Tag: household

The Best Automatic Cat Feeders for When You’re Away

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The One RFID Smart Feeder from Petlibro shows just how far automatic cat-feeding technology has come. For this feeder, the pet wears a collar with a tag in which the feeder’s lid opens only with that tag. There’s a cover that retracts automatically when the pet with the collar approaches the stainless steel food bowl (which is removable for washing and is dishwasher safe). The sensor in the pad in front will be activated, and the cover will retract over the kibble when the cat leaves, ensuring that only the chosen pet with the collar can access the food.

The 3-liter feeder relies on the Petlibro app, which allows the owner to create up to 10 feeding schedules whose amounts can be modified anytime, including on-demand feeding. Like our other automatic Petlibro feeder picks, the app collects the data and tracks trends in your pet’s consumption, and owners control everything from the app. The automatic lid is customizable too, as you can switch on the app to leave the lid in “open mode” or adjust how long the lid stays open after your pet walks away from it.

Overall, I think this is a nearly perfect device for a particular kind of pet owner. I think it works best for a cat in a dog home where the owner doesn’t want the dog getting into the cat’s food, if each pet in the home has a One RFID feeder, if one particular cat has special dietary needs, or if you have a multi-cat home with an aggressive eater. In these cases, I truly think this product would be a life-changer. (If you get a One RFID for each pet, it’s recommended that you space them at least 10 inches apart to avoid any interference.)

One of my only complaints with the device is that the lid doesn’t get super flush to the wall when retracted, and my cat won’t eat the food that is near the back of the bowl. The QR code tag comes on a super-flimsy collar that kept loosening, but there is the option to detach it and put it on your pet’s own collar, which I did, and it worked great after. Although the One RFID isn’t right for my cats, I would recommend it to anyone who has pets with differing food needs.

Can be used with cats or very small dogs.

Compatible food types Dry only

App Yes

Power source Power cord, three backup D batteries

Capacity 13 cups

Warranty Two years

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Molly Higgins

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October 5, 2024
The Best Food Dehydrators to Level Up Your Snack Game

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All dehydrators were tested with the same ingredients with similar results in drying times, mouthfeel, and taste. And all but the Sahara required at least 30 minutes of “smoke out” prior to the first use to rid the dehydrator of factory fumes. The manufacturer manuals suggested doing this in a well-ventilated space. I ended up using my deck for several of the models, as I didn’t want those fumes in the house.

I was most excited to make beef jerky in the dehydrators, but be aware that USDA safe food handling rules include cooking the meat to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit before dehydrating, a process to avoid foodborne illness. I used this method for my first foray into making beef jerky. And it’s that extra safety step that produced a less-than-appealing mouthfeel. While I’m not advocating that anyone skip that initial cooking step, this recipe from Brod & Taylor does the cooking in the brand’s dehydrators at 165 degrees Fahrenheit; most recipes I’ve looked at online or in the vast world of dehydrator TikTok skip the precooking step. The best beef jerky hack I learned was from a creator who bought presliced meat meant for Korean barbecue and dry-cured it with a rub. The very online world of dehydrator cooking has endless recipes and tips.

Manage your expectations: Consumer dehydrators cannot always produce the results achieved by commercial freeze-drying. Some of the end products of dehydrator “cooking” surprised me. Some fruits and veggies stayed pliable, while others were brittle, with a satisfying crunch. There is a bit of trial and error with slice size and timing. Each time I use the dehydrator, I get better at prep and timing.

Lastly, as you enter the crisp world of dehydration, know that ambient humidity and the amount of water in your food will impact drying times. In other words, what took eight hours in August in Maine might take less time in Brooklyn in September.

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Lisa Wood Shapiro

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October 2, 2024
The Best Dehumidifiers

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The first thing to think about is how you’re going to drain the water from the dehumidifier. In the basement, the best thing you can do is to use the dehumidifier’s continuous water drain tube to either the sump pump or a drain. If those options are not available, you might be emptying the tank multiple times a day. The first time I put a dehumidifier in the basement, the tank was filled in three hours’ time. It’s all about the drainage. Also, knowing how to read a label. If a dehumidifier is listed as “50 pints,” that means the appliance can remove 50 pints of water from the air in a 24-hour period; it’s not the internal tank capacity. Also, look for the maximum area coverage. For example, the Honeywell Smart 50 pint can remove 50 pints of water from a 4,000-square-foot area in 24 hours.

