PACKAGING | CONTENTS

If you’re in possession of the company’s other Thread-enabled device, the Airversa Purelle (video HERE, review HERE), you’ll be familiar with the Apple-like packaging, which pretty much everyone seems to do these days. Still, the box gives you pretty much all the info you need;

• 5.5l water tank
• Dual mist streams
• Essential oil tray
• suitable for large rooms up to 500 sq ft
• BPA free
• Apple Home compatible
• Auto-humidity
• Smart ring light
• Touch control
• Sleep mode
• Scheduling
• Humidity and temperature tracking

As with the Vocolinc Flowerbud and almost all the products that followed it, the Humelle utilises colour LEDs that can be used in a variety of ways, which I’ll go into in more detail later. It’s probably worth pointing out that the Humelle is offered in three finishes for the water tank, with Pebble Grey, Crystal Clear, and Arctic Blue being the current three options, although the latter of these won’t be available until later in the year.

The Humelle, or AH1 as I’ll forthwith refer to it, is pretty futuristic looking, with a large glass-like water tank taking up around three-fifths of the unit, surrounding a central funnel. The bottom two-fifths are made up of the mechanics, which are largely hidden from view until you remove the water tank.

Aside from the Humidifier, you get a power supply designed for your region (if supported), a manual in English with QR codes inside that link to the manual in other languages, a brush for cleaning some parts of the unit, and a couple of ‘aroma pads’. These, as you’ll see later, are designed for use with essential oils. Whilst many smaller aroma diffusers allow you to add essential oils directly to the water, this is not the case with the Humelle, with the oils only designed to be used with these pads.

THE HUMELLE

The front of the AH1 features two touch-sensitive buttons for the mist and the LED ring, in addition to three LEDs to indicate different working states. The rear is home to the HomeKit QR code, some slats hiding the temperature and humidity sensors, and the coaxial port for the power supply. The Upper and lower sections can only fit one way, with two small arrows to show how the two parts line up.

The top section of the AH1 has a removable mist nozzle, which has two sausage-shaped holes for the mist to be directed outward. This nozzle, which is actually more plate-shaped, is adjustable to allow the mist to go in other directions, and can also be removed, giving access to a carry handle, which is useful when the tank is fully loaded with water.

The large top section which is the water tank, is filled from underneath, so you have to remove the water tank, flip it upside down, remove the water tank cap, and fill it with distilled, demineralised, or purified water.

The bottom section stores a percentage of the water fed from the water tank, where the nebuliser breaks it up into a fine mist.

One of only two moving or moveable parts in the bottom section aside from the nebuliser, is the water level sensor. I assume this works with the use of a magnet within the foam ring, so once the water level is low, the ring (and magnet) make contact with another magnet hidden inside the base, which in turn triggers a notification that the water level is low. The stem and the ring are both removable for cleaning, as indicated by the lock/unlock icons.

The other part that can be removed and cleaned is the essential oil tray. As already mentioned, you can’t add oils to the water tank, so instead you add a few drops to the aroma pad that sits inside the tray, which itself sits in a holder below a vent for the built-in fan. The fan blows air just above the aroma pad, which then sends the essential oil smells and the fine water mist up through the central ‘funnel’ in the top section, and out to the room. The underside of the bottom section is home to an LED ring light, which we’ll look at in a bit.

Summing up my initial impression, the whole package – so to speak – looks and feels great, from the glass-like plastic water tank, which I really like the design of, to the understated design of the touch-sensitive buttons and internals. All feel well-made and sturdily put together.

IN APPLE HOME | HOMEKIT

If you’re an Apple Home user, you’ll probably know the score as regards what’s generally exposed to HomeKit, so in the case of the AH1, you get two devices – the humidifier and the LED ring. You can display them as separate tiles like I have pictured above, or combined. As the AH1 has temperature and humidity sensors built-in, you can see them listed at the top. Pressing on the humidity icon brings up the current humidity, but also brings up the AH1 again, which I guess is due to it being a humidifier.

As standard, there’s a slider for the humidifier, which doesn’t control the strength of the mist as such, but instead sets the target humidity level. If it’s set to 100% humidity, the AH1 will simply keep pumping out mist until the tank empties, as it’s virtually impossible to reach 100% humidity for this device. Below that is a simple on/off button.

The settings page also gives you access to the fan speed, which essentially controls the strength of the mist output. When it comes to the LED ring, even though it’s capable of multiple colours, in Apple Home it’s not possible to access multiple colour controls, so solid colours and brightness levels via the slider are the only options here. All standard stuff, basically.

In the ‘Eve for HomeKit’ app, you can see the AH1 shows up via your Thread network as not only a Thread device but also as a Thread Router, which allows it to be a sort of Thread ‘access point’ for Thread endpoint devices (mostly battery operated) in the absence of a full Thread Border Router.

IN THE SLEEKPOINT APP

As you can see from the first screenshot above, I’ve already got the Airversa Purelle (review, video), and the Holomarq HK1 (review, video) in addition to the AH1, in the Sleekpoint app. The bottom section gives you access to a few different areas – schedules, charts, power, light, and settings. The rest of the main screen for the AH1 offers a large amount of control and information, including the current temperature and humidity, with the latter primarily taking up the top section of the screen. You then have three mist streaming modes (manual, auto, sleep) along with a nicely designed rotating knob to adjust the mist stream strength.

Speaking of the streaming modes, when you select ‘Sleep’ you get a further three sub-options; Whisper, Quiet, and Default, with Whisper being the quietest of the three sleep levels. Even though you can set on/off times directly in the Home app, or most other third-party HomeKit apps, the Sleekpoint app goes the extra mile when it comes to recurring options that also include the use of the LED ring, as well as what mode and mist strength should be applied, so in this regard it’s pretty powerful.

If you’re a bit of a devil when it comes to monitoring temperature and humidity levels, you can check out records for each of these metrics via the Charts section, where both are broken down into 24 hours, 7 days, or one month. It doesn’t seem as though you can export this data, however. The general settings tab covers the basics, like the product name, timers, Fahrenheit or Celcius, feedback sounds, and plenty more. There’s also a device cleaning reminder, that prompts you to clean the device every three days by default.

Onto the settings for the LED ring, which are also quite extensive; The AH1 comes with a series of preset ‘themes’ that are collected into groups – Ambience, Fantasy, and Energy – with more to come hopefully. All of the themes can be saved to a favourites section which can then be quickly accessed via the button on the front of the AH1. Each of these themes can also be customised and saved as new themes by the user if desired.

There are slightly different lighting options depending on the theme selected, so the top section will change and offer different options according to the theme. Either way, you’ll almost always get access to changing colour via the colour wheel, RGB sliders, or even by typing in a specific hexadecimal number. You can also save your colours here for recall later. The only option that doesn’t offer up the colour wheel is ‘RT Humidity’ which automatically changes the colour of the LED depending on the humidity levels, with blue when humidity is high, green when humidity is acceptable, and orange when humidity is low.

