I’m a smart home expert. These are the smart devices I can’t live without

I’ve been covering smart home and security products for years, and I’ve written about and reviewed scores of smart devices. Yet I can count on one hand (plus an extra finger or two) the number of smart devices that my family and I actually depend on. 

Sure, I have plenty of smart gadgets in my house that are nice-to-haves. I like the air quality monitor in our finished basement, good for keeping tabs on the VOC and CO2 levels in our downstairs living room. There’s also a Google Nest Hub in our kitchen that displays family photos, while an Amazon Echo Dot in my daughter’s bedroom occasionally blurts out the weather. 

But while those devices certainly come in handy, they’re also expendable. If something went wrong with the Google display (which we really only use for its photo frame abilities), we could probably live without it. Same goes with the air quality monitor (our iPhones can tell us the outdoor AQI), and the voice assistants on the smart speakers are so flaky, we barely talk to them anymore. 

On the other hand, there are some smart gadgets in our apartment that would trigger a minor crisis if they failed, not to mention an immediate trip to Amazon for replacements.  

Here are the smart devices that I absolutely, positively depend on, starting with… 

Smart lights 

Well, yeah, lights are essential in any home. But over the years, I’ve created a fairly complex Philips Hue setup with dozens of bulbs, and a few free-standing lamps that switch on, turn off, fade, brighten, and change colors according to a multi-layered series of automations. 

It’s refreshingly rare for any of my Hue bulbs to fail, but when they do, they don’t stay failed for long. Just a week ago, one of the overhead Hue bulbs in our kitchen conked out and within 48 hours, I’d replaced it. Can’t have a dead Hue bulb marring my kitchen lighting scenes! 

We also just added a pair of battery-powered Hue smart lamps to our dining room, which we move from the sides of the room to the dining table for meals. (We live in a Brooklyn rental, so replacing our ugly overhead lights with pendants isn’t really an option for us.) The portable lamps have changed the whole complexion of the room, especially at dinner time, and we can’t live without them now. 

Related: Best smart lighting 2025: Smart bulbs, string lights, outdoor, and more

Video doorbell 

This battery-powered Ring Battery Doorbell Plus sits in a stick-up mount on our front door (again, as apartment dwellers, we can’t drill into the door), monitoring the comings and goings at our doorstep and in our shared hallway. 

Not only does the doorbell alert us to visitors (we get alerts from the Ring app when someone presses the button, and we can even see and speak with them remotely), but it also keeps an eye on general activity outside our apartment. That became essential after we noticed someone had been splashing olive oil on our front door. Thanks to our Ring video history, we managed to catch the culprit in the act.  

As it stands, I can’t imagine life without having eyes on our doorway. 

Related: Best video doorbells 2025: Reviews and buying advice | PCWorld

Door and window contact sensor

Speaking of doors, I installed a contact sensor on our front apartment door some years ago, and it’s become another must-have smart device. 

This Philips Hue Secure contact sensor is perfect for letting me know any time someone opens the door, either via mobile alerts (which also pop up on my Apple Watch) or through light automations (which, in my case, pulse the lights in my downstairs office). 

Besides warning me while I’m at home that someone’s opened the door, the sensor also gives me peace of mind when I’m away that nobody’s entering the house when they shouldn’t be–a key issue, given that a certain teenaged family member keeps forgetting to lock the door when she leaves.

I’m actually on my second door sensor now after the first one became glitchy. I ultimately settled on the Hue Secure model, but there are plenty of other great options available.  

Related: Best DIY home security systems of 2025: Reviews and buying advice

Apple TV 4K

Wait, isn’t the Apple TV 4K a streaming box? It is, but it also doubles as an Apple HomeKit hub, complete with a Thread border router that enables Matter-enabled smart devices to connect to the internet. 

With my Apple TV 4K on the case, I don’t need to worry about using a smart speaker or display as my smart home hub, and as a bonus, it excels as a video streamer, delivering impressive 4K video quality along with Dolby Atmos and Vision support. 

I actually did have an older model Apple TV 4K go glitchy on me a few years back, but after some with some subpar experiences with other streaming players, I went right back to Apple, snapping up a next-gen version of its streaming box. Since then, it’s been smooth sailing. 

Related: Best streaming devices of 2025: Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku, or Google TV?

Harmony universal remote 

Logitech stopped manufacturing its once-popular line of Harmony remotes nearly five years ago, which is why I’m treating my Harmony Companion (which comes with its own wireless hub) like a precious jewel. 

Universal remotes like those from the Harmony brand can control multiple A/V components at once such as TVs (smart or not so much), Blu-ray players, audio receivers, game consoles, and other home theater components.  

Backed by a massive database of A/V equipment (which, impressively, Harmony parent Logitech still maintains), a Harmony remote can control other devices besides home theater gear, meaning you can press a single button on the wand to turn on your TV, streaming box, and receiver; set your components to their proper inputs and outputs; and even turn your smart lights off or trigger a particular lighting scene. 

Of course, more and more consumers are simply using their smart TV remotes (which have becoming increasingly sophisticated over the years) to control their home theaters, leading Logitech to eventually throw in the towel. 

Still, there are some things my Harmony remote can do that a smart TV remote can’t, which is why you’d have to pry my Harmony from my cold, dead hands. (You can still buy Harmony remotes on eBay, but be prepared to pay through the nose for one.) 

Smart plugs 

We live in a century-old Brooklyn brownstone that lacks central air, and our downstairs frequently turns into a sauna thanks to an exposed hot water pipe. That’s why we have a network of fans constantly whirring away in our home, and smart plugs are essential for controlling them. 

With three Matter-enabled smart plugs (one from Eve Systems, and another two from Meross), I have our fans set to turn on and switch off at certain hours, and I can control them manually with shortcuts on my iPhone. I can also say “Hey Siri, turn kitchen fan off” to stop the fan while I’m cooking. 

Fans aren’t the only things I use smart plugs with. I also have a quartet of dumb clip-on Ikea lights downstairs that I control with Philips Hue smart plugs, perfect for use with the Hue Bridge.  

Related: Best smart plugs 2025: Transform your dumb outlets into smart sockets

Smart water leak detector 

Here’s something that used to drive me crazy: Coming downstairs in the morning and stepping on a soaking wet carpet.  

Our downstairs basement used to be prone to flooding during heavy rains, and if the rainstorms hit in the middle of the night, I’d be clueless until the next day, when the damage had already been done. 

Ultimately, we did two things: First, we called the landlord and demanded some gutter and drainage repairs (which, thankfully, we got). Second, we installed a smart water leak detector in the area of the office where the water usually seeped in.  

There are several excellent makes and models of smart water leak detectors available, some are battery powered, allowing you to drop them here and there as needed, while others are tethered to a power cord. I went with the latter, settling on a Matter-enabled leak detector from Eve Systems. 

Fortunately, we haven’t had any leaks downstairs in more than two years—but if we did, the Eve detector would sound an integrated alarm, trigger alerts on our phones, and turn our bedroom lights all the way up, ideal for waking us up in the event of a late-night flood.  

Related: Best water leak detectors for smart homes