If you, like me, also need a dehumidifier in your city apartment, then consider buying one that’s easy to move around with wheels and a handle. Some of these machines are heavy. Also, a small dehumidifier in the bathroom is a good idea to keep the dampness at bay, especially if you have mold growing on your grout.

Lastly, do not drink the water collected in your dehumidifier tank. That water is not potable. Pour it down the drain. A dehumidifier is not creating distilled water; that’s a different process and appliance.

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Lisa Wood Shapiro

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October 1, 2024
Want to Buy a Smart Glass Door? It Just Got a Little Bit Cheaper

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Smart home gadgets have no limits these days. You can control everything from a garage door to every single light bulb in your house … if you have enough gusto to replace them all. Front doors have had smart accessories added to them over the years—smart door locks, video doorbells, sensors to tell you whether the door is shut—so why not make the door itself smart?

At least, smart in a certain aspect. Home Depot’s newest smart door, made by Feather River and powered by Home Depot’s smart-home Hubspace platform, incorporates a smart glass window, and starting today you can purchase it on Home Depot’s website. It’ll require either a USB-C power connection or using the included battery to power that smart window.

It’s not the company’s first foray into smart doors, though it’s the most affordable option, with a price that ranges from $798 to $998 depending on the window size. That’s still not cheap, but it isn’t a terrible price for a front door with a large window, let alone a window you can control.

For Opacity’s Sake

Photograph: Home Depot

The Smart Glass door has one main trick: You’re able to control the door like you would a light, tapping to toggle on and off the opacity rather than a bright bulb. You can control it through Home Depot’s Hubspace app, or connect your Hubspace app to a voice assistant to control it with voice commands to a Amazon Alexa or Google Nest speaker. The window can either be a clear window allowing for light and a view into the great outdoors, or frosted over for privacy. No more choosing only one style of window for your door: Now you can have both.

Hubspace is Home Depot’s in-house smart-home ecosystem. It works similarly to any other smart-home app, with options to control your Hubspace devices and create schedules and routine options. While Hubspace is a lesser-known name and a little newer to the space after launching in 2021, everything I’ve tested from it has worked well. It also plays nice with the two most popular voice assistants, so it’s pretty painless to add to your home.

With the Smart Glass door’s paintable fiberglass construction, composite window, and decorative panels at the bottom, the Smart Glass door has a nice, contemporary look. It offers four window size options, letting the smart glass fill up most, half, or just the top quarter of the door’s center. The door with the small, Craftsman-style window is the least expensive at $798, while the three-quarter window and full-size window both retail for $998.

The Smart Glass door does solve a privacy issue homeowners might face: Does one really want to have a massive window in their front door? There’s absolutely an aesthetic appeal, but without other security measures, a true clear window might not always feel safe. It’s certainly nice to have if you want more light in your front room, and you might want a view of your yard or to give your pet a clear view of the mail carrier. It’s equally nice to have privacy from potential home invaders and door-to-door salespeople who don’t need to know you work from home. The Smart Glass door lets you have both of these things without sacrificing the other.

Battery Without Brains

Photograph: Home Depot

The Smart Glass door can work on both battery and USB-C if you’ve got a nearby outlet on the hinge side of the door; the battery is expected to last around two months depending on usage. If your Wi-Fi goes down, you can connect to the door via Bluetooth to continue being able to control it. If the door loses power, it’ll automatically switch the window to opaque mode, giving your home privacy while you wait for power to come back on or for the battery to charge.

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Nena Farrell

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September 30, 2024
iFixit’s Portable Soldering Iron Deserves a Space on Your Work Bench

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The right-to-repair movement has a catchy name, but before you can worry about the right to repair, you need the ability to repair. If you don’t know how to take your device apart, there’s no sense worrying about whether it’s legal to do so. Without basic repair skills and a helping of innate curiosity, the right to repair is useless.

This is where iFixit’s new Hub Soldering Iron enters the fray. iFixit, a longtime supporter of the right to repair, has thousands of tutorials online to help you actually repair things. Now the company has made a soldering iron to help you roll up your sleeves and get into the physical world of repair.

The Right to Solder

I grew up around soldering. My father built his own tube-powered ham radio gear, but for whatever reason I never actually did any soldering until rather late in my repair life. An electrician friend of mine was appalled that I didn’t solder on a regular basis and gifted me a bare-bones soldering iron, which was all I had for an embarrassingly long time. Later I bought a Pinecil, mostly for the small, portable form factor, but that cheapo soldering iron was all I had for years.