As already mentioned, the options change depending on the theme, so in the case of the ‘Jellyfish’ preset, you can choose the brightness, the speed of the animation, and the colour, as well as sync the colour to the humidity levels. ‘Gradiant’ (sic) Offers the same first two options (brightness and animation speed), plus tying the colours to the humidity levels, but also has a ‘DIY’ button that allows you to select your own collection of colours with a maximum of eleven in total.

In the case of the ‘Wheel’ preset you initially get only the animation speed option, along with syncing the colour to the humidity levels as before, but you also get an option to change the direction of the animation, along with colour options (DIY). This preset offers two colours divided into two segments – Base and Top – so along with the animation, the segments give the appearance of a moving wheel I guess. When you select the ‘top’ option, you can also adjust how many sections the wheel preset is divided into, with a minimum of two segments and a maximum of twelve segments.

Even though these animations can’t be directly accessed in the Apple Home app, some third-party HomeKit apps, like Controller for HomeKit, can access your favourites created in the Sleekpoint app, and then be included in Scenes, which will then show up and be accessible within Apple Home. To see this in action, you can check it out via the video below starting at 7’13”;

HUMELLE IN USE | WRAPPING UP

As I pointed out at the start of the review, there’s very little call for humidifiers here for much of the year, but from the tests I have performed, the results are more than adequate in the more controlled ways I was able to test it for humidifying purposes. Even then, due to the climate where I live, the results can be slightly skewed. I did find it would struggle with anything more than 70% humidity, but anything over 60% is not advisable in normal home use, so that isn’t actually an issue for the vast majority of people who will only need it during the winter when humidity levels can get pretty low.

The mist stream appears more powerful than previous humidifiers I’ve tested, and with the adjustable mist nozzle, you can direct the stream away from potentially problematic areas without having to move the whole device.

It does work much better as a humidifier than a diffuser, given that essential oils are not designed to be added to the water tank, so if you wanted this for making the room smell nice more than for humidity, you might be better of with one of their non-smart waterless aroma diffusers.

In terms of connectivity, it has been exemplary so far, which doesn’t come as a surprise to me, as the Aiversa Purelle and the Holomarq HK1 are just as reliable in this regard. I generally don’t have issues with my Thread devices, but if I do, the issue usually centres on the HomePods, not the Thread devices themselves.

It has been argued in the past that Thread isn’t necessary with a permanently powered device, but as it is powered, it gives your home another means for an endpoint Thread device to connect to, so to me it’s a definite bonus, whilst also being one less device bogging down my WiFi network.

The design itself, whilst not perfect in some ways, is to me the best-looking humidifier out there right now, especially when you look at offerings from other HomeKit manufacturers like Meross, Vocolinc and Switchbot, all of which look a bit dated and just not very stylish really. It also has the largest tank compared to other HomeKit-enabled humidifiers, with the Vocolinc MistFlow coming at 3.0 litres less than the Humelle with a paltry 2.5-litre capacity. The Smartmi Rainforest Humidifier, which I recently reviewed, is a real thing of beauty in my opinion, but only has a slightly larger water tank at 3.0 litres. Nevertheless, the Rainforest is more than twice the price, and as it uses evaporative humidification, it does take longer to reach the set level. It doesn’t trigger PM2.5 sensors though, which is an unfortunate side effect of diffusion-based humidifiers like the Humelle.

the one thing to take into account is that it does require regular cleaning maintenance – every 3 days is recommended in fact – so this could be a chore for some. You should also use some form of filtered water, which isn’t something everyone has easy access to, even if they should.

All things considered, whilst the AH1 is more expensive than most of the HomeKit humidifiers available, it uses Thread not WiFi (a big plus), it does have the largest water tank, and it comes with the potentially very useful multicolour LED ring. The design may or may not be to everyone’s taste, but with the very clear view of your water tank on display, I think it looks very cool. I just wish I could make use of it for more of the year!

The post Airversa Humelle Smart Humidifier W/ Thread (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

You can purchase the the Airversa Humelle from Amazon stores in your region using the (affiliate) links below, which cost you nothing extra but help us buy more products for review, to keep you informed on how products perform.

• Amazon US – 5% off for a limited period using the code HKNW5OFF
• Amazon DE
• Amazon FR
• Amazon IT
• Amazon ES

The post Airversa Humelle Humidifier W/ Thread (video) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

PACKAGING | CONTENTS

Upon receiving the package, I was surprised at how big it was, but then this is a big device – almost twice the height of the aforementioned MistFlow. They really have gone to town when it comes to the ‘theme’ of the product, with the imagery reflecting the ‘Rainforest’ name to a tee, and for good reason. One side shows the compatible smart home badges – Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home. There’s no SmartThings integration, and this is not a Matter device, so it uses legacy connectivity via the cloud for the latter two options.

One side of the box lays out the features, of which there aren’t many, to be fair. Due to the method by which it generates humidity, which I’ll go into later, it actually creates sounds quite similar to that of rain hitting a window. It comes with a very nice, but very simple LED display, and there’s an option to have it ‘self-clean’ with the aid of citric acid.

There’s not a lot in the box, just the device itself, a power supply, and a manual in three languages – English, French, and Spanish. The humidifier is really something to behold, giving off the air (no pun intended) of the kind of device you might see on the set of a Star Wars film, given its white plastic, gold accents, and see-through middle section.

Here are some specs for those that find it of interest;

• Net weight: 3.3kg/7.275lb
• Wireless connection: WiFi 2.4GHz b/g/n
• Rated input: 100-240V 50/60Hz, 0.3A
• Rated voltage: 12V
• Rated power: 7W
• Operating humidity/temperature: ≯80% (RH) / 10~40°С
• Noise: less than 50dB
• Humidifying capacity: 200ml/h
• Water tank capacity: 3L / 6.34pt (US)
• Operating principle: evaporative

THE HUMIDIFIER AND ITS PARTS

The front is home to a single capacitive touch button that allows you to cycle through the three different modes it’s capable of – Favourite/Manual, Auto, and Sleep. The rear features a single power button at the top, with a humidity sensor below that. A single HomeKit QR code is stuck to the back, but the manual doesn’t come with a backup instance of the code, so make sure you make a note of it somewhere, or better still, use the HomePass app by Aaron Pearce. Directly below the code, is the coaxial port for powering the unit.

The device comes in four main sections, with the top half containing the LED display, which is also one route for refilling the water tank – I kid you not. This section also contains the fan to draw humid air up and out to the room it’s placed in. Below the fan is the water droplet chamber, which I’ll go into in a bit more detail in a bit.

With this main section removed, you then get to a polymer mesh filter that sits inside a sort of plastic cage. This isn’t the kind of tightly woven filter you might see in an air purifier, as water needs to pass through relatively easily, but it will catch small particles that could get into the tank and be sucked up again, possibly causing damage to the fan or other parts.

This filter should last as much as twelve months, and it can also be washed, so replacements aren’t going to be something you need to purchase too often, although regularly cleaning it is quite essential, to avoid the build-up of mould, especially as it may not be as easy to see.

