- 4 months ago
Join The Verge’s smart home reviewer, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, on a tour of her smart backyard. She turned her garden into a connected outdoor living space with the Eero Outdoor 7 Wi-Fi system, Bird Buddy smart feeder, Brisk It Zelos smart grill, and lighting from Nanoleaf, Govee, and LiFX. Plus, discover how smart chicken coops, sprinkler systems, and robot lawn mowers can help take the hassle out of yard care — and how they could make your backyard smarter, too.
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00:00I used to hate going outside. Mosquitoes, dead grass, no Wi-Fi, but now my backyard runs on
00:09smart tech. From smart sprinklers to smart chicken coops, robot lawnmowers with laser vision, to
00:15taking bird watching to the next level. I turned my garden into a second smart home. And yes,
00:21the chickens have their own cameras. Let's go check it out. Come on ladies, come on. The best place to
00:31start with having a smart backyard is reliable Wi-Fi. I struggled for years with weak signals
00:36and expensive cellular data trying to keep things online until I installed the Eero Wi-Fi 7 outdoor
00:43router. Setup was super simple. I installed the first node in the porch connecting it with an
00:49outdoor PoE cable. So power and ethernet combined. Eero says that could actually get you 15,000
00:56square feet of coverage, which is a lot, but I wanted to make sure I would get really strong
01:01signal out by the chicken coops for the cameras and the lawnmowers. So I actually set up a second
01:07one out here. Now I have speeds of up to a hundred megabits per second all the way in the shed, which
01:12is more than enough to keep everything online. Having strong Wi-Fi in the backyard helps connect
01:17things like these robot lawnmowers, which we're going to check out now. So one of the chores I am,
01:23well, okay, my family is most excited to delegate to the smart yard is mowing the lawn. I've had a lot
01:29of challenges getting robot lawnmowers to work well in my garden. I'm currently testing three. This is
01:35the Ecovacs Goat A3000 and then I have the Segway Navimo X3 and a Husqvarna 420 series model. Ecovacs uses
01:46LiDAR for navigation and mapping, just like a robot vacuum does. Whereas the other two models use
01:51something called RTK, which is sort of based on GPS. I have too many trees in my yard and they struggle
01:57to connect to the satellites. I also have very sandy soil and a dog that likes to dig for moles and leave
02:03some potholes. And they don't do very well with that. I quite often have to lift up beached robots,
02:09kind of like robot vacuums in my house. It's interesting though, they just shave a little bit
02:15off the top. They use little razor blades under there instead of a big blade like you might get
02:20on a manual lawnmower. For me specifically, I've still not found a robot mower that works for my yard.
02:26These ones are doing good for now. I'm in the middle of testing them, but we'll see if anything can
02:31actually get me to that point where I can just relax and let it do all the work.
02:40Everyone loves a green lawn, but keeping it that way can mean wasting a lot of water. But there's
02:46a great solution, smart sprinkler controllers. This is the Orbit Beehive and this model is $180.
02:53They work with an internet connection to connect to local weather so that they can adapt and change
02:59your schedules based on whether it's going to rain or not. So that way they won't run your sprinklers
03:04right before a rainstorm. And they definitely won't run your sprinklers during a rainstorm,
03:08which is like a personal pet peeve of mine. It's like you're wasting water people.
03:12One of the things I really like about this model in particular is it has a physical control. So I can
03:17just come up here and turn the sprinklers on and off if I like. I can control this with the app.
03:22I can control it with a voice command. I actually set up an automation where when the temperature
03:27hits 90, it turns on the sprinklers by their chicken coop to give them a little shower,
03:32which they appreciate. If you don't have in-ground sprinklers, a smart hose timer like these from
03:37Rachio or Eve do the same job just with your garden hose. I think the biggest issue I have with them is
03:44how expensive they are. Because you can just buy a simple irrigation controller from Home Depot for like $40.
03:51So $180 is quite a lot. But if you consider the savings that you could make from using a lot
03:57less water but still having a green lawn, it's really a win-win. Now let's talk about a solution
04:02to my biggest problem with the outdoors. The one thing I really hate about going outside are the
04:09mosquitoes. They eat me alive. They love my English blood. So I was really excited to try out the
04:15Thermacell Live smart mosquito system that uses a synthetic version of chrysanthemum oil, which is
04:22known mosquito repellent. And it heats it up in these little canisters and it creates a vapor that's
04:30odorless. So you have a zone of protection around you. Each one emanates for about 20 feet. And I have
04:37five here, which is the largest system. It could cover about 1600 square feet. You can also control it
04:43with an app or voice control. So I can just say, Alexa, turn on live and walk out into the backyard
04:50and know that I'm not going to get eaten alive by mosquitoes. And it's pet safe too, which is nice.
04:57The downside is it's very expensive. And the refills are about $250 for a season,
05:03which is a lot of money. One thing about getting a pest company to come and spray my yard is that
05:08chickens are really sensitive to chemicals. And this is a great solution that won't harm them.
05:14So let's go meet the ladies. I love my chickens, but keeping them safe is a full-time job.