While a cheap soldering iron is better than no soldering iron, I’ve come to think the reason many people are intimidated by soldering, or have problems when they first try it, is due to cheap soldering pens. Cheap tools are the source of many a problem, but with soldering irons the big one is that they don’t get hot enough, which makes the solder stick to the tip rather than flowing nicely where you want it. Cheap irons also lack interchangeable tips, which make soldering easier by fitting exactly where you want them to go.

iFixit, which made its name in the repair world creating guides, tutorials, and more all designed to help consumers be more than consumers, has launched a new store called the Fix Hub. The first product is a portable USB-C soldering iron.

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

iFixit’s new soldering iron is actually several products. The core is the Smart Soldering Iron for $80. It’s powered by USB-C and comes with a beveled, 1.5-mm tip. (There are six tips available, and iFixit plans to have more.) Then there’s the Portable Soldering Station for $250, which includes the iron and a battery pack designed for the iron. The final option is the Complete Toolkit for $300, which includes everything from the soldering station package, plus useful tools like wire strippers, flush cutters, solder, flux, a wire holder, cleaner, and more.

The thing that jumps out at you the most when first opening the kit is the magnetic cap. This is a thing of genius. It not only covers the tip, but you can put it on even when the tip is hot, and it will automatically power down to the idle temperature (which you can set in the app). Every soldering iron should have a cap like this. This feature alone makes iFixit’s soldering iron great for beginners. The cap also has a wire attachment that allows it to be mounted on the battery pack.

There are other user-friendly features, like an LED system that warns you when the iron is hot and motion sensors to detect when you set it down for a while (which cause it to automatically shut off). The motion sensors can also detect if you drop it and will shut it off automatically. I tested all three of these features, and they worked without issue.

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Scott Gilbertson

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September 19, 2024
The Dyson WashG1 Washes Well but Won’t Replace Your Vacuum

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Several years ago, at the launch of its V15 Detect Submarine, Dyson finally dipped its toe in the wet-mop game. The clever, water-filled detachable head and super scrubbing bars gave customers one device with which to vacuum and wet-mop hard floors. It was a quick, premium fix, for those people who want to bring Dyson’s signature efficacy and ease of use to the horrible chore of mopping. And now with the new Dyson WashG1, the company has ditched vacuum suction altogether and designed an all-in-one wet mop that slurps up debris and scrubs your floors.

I’ve spent the past few weeks using the Dyson WashG1 and have been impressed by the cleaner’s ability to embarrass me with just how dirty my floors had become, while also gathering up a surprising amount of pet hair and general detritus.

Photograph: Dyson

Dense Fibers

The secret to the mopping suction of the Dyson WashG1 lies in the two highly absorbent microfiber rollers that rotate counter-clockwise to each other. A pump then distributes water from the 27-ounce tank evenly across 26 pulse-modulated (read: squirty) water outlets, soaking each roller. As the rollers spin, they scrub the floor beneath, while the 64,800 filaments-per-square-centimeter of microfiber soak up spills and cling onto any bits of dust, food, pet hair, and Cheerios.

Traditional wet-and-dry vacuums have been able to suck up all manner of stuff for years, but cleaning them is often disgusting, with hair and dirt matted around wet, grubby brush bars. Here, Dyson has done a superb job separating the solids from the dirty water, making cleaning impressively simple. Fill the water tank, press Go, push around your home, and dirty water is extracted from the rollers and pumped into the dirty water tank. A nylon-bristled inner brush removes dirt and debris from the microfiber rollers, depositing it in the removable debris tray.

Photograph: Chris Haslam

It is a significant upgrade in almost every way from the Dyson Submarine.

The pull-out debris tray has a 500-micron mesh to further separate dirty water from the large debris. The result is dirty, but not gritty, water in the tank—which can be simply poured down the sink—and a tray full of dirt that can be tapped into the bin. It’s worth noting too that, once back charging on the supplied upright dock, it will automatically self-clean to be ready for the next job. Dyson recommends you manually clean the rollers after three washes, which involves running everything under the faucet.

Wait a Minute

The Dyson WashG1 cannot entirely replace the need for a traditional vacuum. Maybe if your home has only hard floors and is hermetically sealed, you might get away with it, but for most people, especially those with pets and kids, you’ll still need to vacuum or have a robot do it for you. Dyson claims it can replace your vacuum, but I’m not yet convinced. Combined with even the cheapest Dyson cordless vacuum, you’ll not get much change from $1,000.