The filter surrounds a pipe, and once removed you can see the pipe connected to the bottom section. This pipe is connected to a water pump, that sends water through the pipe, into the upper chamber where it hits a spinning wheel. This wheel is connected to the fan in the top section, so when water collides with the wheel – which is going at a high speed – it breaks the water into droplets that are then smashed into the inside of the clear plastic chamber. The fan does double duty by then drawing the moist air upward and out through the vents surrounding the LED display.

With the water pump section removed, you’re left with the water tank itself, which is reported to hold 3 litres of water, although I managed to get another 500ml right up to the ‘max’ level line for some reason. The underside of the tank has four rubber wheels to keep it from sliding around, although at 3.3kg, plus the weight of a full tank, this is unlikely. If it was knocked over, there’s a power cut-off feature to avoid any potential hazards involving electricity and water. Speaking of power, the section containing the water pump is also home to five pin connectors. These match up with five contacts found as part of the top section.

THE DISPLAY

The top of the device is mostly made up of a display, although there’s more to it than that. At its basic, the LED screen, which could be described as a large ‘contact lens’, has a convex shape, the reason for which is that you can actually pour water over the top of it in order to (re)fill that water tank below. The water drops from the display to an opening encircling it, which then filters through the transparent chamber and eventually down into the water tank. Pretty clever stuff.

The display itself is quite simple and uncluttered, especially compared to their purifiers. In the centre is the current humidity level where it’s located, with a WiFi icon to let you know it’s connected. If this icon flashes, there’s a connectivity issue. Above the humidity reading will be one of three icons that represent the different modes – a Heart for Favourite mode, a capital A for Auto mode, and a crescent moon for Sleep mode.

Surrounding all of these graphical icons is a colour ring split into four segments. Each segment represents roughly 25% of the water tank’s capacity, and as the tank begins to empty, one by one, each section will change from green to white, indicating the estimated amount of water left in the tank.

When the tank is devoid of water, these four segments will turn red and begin to pulsate to let you know the tank needs refilling.

The display is surrounded by a gold-coloured ring, that is separated from the outer edge by another set of vents that let out the humidified air. As you can see from the sticker on the display, you should use purified water to avoid limescale building up or to prevent other impurities being pushed out into your room.

THE SMARTMI LINK APP

It’s probably easier to set this up in the Smartmi Link app first, and even if you plan on using this solely in HomeKit, you’ll still need the app for a couple of settings not available elsewhere. You will need to set up an account and choose an appropriate server, but luckily, devices don’t seem to be region restricted in the way that Xiaomi or Aqara devices are, so you can choose any region you want.

Smartmi devices, whilst using WiFi, also have a Bluetooth chip inside for initial connection (or commissioning, as it’s now referred to for Matter devices). It discovered the unit as soon as I plugged it into power, which was impressive. As this uses 2.4GHz WiFi only, you need to provide suitable credentials for the unit to connect to. Once connected, you’re set – all rather painless.

If you have multiple Smartmi devices as I have, they’re all shown on the main screen, with a simple on/off button for quick access. Tapping on the relevant tile opens up a full control panel. The unit in question is much like the other products, although as we’re talking about humidity, not air quality, there are differences. The display has a carousel bar to switch between the three modes previously mentioned, along with the power button. In Manual mode, you get a sliding bar to adjust the ‘intensity’ although it’s basically the fan speed you’re adjusting. The top of the screen shows the current humidity, which is reflected in the half-hidden panel at the bottom, which also tells you how much water is left in the tank.

This bottom panel expands when you slide it up, to reveal a slider for target humidity along with extra options. These extras include the display, which can be set to full brightness (light), dimmed (shimmer), or off. There’s a simple option for setting on/off timers, and a section that explains how the unit can be set to self-clean. As with all Smartmi devices, you can also turn off the standard beep sounds emitted whenever you change anything.

In the app, you can also add it directly to HomeKit. As it’s already connected to your network, there’s no need for your phone to be on a 2.4GHz network, so the process of adding it to HomeKit is generally much quicker at this point.

IN THE HOME APP | HOMEKIT

In HomeKit you get one tile for on/off. Tapping elsewhere on the tile reveals the standard slider control, although this is not for the fan speed. The slider controls the target humidity (i.e. the level of humidity you require). Below that is the power button. In the settings section, you get details on the water level, an off/humidity control, and fan speed, along with the current humidity levels.

Strangely, the Home app doesn’t offer an option to use the humidity level readings from the device in an automation! Luckily this is not the case with third-party apps, like Eve for HomeKit which does allow for such an automation. Indeed, as is usually the case, once you’ve set such an automation up in a third-party app, it’ll then appear in the Home app anyway. The Eve app shows separate controls for the fan and the humidifier along with all the other settings.

What neither Eve for HomeKit nor Apple Home can do is create an automation based on the tank’s water level. For this, you’d need something like the Controller for HomeKit app, which offers this amongst other trigger aspects. If you really delve into this app, you can even turn off the fan whilst still keeping the water running, and have the display on, although why you’d want to do so is anyone’s guess! What you can’t seem to do in any app is control the display brightness, which is a shame, as is having to resort to outside apps to achieve something relatively simple, but it is what it is.

EVAPORATIVE VS. ULTRASONIC HUMIDIFIERS

Possibly the only alternative to the Rainforest Humidifier right now – at least for HomeKit integration – is the MistFlow from Vocolinc. This is an ultrasonic humidifier that “uses a ceramic diaphragm vibrating at an ultrasonic frequency to create water droplets that silently exit the humidifier in the form of cool fog”*.

These kinds of humidifiers tend to be able to get the humidity to the level required much quicker than evaporative models, although the trade-off is that the fine mist generated immediately triggers PM2.5 sensors, whether they’re inside an air purifier, or as part of standalone models. I found this to be the case, with the evaporate approach having virtually no effect on these sensors. Whether this fine mist is in any way hazardous to health, I’m not sure, but if you use air purifiers to keep PM2.5 in check, then these ultrasonic humidifiers are going to falsely (perhaps) trigger automations you might use with them. Generally speaking, humidity levels of no greater than 60% are recommended, with levels between 40~50% seemingly being the ideal range.

*Source – Wikipedia

THE RAINFOREST HUMIDIFIER IN USE

This has been a tricky device to test in a significant way. Where I reside (Taiwan), we get high humidity for much of the year, with only relatively low levels of humidity from December to February, although the summers have been unseasonably dry too, so there may be times when it’s required. So, as I received this unit in mid March, it’s tricky to fully test its humidifying capabilities, although I tested it in the studio, which generally doesn’t suffer as much from humidity as other rooms, as it’s away from outside contact to a large degree. That all said, it seemed to do as was expected of it, although it rarely managed to get above 64% humidity, no matter how powerfully and long it was running for. To me, this isn’t a problem, as already outlined in terms of how much humidity is good for your health, but it’s still worth pointing out.

The design, for me, is absolutely gorgeous, and would easily be allowed to stand proud in any room, on full display. As stated earlier, it has this ‘Habitat’ style about it that for me is pretty timeless, but also futuristic looking, à la The Jetsons!

