Iris Smart Home Smart Kit Review

Our Verdict

The Iris Smart Domicile Kit is like shooting fish in a barrel to gear up and comes with good hardware, but you'll need to pay $10 monthly to go the most out of it.

For

Quick and easy setup
Basic warning messaging
Extra-loud alarm
Simple rule-based automation

Against

$ten monthly required to brand arrangement worth $300
Chaotic dashboard
Needs power-user manner for dominion-making

Tom's Guide Verdict

The Iris Smart Home Kit is easy to set up and comes with skillful hardware, but you lot'll need to pay $x monthly to become the most out of it.

Pros

+
Quick and like shooting fish in a barrel setup
+
Basic alert messaging
+
Actress-loud alarm
+
Simple dominion-based automation

Cons

-
$10 monthly required to brand organization worth $300
-
Cluttered dashboard
-
Needs power-user fashion for rule-making

Rather than tearing up your walls and utility rooms to install a super-expensive home automation system, today's smart dwelling house kits let you lot incorporate devices that tin can sense variables and control appliances right on pinnacle of your existing electrical architecture. They aren't (that) cheap, merely they're a lot cheaper than, say, trying to replicate Bill Gates' connected dwelling house.

The biggest issue with smart home systems — especially Lowe's Iris Smart Dwelling Smart Kit —is that they brand you lot just want to become out and purchase all the other fun little accessories that tin transform your seemingly normal house or apartment into a kind of Fort Knox. At least, that's how I felt once I finally had all of this $299 kit'due south dissimilar components set up and working in my 2,700+ foursquare-foot house. I liked Lowe'south overall approach, but I worry that it's a bit too expensive unless y'all're willing to pay even more money each month to unlock its fundamental features.

What'south Included

The Smart Home Smart kit is one of three "starter packages" Lowe'due south offers in its Iris home automation line. At $300, it's the nearly expensive considering it comes with the nigh stuff: A smart hub that serves as the brains for your entire setup, a smart thermostat, a smart plug for controlling a device (such equally a lamp) y'all'd unremarkably plug into the wall, a range extender, a motion sensor, 2 contact sensors and a wall-mountable keypad.

The bundle combines parts of Lowe's Iris Safety and Secure Kit ($179) — featuring the keypad, motility sensor and contact sensors — with its Iris Condolement and Control Kit ($179), which just has the smart thermostat and the smart plug. Y'all get a trivial flake of a bargain if y'all buy the total parcel instead of buying the ii kits separately, simply you can also buy individual components if y'all want to try to piece together your ain setup.

You can opt for the basic Iris functionality for free once yous've ready your little automatic home up, which gives you standard device controls and the power to receive email, text or vox call alerts if your Iris alert goes off. More than on that later on.

Premium Service

When you buy the kit, you also become ii free months of the service'south Premium offer, which lets you lot live-stream video (if you buy a divide $129 or $148 Iris video camera), and offers voice control of your abode setup via Iris' mobile app, and the Iris Magic system for configuring IFTTT-like rules for your devices.

Iris Magic allows y'all to selection and customize a number of pre-established "if/and then" kinds of rules for your devices. For example, y'all can set your smart plug to turn on and off for a period of fourth dimension (or indefinitely) if a motility detector detects move. Some of these rules are more than circuitous than others; some even let you to trigger your system'southward alarm functionality (or blast a warning message out your way) if, say, a contact sensor indicates that your bedroom window but opened.

More than: Best Smart Home Gadgets

The Premium service as well lets you gear up up universal rules for all of your devices based on different modes, like "night" or "vacation." You also go admission to the "care" improver service, which lets yous fix up alerts based on the daily life patterns of those in your house (like, say, if the front door hasn't opened within xxx minutes of your kid'southward schoolhouse letting out).

Unfortunately, these useful features will set you back $x per month once your trial runs out, plus an additional $5 if yous also want the aforementioned intendance features as well. That'due south a bit irritating, as much of the kit's key functionality is basically locked behind this paywall.

