Trust me: Smart home devices make awesome home upgrades as well as handy gifts for the person who has everything. But they’re not all created equal. I’ve been testing home devices for years, and I watch for several factors before I recommend them to people, including real-world results for saving money and energy, daily uses that actually make my life easier and features that help protect our privacy.
Here are my favorite devices that pass the test and are available for big discounts during Amazon’s October Prime Day. They include budget items that cost less than dinner and high-end additions, if you want to spend more to get the best. See what your home could use, below.
Humidity management could even lead to savings. / Tyler Lacoma/CNET
The prettiest, most cost-saving home upgrade
Google Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen)
If I had my way, everyone would get a smart thermostat for Christmas. These devices are a major improvement over old heating and cooling controls. They offer eco and vacation modes, easier scheduling through apps, voice controls and algorithms that learn when the house is active or quiet and adjust automatically.
Many smart thermostats pay for themselves within a year or two with energy savings. My Nest model eventually didand it’s one of the fanciest around, with a dazzling dial display and optional connections to other appliances, too.
It really exists — a thermostat that pays for itself through energy savings while also making heating easier to manage. Plus, it looks great doing it.
Nanoleaf has a few unique tricks for easy holiday setups. / Nanoleaf
Holiday lights done right, and more
Nanoleaf Smart String Lights, Indoor
If your tired old holiday lights are due for an upgrade, consider these discounted smart lights. Their durable LEDs can display any color you choose through the app, and multiple lengths are available, with the best deal on the extra-long version. The app also lets you set dynamic effects, sync the lights to music or create your own patterns.
With virtually limitless colors and themes, you can use these lights for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s and any other color-themed event. That means they can stay up year-round if you really want to get the most out of them.
Choose every color, pattern and theme with these durable smart lights, making them useful for holidays and year-round events.
Zafro’s fan has excellent app controls and more. / Zafro
You won’t believe how good cool air feels
Zafro Smart Tower Fan
After testing airflow and more, we can confirm that Zafro’s smart fan is one of the best we’ve ever found, with detailed speed and direction controls, plus up to a 43-foot reach. Do you know how handy it is to control a fan with your voice or a phone app when you’re across the room? It’s very, very nice.
The fan includes timers, modes such as a smart sleep setting so it won’t disturb light sleepers and plenty more choices. You won’t believe how much of a difference this upgrade can make.
This fan did the best in our airflow tests, and has smart features you’ll love — especially when things get hot.
Leak detectors are a good addition to any home. / GoveeLife
A complete, affordable way to monitor home pipes
GoveeLife Smart Water Leak Detector 3-pack
Leak detectors are affordable, effective and help protect one of the most important parts of your home. Put them under sinks, by water heaters, in crawlspaces if you’re afraid of frozen pipes, behind toilets — you get the idea. They’ll alert your phone whenever water starts pooling. This pack is especially nice because it comes with a plug-in hub and additional physical alarms, with an extra-high range. They work with Alexa and Google Home, too.
Tiny leak detectors make a big difference for home safety: This three-pack offers full protection, no need for other add-ons.
Bop it! / Ty Pendlebury/CNET
An all-purpose smart speaker with an AI twist
Amazon Echo Dot
Smart speakers offer a plethora of features for the average home, linking you with a voice assistant that can schedule events, answer questions, create reminders and much more. This version from Amazon is not only far more affordable than other speakers, but it also has surprisingly good sound for its size and can easily act as a music hub, especially since you can connect your streaming services to it. And if you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, you can access Alexa Plus for free for more advanced capabilities, better smart home device controls and access to voice-ordering from apps like Uber and Grubhub.
A compact but powerful smart speaker for anywhere in the house — and an especially good deal for Amazon subscribers.
What’s the best choice?
My Prime picks can work in all types of homes, depending on what you need. My personal favorite is probably the Nest thermostat because I watched mine pay for itself across a few years of use, but that’s not an upgrade everyone wants to spend money on. Another favorite is the Tapo smart plug pack, because Tapo is one of the very few smart plug makers that offer energy monitoring, which is also nice for saving energy when you’re using something like a space heater or my Zafro tower fan pick.
Amazon is also having some of the biggest discounts on its own Echo speakers and smart displays, so it’s the best time of the year to pick one of those up if you want a smart home controller and voice assistant music hub.