What is less appealing for many of our readers is probably the price, which at one cent under US$300 is fairly pricy. A while back it wasn’t uncommon to pay even more for an air purifier, but times change, and you can now buy air purifiers for just a shade over US$100, although the quality isn’t always going to be great (Meross and Sensibo, take note…). The alternative is the previously mentioned ultrasonic humidifiers, so if you’re not going to want to confuse your PM2.5 sensors, and require smart home integration (specifically HomeKit), this is the only device on a very empty playing field.

I have no complaints at all and in the time I’ve used it, which has only been around a month, there have been no issues at all, be it connectivity, false readings, or missed automations. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that the humidity sensor seems a lot more accurate than you tend to find with many devices with built-in sensors of this type. Add to this the ‘white noise’ effect of the water hitting the inside of the chamber, and you could have something that’s worth investing in, even with the high initial cost.

The post Smartmi Rainforest Humidifier (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

PACKAGING

Vocolinc’s packaging was always distinctive, with large swathes of green adorning the sides of their boxes. This has changed somewhat, since the introduction of their Smartbar (smart plug), and is now more in line with the kind of packaging you’d see on the shelves at an Apple store. That’s no bad thing, and as long as the contents are well protected, it matters not. The VH1 follows this route and is well protected with polystyrene on the bottom and top, holding the device in place. The information on the front touts the four main features of the VH1, which are;

• a large water tank capable of holding 2.5 litres | 2.642 quarts | 5.283 pints
• a run time of up to 30 hours
• suitable for humidifying rooms up to 40m² | 131ft
• five mist levels

The third point seems a little ambitious, but it may well depend on a variety of factors, as well as what point one deems a room to be ‘humidified’. I’ll talk about my tests later on in the review, but with me not having lab conditions in which to test these claims, the results may vary and will be limited to the size of the room or rooms in which I’m able to test the VH1 in.

In terms of basic specs, the VH1 is 180 x 180 x 285 mm | 7.08 x 7.08 x 11.22in (w,d,h), and weighs 1.1kg | 2.42lb. It uses 2.4GHz WiFi, as expected, and has a rated power of 30w.

The rear of the box goes into a bit more detail, asking the rhetorical question “How Smart?”, to which the answers (in English and French) are;

• Multiple controls with your voice (the ‘multiple’ part may possibly only be achievable with HomeKit)
• In-app automations
• Rainbow Spectrum mood light
• Anti-bacterial technology
• Scheduling
• Automatic shut off
• Timers
• Auto target humidity
• aroma diffuser
• remote access

Now the list above does include things that might not be considered ‘smart’ as such, so I’d take this list to be more a set of ‘features’, but you get the idea. The second last point may grab your attention if you’re already an owner of the Flowerbud, but I’ll address this later on.

THE MISTFLOW

Once out of the box, besides the VH1 itself, you only get a small manual in English and French, that also contains one of two instances of the HomeKit code. The other QR code is found on the back of the device, located between the water level marker and the power cord. The first impression I got – taking into account that I’m an owner of two Flowerbuds – is one of really solid build quality. The Flowerbud was nice, but if I’m honest, the top part of the Flowerbud did feel a little loose fitting to me. Not so with the VH1, as the body section, although in two connected parts, makes up for around 95% of the device, with only the lid atop the VH1 being removable. The fit of the lid is quite snug too, without being difficult to remove. The plastic used for the lower portion has a textured feel to it, so while it’s not going to be a fingerprint magnet, due to it being off-white, it’s also going to be resistant to slipping out of your hands, not that I envision anyone carrying this around too often.

The front of the VH1 has two simple touch-sensitive controls along with the Vocolinc logo. The lower button is to simply turn the built-in LED Rainbow Mood Light on or off. This, as you can probably guess, simply requires a gentle tap to achieve. If you long-press (for at least five seconds) on this control, you can change the colour of the mood light manually. The button above this sets the diffused water to output at a low or high level. I’m happy to say these touch controls are pretty responsive at all times, although you have to make sure you touch them fairly centrally, not just the edge of the icons.

When the VH1 is plugged in, regardless of whether it’s on standby or active, will show a little white LED below the middle power icon. Pressing the aforementioned button then turns the steam on, at a lower level, in the first instance (the L icon), with a second press sending out steam at a high level (the H icon). The Low level is the equivalent of level 3 in the Vocolinc app, with level 5 being the highest speed level). Each of these will reveal a small white LED depending on which speed is in use, and whether the MistFlow is active. As already mentioned in the features, the VH1 is capable of five levels of mist, however, like the Flowerbud, this level of control is only available via the Vocolinc app or some 3rd party HomeKit apps. Pressing either of the touch-sensitive buttons is followed by a small beeping sound.

The rear of the VH1 is home to the power cord, which in this case is fixed in place and can’t be removed. Whilst we use North American Type A and B plugs in Taiwan, Vocolinc could only send the EU version at the time, which comes with a European Type C plug. Luckily, I have both an adaptor and a voltage converter in order to test the VH1 out, although, in actual fact, I did find that the voltage converter was not needed, even though the packaging states that the EU version requires 220-240V to function*. For the US version, which should be out shortly after this review drops, you will, of course, get a type A plug, with it working on 110-120v.

* I should state, I am not endorsing using a device intended to be used in a region it’s not designed for and this is only my personal finding.

The rear also reveals a translucent plastic strip, much like you might see on an electric kettle, that reveals the amount of water in the tank, with simple dots for markers, and a ‘Max’ marker at the top. As previously stated, the tank is capable of 2.5 litres of water. While I’m happy to see this addition, its usefulness is entirely dependent on whether the VH1 is placed in a location where it’s also easily visible from the back. Either way, you can just as easily see the water level from the front.

The top of the VH1, which is essentially a lid, has a small aperture by which the steam is allowed to vent. The top also features a ripple design that we’ve already seen deployed with Vocolinc’s own VAP1 PureFlow Air Purifier, so it’s a nice little touch to see this carried over to another device. Indeed the ‘dewdrop’ shape of the vent is also a nice touch, and could easily have been a simple circle, so I’m glad a little thought has gone into the design process here.

The base of the unit reveals four rubberised feet, which is handy for any surface, but even more so with a device where water can (and almost certainly will) involve water spillage at some point. Right in the centre is an air intake that is required to help the atomiser create the diffused water. To the right of that is a small hole, that in the manual is labelled a water outlet. I can only assume that excess water comes out of here if required. Aside from these parts, there’s nothing much else to report on that involves the base.

Upon opening the VH1, by simply removing the lid, you get to see some interesting parts, at least things that look a fair bit more intricate or involved than is the case with the Flowerbud. Right in the centre is the atomiser itself, which does the job of breaking down the water using ultrasonic technology. This is surrounded on three sides by pill-shaped sections which house the full-colour LEDs. Each of the three sections holds two individual LED units, so you do get decent coverage for what is, essentially, quite a large water tank. To the left of the atomiser is the water level sensor. This detects when the tank gets close to empty and will automatically switch the atomiser off. In a colleague’s test with his own VH1, it seems the Vocolinc app will send you a push notification to let you know the tank is empty, although he found the tank to still have some water inside. I guess it’s better to have some than for it to be totally dried out, but it’s something to note. To the right is a tall cylindrical shaft. This is labelled as the Air Outlet. At this point, I have to plead some measure of ignorance as to how these types of devices work, other than the ultrasonic atomiser doing its job of shattering the water into vapour, that’s then forced out through the top vent in order to humidify your home.

