Since I’ve already covered the basics of smart home setups in my previous posts, I feel it’s only fair to give you the lowdown on some of the drawbacks I’ve encountered along the way. After all, the more you know, the better equipped you’ll be to make your own decisions about diving into the smart home world.

So, if you find this helpful, don’t forget to drop a comment or share this post!

Want to keep this video under wraps? Just kidding, I definitely want people to see this.

What you think your voice assistant sounds like: “You start the virtual walk around, importing preferences and calibrating the virtual environment, and check on control surfaces as you wish.”

What your voice assistant actually sounds like: “Hey Google, what’s the weather tomorrow?”

“In Beijing tomorrow, there will be thunderstorms turning to cloudy skies. Remember to bring an umbrella, with temperatures between 75°F and 84°F. Winds will shift from southeast at 5 mph to south at 10 mph, and air quality will be moderate.”

“Alexa, when will it rain tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow in Beijing, there will be thunderstorms turning to cloudy skies. Remember to bring an umbrella.”

When it comes to voice interaction, smart homes still have a long way to go.

But hey, it’s not all on smart homes. AI hasn’t exactly hit its peak yet. Even big players like Apple’s Siri still have their quirks.

“Hey Siri, what time will it rain tomorrow?”

“It looks like it’s raining right now.”

“No, Siri, I mean tomorrow.”

“It looks like it’s raining right now.”

This happens because smart homes today are designed to operate within predefined scenarios.

So, if you’ve got a bunch of friends over and your smart home is set up for your daily routine, it’s probably not going to adapt on the fly. In short, it’s not quite as “smart” as it could be.

And setting this stuff up? Well, if you struggle with your smartphone, smart home tech might not be for you. Even custom setups might not cut it.

That’s because the core of a smart home is the ability to tailor it to your personal habits. For instance, my winter sleep mode is completely different from my summer one. And my weekday and weekend routines? Totally different.

So, smart homes are not a “set it and forget it” deal. As your device collection grows, every adjustment can cause a ripple effect.

If you’re not comfortable with all that tweaking, consider starting small—one device at a time. And honestly, I find joy in fine-tuning these gadgets to fit my daily life. It’s part of the smart home fun!

When I talk about stability issues, I’m comparing them to traditional devices.

A good old-fashioned light switch might outlast us all, and every time you flick it, it just works. Take my smart bathroom fan as an example. After about six or seven months of use, I noticed it started taking 10 to 15 seconds to turn off, sometimes with a delay. After some tinkering, I found out it was just a dead remote battery.

So, if you’re expecting your smart home setup to be as reliable as traditional gear, you might be a bit disappointed.

But honestly, after using smart home tech for two to three years, I’ve only had a couple of hiccups every six months or so. Overall, it’s been relatively stable. This is just the nature of the beast—smart homes mix tech with traditional home appliances.

Let’s talk switches again.

The light switch you used as a kid is probably still working today, unchanged. But smart switches? They’ve gone through countless iterations in just the past couple of years. One big reason for this is that smart homes are still in their infancy, and protocols like ZigBee and Bluetooth aren’t yet perfectly unified.

So, unlike traditional home equipment, expect to upgrade your smart home devices more frequently in the future.

So, after all this talk, is there any upside to smart homes?

Let me show you the difference between having a smart home and not having one, using my own setup.

Alright, here’s a demo.

Coming home the old-school way: Find your keys, unlock the door, turn on the lights, start the air purifier, fan, and AC, close the curtains, and turn on the TV.

Now, with a fully smart home, here’s what coming home looks like:

Fingerprint unlock—done. It’s already closed the curtains, turned on the lights, TV, fan, air purifier, and AC.

Not sure how you feel about this comparison?

For me, since I bought my first smart device—a smart plug—in 2018, my smart home setup has grown to 48 devices.

How many do you have? Let me know in the comments!

These days, I can control most of my home with just my voice or my phone.

You might call it laziness, but I think the 10 minutes my smart home saves me every day are worth it. Whether I use that time to work out, play games, or just zone out, it’s totally worth it.

So, there you have it—my rundown on the shortcomings of smart homes after a couple of years of experience. Hopefully, this gives you a more complete picture of what to expect.