One of the main things that prevents robot vacuums from being entirely autonomous is the need for us humans to empty the occasional vacuum bag or water tank. Switchbot's newest robot vacuum, the S10 aims to automate those tasks—and it works quite well.

The Switchbot S10 ($1,199, but you can get an additional $100 off with promo code LIFEHACKR100 at checkout until June 12), the new robot vacuum from one of my favorite smart companies, allows you to tie the water inlet and outlet for the mop directly into your water line, enabling the robot to fill and empty itself. If you commit to the work of making the water line connections (it is optional, but recommended), this bot can go for months without human intervention.

While I have some nitpicks about a few things, I was still impressed by the S10 and what it means for the future of robots in the home. 

Installation requires some basic plumbing

Before you even buy the S10, you can use Switchbot's compatibility check to ensure you have somewhere to make the water connection properly. Luckily, you can tie the S10 into almost anywhere water comes into your home, whether it's the toilet, the washing machine, or a faucet, and the S10 ships with every kind of connection you could possibly need.

To get an idea of how the S10 works, it's helpful to think of it as having four parts: the robot itself; a vacuum dock where the robot charges, empties the vacuum, and dries off; a dock to hook up to wherever it gets and dumps water (more on that in a second); and water tanks, which you'll need if you forgo hooking the S10 up to a water line. Unlike other floorbots, these docks aren’t all one large piece of hardware—they're separate, and while each is smaller than most robot vacuum docks, I would have preferred only having to dedicate floor space to one thing.

Back to the water tank situation: Ideally, the S10's water station is hooked up to the water line, but you can use the optional water tanks instead, if that's not an option. If you do decide to skip the water line installation, it's important to know that these tanks are smaller than most you see in modern robots. Therefore, using the tanks will require you to empty and fill the tanks quite frequently, thus eliminating a lot of the automated convenience that makes the S10 so nice.

Switchbot has done everything possible to make installation of the water line something the average person can do, but it’s still basic plumbing, and you might run into the same problem I did: too many items demanding the water line. To tie the S10 into my bathroom plumbing, I had to either choose between my bidet and the Switchbot or have a plumber add a connection. (As smart tech continues to proliferate, I suspect the problem of tech demanding access to our waterline will become increasingly common.)

Easy setup and quick mapping

Setup for the S10 was simple. First, the Switchbot app prompts you to map its two stations (water and vacuum debris). Next, you send the S10 out to map your floor, and like most other bots that use LiDAR (a laser method measuring light and distance), this was an accurate process that happened quickly.

Once mapped, you can begin to play with the various settings to customize it to your liking. The feature I use most on robot vacuums is the intensity setting, which allows you to control how much suction the vacuum uses, or how much water and vibration the mop uses. The S10 has limited customization here, so you can’t mop only, for instance. The mapping also felt limited: I couldn't add furniture to my rooms, which is helpful in setting up zones. These aren't huge misses, though, and could be dealt with in a future software update. Most of the features I love, including remote control, the ability to see the maintenance status of parts, and the ability to tie into most voice assistants were all there—and since the S10 has support for Matter, there's a lifeline for Apple HomeKit users.

The S10's mop is great, but its size can cause problems

One of my favorite robot vacuums ever was the Switchbot K10+, which was a spectacular vacuum both in terms of how well it sucked up debris, and also in its tiny size. Because it was so diminutive, the K10+ got into spaces no other bot could, making tight turns around chair legs, etc. Unfortunately, the mop on the K10+ sucked.

The S10 has the opposite problem: it’s huge. At 14 inches wide, the S10 can’t make those tight turns or get into corners the same way as the K10+, and without extending arms that some competitors have, it left corners throughout my house with debris in them. Still, the S10 was able to get most small- to medium-sized debris, although it flunked my dog toy floof test. (When trying a new robot vacuum, I like to leave a piece of floof from a dog toy to see if the bot will suck it up or read it as an obstacle and avoid it. The S10 surfed very near the floof, but avoided it.)

On the S10, the mop is really the headliner here. This model is part of a new class of robot vacuums that don’t just deploy new water on the floor—like the Eufy S1, the S10 cleans the mop while it’s out and about, ensuring there's only clean water on the floor and the dirty water is suctioned away. But unlike the S1, which didn’t mop very impressively in my home, the S10 cleaned up wet debris and dug into dried debris on the floor. I was impressed at how much less dingy my white tiles looked after a pass, and two passes got rid of most dried stains, too.

However, this all led to a minor issue with the S10—everything we're asking this robot to do drains the battery, and so the bot would frequently have to put itself in time out at the dock to recharge. This meant that big jobs rarely got done all at once. This would be a bigger problem if the robot needed intervention from me to clear debris or refill the water, but generally speaking, the robot and I have led separate lives, which is quite the point. 

Bottom line: good value, and a lot of promise

The S10 is the device I anticipated most this year and in many ways, it lived up to the hype. I had no issues at all with the refill and empty station, and I look forward to the additional devices that Switchbot will offer in the future to work with the S10 (the app already has humidifier settings available in it, but the hardware is not available yet).

As mops go, I was impressed, and while the vacuum wasn’t as good as some of my favorite Roborock models, it was still pretty good. You need to have some patience with the S10, both in dealing with the multiple docks, and how it will need to recharge often. But as a tradeoff, you’ll almost never need to intervene in the robot's life.

It’s only in the last few years that we’ve seen the entry of truly smart ceiling fans that allow you to do more than simply turn the device on and off, but affect every single aspect of the fan and light. While these smart ceiling fans have been expensive until now, I was excited to try the Dreo 44'' Smart Ceiling Fan (originally $149.99, but on sale at Amazon at the time of this writing), which was reasonably priced and from a company I think is doing interesting things with cooling and fans. 

Simple design with easy installation

The Dreo comes in two sizes: the 44-inch, four-blade version I was testing and a larger 52-inch version with five blades ($159.99, already sold out). Since my office ceiling fan desperately needed an update, it was the perfect time to test the Dreo. Simple in design, the fan features clean lines and smooth surfaces, and the light is one large low-profile LED. This fan would fit into virtually any decor, from modern to classic, without standing out. The only assembly required is choosing which side of the blades you’d prefer to face the room—one side will have a wood grain, and the other side will have a different color, depending on which size you buy.

Once attached, it’s time for installation. If you’re replacing a fan, you’ll simply need someone to assist in holding the fan while you wire it to the junction box that is already in your ceiling; then you bolt the fan body on and begin attach pieces in layers, starting with the cover for the junction box, the light base and, finally, the light cover. From there, you install the Dreo app and pair the fan. There is also an optional light switch and remote to be installed. 

Dreo 44" Smart Ceiling Fan

$116.90 at Amazon

$129.99 Save $13.09

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$116.90 at Amazon

$129.99 Save $13.09

Unique smart features

I’m already a fan of the Dreo app: It’s well-designed to have just enough functionality with a clean, clear design. From the app, you can use a slider to choose the speed of the fan; there are six speeds (the larger model has twelve), but the slider makes it feel like it has infinite speeds because you can be granular in choosing what feels right. To my delight, the ceiling fan shared the same feature as their standing fans where you can choose “normal” or “natural” mode. Just as it did on the ground in the standing fans, the “natural” setting produces what feels like more of a breeze, not by simply slowing the fan down but by pulsing through various speeds to simulate wind. It’s a charming feature I use all the time. A neat trick is that you can change the direction of the ceiling fan at the click of a button in the app, so the fan could be used in winter, too (when you want to more evenly distribute warm air around the room instead of sending cool air down). Most fans have this ability, but it's typically a manual toggle on the fan itself, and folks often don't take the extra step to reverse the fan and lose out on a nice way to move warm air through the room in the colder months.

While the light is plain in design, it does a good job of lighting the room. I immediately saw a difference in how bright the room felt from the old ceiling fan, which had four independent lightbulbs. The 2400 Lumen LED temperature can be adjusted from warm to cool (2700K-6500K), and the brightness can be dimmed using a slider. Once you adjust it, the light does not jump to the color or temperature you selected, but rather morphs gently into it. Though Dreo integrated seamlessly into Google Home and Alexa, including the associated assistants, it does not currently work with Apple HomeKit or IFTTT, and there’s no Matter or Threads integration. 

You can also set up schedules for the fan and light, independently or together, or set the fan to “sleep” mode which will gradually slow down the fan overnight or even turn it off, if you use the timer. 

