- Feb 14, 2004
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I mean, it's just a Wi-fi chip that has some sensors to track temperature & flow rate - you can add connectivity to just about anything these days with a simple $20 Arduino or $35 Pi board. Like 90% of the products in my house are IoT at this point, so I think adding a basic chip for connectivity is kind of separate from being a solid & reliable product, you know? Heck, even like half of my kitchen applies hook up via Bluetooth or Wi-fi & are just fine in terms of day to day operation.
What I am curious about is real, long-term reviews of pretty much any product out there. Sometimes, things are only the way they are because that's how they've always been but are good candidates for change (such as combining graphite electrodes with residential tankless water heaters - sometimes you just need the right person to combine existing ideas, or to find a new angle, or for the market price on the components to come down to the point where they're affordable by the target market)), but by & large, the things that have stuck around long-term are still there because they're reliable & trustworthy & have a support network in place to service & support them.
I like the fact that they're on the third model release within 3 years of inception, which means they're doing annual product updates, improving features, etc. One of my personal tech mantras over time has evolved into "never buy first-generation hardware", because it's almost always rushed to market to meet some arbitrary deadline & doesn't have any long-term user reviews yet, nor has a large pool of authentic reviews, which is why websites like Fakespot had to come into existence. I also like letting the feature set grow over time...like, my buddy put in the newer Mitsubishi Mr. Slim "H2i" mini-split ductless systems into his house a couple years ago & they are pretty amazing because they do both heating AND cooling, and can operate in up to -13F weather outside, so every room gets its own temperature & controls for that, rather than wasting energy & money heating the whole house & heating the 30 to 90 feet of ductwork (average range for a single-family home).
So I'm definitely open to new ideas, which is one of the reasons I originally started this thread 6 years ago (dang, that's a long time now! haha), but I am also a big believer of buying vetted hardware, instead of random new stuff that comes on the market that may or may not be proven yet.
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