As far as the parts inside go, as with the outside, they feel well put together, and although trying to clean around these sections may be a bit more involved than with the Flowerbud – which is essentially a shallow dish compared to the VH1 – taking your time to clean this is required in order to make sure the VH1 gives you unfettered service for as many years as possible. Incidentally, both of the Flowerbuds in our home have served us well for the past two years, and so I don’t have any reason to doubt I’ll get the same reliability with the VH1. Indeed, whilst the Flowerbud initially revealed a few connectivity issues, which seemed to plague other Vocolinc devices, this hasn’t been the case with either the VH1 or any of my other Vocolinc devices for well over a year now.

The final part of the puzzle (and it’s a bit of a puzzle to me really) is a funnel attached to the inside of the lid. The funnel is directly related to the vent at the top of the lid, and I can only assume the diffused water is aided in escaping the tank with assistance from the funnel, in conjunction with the fan built into the base of the unit. Inside the funnel is also a floating mechanism, although I’m honestly not sure what its purpose is. It floats atop the water in the tank, but I don’t think it’s designed to measure the water level, as the sensor on the base already seems to have that covered, so it probably assists in directing the steam upwards towards the vent. In a separate test, it was noted that as the water tank became more empty, the stream of mist became progressively less powerful. This could be the result of the mist having further to travel along the central funnel, but we’ve contacted Vocolinc to clarify if this is the case. Needless to say, whilst I’m more than happy to wax lyrical on the design of the device, and it’s functionality, I don’t want to get into the technical aspect of how it all works. That’s why we have Wikipedia and YouTube I guess…

The mood light, although not absolutely necessary, does add an extra dimension to a device that could be argued is designed not to be seen, much less heard, so, like the Flowerbud, the VH1 in tandem with the mood light, can be a focal point for the home. It would seem that the design of the Flowerbud did split opinions, with just as many decrying the design as lauding it. I personally liked the design, and I’m just as happy with the slightly more utilitarian look of the VH1. Without the mood light, the translucent tank would look a bit odd, so I think it works with some colour and is also bright enough to act as a night light.

APPLE HOME AND VOCOLINC APPS

In the Home app, the VH1 provides a single combined tile, or two separate tiles if you prefer. The two tiles, shown above are for control of the humidifier itself, and the mood light. The two separate screenshots show the MistFlow as ‘Rising to 88%’ in the first image, and ‘Set to 52%’ in the other, which I’ll explain next.

The VH1 can be set to on or off, via the button at the bottom in the first screenshot. However, in order to make it start pushing out mist, you need to have the ‘Target Humidity’ level set higher than the relative humidity in the room, which can be seen in the settings section. If, for example, the target humidity is set to 55%, but your room is 60%, then the VH1 doesn’t need to do anything, as it’s already more humid than you’ve set it to be aiming for. In these instances, the tile in the Home app will show ‘set to 55%’. If in the same example, you set the target to humidity to 70%, then the VH1 will start humidifying, with the tile showing ‘rising to 70%’. If, on the other hand, you just want to just have the VH1 to start pumping out air when you want it to, regardless of the humidity levels, then you can just set the target humidity level to 100%, so it’ll always work when you turn it on via the touch controls, via Siri or via a timer. Just be aware that it won’t automatically turn off, as it’s unlikely you’ll be able to reach 100% humidity, so just set a countdown timer if necessary.

There’s no option to set the power level for the mist in the Home app, so by default, when you turn the VH1 on in the app, it is always set to the highest level. However, the good news is that the power level can be set to any of the five levels as part of a scene or automation using 3rd party apps like the Eve for HomeKit app for example. As can be seen in the screenshots above, I’m able to create a scene that allows the target humidity and Spray Quantity to be set, as well as the Target Humidity level, whether the VH1 is active or not, in addition to the target state.

As for the mood light, this acts just as though it were a smart colour bulb, so you get all the same controls you would normally get for any smart bulb, which also includes colour temperature control and dimming capabilities. The mood light can also be used in automations, as you would any smart light.

Now, I’m not a massive fan of the Vocolinc app, but there is a new version due soon, that has had a major overhaul, so I may be convinced to use it more then. As is the case with many Vocolinc products, you get a little extra control in the Vocolinc app (formerly known as LinkWise). The VH1 will show up with one tile in the app, and when you long-press on it, you get access to additional controls and settings. The Overview tab allows for control of both the brightness and colour of the mood light on one side with a slider interface, with the strength of the mist controlled with another slider control that allows you to set the mist to any one of five levels, with an Off button below it. Beneath these is a timer slider. This is something you don’t get in the Home app, although this function is available in other 3rd party HomeKit apps. However, whilst these aspects are exposed, they are not presented in anything approaching a user-friendly way, so you may as well use the Vocolinc app in this instance.

Tapping on the colour icon below the brightness slider will open up the Moments tab to allow access to a colour wheel, as well as a colour temperature slider. You also get access to an effects section, which has three colour lighting options – Breath, Blink, and Flow. If you’ve had any other Vocolinc lighting products, you should be quite familiar with these options, but they essentially do with colour what their title suggests. You can also set your favourite colours and effects in the Favourites section.

In the third tab, labelled Schedules, you can preset times for the VH1 to come on an off on certain days of the week, and times of the day. The Schedule feature is fairly rudimentary, but it gets the job done without any fuss, if you want the VH1 to do its work, day in day out, at specific points in the day or week. The last page, Settings, allows access to the Vocolinc Cloud, which is required if you want to use the VH1 with Google Home or Amazon Alexa. Here you can also set the target humidity level, which in my opinion would probably be better in the Overview section, although it’s quite crowded already. You also get to see the current relative humidity, as well as turn on push notifications. These notifications are currently limited to letting you know when the VH1 runs out of water, although it will automatically turn off by itself when it does run out of water anyway, but it’s a good enough reminder to keep the VH1 topped up even when it’s not in use at the time.

FLOWERBUD VS. MISTFLOW

I’ve been asked about the differences between the new MistFlow and the Flowerbud a few times already, and so it should be addressed here. I see the two devices as different if similar products. Both acts as a diffuser, both have colour mood lights, and both are capable of humidifying – to an extent; Vocolinc state that the Flowerbud is first and foremost an ‘Aroma Diffuser’ which is how it has been marketed. by its very nature, if you don’t add any essential oils, then it does become a humidifier of sorts, but due to the small water reservoir (3ooml / 10.14fl oz), it’s not really capable of humidifying a room for too long, and even then, only generally a small room. This is where the MistFlow differs. The 2.5lt tank dwarfs the capabilities of the Flowerbud in respect of how long it can run for, and with a more powerful diffuser, it can outflank the Flowerbud in how well it can humidify a larger room. Of course, the MistFlow can also be a diffuser, but in my opinion, there’s room for both; You may want to just humidify a room with plain water on a daily basis during the winter, but you might not want the smell of Lavender, Tea Tree, or Eucalyptus filling the home twice a day, every day, I imagine. So from my perspective, they both have their roles to play. I’ve often found 30 minutes with the Flowerbud and a few drops of essential oil is more than enough to fill a room with a pleasant smell, but it won’t necessarily be enough to bring up the humidity levels, so it’s probably best to have that duty left to the VH1.