It is great at cleaning hard surfaces though, and I was impressed by how little standing water was left after passing the rollers over the kitchen tiles. When I first tried the WashG1, the color of the water in the dirty tank was shameful. I naturally blame it on the two dogs that had stayed the previous week. I was most impressed by the cleaning performance on tiles. While it won’t bring grout back to life, the tiles were noticeably cleaner.

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Chris Haslam

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September 15, 2024
Lockly’s Latest Smart Lock Unlocks Your Door With Your Face—Without a Camera

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Do you wish your front door could see you coming? I certainly do, since I’m usually either wrangling a toddler (often in a swimsuit these days, and dragging along a myriad of towels and floatation devices) or coming back from an outdoor power walk that I’d rather not bring my keys on. I’ve enjoyed geofencing features that let my door unlock when it senses my phone is nearby, or reached for the pin pad to quickly unlock my door with my fingerprint—anything in the name of not needing to hunt for my keys.

Now, I don’t even need my phone or a free hand. The Lockly Visage, announced at CES 2024 as part of Lockly’s new Zeno line, uses infrared sensors to see me coming and recognize my face, so that it can unlock my door as I walk up. It also has other common entry options—fingerprint reading, access codes, and brand-new physical keys—if not every member of your house wants their face scanned.

It’s the first time face recognition has been added to a smart lock that any homeowner (or daring renter) can buy. Similar features have been available in smart security cameras and video doorbells, but the locks themselves haven’t been able to recognize you—until now. While I found the setup a little frustrating (more on that below), I was happy to find that the lock itself worked perfectly, always recognizing me as I walked up to my house, whether I was wearing sunglasses or was backlit by an intense afternoon sun.

Ready, Get Set, Set Up

electronic door lock

Successful setup with the Lockly requires speed once the battery is in. The physical setup isn’t too hard, just lengthy, and it does require both a Phillips-head and flathead screwdriver. It took me about an hour of reading instructions, removing every piece of my current lock, and then installing the Lockly Visage. Make sure to charge the battery in advance, or at least while you’re doing all of that physical unboxing and install. Since you have to fully dismember your lock, I don’t recommend the Lockly for renters, unless you trust yourself to put it back so well that your landlord won’t know.

Once physical setup is done, don’t put the battery in right away. This was my mistake. Once the battery is in, the Bluetooth connection opens up and only stays up for a few minutes. I kept getting timed out when I was trying to set up Visage ID (the name for Visage’s face recognition), but Lockly says they’re pushing an app update soon to fix the short-lived Bluetooth situation. Speaking of the app, there’s two of them—an older Lockly app that works with this lock and previous Lockly devices, and a brand-new Lockly Home app (iOS, Android) that currently only works with the new Zeno line. You can choose to use either, but the Lockly Home app is much nicer to look at. Previous Lockly products will be added to that app soon, too.

Either way, before you put in the battery and start the Bluetooth timer, download the app and locate the Activation Card inside of the box, which should be adhered to the interior lid of the box. Don’t lose this card, even after you finish the lock setup—you’ll need it if you ever reset it. Once you have both these things ready, only then insert the battery and start the setup process within the app. You’ll follow steps for creating an account, connecting Wi-Fi, and setting up an unlock code for the door.

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Nena Farrell

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September 12, 2024
Electric Grilling Is Still a Little Raw in the Middle

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I left the Current where it was and made a loop around the exterior of the house, frequently doubling back to the main breaker box to see which outlets were connected to beefy-enough breakers and found a plug on the side of the house that gets extra hot at the end of the day, aka grilling time. I wheeled the grill noisily down to it.

At this point I started texting with my Seattle electrician, Will Gebenini, to figure out how likely it would be that other people with porches and plugs and breaker boxes would have similar issues.

“Well, it’s almost 100 percent likely that they’ll have a 15-amp outlet if the construction is newer build,” he said, “but it’s very hard to predict if the outlet will be on a 15- or 20-amp circuit. Newer codes require an outlet on patios/decks. No code specifies the ampacity of that circuit.”

“So,” I asked, “it’s a crapshoot whether or not your porch will have the right setup?”

“Correct.”

Since you can’t just swap breakers around willy-nilly, this means you might not be able to put a grill like this in the spot you want it, or you might need to call someone like Will to make it happen, at which point your new electric grill goes from expensive to very expensive.

Advanced Degrees

I fired up the Current again, threw those sausages on there again, and it felt like they came out fine, but I had a lot to pay attention to. There is a digital readout on the grill and a bit of a touchscreen, as well as a single knob. (Yay knobs!) There are two grilling zones, so you can also set the temperature for each side of the grill and do a little sizzle sizzle on one side and a little coasting to the finish on the other.

