puntloos

Frankly my current view is effectively eye height and just an open shelf. Clearly any 'clever system' itself needs space, so perhaps a set of thin shelves might help improve floorspace. I wonder how much shelf height is optimal. With many layers of pots, having an overview (looking both on top of, and past the first layer of things on a shelf) is helpful, so cramming shelves too close together will inhibit that view.. Unless perhaps one could design a certain staggered layout..

Hey, what kind of storage/dispensers have you designed(built?) into your kitchen are you using for often-used stuff with long shelf life? And importantly: does it actually work as well as you imagined? Would love to hear ideas in particular about bulkier stuff like pasta, rice, flour, peas? E.g. (ideally a little more elegant, but you get the idea) Is the time spent filling these worth it? I hear waitrose is rolling out bulk stuff so I imagine you go there with a large 'bucket' and go home? But also spice racks - are there any that actually make your life easier? I currently just have two shelves (a-m and n-z) to rummage through, which works fairly well, but I can be convinced some setups could be more efficient.. Maybe this works really well: Or maybe it just looks cute but suddenly you can only store a tiny amount of bottles or you keep on spilling, or it doesn't fit all sizes or..

One followup question (err.. to myself..) in general: Many 'ecosystems' (hue, tradfri etc) are dual-mode: - Control your stuff over the internet, often through the manufacturer's internet portal/API that connects everything - Direct wireless communications. E.g. the tradfri dimmer will pair, then work with devices without any internet needed. Can this be replicated with tasmota/tuya/whatnot? If I can, I'd love my (fancy) wall switches to always work, even when the internet is down. Am I correct in understanding that Zigbee will not always speak to Zigbee e.g. I hear that Hue hub rejects Tradfri bulbs, or is this not a 'political' thing and people are ironing out these problems?

Yeah I noticed that - it didn't work. At least it didn't ruin my device either ?

My sense is the same here, these 'cheap chinese' type of things are often made as economical as possible - fair enough, but indeed I would prefer not to skimp on the actual controls, but I don't care if the nuts and bolts are plasticy. Has anyone found a decent set of controls that feel "fancy"? Indeed dimmers, switches etc?

I was *just* about to write a post about the non-turntable-ness of my microwave. To be fair, my last microwave was a bit of a pain to clean once spills happened, but perhaps some modern well-designed microwaves either CAN heat evenly, or DO have an easily cleanable turntable? Anyone have a microwave they are... 'glowing' about?

Eh, it *seems* fairly straightforward - this guy seems to outline a process to upgrade sonoff to tasmota over the air. No wires needed.... Might just test this soonish. Yeah.. uh.. about that. Indeed, I do intend to have the house be kinda-sorta be revertible to ye olde mode, but I don't intend to sell, so that eventuality ranks low-ish on the amount of time/effort i want to put into that. (that said, I will likely ask to put in covered wall switch boxes and running the room power through.. or perhaps some similar approach (maybe even squeeze the sonoffs into said socket, so you can replace them (although I think having a battery of sonoff style room switches centrally, next to the wifi AP, in some central wiring closet appeals more..)

Ours does too, but the situation usually is that there's urgent food to be handled, door opened with one hand, etc. It just happens too often.

- When I stop my Neff microwave early because the food is already hot, it will beep indignantly for AGES to let it finish its job. - The lock on our sliding door is so difficult it literally stops me from using the sliding door. Same with my front door, I sometimes go in through the garage if I'm in a hurry. - My Chef King induction hob keeps its fan running for 3-4 minutes after I've stopped using it. - One toilet takes so long to fill, going to pee can extend from 1 minute to 4 minutes if the first flush didn't get some paper.. And so on. Perhaps to rephrase the question slightly: any avoidable practical annoyances that we all should look out for?

Am I assuming correctly that you're not actually using the Tuya services (e.g. their 'gold' service, which I think is a monthly $$) but instead just flash the hardware to tasmota? Ha, frankly as I get older my time to 'geek around' is less and less, but it might be worth the time and mildly fun.

I wasn't aware of this, but Velux might also be making smart windows - https://www.velux.co.uk/products/smart-home - connected to Netamo.. haven't looked deeply enough yet into that brand, but I think it can be used with the commons (Alexa/GoogleHome). And windows installers heavily recommend velux over pretty much any other brand, (sample size of 2 window installers..)

This is awesome, and sounds decidedly cheap (I mean that in a positive sense) compared to the fancier options. I wonder what the downsides are. More specifically, and I say that with all the love for tech in the world, but I find many of these ecosystems surprisingly flaky, stuff randomly not responding, behaviour changing because of some auto-update, evil hackers from $country_of_the_week listening in, etc etc. In short, how stable is your stuff day to day? How often do you have to powercycle anything etcetc.

Hmm the sonoff flashing is a bit more hands-on than I had in mind, but it might be worth it. My main question - with tasmota firmware, will the sonoff devices be switchable by an "offline" switch - using the direct connection rather than through the internet (so it'll work hard-wired style..)

