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The best Alexa-compatible smart-home devices for Amazon Echo
By Rachel Cericola This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. Read the full guide to Alexa-compatible smart-home devices for Amazon Echo. Imagine walking into your home at night, arms overflowing with groceries. Even if you've installed smart lights, you'd need to put the bags down, pull out your phone, unlock it, open the app, find the control for the lights you want, and then tap the icon—might as well just stick with a plain old wired switch. But with an Alexa, you simply say, "Alexa, turn on the kitchen lights." And it's not just lights; Alexa is capable of controlling everything from basic smart plugs to garage doors. All three smart-speaker platforms (Alexa, Google Assistant, and to a lesser degree, Siri) can control a variety of smart-home devices and add an extra level of convenience to your smart-home system. We think Amazon's Alexa has a slight edge over the others because it works with more devices, and the wider family of Amazon Echo products makes it easier to fit them everyplace in your home. However, if you already have a Google Home speaker, the differences aren't large enough for you to need to switch platforms. We have guides for the best devices to use with Google Assistant and Siri/HomeKit. The Amazon Echo (or Echo Dot) offers a convenient interface for your smart home and provides functionality that an app on your phone can't. If you already have some Alexa-compatible devices or one of the three major smart-home hubs (SmartThings, Wink, or Insteon), adding an Echo can make accessing those devices more interesting and convenient. Taking advantage of its near-instantaneous response time and reliable voice-recognition processing is significantly faster than pulling out your phone and opening an app just to turn the lights on or off. Some products, such as Philips Hue lights and Nest thermostats, have native Alexa support, while others require you to enable a third-party skill. We tested plenty of both varieties to come up with the best-performing and most reliable recommendations, which we're continually testing to ensure that each new firmware and app update meets our high standards. Over the past several years, Wirecutter's editors and writers have tested just about every smart-home device of consequence. As more people end up buying smart speakers and platform support gets more and more important, we wanted to provide one place where you could access all of our picks that are compatible with the devices you already own, across all of our smart-home recommendations. Because these devices receive regular updates with additional compatibility and new features, we are continually testing and reevaluating our picks in our own homes to confirm that they still meet our recommendation standards. We'll update this guide as we learn new information, but be sure to read the full reviews if you'd like more details and test notes. If you don't yet have an Alexa-enabled device, or you want to learn more about what Alexa is and what you can do with these things, check out our full guide to Alexa and Amazon's Echo line of smart speakers.
Comcast's Xfinity Home works with automation tech you already own
Comcast's Xfinity Home has been automating living spaces for a while, but now the company is opening up the cloud-based system to more gadgets. Starting this summer, customers can add devices from August, Automatic, Cuff, Leeo, Lutron, Rachio, SkyBell and Whistle to the kit that already wrangles motion sensors, connected outlets, cameras and more. We're talking about things like August's smart locks, Automatic's car tracker and Cuff's smart jewelery. What's more, Comcast is teaming up with Nest as part of the Works with Nest effort to bring that smart thermostat into the fold, too. In addition to those new partners, Comcast will open up an SDK later this year alongside a Works with Xfinity Home certification program to make sure approved devices can be used with minimal headaches.
Rachio app update can lower home lawn watering usage up to 30%
Rachio, developers of the amazing Iro smart sprinkler controller, today announced an app update that can reduce residential irrigation water usage by up to 30 percent. Version 1.7 of the free Rachio app uses enhanced evapotranspiration (ET) algorithms to move even closer to calculating the absolute minimum amount of watering required to keep a lawn or garden nice and green. Using ET-based rain delay, the app no longer looks just at actual precipitation a day before and after a scheduled watering time. The app now monitors true soil moisture loss and skips the irrigation schedule if it appears that sufficient water is present. Another change in the app is the addition of new vegetation, soil, exposure (shade), sprinkler nozzle and slope options, which creates up to 168 unique cycle/soak settings. By tweaking the data, it's possible to reduce water runoff and optimize the watering schedule. The app also allows the ability to create custom nozzle types with unique flow rates. The final update is absolutely amazing and really demonstrates the power of connected devices. If you have a Nest Protect fire alarm/CO detector, you can link the two devices. If your smoke alarm goes off for a predetermined period of time, the Iro can automatically cycle sprinklers around the house, hopefully delaying the spread of fire to neighboring homes. The update is available for download and installation today.