05:20Unless you have a smart coop. This is the Omelette Igloo Pro, and it has an automatic door that closes at
05:27sunset and opens at sunrise to keep them safe. I can also use an Alexa voice command. Plus, this has
05:35handles and wheels so I can move it around the yard. Omelette also has this neat automatic feeder
05:42that also shuts at night and opens in the morning so that you don't have to worry about critters getting
05:46into their food. What was it like setting it up? It's a pain in the ass. This was the most complicated
05:54chicken coop we have ever built. And my husband built one from scratch. I've also got a ring camera
06:01set up in here. It does not have integrated cameras. So I set up this solar powered camera. If anything
06:08happens at night, I can get an alert on my phone. So this one is the largest model that they have,
06:15and I believe it starts around $4,200. Come and have a look here. This is the controller,
06:21and this actually has a light sensor built in, so it knows the time of day. And one thing I really like
06:29is whilst it has the automatic door, but it also has a manual door. So if anything isn't working
06:35with the automatic door, I have a backup. A step up in smarts, but down in size. This is the coop.
06:43This has an automatic door as well, but it also has two integrated AI powered cameras. It uses something
06:50called Eggstein AI that actually accurately identify cat, a dog, a raccoon. And I actually have a clip
06:59here of it detecting a possum. And then there's also another of it detecting a dog, but it was actually
07:05just the chicken with its wings really wide. So like all AI, you know, take it with a grain of salt.
07:12It is iOS only though, the app that sends the notifications. So Android chicken lovers,
07:18you're out of luck. Here's a look at how my smart garden can help the wild birds.
07:24So this is the bird buddy. We're going to get it set up. It is supposed to be a high definition camera
07:30that shows us up close and personal video photos when the birds come and feed. We've also got a
07:36hummingbird feeder here. As you can see, there's some assembly required. So I think I'm going to get
07:41some help and we're going to fast forward through this bit. Instructions. Who needs those?
07:50Yeah. Okay. Oh.
07:56Yeah, it'll do. All right. I've been trying to connect the camera for the bird buddy to the bird buddy app.
08:04And as usual, everything's going swimmingly, which is not the case. For some reason,
08:11we can't connect, but we're going to keep trying. In the meantime, I'm going to get it set up in the feeder.
08:20That didn't work very well. It just all came out. Good thing I've got some birds here to clean it up for me.
08:27So that was pretty straightforward. Everything's sturdy, came together really easily.
08:33I like the build quality, and I'm excited to see what the video quality is like when we get to see
08:38some feathered friends. So it took a bit of finagling to get the bird buddy to connect to wi-fi,
08:43but once up and running, it's been capturing some wonderful shots of cardinals, finches,
08:48and even a squirrel visiting my feeder. Sadly, we didn't get any hummingbirds, but the 2k image quality
08:55on the camera has been really impressive. And I love that the app uses AI to identify the birds,
09:02and I can even name each individual visitor, so I know when I have repeat guests.
09:07Let's talk food. Nothing better than grilling outside and enjoying an al fresco meal,
09:19but it is not fun to have to babysit your pork ribs all day. That is where smart grills come in handy.
09:25This is the Brisket Zilos 450, which is a wi-fi connected smart grill. Well, it's actually a smoker,
09:31but they call it a grill, but it smokes with wood pellets. It also has a meat probe. This can keep
09:38track of the temperature and turn the grill off when your meat is ready. The app has AI assistant
09:44that can help you cook, but basically what it's doing is using its pre-programmed algorithms to cook
09:50your meat by adjusting the temperature as you might do manually, so it's very hands-off,
09:56which some pitmasters would say is a travesty, but I find it a lot easier. I just throw the pork
10:03on the grill, a couple buttons in the app, five and a half hours later, perfect mouth-watering ribs.
10:09To keep the vibe going after dark, I need smart lighting. I've got Nanoleaf string lights and
10:22LIFX string lights illuminating the porch, and I have this giant smart lamp post, which is perfect
10:29for a chicken disco party.
10:31This is super bright, 2000 lumens, and it can radiate over 32 feet, so you can really light
10:46up the whole backyard. This light is very big. It's also $430, which is pretty expensive. So all three
10:53of these lights work with matter, which means that I can control them in any of my smart homes.
10:58Ecosystems, which is nice. I've got them set up with Alexa right now, but this could also work with
11:03Apple Home or Google Homes or any matter-compatible system. So I really love the look of the Nanoleaf
11:10lights. They almost look like little crystals hanging off of the trees, so even when they're turned off,
11:16they still look decorative, which is nice because obviously you're not going to have lights on during
11:20the day, and it's nice to have a bit of ambiance. So that's my smart backyard.
11:27While it isn't perfect, most of these gadgets make being here more enjoyable without taking
11:32away from what I love about the outdoors. I didn't get to go into a lot of detail about all of these
11:37products, so if you want to find out more, check out my reviews on theverge.com.
11:42Thanks for watching. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share if you want more smart home or smart yard ideas.
11:50Nailed it!
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