THE VH1 IN USE

I’ve stated I like the design and functions, but of course, it needs to do the job it’s tasked to do, otherwise what’s the point? First of all, is connectivity; I’ve had it connected to a network that’s already slightly bursting at the seams with a variety of devices, but in the few weeks I’ve had it plugged in, it hasn’t disconnected a single time. That’s not to say it deserves a medal for doing what it should be able to do at a minimum, but we’ve all experienced devices that seemingly disconnect for no apparent reason, so it should be at least noted in light of this. I also had it connected to a separate network that was around 10m / 33ft away, with a couple of doors and a wall to make it more difficult to connect to, and it had no issues at all.

when comparing its output with that of the Flowerbud, visually it became apparent that it’s a fair bit more powerful. I don’t have any specific equipment by which to measure the flow of the mist, so you can take my finding as anecdotal for now. The rated power of the VH1 is double that of the Flowerbud,(15W), so I guess this is of no surprise. As already stated, the power output for the Flowerbud is more than enough for aroma diffuser, but for humidifying a space except for the tiniest of box rooms, you’re probably going to need more power. Add this increased power to a much larger tank and you’re getting a lot more steam, with less need to refill.

One thing I did notice with regards to the humidity sensor when I first started using the VH1, is that it took some time to ‘settle’, by which I mean the humidity level was inaccurate when compared to other sensors I generally trusted to be fairly spot-on. Once I’d left it for a while (maybe 3o minutes), the humidity levels matched the other sensors and continued to match them within about a degree or so, from that point forward. If I moved the device to another room, which I’ve done a few times during my tests, I would notice the sensor took a bit of time to reach an accurate reading again, so this is something to be aware of, although, in normal circumstances, I’m guessing most people would keep these in one location most of the time. One other point to note is that the humidity sensor does take a little time to start showing the results of increased humidity, in part because the sensor is located inside the base of the unit, possibly near to the intake fan, and as such isn’t pulling in more humid air until the room starts to fill up. I would say the sensor being near to the intake fan isn’t the best place to put the sensor, but then I don’t know what’s involved in where these sensors should be placed, so I’ll defer to the company’s experience. I asked the company about this, and whether there was a way to increase or adjust the accuracy of the humidity sensor, and although their tests didn’t show the issue I’d noticed to much of an extent at all, I was told they would be issuing updates on a regular basis to tackle any potential issues. If you’ve owned any Vocolinc products in the past, you’ll more than likely notice that they push out small updates on a regular basis, which is comforting to note. One downside that has been noted by my colleague in a separate test is that in larger rooms, it can struggle to get to the higher target humidity levels, so as I mentioned before, the numbers mentioned on the front of the box may be a bit ambitious. That being said, according to The Mayo Clinic, the ideal humidity levels for the home should ideally be between 30-50%, so anything over this number isn’t necessary for most scenarios. I think that even though the VH1, including the ‘dumb’ equivalents of this, may show the option to get to 100% humidity, much like the speedometer on a car isn’t actually capable of reaching the maximum speed shown, humidifiers are unlikely to be able to reach 100% humidity levels. For example, I have a humidity sensor in our quite small shower room, but even then having a shower in such a confined space, the steam generated after 15 minutes or so, only manages around 85% humidity most of the time. All I can say is that there are a lot of factors that can affect the outcome of results, and for me, living in a country that is relatively humid for a lot of the year, while also cold at times, it produced some different results to my colleague’s tests on occasion, so as they say – “Your Mileage May Vary”.

I was recently asked if the VH1 makes much noise, and even though it’s rare for my home to have a truly quiet period of time, at the highest speed, you can hear a motorised bubbling sound, but no real high frequencies, at least none that I could detect. If you were to have this running whilst you slept, I can’t really see this keeping you awake, and I didn’t find it to be a problem at all, with the one night I tested it out, although I had it set to the lowest level in this case.

WRAPPING UP

I should state, that where I live there aren’t a lot of calls (or even much use) for humidifiers for a large portion of the year, as humidity is, as previously stated, relatively high, even in the winter. However, from December to late February, even Taiwan’s north can get dry enough to warrant a bit more humidity. I guess in this case, it’s going to be something akin to a Christmas tree, where it’s only required for a brief part of the winter period. I mention this, not because it’s not going to get much use, but I want to make you, the reader, aware that my tests were conducted when our home wasn’t in a situation to be deemed an ideal candidate for a humidifier, so you may find the VH1 of much greater use, and find more beneficial results than I would have found. Nevertheless, the results I did find, show that this is worthy enough of the term ‘humidifier’, and as already posited, this does set it apart from the Flowerbud, which really is a different device.

Would I recommend it? Yes, assuming you require a device like this, and want the ability to not only turn it on and off via automations, but also with your voice, or even as part of a scene. The mood light may be overlooked in some ways, but I think, for the price (€69.99 / US$69.99), you’re getting a double-duty product in some ways. The argument that you can use a dumb humidifier and a smart plug will raise it’s head no doubt, and if someone wants to do that, then it’s ok. It’s always good to have the choice, and whilst the simple scenario mentioned can work (assuming the device automatically turns on when powered), you aren’t going to get as much control as you would with the VH1, and for that reason, I’d still prefer one with full HomeKit ‘smarts’.

If there’s anything to be said that I’m not happy about, it would really only be the relative humidity sensor. It could be a lot more responsive, although once it’s had time to settle, I did found it more accurate than I’d expected, but less so when it’s initially put to work, as already outlined. Other than that, I’m really a fan of the design, the larger tank, the mood light, and the touch controls.

Now, if they could just make a HomeKit compatible dehumidifier, I’d have something for the other nine months of the year…

Full disclosure: Vocolinc provided HomeKit News with the MistFlow Smart Humidifier for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was made, requested or has not in any way influenced our opinion of this product.

The post Vocolinc VH1 MistFlow Smart Humidifier (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Choose from 16 million colours and apply your favourite light effects to create the perfect ambience to your daily routines, or relax on the couch, set it to purple, to enjoy ‘Movie Time’ with your loved ones.

Helps you keep the humidity in your room at optimal levels, which can make the air feel balanced and improve breathing and sleep, as well as nasal congestion & dry skin.

Improve the air you breathe instantly by adding a few drops of your favourite essential oil to the water tank. The MistFlow diffuses fragrances that eases your mind and soothes you.

Using the VOCOlinc app, you get even greater control over the MistFlow, with 5 levels of mist control, special colour effects for the Mood Light, and much more, including scheduling, countdown timer and remote access that allows you to control the MistFlow from anywhere in the world.