Huh. I must say that IKEA one has surprisingly good specs. I'm often discouraged by hobs that lack power (where the individual burners don't have enough oomph). Currently I mostly look at: - Power for individual burners (want at least 1 able to hit 3000W) - Smooth, well thought-out controls. Can I reliably switch it from 0 to 100% and from 100 to 0% in a quick move. (I have a inductionhob with a physical dial now.. very happy since I can really 'spin' it to zero in one swipe) - Actual heating area. Quite a few hobs have a cute large circle drawn on where the pan should sit, where the actual heated area is in a tiny center spot. Does anyone have actual experience with these hobs?

When it comes to 'wall mounted' taps though, are there any installation or maintenance issues that could cause additional problems? Clearly you would need to design your wall to have water outlets. but are there any issues one could/should expect to be a major hassle? Are they harder to fit? etc?

Ah but what about the other wine glass.. and nibbles, a book.. candles.. monitor for movies... OK slightly more seriously, I didn't think of the flat side, perhaps that'll work.. still, obviously(?) a bath with a surrounding ridge and/or a windowsill nearby provides a bit more storage space e.g. shampoo for bathing the kid, perhaps a towel Any chance you have a picture? When I think of 'freestanding bath' I'm thinking of Perhaps there are some minor fittings below but it's not really 'lowered' too deeply I assume MI's? Sorry google's not helpful with 2-letter searchterms Doesn't sound ideal, no. Agreed, flexi looks ugly

Not a big fan of those freestanding baths anyway, admittedly it looks fairly fancy but it doesn't seem very practical (where do you store your glass of wine, inquiring minds want to know..) etc.

Newbie question I'm sure but can you explain? Why would a non-freestanding cause you to (possibly) have to lift a bath.. and if so is that a big deal?

I'm also wondering about my "single lever" requirement, since a hot and a cold control are fine in 99% of my use cases. I typically use 'all hot' or 'all cold' and only rarely do I need fine control - and if I do, dual lever/dial isn't a terrible dealbreaker.

Are there either platform-specific (Loxone?) or ideally agnostic (zwave/zigbee) reverse current controllers that you can just tie into any smart home? I’m probably using the wrong terminology but what I mean is that for many electric motors you’d need to use one polarity to open the window, and then reverse it to close them. Once we have that we (probably) don’t even need ultra-clever windows, but just a standardish electrified window you can wire into your system?

Not at all, it was a pic from the internet ? We are not *that* bad, but indeed struggling with a dark marble worktop.. Yes exactly, that’s my primary reason. My main goal is: - Wall mounted - Mixer (of course) - Extendable/retracting head - one-handed control A google image search got me a few decent hits already: FLG ($225) - It looks it’s only cold, but it does say mixer. The handle is a bit teensy? DHGate ($50) - A bit less cool, spray might not be ideal for cleaning dishes.. Duerno ($100) - Looks nice.. Single hole hot and cold… how does that work? Some concentric two-pipes-in-one? No pull-out though. MENHONYI ($84) - seems OK but not great looking.. The quest continues..

Hmm, useful, if not slightly depressing stuff. Agreed with @joth that the main point is the ‘remote opening/closing’ rather than having to manually do it. Whether or not this can be wired into a timer is secondary, and a full smart home ‘ok google open the window’ is just a nice to have. Must say that the maturity of smart home stuff is starting to disappoint me. Clearly it’s new technology but the tech (‘in principle’) is able to handle itself pretty well. The fact that a seriously expensive window is failing such a basic test (‘does it work with common other products’..) is disappointing. @jack, @Jimbouk - any chance you’re able to try this again for us aspiring smarthomers? ? - or anyone else have an actually working setup, perhaps with smartthings or some other hub?

Mm.. well, clearly there’s some practical benefits, not saying they’re worth it and/or if they are outweighed by other factors(incl price..) Well, in our current situation viakal is too aggressive for our natural material worktop…

Hi all, As anyone tasked with cleaning knows - faucet bases are always hard to clean, especially in limescale-y areas. One ‘obvious’ solution is wall mounting, even though it seems to be a rare approach - very few of the nicer, more feature rich faucets (e.g. with the extendable spray head, let alone quooker-style ones) exist in wall-mounted versions. - http://worldwide.deltafaucet.com/kitchen/details/44004-sq.html ($190) is so far my best find, although not even sure I could easily source them, they’re some indian brand… Anyone have any thoughts on wall-mounting? Is this a good idea? Am I missing any obvious downsides? Any specific faucets that you chose? (link?) To be clear: yes I very much want a ‘kitchen style’ faucet in all my bathrooms too, I have no idea why teensy faucets that force you into weird angles to try to get water on your hands, always at the risk of touching the dirty washbasin are so common.. I want water to comfortably drop in the center of the basin..

Hmm so my above Fakro window seems to be a cheaper alternative. I wonder if the build quality is sufficient, it’s a well-regarded brand overall I think.. Yep, I guess it’s a good idea to think deeply on if you will ever open your windows, and if so which ones. Classic thinking says you should (if you do it is another matter) open windows to circulate air fairly frequently.. but with mechanical the need is already lessened. Fly screens are indeed important.. and I don’t think automated windows would come with those so I might want to go with the ‘never open’ philosophy… in which case it becomes an interesting question if you should even have openable windows. (cost, primarily). One thing I will probably push for is a centor bifold door (or similar) which houses rolls of fabric in the frame. You can have both flyscreen AND blackout in the same frame by having fly in the left post and blackout right.. (up to something like 4m distance)..