when it gets a little too dark. Aeotec will release a SmartThings Multipurpose Sensor and SmartThings Motion Sensor—previously they had been picks and were discontinued by Samsung (Aeotec will also release a SmartThings-certified hub). We loved these Zigbee-based sensors for their ease of use, low price, and ability to pair directly with Zigbee-enabled Echo devices.
The best Alexa smart speakers
Since CO is odorless and undetectable without assistance, a detector can be a life saver, especially when it is connected to an emergency monitoring service. Choose a smart light for early mornings, for late evenings or for cooking or working at home. Dim, turn off, turn on, or switch from warm to cool light using a remote control or app. Has hindered our ability to test smart switches, so watch this space for an update once we're able to fully resume our tests. But if you just want something simple and inexpensive, you should check out TP-Link's Kasa line of switches, all of which can connect with both Alexa and Google without need for a hub.
Like I said, I think Lifx lights belong right at the top of your list if you're looking to add a smart pop of color to your home's lighting systems. The brand sells a variety of bulbs and smart lights that all put out bright, great-looking colors, all of which can connect with Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant with absolutely no need for a hub. Connecting directly to the SmartSense device above, this is Samsung’s second generation smart home hub design.
Aqara’s Temperature and Humidity Sensor works with Alexa and HomeKit but you cannot use it to trigger Alexa routines. HomeKit also doesn’t allow temperature as a trigger so you have to use a third-party app to get any use out of this device, unless you use it just with the Aqara app. During testing it worked consistently in an Automation we created in both Alexa and SmartThings to lower a set of smart shades in a dining room any time the temperature climbed above 78 degrees.
The Centralite Micro Motion Sensor is also inexpensive and a good option if you are already using Samsung’s SmartThings platform; it can also pair directly to any Zigbee-enabled Alexa smart speaker in lieu of using a hub . In our testing it is larger and more expensive than the Aqara and had fractionally slower response times; it also doesn’t work with HomeKit. This way nothing goes out of range—a huge issue you’ve probably experienced if you can’t get on Wi-Fi in certain corners of your home.
I’ve been a journalist for more than two decades and focus on the smart home and connected living. Since 2016 I’ve spent countless hours testing smart-home gadgets for Wirecutter, including smart thermostats, smart garage-door controllers, smart sprinkler controllers, and smart smoke alarms. I’m also a contributor to Dwell, U.S. News & World Report, BBC, and The Ambient, among others.
One of our top picks here is the iHome Wi-Fi Dual Leak Sensor , for which you can also set up triggers with iHome smart plugs to switch them off when a leak is detected. Samsung's SmartThings Water Leak Sensor works with the SmartThings hub and, in our testing, has proven to be pretty sensitive, even if it doesn't have quite as large a detection field. It's a little more expensive, but it's also better looking than most other motion sensors out there, if a little "Eye-of-Sauron". If you’re going DIY, think about the locations that are going to be most effective but least likely to cause false alarms if you're using them for security. Say you’re using a motion sensor, you’ll want to put it in a place an intruder is most likely to pass by, but not somewhere it might be triggered by daily visits from the next-door cat.
Among all of the smart switches that we've tested at the CNET Smart Home, our favorite has long been the Lutron Caseta. Lutron is a lighting aisle mainstay, and its light switches use a proprietary signal called Clear Connect. That means that they require the Lutron Bridge in order to connect with your router, but the good news is that Clear Connect is about as swift and reliable as wireless protocols come. Not only will it alert you if a leak is detected, but can also inform you if the device has been inadvertently moved or tampered with. Best of all, it can even shut off your water supply in the event of a major leak, thus giving you peace of mind if you're away from home. When you think of motion sensors, your mind probably drifts towards home security.
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