I hate these 5 smart home gadgets, but I still use them every day

I hate these 5 smart home gadgets, but I still use them every day Credit: Adam Davison / How-To Geek By  Adam Davidson Published May 31, 2026, 12:30 PM EDT Adam has a degree in Engineering and has a life-long interest in technology. He has been writing for over a decade for various print and online publications, with a focus on consumer tech. He joined How-To Geek in 2024 while working at Pocket-lint . As well as being a long-term fan of Apple products, he also has a strong interest in smart home tech, running a Home Assistant server at home to automate all his smart home devices. He believes that the ideal smart home should work with minimal interaction from the user, with automations running as if by magic rather than requiring you to push buttons on a control panel. You can find more of his work on Muck Rack . Sign in to your How-To Geek account Add Us On follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap Some smart home devices are so good that I fall in love with them the instant I start using them. That's not always the case, however. There are plenty of smart home devices that I soon grew to hate, although I still use some of them every day. Smart bulbs Light switches render smart bulbs worse than dumb Credit: Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek A smart bulb was the very first smart home device that I bought. I was initially blown away by the fact that I could turn the light on and off using an app on my phone. Before long, I had set up my first basic automations using the smart bulb. Then disaster struck: my wife turned off the light using the light switch. Suddenly, my smart bulb became useless; with no power, I could no longer control it remotely with my app or with automations. Instead, I had to turn it back on at the switch, like an ordinary bulb. It wasn't long before I grew to hate my smart bulbs