Incredibly quiet

The most notable aspect of the Dreo ceiling fan is the volume: It is so quiet that you will forget it’s on. It was quiet enough that I asked Dreo how they were silencing the blades, and their support channel attributed it to a brushless DC motor and correct installation (when a fan is off balance, the rocking can make noise). Despite the missing sound, the fan works as you'd expect in moving air around the room. The smaller version promises 3170 cubic feet per minute (CFM) versus 5673 CFM in the larger unit. This is average for the size of fan, but when using the "natural" settings, and in absence of the typical white noise of a fan in the background, it just feels like you left a window open on a breezy day. 

It’s hard to take a passionate stand for a ceiling fan—they are unsexy, as far as appliances go. However, the Dreo is a really good pairing of technology and usability. For about $150, you get an easy-to-install fan (less than half the cost of competitors) that is simple to use but also feels different than other ceiling fans. It’s quieter, brighter, and cools without feeling like you're in a wind tunnel. While I might enjoy more high-end design, on the functionality, the Dreo Smart Ceiling Fan can’t be beat.

The most notable thing I’ve learned about robot lawn mowers: How the lawn mower maps, matters. Originally, these mowers all used buried wire to determine the boundaries that the robots couldn’t cross. Then RTK (which stands for "Real Time Kinematic positioning"—essentially, GPS with some additional localized data) made it possible for people to define the boundary without a wire by simply walking the robot around the perimeter of the yard during setup, as long as the robot was in sight of the RTK tower. Now, Ecovacs has attempted something new with the GOAT GX-600 ($999): The device simply uses LiDAR to figure out where to mow and not mow. (LiDAR is what robot vacuums use.)

The problem is, it doesn’t work. Despite trying the GOAT on multiple different lawn setups,I could never get it to complete even one run. It failed to see the entire lawn, often mowed the same area back and forth many times instead of moving to a new area, ignored boundaries like sidewalks, and refused to cross boundaries it should, like walkways. Additionally, it got stuck so often—even on flat, freshly mowed grass—that it was hard to imagine that you’d ever feel confident enough to let the GOAT work autonomously, which is the whole point of a robot.

At least it's light

This is actually the third iteration of the GOAT, and while the v1 and v2 versions of the GOAT seem to have had more success based on previous reviews, neither appear to be available anymore. To its credit, the GX-600 was the easiest robot lawn mower to put together of any I’ve tested. The entire charging base comes already assembled, as did the robot. There are no additional parts, wires, or RTK towers—you just plug it in and send the robot out to explore your lawn. The base, made of plastic, and the robot were both light enough to move around (which I did a lot of). 

Troublesome connections

It took a few tries to pair the GOAT with the app, but it was still easy enough to do in under 10 minutes by power cycling the robot. In the case of most lawn mower apps, you can access a lot of settings from the app interface, whether the mower is online or not. In the case of Ecovacs, you can only access these settings while the mower is online. Once it is, you can connect via Bluetooth or wifi, with some operations requiring the Bluetooth. Most operations you set on the robot itself, like setting the height of the lawn. From the app, you can set schedules, and decide to operate the robot in auto mode or manual mode. Manual mode is code for “remote control,” which is a feature easier to find on other apps. I routinely had trouble connecting via Bluetooth to the robot, even when only 10 feet away, and it’s a requirement for the manual mode. I had to use manual mode a lot on the GOAT to try and move it out of an area it was having trouble with, and I struggled to connect and maintain that connection. 

Too picky for its own good

Most robot lawn mowers claim to work on most lawns, inhibited only by square footage and incline. The GOAT, based on the way it maps, is different. Ecovacs has an entire pre-purchase quiz to help you decide if the GOAT is right for you, and there are several parameters that might rule your lawn out. First, your lawn needs to be enclosed, either by a physical boundary like a fence or a sidewalk. Second, it has to be mostly contiguous—it can only be broken up by one walkway less than 1m (three feet) across. Third, any interior “islands,” such as planting beds, raised beds or other obstacles like lawn furniture, must have a physical barrier around them that the robot can sense.

Promised features didn't work

The Ecovacs GOAT insisted on mowing this individual strip over and over, for twenty minutes but never got the rest of the lawn. Credit: Amanda Blum

On the first lawn I tried—which featured large expanse of grass with no islands or any kind, but with an incline, surrounded by fences and sidewalks, and divided by one 24-inch walkway—the GOAT never completed a single mowing cycle. The GOAT was able to find the boundary of the first half of the lawn and circled around a few times, and then began to mow. Instead of mowing across the lawn, it mowed the same strip, up and back, for almost 20 minutes, and then moved over only marginally, so it was still getting half of the same strip of lawn. After an hour it hadn’t gotten half the lawn done, and eventually, it stalled on a sidewalk. Since a sidewalk is supposed to be one of the boundaries the robot will respect, I was surprised it even ventured onto it, making it a tripping hazard and prime candidate for being stolen. At the same time, it refused to cross the 24-inch walkway, which was well under the three-foot threshold.

Over a slow and painful back-and-forth with support over a few days, they first reminded me that the robot would only cross a threshold that was narrower than three feet. When I pointed out it was, they then returned saying that the robot could not cross any threshold, and i could just pick the robot up and put it back down on the other side and send it out to mow. This also did not work—the mower issued an error message saying it was out of the mappable zone, and picking the mower up means re-entering the PIN on the robot. Even worse, the robot refused to return to the dock in most cases. Even when the dock was placed in precisely the spot support recommended, the robot returned to the dock about 60% of the time. Still, I tried to send the robot out every day for a week to see if things would improve before giving up. 

Even on a perfectly flat lawn, that had just been mowed, the GOAT got stuck. Credit: Amanda Blum

No better on a perfect lawn

I then tried out the GOAT on a medium-sized backyard lawn that is flat and well-maintained, has no islands, and most importantly, is completely surrounded by fencing. It had just been mowed when we showed up. I just wanted to see if the GOAT would make one complete run. Even on a completely flat ground, the robot got its blades stuck every few feet, stopping and reporting an error. From the app, you can “ignore” these errors, so after checking for a block the first few times, I started ignoring these errors and asking the mower to continue. It would only continue a few inches before having another error. I tried moving the robot to another location inside the lawn to see if that would help, but it didn’t. At least on this lawn, the robot returned to dock. 

On my last attempt—a small, completely enclosed lawn that measured 30x15 feet—we experienced more of the same. The GOAT got stopped while going along the boundary, and when it started mowing the inside, it missed giant swaths of lawn and frequently reported errors. 

For every other robot lawnmower, this docking position would work, but the GOAT wasn't able to find it. Credit: Amanda Blum

A complete failure

I have enjoyed Ecovac robot vacuums; I trust the brand to make reliable robots for inside the house. But I have never had an experience like this, where every single aspect of a product fails. The GOAT has yet to accurately map a boundary for me, or to mow the entire space inside a boundary it creates. It is unreliable in coming back to the dock, and went into spaces it shouldn’t (like sidewalks) more than once. It is hard to connect to via Bluetooth, rendering some features like manual mode unusable, and couldn’t move across a lawn that was completely flat (and already mowed!) without reporting constant errors. 

Missing key robot lawn mower features

It feels silly to mention the price at this point ($999) since there’s very little I’ve said to convince you to buy this particular robot. This is mid to lower range for most lawn robots, and I’d be game to try the next GOAT to see how it changes. However, putting the features of the GOAT that don’t work aside, this robot didn’t include a lot of features that are important in other models, like the ability to affect mowing pattern, multi-zone support, the ability to see where your robot is on a map, or what areas of the map have and haven’t been mowed.

There's a big difference between a robot vacuum and a robot lawn mower. A robot lost in your living room can’t do a lot of damage. A vacuum can be stuck under a couch for weeks without anyone stealing it, or someone tripping over it. Outside, we need a lot of faith that our robots really are autonomous, and will do what they’re meant to, so they don’t become a hazard or become vulnerable to stealing. Perhaps another mower will convince me this RTK-less method of mapping works, but for now, I’m sticking to mowers that let you set a boundary, and then stick to it. For large lawns or those with steep inclines or rough terrain,, the Mammotion Luba 2 is incredibly reliable. For smaller lawns or those with more smaller turns and delicate areas, I recommend the Segway Navimow.

I love my grill, a 30-year-old Weber model that I continually rehab. It has zero smart features, but it remains the barbecue I compare all others to, including the four smart barbecues I tested over the last six weeks. Through testing all of these fancy new grills, I wanted to understand if the addition of connectivity could make the grilling experience fundamentally better, rather than just adding cost and empty hype to already expensive equipment.