Features:

• Voice/phone control with Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant
• 2.5L water tank with an anti-bacterial layer, adds clean and cool moisture to dry air.
• Rainbow-spectrum mood light with customizable colours and light effects
• Can be used as part of a custom scene or automation including scheduled on/off times or days of the week
• Up to 30-hour runtime

Specifications:

• Water Tank Capacity: 2.5L
• Button Control: light and mist
• Applicable Area: up to 323 sq. ft.
• Mist Speed Level: 2-speed adjustable (physical), 5-speed adjustable (VOCOlinc app)
• Mood Light: RGB rainbow spectrum
• Wi-Fi 2.4GHz b/g/n IEEE802.11
• Certification: TUV (safety), CE, FCC, RoHS, Wi-Fi alliance

The post VOCOlinc VH1 MistFlow Smart Humidifier appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Today we’re looking at a bit of a ‘first’. The product I’m looking at today is the world’s first smart diffuser on the market that works with HomeKit, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. I know you probably don’t care too much for the last two systems, which his fine, as we’re all about HomeKit here, but I can tell you this is one unique device.

I won’t spend a lot of time on the box itself, as assuming you’ve read other reviews by me for other Vocolinc products, you’ll know they place a lot of emphasis on good, strong packaging, and this carton is easily very strong, providing more than enough protection for the Flowerbud diffuser itself. As the Flowerbud is quite a large device, this is a large box (obviously), so bear in mind the possibly higher delivery costs, should you not qualify for free shipping.

As already stated, there’s ample protection provided with the box, and inside, once opened, you’re presented with the manual, and some very strong material to protect the top of the Flowerbud. After this is removed, you get to see the device itself, which is placed inside an inner protective layer of card. There’s also the first of three HomeKit codes provided, with the first one on the inside of the box flap. Besides the Flowerbud, you’re provided with the aforementioned manual, which also contains the second of the three HomeKit Codes, a small customer service card, the power supply, and a small plastic measuring jug capable of holding 100ml of water.

Let’s start with explaining what exactly the Flowerbud is, and what it can do. If you know what an aroma diffuser is, then this is the ‘smart’ version of that, but if you’re not aware of diffusers at all, these types of devices basically ‘diffuse’ essential oils around your room, creating a pleasant smell, while some will also humidifying at the same time. The most basic type of diffuser is the candle-based heat diffuser which simply heats a small dish containing a mix of water and essential oil. The Flowerbud is different in that it diffuses the oil/water mix via an ultrasonic transducer, which doesn’t require the mixture to be heated, instead simply vaporising the mix, which is nearly instantaneous. Diffusers are also used in aromatherapy and other recreational ways.

So looking at this device, I can tell you that the ‘Flowerbud’, as it’s called, is larger than I expected, standing at 249mm high, and at it’s widest, 167mm. So, this isn’t something you would conveniently hide behind the sofa as such, and if you look at the design, it’s clearly meant to be seen! The design is based on a flower bud that is still waiting to ‘flower’, hence the name.

Taking a more detailed look at the Flowerbud, at the top we have an opening for the ‘mist’ to emanate and spread around the room. On the front of the device, on the base, we have two physical buttons for quick access to the two main functions of the device – the ‘mood light’ as it’s called, and the diffuser part, labelled here as ‘mist’.  As you can see by the images, this device already has one up on a basic diffuser, with its built-in LED light. Once added to HomeKit, this is labelled as ‘Mood Light’, but of course you can rename it as you see fit. The first lab-tested version of the Flowerbud I was provided with, appeared as ‘Flowerbud’ by default once added to the Home app. This second Flowerbud, came up as ‘Aroma Diffuser’ when I added it to HomeKit, but of course, you can name it anything you want.

The Flowerbud comes in two halves, with the base, containing the water reservoir that you add your mix of water and essential oil, and the top part that is mostly the funnel for which the diffused water/oil vapour is channelled. The whole unit isn’t overly heavy and the plastic used, while light, doesn’t feel in any way cheap. Overall, including the power supply, the weight comes to 578g/1.27lb. The outside has a slightly textured feel which allows for it to largely remain fingerprint resistant. On the underside of the base of the unit, you have the an instance of the newer style QR-based HomeKit Code, an air intake that allows the diffused mixture to be pushed up, a simple cannon style DC socket and a small drainage outlet, in case the device is overfilled.

The reservoir holds 300ml/10fl oz of liquid, and to make sure you don’t exceed this, there is a water level on the inside of the base with the words ‘MAX’ to indicate the maximum water level. on the floor of the reservoir, you have the atomiser itself that does all the work of creating the mist, along with a water level detection sensor and an air outlet (not pictured). The Flowerbud also comes with a measuring cup, that can accommodate 100ml at a time. The Flowerbud has a maximum recommended continuous running time of 8 hours, although from testing this device for the last two weeks at various times and lengths, I’ve found that in our living room, running for one hour is usually more than enough to make the place smell nice. This brings me to another point; I did post a picture of the Flowerbud on a few forums to get some quick feedback, and one complaint I heard a couple of times was that these diffusers have to be refilled very often, in fact someone claimed they need filling every half hour or so. I can categorically say this is nonsense, at least in the case of the Flowerbud. I filled it to the maximum level, and had the diffuser running for an hour at a time, at various times for each day and I only decided to refill it after 5 days, not because I needed to, but because I had to do some photography for this article, which meant I had to empty the water that was still in there. Of course, it all depends on how often you use it, and for how long, but it certainly lasted for me, and refilling was achieved without any fuss whatsoever, so the negative points I heard just aren’t valid enough excuses to me and don’t really stand up to scrutiny for average use.

As already mentioned, the base part of the device has two physical buttons, one for the ‘mood light’ and the other for mist. Pressing the ‘light’ switch merely turns the light on and off. If you perform a ‘long press’ on this button, you can cycle through a few basic colours – just press and hold the button, then release once you hear a beep, and the mood light will change colour. The mist button offers a little more functionality, so when pressing it, you cycle through three states; one is for low level diffusion, then another press will give you a higher level of diffusion, with a third press turning the diffusion off. According to the sticker that comes placed around the buttons, a long press on this button will cycle through preset times for the diffuser to be on, with 2hrs, 4hrs and 6hrs. Whenever you press either button, the Flowerbud emits a short ‘beep’ to let you know your press was registered. If you ever need to reset the device, holding down both switches together will eventually reset the device to factory settings. We’ve talked about the use of essential oils being used with this device, but it’s important to note that you should use 100% natural water-soluble essential oils ONLY. Other oils that contain chemical ingredients, flavours or impurities may cause damage to the device.

You can see that the device contains coloured LEDs, which really makes this device an eye-catcher in the evening, and I would say a good conversation starter when having guests, with it’s unique shape. The shape is the kind of thing that some people will love or hate, and to me that’s a good thing. If someone has no opinion at all, then it’s not getting noticed. In a dimly-lit or darkened room, the light is more than adequate to earn its title as a mood light, but you wouldn’t really be able to use it as a fully-fledged light like the Hue Go. It’s bright enough as a night light though, and the brightness, as well as the colour, can all be adjusted in the Home app as well as Vocolinc’s own LinkWise app. In the manual, the mood light is described as a ‘Rainbow Spectrum Mood Light’, but it’s actually capable of the standard 16 million colours.