There’s the to-the-degree cooking feature, and that mobile app that connects your phone to the grill—and normally I’d tell you more, but problems started blooming like wildflowers, stealing all of my attention.

Even by moving the grill somewhere inconvenient to meet its electrical needs, heating it up took a long time. Impressively, you can set both sides to heat up to 700 degrees Fahrenheit. Yet on a hot summer’s day in New England, I turned the right burner up to 600 degrees, and after 20 minutes it had barely cleared 450. Even with more patience, it struggled to hit those higher temperatures, and turning it up or down a few notches lacked a propane grill’s nimble responsiveness.

The big problem here is that the larger the grilling surface is on an electric grill, the harder it is to get enough juice to it. On a propane grill, you just turn on another burner. On charcoal, you can add coals or increase airflow. On electric at this size or larger, you can cheat a little, but unless you want to hard-wire it and do some electrical work, you’re mostly just stuck with how it’s designed.

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Joe Ray

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September 8, 2024
Google’s 4th-Gen Nest Learning Thermostat Isn’t Just Pretty (but It’s Also Very Pretty)

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Nest’s smart thermostats have been an icon of the smart home since they hit the market in late 2011. Nothing said smart like a device that could learn your habits and make your home operate more efficiently without having to fiddle with settings and automations. In the 13 years since, Nest Learning Thermostats have been easy to identify, with the same thick silver bezel and compact circular screen. This design was radical at a time when most smart thermostats looked like boring, rectangular, beige boxes.

Google’s fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat has an entirely new look, transforming what now looks like a basic tech gadget into something of an art piece for your wall. It’s got new smarts too, and includes a temperature sensor to place elsewhere in the home. It’s a refreshing upgrade to a longtime staple, and feels smart without being intrusive or overly complex—an important middle line not all smart devices find.

Slim Setup

Photograph: Nena Farrell

If you’re hoping to pop the fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat onto the backing of a previous Nest thermostat, you’re out of luck. The thermostat base for the new model is a different size, so you’ll have to switch out the old base for the new one.

While the third-generation thermostat itself is smaller, its base is a little larger with larger connectors; the new thermostat base is smaller with positively tiny connector buttons. You’d think with the larger 3.9-inch screen that the base would be larger, but it has a smaller footprint on your wall, which is nice. It comes with an optional plate as with previous generations, but the new version is an oval rather than a rectangle. A 3.9-inch screen might not sound that big, but it looks surprisingly large on the wall if you’re used to the smaller Nest thermostats, or even something like my previous thermostat, the square Honeywell T6.

Photograph: Nena Farrell

Installing the Nest is easy; make sure your system is compatible and that you’ve flipped off the relevant breaker to cut power. The Nest app is no longer at play with this model. Google has been gradually transitioning many of its features and capabilities to the Google Home app, and that’s what you’ll use for this new model. Google Home walks you through the steps of removing your old thermostat, labeling the wires, and installing the new thermostat over it.

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Nena Farrell

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September 6, 2024
The Greenworks 60V Lawn Mower Is for People Who Just Want to Get Their Grass Cut

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I have a core childhood memory of standing in the expansive yard of a family friend who lived out in farm country, trying to get their old gas mower to start. I tugged the pull cord in vain for what seemed like hours, the engine rolling over lazily without ever spinning to life.

So there was no question I was going to be an early and enthusiastic adopter of electric lawnmowers, making the switch right around the same time I replaced my VHS tapes with Blu-ray.

I’ve had at least six electric mowers since—some plug-ins, some battery-powered. At one point I even hacked a Homelite mower I liked except for its underpowered proprietary battery, by soldering its connectors to a better lithium battery (I probably did my math wrong; the battery melted). Every one of those electric mowers felt like it sacrificed something you could get from a traditional internal combustion engine mower, trading an annoying extension cord or underpowered battery for instant start, less noise, and no smoke.

That is, until the Greenworks 60V 21-inch self-propelled lawn mower, which I’ve been testing on my lawn this summer. After four months of testing I’ve found this model from Greenworks does everything I need a mower to do to my Midwestern lawn, and does it with grace. If you’re a lawn enthusiast I’m sure there are mowers with more options and features to consider. But I don’t want to think too much about my mower—I just want to push a button, walk around my yard, chop a few inches off the top of my grass, then roll it back into the garage. This Greenworks mower is the first electric mower I’ve owned that does that.