Rachio Iro Smart Sprinkler Controller: Watering by iPhone
The American West and Southwest are usually in a state of drought. It's not climate change causing this; rather, it's the nature of this arid region of the world. Add millions of people living in a desert area, all of whom want green lawns and colorful gardens, and you create a need for a lot of water that is simply not available. Thanks to the laws of supply and demand, that makes water a scarce -- and expensive -- resource. So a new company, Rachio, decided to create a product that combines the smarts of the iPhone, the connectivity of the Internet, and some attractively-designed custom hardware to help home and business owners to gain more control and use less of that pricey H2O. The Rachio Iro (US$249 for 8-zone, $299 for 16-zone) is the first smart sprinkler controller designed specifically to be set up and programmed by iPhone, and it's available both directly from Rachio and from a number of Home Depot stores in the US. Specifications Controls: Standard 24 V AC sprinkler valves Number of zones controlled: 8 or 16 Connectivity: Wi-Fi Available inputs for master valve or pump, rain sensor Design Highlights The one thing about most sprinkler controllers is that they're usually in locations where nobody can see them -- dark basements, crawl spaces, garages. That's particularly sad in the case of the Rachio Iro, which is really quite attractive. Unlike most sprinkler controllers, there are no knobs, dials, or displays on the outside of the Iro. Instead, it's a sleek white box with Rachio's sprinkler-like logo, a small sensor on the lower left side, and a set of LEDs on the front right side. That's it. By dispensing with all of the manual controls, the Iro immediately lets you know that you're going to be using your iPhone to do all of the brain work. Functionality Highlights Installation of the Iro is incredibly simple, particularly if you already have an existing sprinkler controller. Rachio suggests that you take a few photos of your existing controller to document which wires go where, and that you also use your iPhone to check the strength of the Wi-Fi signal at the location where the Iro will be installed. Next, you remove the old controller, then use a pair of included screws to mount a back panel on the wall that contains wiring connectors (spring loaded) for the low-voltage lines as well as a pinout connector that plugs into the back of the main unit. I found it very easy to plug in the wires -- you literally just push the bare ends into a small hole while pushing down on a "button", then let up on the button to hold them in place. At that point, you're ready to install the main Iro unit by lining it up with the back panel and mating the connector. Plug the included AC adapter into a wall socket and plug the other end into the Iro, and the unit powers up. One green LED tells you that you have power; a second LED flashes red to indicate that it's time to set up the Wi-Fi connection. That's done by using the free Rachio app. You'll need to create a free account to register your Iro. A step-by-step process takes you through through the process of identifying the network you want to connect the Iro to and entering the password. Then comes the fun part; you tap an on-screen button when you're ready to send the information to the Iro, then place it face down on the section of the device where the little optical sensor is. The iPhone screen flashes a pattern that is captured and translated by the Iro, and seconds later the Wi-FI LED settles down to a green flashing pattern to indicate that your connection is live. The rest of the setup can be done from your yard! The app takes you through each zone, turning it on, asking you to identify the main type of foliage (grass, shrubs, etc...), the type of sprinkler head, the type of soil, the amount of shade and whether or not it is sloped (and if it is, whether or not you're at the top or bottom of the slope). Based on your zip code, the app assigns a duration to each zone. As an example, for my yard it selected 23 minutes per zone in the front (not much shade) and 16 minutes per zone in the back (well-shaded). Those times are also based on your watering schedule. You can enter in schedules based on daily, every other day, every third day, or whatever other crazy pattern you desire. The app asks if the schedule is due to a watering restriction, although I'm not sure exactly why... There's also a way to enabled Water Budgeting, which adjusts the amount of time that each zone is watered to account for regional and seasonal variations in watering needs, and to turn on Weather Intelligence. Weather Intelligence will skip scheduled watering times if certain weather conditions are detected by the app. For example, let's say that it rains in the afternoon for an hour today and tomorrow. It's pretty likely that if the rain was heavy, the Iro will skip watering on Thursday morning. If you happen to have a rain sensor attached to your Iro, it will take that information into account as well. All of this automatic stuff doesn't mean that you can't just water an area a bit more if you need to. In fact, Iro makes that much easier to do -- if you're wandering your yard and the flower garden looks a bit stressed, pull out the iPhone, select the zone for the garden, pick a time (3 minutes is the default), and then tap the green Run button. The zone gets an extra pop of water, and Iro shuts off the water once the manual watering is done. While the zone is being watered, a blue