Our free trial of an Iris premium business relationship gained us access to the system'south fancy rules and triggers, which are fairly comprehensive. I'd really adopt complete control, though — a unproblematic interface that allows united states to select a device (if [device]), select an action ([does something]), a triggered device (then [device]), and a trigger action ([does something]). Iris' pre-populated rules are fine, but I want more specificity, including the ability to limit all rules by time or condition. That'southward a "smart" home, correct?

Setup

I didn't experience whatsoever huge issues setting upwards the Iris smart hub, but it wasn't flawless. The hub — measuring 3.five-by-9.6-past-6.7 inches — requires a broadband or DSL connection and a nearby power outlet. You'll need an extra Ethernet port handy on your router, every bit the Iris hub, unlike the Quirky Wink hub, can't connect to your home network wirelessly. The software installation is a smidge intensive, in that you lot'll take to create a new Iris account (including email address and phone number) and associate your specific device to said account via a six-digit ID code printed on its bottom. This association process didn't work the first time I tried setting up the hub, but it did work the 2nd time.

Ane minor aggravation, which persists throughout the app, is that Iris never gives a user any progress bars or a sense of estimated time remaining in a process. For case, the hub indicated that information technology would have a "few minutes" to set up, merely it was hard to tell whether the device was actually doing anything or, in the instance of the first time I sabbatum through the "preparing" window, isn't connecting up at all.

The Iris service requires you lot to submit a credit bill of fare in club to finish setting upwards your smart home. You go two months' gratis premium service, but you notwithstanding take to give a card if y'all're only intending to employ the basic service — a bit of an badgerer.

It's easy to connect all the devices in the Smart Dwelling Smart Kit; yous can also but connect upwards one or ii and deal with the residue later as you lot plot out where they might go in your firm or flat.

Motility Sensors

The contact and motion sensors Iris packs into its Smart Home Smart Kit are uncomplicated and graceful. They're a little fussy when yous're installing their batteries, but you'll go the hang of it. In one case powered up, one-half of the contact sensors — a fatter two.v x 0.75 x 0.75-inch sensor — pairs with a super-thin counterpart of similar length.

Iris provides 2 little dots on each sensor; your job is to place the sensors on a door or a window (to use two examples) so that the dots kiss when the item is closed. When it opens, and the 2 sensors are split, Iris registers the activity. The motion sensor is a simple, 2-inch-wide square that does just what its name implies.

The just existent benefit to said sensors — for non-premium users — is that they tin exist used to trip your Iris alarm. Doing so lets loose quite a wail from your accompanying keypad and smart hub, and y'all're also alerted to the alarm via text, telephone or email. You tin as well take your smart hub blast a little noise if your contact sensors or motion detectors are triggered, just that's well-nigh information technology.

I like that the sensors come up with built-in temperature monitors. Yous can use i to flip your thermostat on and off, though doing and then will prevent the thermostat from using its own internal thermometer to gauge whether it needs to turn on or non. Oddly, the thermostat works with only one temperature sensor at a time.

Premium subscribers tin can employ the sensors to receive alerts (if the room is as well hot) or to flip on nearby cooling (perchance a behemothic box fan) that's connected to a Smart Plug. The plug tin runway the amount of energy continued devices use, and information technology can display your power draw in a graph across a prepare time period (and estimate how much said device costs you to run).

Smart Thermostat

The smart thermostat isn't as pretty to look at as, say, a Nest, merely information technology does a decent task with all the nuts of heating and cooling. Information technology's definitely fun to exist able to arrange your house temperature from a Web interface —or, if y'all're a premium user, past barking a command into the mobile app. Installing the thermostat itself was as easy as a thermostat installation can be. I didn't have whatsoever issues accessing the wire terminals.

Keypad

Iris' keypad is bulky equally heck and but runs on six AA batteries — in that location'due south no manner to connect it to your house's electric organisation. When the batteries get out, in that location goes your house'south loudest alert (unless you purchase a supplemental, louder, Iris-friendly alarm for your system).

The keypad can double as a speaker for events, emitting a fleck of a racket if someone trips your home alarm by breaking a contact sensor or moving past a motion sensor when the system is armed. Thankfully, y'all tin can have this chinkle come out of your smart hub or your keypad, though there's no choice to control its volume within whatsoever of Iris' configuration screens.

