Top 10 Smart Home Devices for 2023!

I’m sorry to bother but where did you get your surround sound from and is the sound good?

how do you get homekit button to show up on your apple tv control panel? Mine does not show up.

Ok. the hubs are the key. Makes sense as to why i have to fight and argue with Alexa sometimes to get things to work as she feels the need to stop connecting or during her lady internet days, feels like not communicating to the internet. Since i got my apple tv and mini pod, i found that things hare been way quicker in response time.

LOL this didnt age well. I think you like the other home lock better now. :)

Didn't know Christopher Walken & Elon Musk had a son. Good stuff tho

Does switchbot need to be charged?

I ordered 2 Echobee Premium. I already have 7 Alexa Echo devices in the house, I don't want Ecobee to pickup the commands I say to existing Alexa Echo devices that area already attached to each room. Can I turn off Ecobee's Alexa but keep just Apple Siri?

Great stuff!!!

What do you use to open your curtains as I would love to do this

I have the G2H pro and the G3 from Aqara and have had no problems with either until recently. Aprox. 11 months after first installing them the G3 has had a problem with staying online. After jumping all the loops for tech support I'm left with a camera that will not stay online and they dragged the emails out over a period of weeks to the end of warranty. Fortunately I have all the "child devices" on the G2H Pro for now. The problem with having 18 child devices dependent on a hub was a mistake in my opinion.

I just hate how lutron seems to be the best switch but there is none alternative for EU market, shame. I'm about to make my flat smart but I can't decide with the switches, Aqara makes some, but I have now clue if it is really what I want 🤷

Question: How do get my homepod mini to show the temperature and humidity to show up in the home app? *Updated to latest software on both iPhone/iPad and HomePodOS*

Spy devices.

I'm really digging the NanoLeaf bulbs and light strips

Good advice on secondary hubs. Yolink only work with a hub. They are only devices I found for a couple of outdoor and freezer monitoring situations is Yolink. Totally diff. than most but with hubs they work well with alexa and google. And their smart button fobs, gives me inexpensive reliable buttons for alexa routines. Was afraid of another hub, but they work so well where others did not and my lutron devices with a hub the same.

The aqara lights switch, doesn’t support (raise control) by siri ? There’s any solution?

Just putting it out there - Having 3 wifi repeaters from Netgear will not tripple the area that is covered by Wifi, because that is not how overlapping circles work, also, signal decay is still a thing and you can alway buy a more powerful router to increase the range - but power comsumption will increase exponentially by a power of 2 or more (again, because physics and geometry)

Excellent source of Top Notch info..thank you!!

What is the best option for full colour bulbs for HomeKit?

Craig, will you be doing a video on the new HomePod?

Great video, straight to the point. I made my house smart with cync by ge, and love the dimmers, switches, fan switches, smart plugs, strip lights and recessed lights. No hub required and it works with Google home or Alexa

After the discovery of Amazon turning over Ring videos to the FBI and other LEO’s I won’t use Ring.

i so wish i had some smart bulbs

Well done, sir. But it really blows my mind sooooo many reviewers of smart home items pay no attention to Yolink, and/or LoRa tech. I have personally been using them for 2.5 yrs now and have never once had one of their items lose connectivity.

I have all Reolink poe cameras and I have the ring alarm system all in HomeKit using home bridge

Does Aqara make an outdoor wireless camera? I couldn’t find on on Amazon.

I'm wondering how did you connect all your cameras to power outlets/circuits? How to power this thing up when you want a camera to hang from ceiling and the power outlet is in the ground level...?

I live the video but I gotta disagree with the Ring Doorbell. The Google Nest Hello footage won't be disstributed without a warrant. From what I've read Ring's in a bit of jot water for that...

Nice video, but when if the intrenet is down, whate then?

I have spent mega bucks on push buttons of many different brands and they have all ended up in the trash. The Aquara push buttons give me seamless instant control via Home Assistant. I would HIGHLY recommend purchasing them too anyone out there.

Great stuff!!
Have some in my home, but for 2022, my favorite smart home device was the SwitchBot blind tilt...
Love these things, been waiting for a reliable, economical bot to open all 14 blinds in my house and they work perfectly!!

Overall good video and I agree with most of your devices except aqara. Their cameras are junk. Horrible video quality.

Hi. Any update on how Lutron will implement matter with their switches? Tried finding info online but it’s all old news.

Maybe I missed it but I thought Aqara sensors require a Aqara hub. Will this ch age with matter?

I like your recommendations except I like the Level lock and Google Nest Cams that released this year over Ring and Schlage.

Great video Craig, thanks for the content!

I bought the Lutron smart switches but couldn’t use them. They require a neutral wire in the switch box. Most switch boxes have a two wire, power down, power up and a copper ground wire. You CANNOT use the power ground wire as your neutral. Building codes are changing to now run a three wire into the switch box to provide the neutral. If you are building keep that in mind.

Lutron Kaseeta has a new GEN three that came out about a month ago and we installed it throughout the house. The three-way switches still require a pico from GEN two. It was really cool getting our outdoor Water Fountain and Christmas tree all dialed in and on timers. The GEN three remembers the dim level now where it was at when you turned it off. I used Siri text to speech, and I see some of it was not spelled correctly.

Awesome video, Craig! Definitely some of my favorites. I really like how you put a label above the Aqara wireless mini switch with what action each press does, this way people don't have to remember what type of press the mini switch controls. Genius!!

What happens when there is no power for door locks?

Thanks again Craig. ❤

Question : Aqara buttons why single press on double press off? Why not convert to shortcut and make a “what if” and make a single press turn it on and off?

I love Schlage, Lutron & Ecobee. They play well with any ecosystem

My favorite this year is the Amazon Smart Thermostat. The features to price ratio is very high and it just plain works.

Great video Craig. 😊
Are there any motion sensors that don’t require a hub?

Great video but I have to give a thumbs down for recommending Nanoleaf's Abandoned Essentials line and the schlage locks that will not get Matter upgrades after all. I think best thing to buy right now is the Hubitat Elevation, Amazon, Apple, and Google support for any zwave and zigbee devices.

Thanks as always! Good products.

Great video Craig! I always look forward to your videos. I use many of these products and look forward to trying others.