I have dabbled a bit in smart grilling features before—like when I tested smart wireless thermometers from Meater and Combustion—so I already had some idea of what to expect. At the very least, I expected these smart grills allow for lazier cooking by reporting temperatures from afar via an app, eliminating the need to stand over a grill for hours on end in the heat. While all the grills I tested did this admirably, I did not expect how much remote control these grills offer over temperature and smoke level, meaning even experienced grillers can take a more hands-off approach without losing the detailed control. Some of these grills produced results so great that only advantage my 30-year-old Weber has at this point is purely sentimental. If I was going to buy a grill tomorrow, it would be a smart grill.

Read on to learn about my thoughts on each of the four models I tested, which will hopefully narrow down your search for the perfect smart grill.

My favorite of the bunch: Brisk It Origin 580 Smart Grill with AI, $899

Credit: Amanda Blum

At a glance

Ideal for: Cooks of all experience levels, including inexperienced barbecue cooks who are intimidated by grilling and smoking.

How it works: Wood pellet grill fed by auger.

Does it smoke? Yes.

Does it flame grill? Yes.

Active grill space: 580 square inches.

Pros

• Completely hands-off cooking.

• Extensive recipe library.

• Works at lower temperature ranges, enabling cold smoking.

• Able to add power smoke or hold temp for keeping warm.

• AI is useful for finding recipes.

Cons 

• Some parts of the grill (handles and foam lining) aren’t well made, but this doesn't affect function or taste.

• Can’t easily change/mix wood in a cook.

Quick thoughts

The Brisk It grill gets the edge here for how useful the app is, which allows the user to converse with the app to find the perfect recipe. That recipe is then sent to the grill, and the grill executes the recipe. The auto ignite worked every time, and the smart connectivity never errored out, not even once.

The wood pellets provide a smokier environment than any other grill tested while still allowing for a nice flame grill at higher temperatures. But the wood pellet hopper and auger make it difficult to change the pellets mid-cook the way you would with a smaller hopper like the Masterbuilt (featured later in this post).

Read my full review.

Buy the Brisk It Origin 580 Smart Grill with AI ($899 on Amazon)

Brisk It Origin-580 Wood Pellet Grill Smoker Smart Grill

$899.99 at Amaon

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$899.99 at Amaon

Current Model G Dual Zone Smart Grill, $999

Credit: Amanda Blum

At a glance

Ideal for: Anyone prohibited from grills that use real fire.

How it works: Electric grill with the ability to create two temperature zones.

Does it smoke? No.

Does it flame grill? No.

Active grill space: 330 square inches.

Pros 

• Ability to only turn on as much grill space as you need.

• Able to create two different zones. 

• Can be used in spaces where fire isn’t allowed. 

• Modern looking, light build. 

Cons 

• Takes a long time to heat up. 

• Loses heat quickly when open. 

• Hard to clean, despite auto clean feature. 

• Flimsy build.

Quick thoughts

While I didn’t love this grill in comparison to the others, it serves a specific niche for those who need an electric grill specifically. I liked that you didn’t need to heat up the entire grill if you didn’t need the space, and it did provide the best searing environment than any of the others—even at very high temperatures (700 F), food didn’t stick to the grill much. The self-clean option should have made cleaning easy, but tended to leave the grill looking worse after. If you choose this grill, double check the electrical requirements; it’s a beast.

Read my full review.

Buy the Current Model G Dual Zone Smart Grill ($999 at Ace Hardware)

Current Model G Dual Zone Smart Grill

$899.00 at Ace Hardware

$999.00 Save $100.00

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$899.00 at Ace Hardware

$999.00 Save $100.00

Kamado Joe Konnected Joe Charcoal Grill and Smoker, $1,499

Credit: Amanda Blum

At a glance

Ideal for: Ceramic enthusiasts, barbecue nerds, and those who want all the options and control.

How it works: Ceramic grill using charcoal.

Does it smoke? Yes.

Does it flame grill? Yes

Active grill space: 250 square inches.

Pros 

• Obtain intense all-around heat quickly and easily. 

• Extensive accessory ecosystem. 

• Ability to flame grill, smoke, bake, and char. 

• Compact size. 

Cons

• Limited active grill space. 

• Expensive. 

• Very limited app utility. 

• Hard to add charcoal once the grill is in use.  

Quick thoughts

Ceramic grills like the Kamado have a cult following that I didn’t fully understand until I tried one myself. While the cooking surface is limited, the ceramic shell creates an all-around heat, like a pizza oven, that cooks food differently than traditional grills. Crispier exteriors on breads, meats, and vegetables also ensured moister interiors.

These grills can be intimidating, with many accessories, parts, and options to fiddle with based on what you’re cooking, but the smart app can mostly eliminate that learning curve and anxiety. If I was going to purchase a ceramic grill, I’d likely choose this one for that reason, though you can certainly use the grill without the smart aspects, if you choose.

It’s hard to say if I’d choose the Kamado over other grills like the Masterbuilt or Brisk It, but it is certainly more flexible. Using a vast array of purchasable accessories, you can flame grill, smoke, bake, roast, or even use the grill like a pizza oven. 

Buy the Kamado Joe Konnected Joe Charcoal Grill ($1,499 at Best Buy)

Kamado Joe Konnected Joe Charcoal Grill and Smoker

Kamado Joe Konnected Joe Charcoal Grill and Smoker

$1,499.99 at Best Buy

$1,699.99 Save $200.00

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$1,499.99 at Best Buy

$1,699.99 Save $200.00

Masterbuilt Auto Ignite 545 Digital Charcoal Grill, $499

Credit: Amanda Blum

At a glance

Ideal for: Grillers who want high levels of control and flexibility, with an assist from smart tech.

How it works: Charcoal gravity-fed grill.

Does it smoke? Yes.

Does it flame grill? No.

Active grill space: 545 square inches

Pros

• Great manual control over wood throughout the cooking process.

• Large cooking space. 

• Able to control the temperature via app. 

• Incredibly sturdy, well-built grill and parts. 

Cons

• Limited space for searing. 

• Hard to get flame under active grill space. 

• Tricky ignition doesn’t always work on the first try.

• Really hard to put together.

Quick thoughts

Gravity-fed grills—in which a charcoal-filled hopper burns from the bottom up, with a fan blowing the heat and smoke across the cooking space—have a learning curve. It is not the same as having a fire under the cooking grates, but with a little experience under your belt, the Masterbuilt provides a highly satisfying grilling experience with a lot of control.

You can add to the hopper throughout the cook, so you can augment your food with hardwood for smoking, and the hopper itself serves as a surface for searing. Of all the grills, the Masterbuilt felt the most solid, but you should expect a frustrating assembly process. Still, if you want a lot of control over a larger cooking space with a light assist from smart tech, this is the grill I’d get. 

Read my full review.

Buy the Masterbuilt Auto Ignite 545 Digital Charcoal Grill ($499 on Amazon)

Masterbuilt Auto Ignite 545 Digital Charcoal Grill

$499.00 at Amaon

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$499.00 at Amaon

Other smart grills to consider: 

• Traeger Grills Pro 575 Electric Wood Pellet Grill $599.95

• Weber Genesis SPX-435 Premium Smart Gas Grill $1,799

Tools to make your grilling smarter: 

• Weber Connect Smart Grilling Hub $83.90

• Combustion Smart Thermometer $199.99

• BBQ Guru's UltraQ Bluetooth/Wifi BBQ Temperature Controller Universal Kit for Grills and Smokers $412.99

Robot vacuums are expected to do a lot more than vacuum these days: They can map rooms, mop floors, respond to voice commands, empty themselves, detect pets and people, and avoid pet waste on the floor. Many of the features above are reserved for the highest priced flagship models, but they are starting to trickle down to mid-tier models, too. The Dreame L10s Plus has settled into a nice mid-range floorbot option by having some of my favorite high-end features, while not allowing the core function—vacuuming—to suffer. If you ignore the mop feature on the Dreame L10s Plus robot vacuum and simply use it as a competent vacuum with all the bells and whistles of many flagship models, you’re likely to be happy with the value at $549.