Interface

The Web-based Iris dashboard is the heart and soul of its smart home setup. The dashboard is quite comprehensive with all the different statuses and meters it displays — nearly besides comprehensive. Y'all even see grayed-out boxes for smart home devices yous don't actually own, a kind of taunting to encourage y'all to become out and purchase more pet trackers, power meters and video cameras.

Iris' devices department is where you tin cheque the status of annihilation paired to the smart hub —specifically, the signal quality of its Wi-Fi or Z-Moving ridge connectedness, and its current battery life. It's also where you update each device's firmware, which, again, is a procedure that sends you off into "trust us, it's updating" land. The range extender failed its showtime firmware update, wasting 10 minutes of time that a simple progress bar would have been able to ameliorate.

I plant the Web-based Iris screens a wee sluggish to navigate, and wished that the dashboard worked in real fourth dimension. It would be great to be able to see that someone or something tripped a motion sensor instead of having to refresh the folio yourself to discover the activity, for example. (Though, admittedly, Iris tin can send Premium users a message when sensors are triggered.)

While Iris will accident up your phone (and inbox) if someone walks past a motion detector when your warning is on, I'd prefer to accept the ability to see that something is on the move without having the business firm sound similar a scene from a James Bond pic all the time. Or, for that matter, without having to pay actress for the aforementioned Premium service. Additionally, it'south a bit annoying that viewing your smart dwelling's full history of triggers and alarms requires you to pony upwardly for the service's premium offering.

Mobile App

Iris' iOS and Android apps tie in decently to its core service, just you're not going to get a picture-perfect replica of its Web dashboard. The app grants yous access to near of your system'southward core functionality. In the case of the Smart Domicile Smart Kit, that includes existence able to set your alarm on, off or to partial style via your smartphone; flipping devices connected to your Smart Plug on and off (past killing ability to the plug itself, I should clarify); and turning your thermostat on and off (setting the parameters of what temperatures it should first heating or cooling at).

Our detail Smart Home Smart Kit didn't come with any Iris-friendly video cameras — and no other kits do. If you lot pick up supplemental camera or two (the cheapest starts at $129), you lot'll be able to use the Iris app to view your cameras' feeds in real time.

What'southward missing? You tin can't adjust your thermostat's schedule via the mobile app, which is something of a letdown. There'southward no existent mode to alter annihilation regarding the contact or motion sensors, nor can you tweak whatsoever of the Magic rules, should you be sporting that costly premium subscription. Y'all likewise can't access the app's vocalisation-activated commands unless yous have a premium subscription.

Ecosystem

At the fourth dimension of this review, Iris' online store had a full of 53 compatible devices. Some of those include the platform'south kits, but a majority are all the fun gadgets that you lot can apply to plough your home into a safehouse: dark vision cameras, electronic door locks, super-loud sirens and fifty-fifty outdoor irrigation timers. You'll find a flake more diversity in competing platforms, such as Staples' Connect dwelling automation system or the Quirky Wink platform, which supports both Nest and Dropcam.

My communication? Check out the accessories before you dive into the kit, and don't be afraid to research competing smart home platforms to see if they offer better supplemental gear.

Bottom line

If you actually have no idea what you're doing with this new-fangled concept of a smart home, then Lowe's Iris Smart Habitation Showtime Kit is a fairly newbie-friendly manner to become about getting your feet wet. Nevertheless, to really unlock its key strengths, you're going to have to pony up for the $x monthly subscription. And that's a bummer when competing services similar Quirky's Flash toll aught and requite you access to features that match some of Iris' premium offerings.

I like Iris' Web-based dashboard, which feels more comprehensive (and is quicker to integrate Iris devices with) than Wink's app-centric setup. However, Wink feels similar a more open up platform, and I like the choice of Wink-compatible devices a lot more. Information technology also doesn't cost annihilation to try; to give Lowe'southward platform a spin, you accept to plunk down $100 for a smart hub at the very least. I know which of these platforms I'd try starting time, that's for sure.

Follow David Murphy @thedavidmurphy and on Facebook . Follow us @TomsGuide , on Facebook and on Google+ .

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