Anyone thinking Home Depot’s 2021 foray into the smart home was just an experiment should give up that notion now. The big box store operator already offers more than 150 products in its Hubspace line, and today it announced the first third-party product to join that ecosystem: The Smart Glass Door by Feather River Doors.
Several other products were also discussed during an online briefing yesterday.
Feather River Doors Smart Glass Door
Despite its name, the Feature River Doors product is not a sliding glass door; rather, it’s a pre-hung, paintable, fiberglass entry door that’s available with three sizes of inset window. There are full-lite, half-lite, and 3/4-lite SKUs, with prices starting at $798. The full-lite costs $998.
What makes the door smart? First, the window inside the door can be electronically rendered opaque (well, frosted is more like it) for privacy and clear when you want to be able to see through it. This can be accomplished by pushing a button on the door itself, with an Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant voice command, or with the Hubspace app.
Feather River Doors offers its prehung fiberglass Smart Glass Door in half-lite, 3/4-lite, and as shown here, full-lite versions.
Home Depot
There’s a Wi-Fi adapter onboard, along with a Bluetooth-to-Wi-Fi bridge to support one of Home Depot’s Bluetooth smart locks. The electronics are powered by a removable battery, and the door comes with a spare battery and a charging dock. You can also charge the battery inside the door by plugging a USB cable into a socket on the hinge side of the door (so it can be opened and closed without removing the cable).
Being a pre-hung door, it comes complete with a frame, threshold, and weatherstripping for direct replacement of an existing entry door, and it’s pre-bored for a deadbolt and handle set (these components are not included, but you should be able to bring them over from your old door).
Given the prices, the Feather Rivers Doors product should encounter less resistance from consumers than the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink M-Pwr smart door that Masonite brought to market (and that Home Depot offered for a time). That product–which included a Yale smart lock, a Ring video doorbell, and integrated lighting, but cost a whopping $6,500–has since been discontinued.
Hampton Bay Permanent Mount String Lights
The power supply for Home Depot’s Hampton Bay Permanent Mount String Lights can support up to 100 feet of lights. They’re available in 50-foot lengths with 50-foot extension kits that don’t include the power supply.
Home Depot
Installing permanent exterior holiday lights on homes is rapidly gaining popularity, and we’ve already reviewed systems from Enbrighten and Govee. Home Depot’s offering is very similar but looks to be considerably less expensive at $99 for a 50-foot string. But before you get too excited, know that the maximum supported run is just 100 feet (with a 50-foot extension set that Home Depot hasn’t released pricing for).
The Hubspace string lights do feature RGB, white, and warm-white LEDs, and the company says the lights can produce white light with up to 50 lumens of brightness.
Defiant Smart Home Alarm Kit
Home Depot has expanded its Defiant line of home security products with a new DIY wireless alarm system, powered by Hubspace. A $99, 5-piece starter kit includes a base station with a battery backup, a keypad for arming and disarming the system, a motion sensor, and two door/window sensors.
It’s unlikely that Ring and similar competitors will see Home Depot’s entry in the smart home alarm market as a threat, since this package doesn’t support security cameras or anything else beyond motion and contact sensors. There is also no professional monitoring option.
Home Depot
In an interesting twist, the door/window sensors are equipped with buttons that, when pressed, allow you to open a door or window without triggering the 80dB alarm. After a preset countdown (between 10 seconds and 5 minutes) to allow you time to come back through the door if you need to, the system will automatically re-arm.
The security system offers both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, and it can be expanded with up to 32 additional motion and door/window sensors, but it is entirely self-monitored with no professional monitoring service available—even as an option.
Vissani Smart Chest Freezer
The Vissani 8-cu-ft Smart Chest Freezer can also operate as a refrigerator. It connects to your Wi-Fi network either way.
Home Depot
A smart freezer isn’t as silly as it might sound. Given that a freezer is typically stashed in a garage or basement, where it might not be seen or accessed for days at a time, being connected to your home Wi-Fi network makes a lot of sense. As part of the Hubspace ecosystem, you’ll get an alert if the freezer drops offline for more than 30 minutes, and that could save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in spoiled groceries.
What’s more, the Vissani Smart Chest Freezer can be switched between freezer and refrigerator modes using the Hubspace app, which can also put the freezer into a “fast freeze” mode among other settings. The 8-cubic-foot chest freezer is priced at $299 for a limited time.
Availability
The Defiant Smart Home Alarm system and the Vissani Smart Chest Freezer are available now. The Smart Glass Door will be available online at Home Depot starting September 30, and the Hampton Bay Permanent String Lights will be available online and in stores later this year.
Author: Michael Brown, Executive Editor, TechHive
Michael is TechHive's lead editor, with 30+ years of experience covering smart homes, home networking, and home audio/home theater. He holds a BA in Multimedia Journalism, authored the book Desktop Video Production, and was awarded Best Online Review by the Computer Press Association. Michael built a smart home in 2007 and used it as a real-world product-testing lab. Now living in the Pacific Northwest, he is converting his 1890 Victorian bungalow into a modern smart home. Michael has worked at CNET, PCWorld, Electronic Musician, and Maximum PC. As a freelancer, he contributed to New Media, Camcorder, MacWeek, and more.