What to know about the Dreame brand

I was excited to test the L10s Plus because Dreame has an exceptional reputation in the robot vacuum space; the brand offers a large number of models each year, though, which can be confusing and hard to differentiate. For instance, in additional to this model, the L10s Plus, there is an L10 Pro, L10s Ultra, L10s Pro Gen, and the L20, with only marginal differences among them. By spending fractionally more money, you might get some additional vacuum power or battery longevity and perhaps one additional feature improvement, like AI obstacle recognition over traditional LiDAR. This model, the L10s Plus, offers a self-emptying tower for the vacuum (but not the mop), as well as two removable mop pads and a very small water reservoir on the robot itself. 

High-end features

This was my first time using the Dreame app, and I was pleased with how easy it was to pair the robot and get it connected to wifi. An advantage to Dreame products is that this model works with every smart assistant out there, and it integrated into my Google Home setup easily. This means you can create automations involving your robot. Schedule a run after dinner or in response to your dog going through a doggie door. The app is where I was really impressed by the L10s Plus: Mapping options were as extensive as on the most expensive robot vacuums I’ve tested. You can create rooms and zones, manipulating the map to merge and divide areas. The map generated by LiDAR was impressively accurate after just the first run. You can customize the run settings for vacuum suction and mop wetness, as well as the route the robot will take, whether quick or standard deep clean. The app gives you concise information about when to replace parts and a number of customizations for control, including kid locks and do-not-disturb schedules. In particular, I loved seeing the remote control option, as well as a beacon to find the robot. Remote control has proven to be incredibly useful for retrieving robots lost under couches without having to fish it out manually. 

Reliable performance on small to medium debris

As a vacuum, I really liked how the Dreame performed. While not as rugged as the Roborock high end models I’ve tested, I thought the L10s Plus did a good job of picking up small- to medium-sized debris without getting stuck. Dog toy fluff presented a problem, so you’ll need to clear your floor of it beforehand, but in at least one instance, it was clear the L10s Plus had picked up a coin or screw and continued cleaning. I didn’t understand the path the Dreame took across the floor; it wasn’t a back and forth or S shape, but that’s not unusual, as many floorbots have unique algorithms they follow. The L10s got to 95% of the floor, missing a few spots here and there that I couldn’t find a reason for. Placing the robot in that spot, and then manually pressing the clean button allowed the robot to find and add that spot to the map so it was caught on later runs. The L10s Plus was average in how close it was able to get to walls in my home, meaning you’d have to return with with a handheld or broom to get up to the molding, but that’s expected for all but the latest floorbots with extending arms. While this model worked well on tile and low pile rugs, it actually did a great job on high pile carpet and sailed over low thresholds. The L10s Plus has the advantage of self-emptying into the tower, and it did a good job evacuating the entire chamber over the time I tested it. So many robots are talked about in terms of the power the vacuum itself has on the floor, but the power of the tower to empty the debris container is just as important, in my opinion. 

The mop isn't worthwhile

Where things fall apart is the L10s Plus mop. There is a wide variation in how robot mops work: At the high end, towers have tanks for clean and dirty water, and the tower will fill a robot with clean water, then wash the mop and remove the dirty water. In some limited cases, mops work like a Swiffer, where you attach a mop pad and the robot will drag it across the floor. The Dreame L10s Plus exists in a middle ground. There’s a (very) small container for water on the robot itself, so you’ll need to fill it many times over one mopping. The robot has two rotating mop pads, similar to those I’ve seen on higher end models, and the water will saturate the mop pads as the robot moves. As a mop, the performance is really so-so, and I was annoyed by how often I had to stop the robot to refill the reservoir. Spinning brushes aren’t as effective, in my opinion, as mop pads at getting up stains on the floor, and the combination of low agitation and not enough saturation meant that only wet debris was removed during the moping process. It might be worthwhile the keep the mop tank filled in case you need a quick spot clean, but it’s impractical to consider using this mop on a regular basis. 

It's a good value if you think of it as just a vacuum

Some of my favorite floorbot recommendations are models where you should ignore some features because the other benefits outweigh them—like the Switchbot K10+, which is my favorite vacuum but a lousy mop. Overall, if you are looking to spend under $600, I think the L10s Plus is a great value to get a decent vacuum with some of those additional high-tier features, even if you only use the mop once in a while for spot cleaning.

I’m hardly a noob when it comes to smoking meat on the grill, but I’ve never owned a real smoker, and certainly not one that could have a conversation with me. But after a month of testing smart smokers on everything from meat, to cheese, to vegetables and fish, I’ve learned is that using a smart smoker can take all the uncertainty out of smoking your food. I’d go as far as to say that a smart app and a good smoker are the perfect marriage of technology and function, and the Brisk It Origin 580 Smart Grill with AI is the best, most functional smoker I've ever used.

This grill offers the most control, recipe options, temperature range and smokiness of any smart grill I've tested, and with the least amount of intervention necessary. It can make smoking a casual weeknight affair, and it does all this at a relatively reasonable price of $899 on Amazon.

Brisk It Origin-580 Wood Pellet Grill Smoker Smart Grill

$899.99 at Amazon

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$899.99 at Amazon

A solid grill body, but some flimsier details

Like every other grill I tested, the Origin requires assembly, which took me about an hour. The "brains" of the grill, as well as the pellet hopper, are located on one side, with a collapsible tray on the front. The grill itself offers 580 square inches between the active grill space and an additional grate above. Brisk It decided to forego the traditional cabinet under the grill, but I didn't miss it much.

The steel shell build feels solid and sturdy, though I found some of the accent pieces, like stainless steel handles, broke easily and jiggled no matter how much tension I applied to the screws, and got hot quickly. The grill also comes with an adhesive backed foam you use line the lid so it closes without a bang, but the heat dissolved the adhesive quickly, so the foam all peeled off during my the first cook, though this did not seem to affect the performance of the grill in any way. Lastly, the metal on the side trays seemed to stain easily. These issues aside, I am still happy with the sturdiness of the grill. 

Wood pellets, not charcoal

Instead of charcoal, this grill uses wood pellets, which you can purchase from Brisk It (mine were supplied alongside the grill for testing) or buy in a series of flavors from any other provider. After using the Masterbuilt, which relies on manual addition of charcoal and hardwood chunks, I spent a lot of time trying to decide if I prefer an all-wood pellet smoke. The pellets earn points for ease of use—they are supplied to the grill via an auger and require no intervention except an occasional refill. This is a relatively small grill by Brisk It's standards, yet it holds 22 pounds of pellets, and I never needed to add more while using it. Compared with charcoal, the pellets provide a far smokier cook, all the way through.

While I didn’t miss the charcoal on my hands or having to juggle items on the cooktop to top off the wood, if you are looking for a more hands on approach that allows you to play with different wood, charcoal grills offer more flexibility. If you prefer to take the easy route, this is it. 

In just two hours, this whole chicken (and chicken neck) got a crisp skin, excellent pink smoke on the interior and a great flavor. Credit: Amanda Blum

The smartest smart grill app I've used

It is undoubtedly the Origin’s smart functionality that puts it ahead of others I've tested. Brisk It offers the most functional, feature-rich app. The grill paired quickly and easily with the app, and then updated itself, all from the full color screen located on the grill (though note it is not touch screen). Using the screen, it’s easy to set a temperature, ignite the grill, and walk away, but you’ll likely want to use when you're actually cooking.

This is the first grill to integrate Brisk It’s Innogrill technology and Vera AI. Vera is an AI assistant you can talk to via the app about anything grilling related, including what you can make with ingredients you have on hand, what level of cook you are, how much time you have to grill. Vera can make suggestions—which I generally found usable and insightful—and send them to the grill so it can handle the cooking for you.

In my testing, I asked Vera for a simple smoked ribs recipe, and it supplied one that takes about four hours, with three steps and few ingredients. The smoking portion had three phases, all at different temperatures and smoke points. Normally, I’d need to monitor the grill, constantly checking the temperature and adding smoke at the right time. Instead, the grill preheated to the right temperature, I put the ribs in when it told me to, stuck a temperature probe into them, closed the lid and walked away. The app notified me as it moved from phase to phase, and I was able to make small adjustments as it went (at one point, I tried a "power smoke" button; more on that in a bit). You have the option to push through a phase faster if you’d like, or skip it altogether.

Four hours later, I removed a rack of perfectly smoked ribs with an impressive bark, fantastic smoke rings, and great color all around. It’s not just the AI making this happen—the app has a deep library of useful recipes you can surf through, a feature promised but not fulfilled by any other smart grill app I've tried. Any of those recipes can be sent via Innogrill to the barbecue.  