Onto what you can do in the Home and Linkwise apps; In the Home app, you get two tiles, one for the ‘mood light’ and one for the Flowerbud/diffuser. The mood light is simply like any other colour light you find in HomeKit, with the ability to change the hue and brightness of the light, so nothing out of the ordinary in this respect. The other tile shows a symbol to represent a humidifier, which the Flowerbud is too essentially.

If you go into the settings for the Flowerbud you have two separate panels to choose from initially, one of which is a slider to set the desired humidity, and another to turn the humidifier part of the Flowerbud on or off. The main settings panel just shows you the current humidity in the room you have it located in, which means it has a rudimentary humidity sensor of sorts. Aside from that there are no other specific settings for the device itself. When you set the diffuser to on, you set the level of humidity you want, and it will rise to that level and then stop. As it makes its way to the desired humidity level, it will show ‘Rising to 86%’ for example and on reaching that level, it will change to ‘Set to 86%’ on the tile.

In the LinkWise app, by Vocolinc, you have a few more available options. You have five levels of output for the humidifier/diffuser part, including off. from the same page, you can set a timer for how long the device stays on for, from 30 minutes up to 8 hours. Like the Home app, you can adjust the colour and brightness of the mood light on this page. You can set timers for when the Flowerbud turns on or off, but of course you can also do this in the Home app, but the other thing that you can do with the mood light has to do with certain light effects that work across all Vocolinc colour lighting products.

So, you have the colour picker as standard, but you also get three special lighting effects – Breathing, Flashing and Smoothing. Breathing goes from one colour to the next, but dips to off before going into the next colour. Flashing is the same, but there’s no fade out, just one colour to the next. Smoothing is the same as breathing, but there’s no dip in brightness to off, so the colours transition from each other smoothly. Now, I wouldn’t normally go for any of these effects, certainly not light bulbs for example, but I do use the ‘breathing’ effect on my Vocolinc light strip, which is situated underneath a TV cabinet, and as it’s closer to the ground, it’s more subtle. With the Flowerbud, its just as good, as it adds to the ambience with a light that isn’t too bright, and sort of goes along with the diffuser part of things. Perfect for meditation I’m guessing, although you’d not catch me doing yoga! All three of these effects can be customised, from how slow the transitions are, to the overall brightness, along with choosing which colours you’d like to include in the transitions, so if you only want to go from green to blue and back again, you can do this. Using the Linkwise app for the Flowerbud is one of the rare occasions where I prefer it, as the settings are more comprehensive. Whether this is a limitation of the HomeKit framework I’m not sure, but at least you can still do the basics with the Home app, regardless.

The unit is powered by a simple adaptor and is designed to work in both 110-120v and 220-240v countries, so if you buy this in the UK or EU you’ll get this with the appropriate power supply, not the one pictured above, which is suitable for North America, Canada, Taiwan, The Philippines and Japan.

So, after all this lengthy explanation of what is does, what’s my verdict? Well, I’d be lying if I said I’d always wanted a Smart diffuser. When I lived in the UK, I bought a bread machine, and soon after the novelty of making my own bread wore off, I stopped using it, and I imagined this would be the case with the diffuser, but actually, the opposite was true. I found that I wanted to make the place smell nice (we’ve got two beagles who do their best to make the house smell less than fresh…), and I wanted to create a nice ambience. I think if it wasn’t for the design, which personally I love, and the additional mood light, maybe I wouldn’t use it, but the great thing is that as it’s smart, unlike the bread machine I had, I don’t have to think about it too much or really do anything beyond making sure it’s topped up with water. I can create timers so that it comes on for an hour each morning, so we wake up with a nicely fresh smelling living room, and I can automate it so that if the humidity gets too low (not often in Taiwan), then it will kick in until the desired humidity is reached. All of these things set it apart from other things that become a quickly forgotten novelty.

It’s worth looking at the design too though, and as I mentioned before, this is the kind of thing that some people will love and some will hate. I like it and it sort of makes me think of this as the successor to the legendary Lava Lamps of the 60s and 70s. It has a sort of retro, curvy design that may not work for every scenario, but the fact that it can change colour – or even be turned off if you wish – makes it quite amenable to a lot of situations. In terms of the colour aspect, I love that Vocolinc have decided to not restrict the light to just the upper section, so you get a thin line of colour around the middle as well as highlighting the two buttons at the front. When I first got this delivered I liked it immediately, as I could feel that it took guts to go for not only a unique design, but also a niche product. Honest opinion – buy it – if you want something a bit different from the run-of-the-mill smart stuff, this is top of the list in my view.

Full disclosure: Vocolinc provided HomeKit News with the Vocolinc Flowerbud Smart Diffuser for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was made or requested.

The post Vocolinc ‘Flowerbud’ Smart Diffuser (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

It is the world’s first diffuser that simultaneously works with Apple Homekit, Alexa, and the Google Assistant. It features a rainbow spectrum mood light that allows you to choose the right color to best fit your mood, atmosphere or activity. You can set schedules to turn it on/off just the way you want it.

Use it to improve your health and sleep by getting better air and atmosphere quality. Its large capacity is ideal for small rooms and offices, and very easy to clean.

Dimensions – 167mm ~ 249mm

Weight – 578g (with adaptor)

Input – AC 100-240V 50/60Hz

Output – DC 24V 0.6A

Rated Power – 15W Max

Water Tank Capacity – 300ml

Button Control – Light & Mist

Wireless Network – Wi-Fi 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g/n

Applicable Area – Best up to 400 sq.ft.

Mist Speed Level – 5 speed adjustable (LinkWise app) | 2 – speed adjustable (physical)

Mood Light – RGB Rainbow Spectrum

Firmware update – OTA (LinkWise app)

The post Vocolinc Flowerbud Smart Aroma Diffuser appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

H1 reaches a new level of innovation and precision. The thoughtful integration of the patented pour over technology provides two very important but useful features; creating an air tight seal in the water tank and enabling you to easily replenish the water in the tank when it becomes empty.

There has never been a humidifier this simple to clean or fill. Full access to the water tank allows you to wipe down the inside like never before.

Filling the tank is no longer a task that requires you to maneuver under a faucet because of the large opening that becomes available by removing the lid completely.

The integrated water level sensor monitors the water in the tank and processes that information through an algorithm. This information is then sent into the cloud and published on the physical UI on the humidifier and the included app. WATER FRESHNESS, WATER LEVELS and TIME TO EMPTY are a few of the water attributes that you can monitor.

Transform your home into your personal aromatherapy oasis. H1 is a unique, stylish way to bring the benefits of essential oils into your home. H1 can infuse essential oils into any setting and create a spa-like experience throughout your home.

The post Habitat H1 Smart Humidifer appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.