Comfort was the original promise of smart home technologies. Comfort or sloth. The notion was to have a robot maid or automated butler – a JARVIS to react not only to engineering requests, but to change the channels on the soda and music streams. In aggregate, it’s possible. But in reality, it’s hard to integrate all the comfort tech need to Netflix and catatonic.
Still, the best products stand out by providing carefully programmed care.
Sleep Number Climate 360
Sleep Number has baked its value proposition into its brand name. Sleep Number produces beds that can be adjusted. Historically, that’s meant soft vs. hard. Now, it means hot vs. cold.
Sleep Number’s Climate360 smart bed can be dialed to a preferred temperature (on both sides), allowing cool sleepers and warm sleepers to achieve a previously impossible detente and keep the window shut. The win here is variability and seasonality. The Climate360 allows for summer and winter settings.
As if that was not enough, the Climate360 also tracks sleeping patterns, a relief to the sort of vigilant snoozers who wake up hungry for performance data or just really, really want to know how hot is too hot.
Why the Sleep Number Climate360 Stood Out in Testing: During a short but intense heat wave, the Climate360 kept things cool and comfortable. Being able to react to the weather without throwing off the blankets was a new and memorable experience.
Jackery Solar Generator 3000 Pro
The Jackery Solar Generator 3000 is big. Really big. It’s also powerful. Really powerful. The 3000 Pro has a 3024Wh battery capacity, which delivers 3000W power, more than enough to charge laptops, smartphones, appliances, and even hair driers, which are basically power vampires. As its name implies, the 3000 Pro comes with solar panels, which makes it a slightly unwieldy, but ultimately effect power source for camping, picnicking, and hanging out on an outlet-free roof. The wheels help solve the mobility problem.
As far as portable power stations go, the 3000 Pro is more powerful than portable, but that turns out to be a good compromise. With great power comes a great sense of being responsible.
Why the 3000 Pro Stood Out in Testing: We couldn’t drain the thing and we tried. Also, the solar panels were shockingly efficient.
Flexispot Pro Plus Standing Desk
We’re Raving About: The options that let you choose the color, finish, and accessories to blend with other furniture decor.
There’s no need to settle on one particular setup with your desk at home. Flexispot offers that key ingredient, personalization, that few other motorized standing desks makers provide.
We love that there are options for color, size, materials, and much more with the Flexispot Pro Standing Desk. Just know that you may need a second hand getting it all put together. After that, however, we found ourselves working efficiently because it can match our preference of standing up or sitting down. Using the controls, we’re able to set preset heights that will automatically adjust the height.
Very few standing desks make style a priority, which is exactly why we’re pleased by Flexispot’s robust options.
Why the Flexispot Pro Plus Standing Desk Stood Out in Testing: Very few standing desks make style a priority, which is exactly why we’re pleased by Flexispot’s robust options.
TCL Dehumidifier
Not all homes require dehumidifiers, but in places where the humidity is high, they’ve wonderful at removing moisture in the air — potentially staving off mold build up in extreme cases. The TCL Smart Dehumidifier not only keeps track of the current moisture level, but we love how we have remote access to turning it on or off.
Having remote access to turn it on is useful, especially on days after it rains and the air is saturated with moisture. We’ve been able to minimize water build up in a detached garage by pulling the water moisture in the air using the TCL Smart Dehumidifier. There’s a collection compartment where it stores the water, which then automatically turns off whenever it’s full.
There are times when the humidity was at the temperament level of 40%, so there was no need to continue having it on. Rather than going in and out of the garage each time it got to that level, we simply relied on the app to remotely turn it off.
Why the TCL Dehumidifier Stood Out in Testing: Being able to toggle the controls remotely is a big help
Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0
Fire pits are fun, especially on those cooler summer nights. But one of the issues that can sometimes ruin the experience is the smoke that can build up due to the fire. That’s why we’ve been enjoying the Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0, which features a unique design that mitigates smoke.
The stainless steel construction made it light enough to carry around, making it perfect for backyards, camping trips, and even a night on the beach. Now, it’s able to minimize smoke thanks to the double-walled construction that reduced smoke — making the fire more efficient and enjoyable. It’s also a breeze to clean up because the Bonfire 2.0 also features a removable ash pan, so one quick action allowed us to dispose of the leftover ash.
All of these qualities made the Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 such a delightful outdoor fire pit.
Why the Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 Stood Out in Testing: The reduced smoke amount and easy clean up makes this easy to use over and over without much upkeep.