It wasn't just meat, the Origin gave these roasted eggplants and garlic a perfect sweet smokiness, and the salt at the top was imparted enough smoke to taste it on foods it garnished. Credit: Amanda Blum

An exceptional marriage of technology and function

The Brisk It app offers a much deeper data dashboard than other apps I've tested, with the ability to affect even minor changes from your smartphone. You can adjust the temperature and time, see the historical data of the cook, and access the temperature probes (there are inputs for two probes that are included with the grill). You can tag your favorite cooks to easily repeat them, use the power smoke function to inject additional smoke into your cook, and activate a “keep warm” feature. One of my favorite features is stall detection. If you’re new to barbecuing, you might not know that meat can sometimes remain at a given temperature for a while, “stalling” out while cooking. With this feature, the Brisk It will notify when this happens and suggest how to remedy it.

I can confidently say that using the app can quickly help you become a more confident barbecue master, and eliminate your anxiety about ruining an expensive cut of meat or wondering if you’re “doing it right.” Brisk It handles the cooking for you (and tells you how it’s handling it) at every step. 

These ribs were a recipe recommendation from Vera, the AI engine in Brisk It that can communicate with you in casual language and then send recipes to the grill, where it handles the whole cook for you. Credit: Amanda Blum

Easy to use (and clean)

Fancy new technology aside, the grill is well designed and easy to use. While not huge, it is a reasonably sized home grill, and can accommodate 2-3 racks of ribs or plenty of burgers and brats for a party. The auto-ignite function worked without fail. The grill is designed to achieve temperatures ranging from 165°F to 500°F, and while the Masterbuilt and Current I tested could achieve higher temperatures, they could not handle lower ones, which are essential for cold smoking. That's something I was able to do on the Brisk It, preparing some trout over an ice bath.

You can move food farther away from the heat by using the upper grate, or closer to the heat by pushing it towards the back of the grill. It delivered more smokiness than any other grill I've tried, whether or not I engaged power smoke. (While you do need to enjoy a smoky flavor, it was not overwhelming in anything I made.) At higher temperatures, there was a chargrilled effect that the Masterbuilt lacked, thanks to an actual fire under the active grill area (the design includes a shield under the grill to prevent flareups from dripping grease.)

I like that the Brisk It has disposable foil shields and trays to make the grill easier to maintain. Of all the grills I tried, the Origin's stainless steel grates were the easiest to clean using barbecue cleaning spray and a wire brush. Closing the grill down is as simple as pressing a button; the app notified me when it was finished with the shut down and cooling process. 

A spectacular value for inexperienced cooks or barbecue masters

I went into this review skeptical of the smart tech capabilities promised by the Brisk It Origin. It is certainly the most ambitious model I tried when it comes to integrating AI, but that's something every company is throwing at its products lately, often with bad implementation. But Brisk It’s usability far exceeds any other smart grill on the market. The app and grill are easy enough to use that I felt comfortable and confident on my first use. I like that it is flexible enough to accommodate inexperienced barbecuers and grill masters alike; even seasoned grillers can use the app to fine-tune their cooks.

Also key: Considering the price point of similarly featured barbecues, including the others I’ve reviewed, you can’t beat the value offered by the Origin 580. If I were going to buy a barbecue tomorrow, particularly with the goal of smoking something, it’d be this one—whether I was shopping for a smart grill or not.

Swimming pools are black holes of maintenance, so I was eager to try one of the new pool-cleaning robots—namely, the AquaSense Beatbot Pro ($2,199)—to see if it could alleviate this pain point. On its maiden voyage, I tossed the twenty-four pound Beatbot into a pool that had been under cover for all of winter. The robot reassuringly started bubbling away and swimming in a tight circle, seeming to get a sense of the place, before tilting at 45 degrees and descending into a pool so murky, I lost sight of the bot just below the surface.

For the next three hours, I could occasionally see a brown cloud of dust move towards the surface, but as the day passed without the bot surfacing, I feared it was lost to the murky depths until it could be retrieved manually. I returned a few more times in the following weeks to see how the bot fared in increasingly clear water, though, and was both impressed and entertained by the Beatbot. Still, I think pool-cleaning robots have a long way to go before they are as helpful as robot vacuums or lawnmowers, and while the Beatbot wasn’t without utility, it is neither as cost-effective or functional as more traditional pool-cleaning systems.

The Beatbot is heavy but holds a solid charge

The BeatBot comes ready to go out of the box—there’s no assembly. There’s a dock, the robot itself, and, if you purchase it, an additional cartridge of water-clarifying cleaner. Docking works a lot like it would with a vacuum or lawnmower: There are two metal plates on the dock to align the robot to deliver the charge. Unlike those other machines, the BeatBot won’t dock itself; when it's done, the robot will bubble to the surface of the pool, and you’ll need to retrieve it, wash out the filter, and place the robot on the dock. When it’s time to clean, you have to put it back in the pool.

At 24 pounds, the Beatbot is certainly not light, and I struggled to imagine someone with any physical challenges being able to routinely move the bot around safely. It does charge quickly, though, and it doesn’t exhaust the charge easily while working. It also holds onto a charge spectacularly. The bot rested at the bottom of a murky pool for ten days and still emerged with a 65% charge. 

Robots are best suited for maintenance of an already clean pool, and can't be relied on to do seasonal cleanings like this. Credit: Amanda Blum

The Beatbot lacks common robot features

My main issue with the Beatbot is that the app doesn’t do much, and it should. Sure, the robot was easy to pair via Bluetooth, which then allowed you to connect it to wifi. You can name the robot and choose if the bot should clean the floor, the walls, the surface, or any combination thereof. There are no buttons to start the bot—you simply toss it in the pool and it starts up.

Here is the main failure point of pool robots: Once in the pool, whether on the surface or below, you lose contact with the robot entirely. It just shows as “offline” in the app. That means you can’t cancel the job, ask the bot to return to the surface, or even track where it is in the pool. If the pool is clear enough, you can see the bot, but often it won’t be. Also, if the pool is freezing, no one wants to jump in to retrieve it, even if you can see it. In most cases, your vacuum or lawnmower will estimate how long a job will take, but the poolbot doesn’t. Aquabot estimates a deep clean will take three hours, but even a “quick clean,” which is just one sweep across the floor of the pool, took almost three hours in a relatively clean, medium-sized pool. 

I was surprisingly bothered by the lack of control I had over the bot during this process—I just had to trust it would surface, and when it didn’t, I realized how much I appreciated the ability to control my other robots while they were working. When a robot mower is going, you can see it on an interactive map—where it’s mowed and where it hasn’t, same for your vacuum. You can see where it is if it gets stuck, but you can also track progress and, in a number of cases, direct the robot to come to you using a remote control. On successful cleanings, the Beatbot did eventually bubble to the top and remain there, at the side of the pool, waiting for me. But it occurred to me that the battery was not infinite, and if I was not there to retrieve it, the battery would eventually die, and the robot would sink. A robot that requires you to be there to put it in the pool and take it out on a tight timetable isn’t very autonomous.  

Poor documentation and support

This led me to complaint number two: Increasingly, I’m finding that the support for robots is hard to access, as it is slow and often unhelpful. Many of the companies that make these robots are offshore, as is Aquasense. There’s a finite online FAQ for the bot, and not a lot of documentation beyond that to search through. Out of nine phone calls during business hours on a Wednesday, seven of them went to voicemail. On the two calls I got though (both times to the same support tech), I had difficulty understanding the directions the representative offered due to a language barrier. Basic questions didn’t have an answer, and the best the tech could do was offer to leave a message for technical support, who would be in overnight.

At first, I asked how to change the wifi network, which is a basic operation on most robots, but for the BeatBot requires you to delete the robot entirely, and add it from scratch, using the new network. This would mean having to delete your map and cleaning history just to change your wifi password. On the second call, I asked how to cancel a cycle or how long to wait until I could ascertain the bot was lost, and the operator simply couldn’t answer, and kept repeating it would come to the surface when it was done (as above, it did not). 

After a three hour run just across the floor of this medium sized pool, the Beatbot still left visible dirt on the pool floor. Credit: Amanda Blum

Even on the day when the pool was already the clearest, with just some collected dirt on the bottom and 20-30 small leaves floating on top, the robot took three hours to do a middling job on the pool floor. While it got 85% of the dirt, it left obvious, large pools of it on the steps and in the corners. What was frustrating is that I watched it linger in those corners multiple times. 