line gradually circles the duration so that you can see with a glance how much time is left. So far, I've been very favorably impressed with the Rachio Iro. Are there any things I wish it could do? Sure - I'd like a notification to appear in Notification Center telling me that it ran a particular schedule on a certain day, maybe even telling me about the durations if they change from the original calculated quantity. I'd love to see Rachio source their weather information from Weather Underground's Personal Weather Station (PWS) network, so it would be possible to let the timer know exactly how much rain my lawn has received (I run a PWS). Even people in close proximity to a PWS would benefit from this. Finally, integration with HomeKit and Siri would be amazing -- I'd love to be able to say "Siri, water the front yard for ten minutes" and have Iro bend to my command. What I really love about the Rachio Iro is that I should no longer have to worry about whether or not my lawn is getting enough water if I'm gone for a while during the summer months. I could even set up a webcam that would view the lawn and if it gets a little dry looking, just do some extra watering from wherever I happen to be. I'm also looking forward to seeing how my water usage varies thanks to Water Budgeting and Weather Intelligence. Conclusion The first time I heard about the Rachio Iro, it caught my interest as it's definitely a product that can conserve both water and money. For a startup, Rachio has shown an incredible ability to design and execute connected products in the home automation space and bring them to market, and I eagerly anticipate seeing what the company does next. As it is, the Iro is sure to spawn a host of competitors, but I seriously doubt if any one of them will do a better job. In terms of design, setup, and the way that Iro intelligently varies watering times based on actual weather data, it's a top-notch home automation product. Rating: 4 stars out of 4 stars possible
Rachio's Iro: iOS-controlled lawn sprinkler controller
Over the past few years we've seen device-controlled lighting systems, thermostats, switches and other home-automation devices take hold in the market to save energy, but nobody seemed to be looking at the other big home consumable -- water. Especially in the arid Western United States, one of the largest uses of water is for lawn irrigation, and keeping those lawns green can be both expensive and a huge waste of water. Fortunately for consumers, Rachio's new Iro smart sprinkler controller (US$249) is now available in Home Depot stores across the US and promises to help consumers keep tabs on their water usage. I had an opportunity to talk to the founder of Denver-based Rachio, Chris Klein, about Iro and how the smartphone-controlled device came to be. The idea took root at the Denver Startup Weekend in November of 2012 with a pitch on using technology to save water. An idea to created "boxed gardens" to save water just wasn't scalable, so the idea of a smart sprinkler controller was floated. With a Belkin WeMo switch and some ingenuity, they quickly discovered that the concept was possible. Rather than just package parts from other manufacturers, Klein and his partners decided that it was time to create their own brand and product. By February of 2013, Rachio was in business and by December of 2013, the company had perfected the software and hardware for the smart controller. Klein notes with pride that the entire device is built in the Centennial State, and that through a network of local manufacturers and services they've been able to accomplish tasks in a remarkably short period of time. So, what makes Iro so smart? Existing sprinkler timers have no intelligence -- they simply turn sprinklers on and off at times of your choosing. Replace the old timer with an Iro, and you can tell it things about each zone -- the type of soil (clay, sand, etc...), how much shade the area receives, and of course the location of the yard -- and about your watering parameters. Those parameters can include acceptable watering hours and days by local ordinance. Unlike most sprinkler timers, there are no knobs or dials on the Iro. Klein mentions that most timers are located in odd, out-of-the-way places like basements or garages where they're out of sight anyway, so all of the controls are located in the free app. Since the Iro needs to be connected to your Wi-Fi network, Rachio picked Electric Imp's connectivity solution to provide good range. The company suggests that potential Iro owners bring an iPhone or iPad to the location where the controller will be located just to see how strong the signal is. A weak signal may necessitate the installation of a Wi-Fi range extender to reach the Iro. The app provides a way to set up the controller for automatic watering or even manually kick off watering from anywhere you're connected to the Internet. I personally look forward to the day when the app can use hyper-localized weather data to determine just how much water each sprinkler zone requires -- and not a drop more. The company has already updated the app several times in the first few weeks of availability to respond directly to consumer input, so that pipe dream of mine might not be that far away. At the present time, you can easily let the app know that the lawn has received extra water from rain, or that a hot spell has stressed the lawn, and it will adjust each zone's watering times appropriately. TUAW will feature a full review of the Rachio Iro in the near future.
