Like many of our readers, I bought plenty of tech products this year. From testing the streaming waters with a PlayStation Portal to buying a couple of additional security cameras for around the house, I’m living in the future as much as anyone else. And yet, I can’t help but wonder if buying smart home gadgets — really, smart anything — isn’t the way to go. As I look out on an ever-connected, ever-complicated world, some of the “dumb,” disconnected technology I’ve purchased over the past couple of years has actually outperformed the competition.
Sometimes the best option isn’t smart at all
A lesson in shopping for cat feeders
I started thinking about this when looking for an automated cat feeder. One of our cats is smart enough — or sensible enough, at least — to pace herself when eating her dry food. The other one is, well, orange. In shopping for timed feeders for him, what I found was that practically every automated feeder is flawed in some way. Some of them consistently jam up, some of them are loaded with unnecessary features like cameras or speakers, and practically all of them spit out too much or too little food, no matter how you set them up.
The entire process of shopping for something that could help control our cat’s portions both when we’re home and when we’re traveling was exhausting, but Wirecutter’s guide actually pointed us in the right direction. While the PetSafe-branded feeder I purchased back in August has been replaced by a newer, larger model, the concept is the same: a feeder that uses the most basic technology imaginable to automatically feed your cat the exact amount you want at exactly the right time.
Peep the cat paw in the left corner.
Seriously, this feeder is so basic, a middle schooler could probably build it in their spare time. It’s powered by D batteries and uses a small display to show the current time and your set feeding times. Once it’s time to unlock the next food compartment, a basic motor rotates the five-space wheel, revealing whatever’s next in line. Once every spot is empty, you simply refill it. Rinse and repeat. No Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no scales or cameras. It’s just a food bowl with 80 percent of its slots covered, and it works perfectly.
Obviously, it has its fair share of flaws. Four feeding compartments — plus one that’s always revealed — only gives you so much flexibility unless you’re refilling that food multiple times a day, and if you are interested in tracking specific metrics like amount of food consumed, you’d need something a lot more intelligent than this. But as far as reliability is concerned, it’s great to not have to think about whether this device that feeds one of our cats has lost its connection to the internet. It just turns whenever a specific time is reached, and that’s all.
This cat feeder has me rethinking smart home gadgets
Sticking to the tried-and-true
Frankly, it has me thinking about other ways that “dumb” tech can save me time and stress. We’ve had a smart lock on our door since I reviewed one a couple of years ago, and while I like it quite a bit, I’d be lying if I said I controlled it primarily through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Instead, my most common use for it is to head out on walks or runs without my keys, relying on my custom code to get back into the house. Whenever this one inevitably dies, I don’t know if I’d spring for an internet-connected replacement. Getting to check in on the lock remotely is great, but a code-based gadget might be all we need.
Similarly, our other cat loves to hide upstairs, and in the winter, it’s often the chilliest part of the house. While I could spend the money (and time) to upgrade (and rewire) our thermostat to something more intelligent — say, Nest’s latest device — I recently purchased a smart thermometer from Govee. It allows me to track the temperature and humidity of wherever it’s placed, but it runs on AA batteries and doesn’t sport a screen itself. It’s “smart,” sure, but it’s also a simple, small puck-shaped object that blends right into the background of wherever it’s placed.
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And then we have smart plugs. I have a ton of smart plugs scattered around the house, but I’d be lying if I said they were perfect. Our Christmas tree, for example, uses one that has been struggling to maintain a consistent internet connection. While its timer seems to be firing off without a hitch, manually turning the tree lights on or off usually requires me to lean down and hit the button, with both the app and Google Home failing to activate properly. It’s something that almost makes me want to return to the tried-and-true method of mechanical outlet timers, just like my family used when I was younger.
The future of the smart home looks bright
Maybe with a few non-smart gadgets thrown in
None of this is to say that smart home tech — or, really, any gadget you might have lying around the house — would be significantly better if it was less equipped. But I do think it’s worth considering what absolutely needs a constant, consistent connection to your router (or, in the case of Bluetooth, your phone), and what might be able to function off a couple of batteries and a basic timer. If anything, removing dozens of random devices off your network might be a good thing.
Moving forward, I’ll be looking at more basic electronics whenever I think it might fit my situation. Whether it’s because you’re looking to save cash, because you don’t need something capable of pairing with your phone, or just because the “dumb” tech works better than its smart counterparts, shopping outside your usual IoT space might actually make for some excellent buying decisions.
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