Why you're better off with traditional pool cleaners

Most people with in-ground pools have a filtration system, which does some of the work of cleaning the water, but also have a pool vacuum that attaches to the water hose. Some require you to manually move the vacuum about, which is physically taxing. Many pools have automatic cleaners that roll around the pool autonomously on a schedule and just remain in the water constantly, attached to the water line. These cleaners vary widely in price, from as little as $30 to the $500-600 range. At $2,199, the Beatbot simply doesn’t compete, nor is the Beatbot the only poolbot on the market.

Traditional pool cleaners to consider:

• POOLWHALE Portable Pool Vacuum Jet Underwater Cleaner $24.99

• POOL BLASTER Max Cordless Pool Vacuum $189.99

• Polaris Vac-Sweep 280 $599

• Hayward Navigator Pro Suction Pool Cleaner $349

• Hayward Poolvergnuegen Suction Pool Cleaner $429

Other robot pool vacuums:

• AIPER Scuba S1 Cordless Robotic Pool Cleaner $549.99

• Dolphin Nautilus CC Supreme Wi-Fi Robotic Pool Vacuum $1,499

• Polaris Freedom Cordless Robotic Pool Cleaner $1,399

Aquasense relayed through a representative that they looked forward to updates of the software in the future that may address some of my concerns. The robot should be able to connect to wifi from the surface of the pool, and the bot could be programmed to surface occasionally to do so. This alone would solve many issues, like being able to cancel a cleaning routine or updating a map. You’d likely still need another vacuum on top of the Beatbot for seasonal cleaning, as the Beatbot is basically just there to maintain a mostly clean pool, and does that so-so. At the current price, the Beatbot should work as flawlessly as similarly priced robot vacuums or lawn mowers and I found it falls far short of that.

Putting together the Masterbuilt Auto Ignite 545 Smart BBQ was an excruciating seven hours of poor instructions and mislabeled parts. By the time it was ready to use it, I was ready to hate this grill. It didn't help that Masterbuilt’s grills are gravity-fed, which requires an entire learning curve that sent me down a YouTube hole for hours. Still, after all that, I find myself enjoying the Masterbuil. Even though it requires charcoal rather than faster fuels like gas, the grill heats up more quickly than you’d expect. The smart technology is excellently leveraged, allowing you to set and monitor the temperature from the app, and it connects easily. The grill has a decent amount of space, and the grill can achieve decent high (650F) and low (250F) temperatures, and those temperatures can be held because of the smart app.

I do have a few reservations. The lack of flame under the active grill space means that the only place to sear is on top of the hopper, which is quite small. That makes the Masterbuilt more a smoker than a grill. Some embers do fly away due to the design of the ash tray, so they need to be watched. Finally, a few aspects of the app could be better, like the recipe function, which is hard to search. But (if you pay someone else to put the grill together) I think the Masterbuilt Auto Ignite 545 Digital Charcoal Grill ($499) is a spectacular deal. Compared to grills twice the price or more, the 545 has a sturdy build, consistent smoke and is easy to manage from the smart app. 

Masterbuilt® AutoIgnite™ 545 Digital Charcoal Grill

$499.00 at Amazon

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$499.00 at Amazon

Pay someone else to put it together

At the time I started putting the 545 together, there weren’t yet instructional videos (thankfully, there are now). This will compensate for the inexplicably poorly illustrated paper instructions. Assembly was so irritating and exhausting, I’d recommend purchasing the grill from someplace that includes assembly, or pay for someone else to do it. Once completed, the 545 is one of the sturdiest grills I tested. The grill feels appropriately heavy, and the parts don’t flex or vibrate. I rolled the grill 50 feet from where it was assembled and it barely made a sound, and no parts moved. 

The active grill space, with the warming grate and the hopper lid for searing. Credit: Amanda Blum

This is a wide grill, with an active grill space, folding warming grate, and charcoal hopper all under the hood. There are 545 inches of active grill space, in addition to the warming grate, and room to sear on top of the cast iron hopper. The lid is heavy, with a solid metal handle that never got hot to the touch. The grill has two platforms, one on each side of the grill. The left side houses the electronics and the right is a staging area that can be flipped up to conserve space. Underneath the grill is a cabinet with a big open space and swiveling door, and the entire grill rests on wheels big and rugged enough to go over most terrain. I noticed that most modern grills or barbecues end up very light: The metal feels thin, the handles don’t inspire confidence. But the 545 is the opposite—it's built like a tank, which feels appropriate for a giant smoker. 

Highly functional app with no frills

The Masterbuilt app connected quickly to the grill. Although no smart grill will allow you to turn it on remotely, once the grill is already on, you can set a temperature or timer. The best part about this is that the 545 will reach and hold that temperature as long as you need, as long as the grill has enough charcoal. You can use as many as four food temperature probes (the grill ships with one). The app has a tab just for recipes, but I found it largely worthless, as there is no search capability, so all you can do is surf through recipes based on protein. The recipes themselves were often abridged to the point of being unhelpful. (A recipe for brisket was just three steps. 1. Season overnight. 2. Smoke the brisket until bark is set. 3. Rest the brisket until it is ready to slice.) Additionally, these recipes could not be sent to the grill, as some other smart grills would do. The best part of the app is that you can see previous sessions or “cooks,” displayed by date, as a graph, including the grill and the probe temperatures.  This could have been more useful if you were allowed to name the cooks, so you could find your previous steak cook vs. a rib cook, which would be quite different. 

Learning to ignite

Regardless of what fuel a grill uses, if it’s “smart,” it’ll need electricity to power the brains of the grill—most smart grills take advantage of this to also include an auto-igniter, the 545 included. This is the first spot where the learning curve kicks in, and if you were to purchase this model, I’d recommend watching videos on the gravity-fed process and how this auto-igniter works. From the control panel of the grill or your app, you’ll set a target temperature, and then hit “ignite.” The auto-ignite will spend about 45 seconds heating up and then you insert a flame starter puck from Masterbuilt and push it into the auto-ignite. If you do it right, the grill starts breathing like a dragon as the fan kicks on, and your charcoal will start to smoke. If you do it wrong, your puck will go out, and you’ll need to start over—the grill will alert you if that's happened. Once you figure it out, you’ll have success each time. With the flame going, you load up the cast iron hopper with charcoal. Masterbuilt wants you to use lump charcoal: It was my first time doing so (I used the Masterbuilt brand, which they sent for me to test and I'd buy again) and I was impressed at the difference between lump and the briquettes you buy at the store. The charcoal ignites quickly and thanks to the fan, is ready to go surprisingly fast. The grill begins heating immediately, and you’ll hit even the highest temperatures (650F) within 20 minutes. The app will alert you when it hits target temperature. 

Gravity-fed heat

Here is the second spot where the learning curve kicks in. The charcoal is not under the cooking grates, but rather in a hopper on the right hand side of the grill. The flame is at the bottom of the hopper, and burns charcoal from the bottom up. As it heats up, a fan blows the hot smoke to the rest of the grill underneath the grates. The grill will get hot, but not from direct flame. In fact, there is no fire to speak of under the grates—it is contained in the hopper. So if you’re looking for a flame-broiled burger, this isn’t the grill for you. You can, however, sear on top of the cast iron hopper, which works, but has its own challenges. First, you can’t open the hopper if there’s a steak on it—so you can’t check the fuel level, or add smoking chips, etc. Second, the hopper isn’t very big, so you can sear one steak or a few burgers, but not two steaks. If you have a steak and some onions you want to grill, you’ll have to choose which one gets the hopper lid. Third, while you will get grill marks on your food eventually just by way of the heat of the smoke heating up the grates, it takes a long while for that reaction to happen. Again, the heat is there, it’s just through hot smoke rather than direct flame. In fact, Masterbuilt designed the active grill area with a shield for drippings that completely prevents flame ups. If you understand that this is the purpose of the 545—to be a smoker, rather than a grill—you won’t be disappointed. 

Somewhere between a smoker and a grill

These chicken thighs were on the grill for about an hour, but ended up with a perfect smokiness and a nice crusty skin with great grill marks. Credit: Amanda Blum

Once I relaxed into the fact that this was more a smoker, I started feeling really happy with the outcomes. Chicken thighs turned out spectacularly well—they got grill marks eventually, and also a lovely smoke. I executed a small brisket (I went off-book and used my own recipe) and was quite pleased with the results. Shrimp, salmon, steak, pineapple, cauliflower, grilled onions, sausage—they all came out really well once I accepted the 545 for what it was and stopped trying to make it a flame grill. Nothing I made was overly smoky. The grill operates on charcoal, but pitching hardwood chunks into the hopper will allow you to control the flavor and volume of smoke going into the food. Compared to wood pellet grills I tested where the smoke was overwhelming, this was a nice, mild smoke. 

This mini brisket got an excellent bark. Credit: Amanda Blum

Bottom line: an excellent buy

It’s ironic that a grill I was so primed to detest turned out to be the one I’d likely recommend to anyone who wants to move away from gas into charcoal and smoking. On its own, without any connectivity, it’s a great smoker once you learn how to use it, with some additional searing and cooking capacity. The app adds the functionality you want to control and monitor the 545 remotely, with no extra frills. Sure, I’d love to be able to get real flame under the cooking area, and I’d like the app to have better recipe interactivity, but neither are deal breakers. On the whole, this is a great buy—just don't put it together yourself.

Testing smart grills has raised a philosophical argument over what constitutes a “barbecue”: Must all barbecues involve actual fire (or just heat, like infrared)? Is it assumed all barbecues are also smokers? In the end, it was one specific grill that provided clarity for me around these questions. The Current Model G Dual Zone Smart Grill is decidedly not a barbecue. While it is meant for the outdoors, requiring outdoor-sized real estate, and it will put grill marks on your food, this electric grill is just that—a grill. Simply put, it was like taking a giant George Foreman grill out on the patio. 

While I appreciated the connectivity and size of the grill area, I was not a fan of the flimsy physical build. Though the grill did get quite hot and was highly effective in cooking food, it took longer than a gas grill and about the same amount of time as a charcoal grill. And cleanup was a chore, despite a self-clean function. Ultimately, it just wasn’t worth the price of $999.99 to stand on the patio for the same effect on food as standing over the stove, so even if you are prevented from using gas, charcoal, or real fire on your patio, I’d probably choose a different electric grill. 

It has a modern design, but flimsy build

If it’s been a while since you bought a barbecue or grill, the first thing to know is all grills arrive to you in many pieces and require hours to put together. The Current took two hours for me to build, and required an app for the directions, which isn’t as helpful as a printed manual when you’re  outside in the sun, squinting to see detail from the video on your phone. Still, the directions were clear, and the parts were well-labeled. Some parts of the grill were inexplicably flimsy, though, while others, like the barbecue tools (tongs, spatula) were over-engineered to be sturdier than any barbecue tools I’d ever used before and came with interchangeable rubber grips.

The metal of the grill is held together by screws in most places, but also metal clips, and these proved to be worthless. In particular, the side panels that made up the cabinet underneath the grill refused to stay on. As soon as you’d clip a panel in, the slightest breeze would cause it to slide off again. Great attention was given to creating a sturdy, two-sided staging area for food in the cabinet, which I really liked. However, the entire grill is exceptionally light and even when fully assembled, it didn't feel solid—in fact, merely rolling the grill ten feet from the spot I assembled it caused enough vibration that the grill had lost all of its panels by the time it was in its new spot. 

The grill has a large digital touchscreen that displays the temperature for both sides of the grill. It has 330 inches of cook space, which was the most of any grill I've tried, and the whole point of the Dual Zone is that you can have only one side of the grill on, or use both sides at different temperatures. There’s also a warming grate on the top half of the grill and two temperature probes to monitor your food. The grill has enough ports for two additional probes. 

Other electric grills to consider:

• Char-Broil 22652143 Edge Electric Grill, $584.99

• Char-Broil® Patio Bistro® TRU-Infrared Electric Grill, $199.97

• Weber Pulse 2000 Cart Electric Grill ,$1,068.98

It's hard to pair to the app

The Current Grill app is simple enough, with tabs for recipes and videos on how to use the grill. Through the process of testing products for review, I probably pair five to ten new products a week with my phone, and I struggle to remember ever having as much trouble doing so as I did with the Current Grill. Clearly, I’m not the only one: When you call support (which did answer the phone, even on a Sunday), Bluetooth and wifi problems are #3 in the phone menu.

After a day of troubleshooting, I was able to finally pair the app, but luckily, the grill doesn’t need the app to function. You can just turn it on from the touch screen. The benefits of the app were limited compared to other smart grills. You can’t turn any grills on remotely—that's a safety issue—but other grills offered a lot more functionality, even when the grill was off. The Current won’t let you access any information if the grill isn’t on, and when it is on and connected, you are limited to merely seeing and setting the temperature of the grill and the temperature of any probes that are connected. While the recipe section isn’t infinite, it did include enough recipes for any basic meal you’d throw on a grill. 

It's slow to heat, with a high electrical draw

The Current did leave nice grill marks and did cook food effectively, but without the hallmarks of barbecue like the flavor of fire or smoke. Credit: Amanda Blum

The whole point of this enterprise is to grill food, and in that way, the Current does a decent job. It can get up to temperatures of 700°F degrees on both sides of the grill, which sounded exciting since most electric grills can't achieve that. But even with the lid closed, it took almost 20 minutes to do so. As it is electric, and you’re not gaining any smoke or char effect, you might as well just turn your stovetop on—it’ll take less time to heat a stovetop griddle.

This leads to another issue with the Current: It loses considerable heat with the lid open. Through grilling steak, chicken, corn, salmon, cauliflower, and a pork tenderloin, I observed the same things over and over. If you got the grill very hot, you could get a nice initial sear, so long as you immediately closed the grill top, but if the lid was closed, it would take a long time for the grill to adjust to a lower temperature to cook items through. You could get around this problem by just leaving the grill lid open for a minute, though, because the heat loss was so dramatic that you really couldn’t cook much with the grill lid open. Since the lid is solid metal, this meant you couldn’t see what was happening on the grill top unless you opened it up, at which point the temperature would drop by 150 degrees. All the while, the electrical load the grill is using is not minimal at 1750 watts. Current recommends a dedicated circuit, which I did not have on the patio, and if you also do not have this, expect to have to flip a few circuit breakers through the process. 

Smart barbecues (not electric) to consider:

• Masterbuilt® AutoIgnite™ 545 Digital Charcoal Grill and Smoker, $499

• Kamado Konnected Joe, $1,699

Disappointing self clean

On the left, before self clean; on the right, after. Credit: Amanda Blum

Cleaning any grill is a chore, so I was excited about the self-clean function on the Current grill, which takes thirty minutes. At the end of each grill session, despite pre-seasoning the grill and using a liberal amount of oil, the grill plates would have a lot of stuck-on gunk, but that's true of any grill. Scrubbing with the brushes that worked on other grills didn’t do much with the Current since the cooktop isn't an open grill but a series of wavy metal plates. Sadly, the self-clean function seemed to result in the opposite effect you’d want. The grill somehow looked worse after self-clean, no matter how many times I ran it (see above). Removing the grill plates altogether and scrubbing them inside was the only way to really get them clean.

Bottom line: There are better options

I imagine that someone who buys an electric grill is doing so to avoid messing around with charcoal or an open flame. The food I cooked with the Current certainly turned out fine, and though it lacked the smokiness and char that a flame would give you, the food otherwise compared well to it’s barbecue counterparts—but it was also clear to me that the whole point of barbecuing was that effect the fire and smoke has on food. Still, even at a much lower price, I’d have issues with the build of the Current, which I fear would not withstand a strong windstorm after a long, complicated build.

The connectivity did not provide enough functionality for the pain of getting the connection up. Ultimately, you’re spending almost $1,000 to cook on the patio with less efficiency than your stovetop, for the same effect. If you had to go electric, I’d go with a far less expensive grill, and I might be willing to sacrifice the size of the active cooking space to get more consistent heat.

Most Americans have some sort of home security system in place—usually a series of connected cameras. Now, there are a number of companies who are starting to sell home security systems that don’t just alert, but fight back. These home-defense systems aim to teach intruders (or your teenager sneaking back in after curfew) one hell of a lesson: by deploying pepper spray, smoke bombs, paintballs, ear-piercing alarms or a “disorienting fog.” 

Disorienting fog

“Security experts understand that it’s extremely difficult to steal without being able to see,” is how MyShield’s public relations representative Morayah Horovitz explains the idea behind their security system. MyShield is an indoor, battery-operated device that can be integrated with existing security systems or used on its own. On detecting motion, it will request a visual confirmation from the homeowner, and once it is received, it will deploy a non-toxic but “disorienting” fog created using a polytechnic composition. You can create a network of MyShield devices that cover your whole home, and is $1300 for just the cost of the device, plus a $40 per month subscription. Essence, the company that makes MyShield, has already sold over a million similar units over the last decade in America and Europe, and claim a high level of success. While it feels a little apocalyptic, some in-home smog was the least extreme of the options available. 

Paintballs

Although it’s pre-market, PaintCam Eve is a fully funded Kickstarter that will begin shipping in 2025. Available in three models, Eve is an AI-enabled smart security camera that can also shoot your eye out with a paintball. Seeing as the AI in the various doorbells I’ve tried still occasionally ID my mailman Steve as a package and routinely think the neighbors' cat is a solicitor at my door, I asked the team at Eve how confident they were about their system. Like MyShield, it turns out none of the reactions are automated. Rather, Eve allows you to create warning zones around your home, where possible threats receive a verbal or audible warning first, while the system alerts the homeowners and they decide whether to engage the paintballs. At least, that’s how it works “in manual mode," as a representative for the executive team named Hana explained in an email. Regarding their AI, “the core of this system is a deep learning neural network that has been extensively trained on a vast dataset of images and scenarios. This training includes thousands of examples of different objects, faces, pets, and potential threats.” Basically, it works like all other AI does.

In terms of potential damage, if you’ve ever gone paintballing, you know the balls generally aren’t lethal—but it turns out, they do routinely hurt people, resulting in eye and ear damage and the rare death. While these are “non-lethal paintballs, similar to those used by law enforcement for peaceful deterrence” according to Hana, this brings up a good point: Paintballs, when used by police, incur a higher rate of injury than recreational paintball users because the victim isn’t expecting it. I haven’t broken into a home since I got home late from a concert in 1993, but I am absolutely sure I wasn’t expecting high-speed projectiles. As for pets, there are three models—Eve, Eve+ and Eve Pro—and the latter two “include an advanced Animal Detection feature.” Standard Eve users will have to trust that AI recognizes cats better than my Ring camera. Eve is predicted to start at $2165 when it launches for retail, with an additional subscription at around $38/month. 

Pepper spray (and more)

While Deep Sentinel’s new FlashBang technology will be available to residents in the future, for now it’s only on a case-by-case basis—demand is mostly from businesses. Still, if fog and projectiles aren’t enough for you, perhaps pepper spray, smoke bombs, strobes, and sirens are your flavor. FlashBang itself is part of the security system that Deep Sentinel deploys, and while the company and systems have been around for a while, FlashBang is on the verge of launch, having completed beta testing. The core system relies on AI, with integration for live "guards." FlashBang are deployment devices with encryption and security on board. Deployment of the heftier tactics like smoke and pepper spray require human approval, much like the other products detailed above. David “Selly” Selinger, CEO and Co-founder of Deep Sentinel, assured me that all the medical effects of the tactics used were temporary, and would amount to nothing more than some coughing, nasal and throat irritation, going so far as to mention that the smoke uses food-grade particles. Still, there are many reports that pepper spray and smoke bombs may have greater health effects, particularly on menstrual cycles. FlashBang will start at $2000, but since it is part of a whole security system, there are additional hardware and subscription costs. 

Is it legal?

I asked each company about the legality or liability concerns of having such a system. Eve punted the responsibility to homeowners, saying, “we advise buyers to check their local laws regarding property protection.”  Selinger noted that “all of the FlashBang components are legal in all 50 states.” I checked with two attorneys in different states, Oregon and Arizona, and while laws vary by city, state and county, generally the law in play is the Castle Doctrine, or “Stand Your Ground." The idea is that individuals can use “reasonable force” to protect themselves against an intruder in their home. The courts come into play when you have to interpret what is reasonable, and what constitutes a threat. Additionally,  there’s great variance even in Stand Your Ground laws from state to state, and both lawyers pointed out, it’s hard to argue self-defense if the homeowner isn’t even in the home at the time these security tactics are deployed. 

Is it ethical? 

I asked both Eve and Deep Sentinel to respond to the natural reaction that people might have to the severity of their defense systems. Hana from Eve replied, “For those who haven't experienced the fear of an intruder on their property while their family is home, our system might seem excessive. However, those familiar with that fear understand the necessity of a system designed not to harm the intruder, but to scare and mark them, aiding law enforcement in apprehending them more swiftly.” Selinger echoed the sentiment. “Yes, perhaps it will come off strong, but in a world where criminals are allowed to feel they have the upper hand, I believe people should feel like they don’t have to be victims.”  

Hana raises a good point—these systems just scare people, which isn’t (usually) lethal. If they can deter intruders (and home owners from taking more severe action themselves), perhaps that’s a good thing. The idea that intruders are “marked” by eye burn or smoke burn or paintballs should make it easier to track an intruder down. Still, these feel extreme. And what none of these systems factor in is the probability that "home security" will have a whole new meaning when your neighbors get fed up with the ear-piercing alarms and tactical training ground you’ve created on your property. Even paintballs have nothing on a well-worded HOA letter.

While one point of gardening is to be enjoying the great outdoors, using tech doesn’t take anything away from that. In fact, I’d argue it enables being outside, because you don’t have to be tethered to paperwork or books—all you need is on your phone or tablet. Although I had long embraced using spreadsheets for charting what I was planting in seed trays or Adobe Illustrator for mapping my garden beds, I was slower to embracing gardening apps. I had, somewhat naively, waited for “the one,” the app that would do everything, for while I’d happily pay for. What’s happened instead is that I use a variety of apps in small ways for almost every aspect of gardening, depending on what I need.

The best, free way to identify plants

It never fails to amuse me how many friends send me pictures of plants asking me to ID them, because usually, I have no idea what I’m looking at. In my own garden, I figure out what I’m looking at by using a plant ID app, and I benefit from Plantnet weekly. It has rarely disappointed me in being able to identify plants, even from a less-than-stellar picture, and immediately links to information about the plant. You can use it offline, too, so you don't need service. 

ADHD-proof succession planting

Succession planting (or planting crops every few weeks so you have crops ready to harvest at various times instead of all at once) is a test of best intentions. Keeping track of when you should seed, when you should harvest, and then actually following through is a test for anyone, but I really struggle with it and need reminders to stay on track.  While Seedtime is advertised as a planting app to help manage your whole garden, and is incredibly popular, I really just use the succession planning aspect. While you could much of the same result using spreadsheets, Google Calendar and your own research, Seedtime does a lot of the legwork for you, plotting out a customized calendar based on the crops you want to grow. There are paid tiers, but you can remain on a free plan and get a lot of the functionality, including one planting calendar. Paid tiers will net you more functions to use Seedtime as a gardening journal (which is a great idea) and the ability to save more data from your gardens, like yields and germination rates. 

Eliminate crowdscaping

Almost every gardener I know grows or buys too many starts and then packs their beds too full. It’s easy to do when the plants are so small—the beds can look sparse at this point. Apps like Planter help you understand how much space each plant really needs, as they all grow to different sizes, and some grow vertically while others grow horizontally. To really get a sense of what you can pack into a particular bed, this is the app I use to help me come back down to earth and get real about spacing. Like Seedtime, Planter tries to be an app that does everything for your garden, so you can also use the growing calendar, but I think Seedtime does that aspect better, while Planter is better for planning your beds. Planter has plans that start about $1/month, which is great, but you’ll get most of what you need on the free plan. 

Companion planting on the fly

Over time, you can learn what crops benefit from being planted together, and more importantly, which crops can’t be interplanted. While there are great charts to detail this, they’re hard to refer to while out in your garden. Instead, I use the Seed to Spoon app. I can quickly, from the garden, look up a specific vegetable or flower and get data on what to interplant and what to avoid, as well as a bunch of other growing info about a particular plant. There are some other features I like about this app, like the general reminders about what to plant now, or what to plant soon, on the home page, but mostly, I use this app as a reference library for interplanting. Seed to Spoon can be used for free, but you can upgrade for $47 a year to get access to more features, like an AI garden chatbot. 

Take advantage of free online tools

While not an app, Johnny Seeds has a ton of free tools that you should use. I use the seed quantity calculator to figure out how many seeds or starts of a particular plant I should get based on the space I have. There’s also a seed planting scheduler that does many of the calculations for you based on frost dates. Take time to peruse the tool list for planning, growing and harvesting. Gardenate is a free online tool that will tell you what to grow in your zip code right now, and whether to direct sow or plant starts.