Sixty Beats Forty

The first thing I want to know about an electric mower is how easy it is to handle the battery. I’m sure I’m not alone in being past corded electric mowers that, until a few years ago, still offered the best combination of power and price. The Greenworks has dual battery ports that will each hold a 60V battery, though I’ve only used one. That 5-Ah battery provides enough power to cut my small lawn two times with turbo on or three and a half times on standard. My lawn only has about 3,000 square feet of grass, though, and in the United States, residential lawns average about 10,000 square feet, according to Home Advisor. (If you live in Vermont or Montana you will probably want that second battery.) The advertised range is up to an acre, which is 43,560 square feet, but even with both batteries fully and freshly charged I would not expect to get there based on my range in testing.

Photograph: Martin Cizmar

Because it’s a 60V system, it has more power than the more common 40V systems, which makes a big difference when it comes to dealing with leaves. With a peak power output of 3200 RPMs (toward the top of the standard range for a gas mower) using the turbo mode, I’ve found the Greenworks has enough power to mulch leaves, though long wet grass drained the battery much faster than I would have expected—a leftover half-charge on a single battery wasn’t enough to finish my small yard.

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Martin Cizmar

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August 30, 2024
The Klaris Clear Ice Maker Can Up Your Home Bartending Game

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The machine comes with the mold for four cubes; you can also separately buy a Collins mold that makes three prisms of ice for a taller glass. The molds are made of a thick silicone—much thicker than most standard ice molds. Once you fill the mold up with water, you just place it in the compartment inside, close the lid, push the knob, and let it do its thing. You don’t need to use filtered water. The faucet will work for your water source just fine because all of the impurities in the water, like minerals and gas, are going to get cleared out. I tested cycles with both filtered and tap water and the end result was the same.

Each cycle takes between eight and 12 hours to complete. That’s kind of a big window. It partially depends on how cold the water you fill your mold with is, and the temperature of the surrounding environment. It would be ideal for the Klaris to have a more concise timeframe for completing the cycle. There is a timer that shows how much time has elapsed but not how much time is remaining.

In my apartment with an air temperature hovering around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, the Collins rocks took around 10 hours, and the standard cubes took around eight. I’ve heard anecdotes that during the winter in cold regions, it can take as little as five hours.

Since it takes so long, I forgot to harvest my ice right away a few times; the feature
that allows you to keep it cold for up to five additional hours is helpful here. The one time I
completely forgot to check on it even after the delay, everything was back to being liquid water,
so I just started it over. You obviously need to plan a bit if you have a specific event you want to
use the ice for. The delay functions overall are a great touch and help you time out your ice
harvest, since sometimes it will finish overnight.

Making Things Clear

But since the machine plugs into the wall, I’m not sure why there can’t be a feature just to keep it cold until you open it back up. How does it work? The water is frozen layer by layer from the bottom up, which is known as directional freezing. (You don’t get this with a mold in your standard freezer because the cold air comes from all directions.) Simultaneously, an impeller-type fixture on the inside of the cover spins the water, which circulates the impurities up and out of the cube. This motion provides the necessary constant agitation, ridding the chance for the impurities to settle to the bottom.

The impeller needs to be submerged in the water, so you need to fill up the water in the mold to the fill line, which is higher than where the ice will ultimately reach. When the cycle is complete and you open the cover, it almost looks as if nothing happened because there’s a layer of liquid water above the clear ice. This water contains the impurities. You then pull the mold out and dump that water into the sink. You turn the mold upside down and twist and push a little and the rocks pop out. You need to pull them apart from each other with the plastic dividers that are in the mold. These can be a little flimsy and you don’t get extra, so I try carefully not to break them.

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Andrew Watman

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August 25, 2024
The Lifx Beam Isn’t New, but It’s Super Fun

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Once that’s recognized, you can start playing around with colors! Like most smart lights, there are plenty of options for various shades of white and bright colors, and tons of colorful themes that take advantage of the massive row of lights. Lifx’s app comes with tons of precreated themes, ranging from ones inspired by music and artists (I love the Bijutsukai and Matisse with my living room colors) to holidays and even sports teams. There isn’t a camera or similar tool to make it match what’s on your TV screen, so I usually choose a theme or color scheme to make it match the vibe of the show.

Photograph: Nena Farrell

You can use the in-app Paint tool to make custom light arrangements if none of the included designs pique your fancy. You can either paint the whole thing at once—it’ll let you choose three colors and arrange it for you—or manually control it by zone. My six bars and one corner piece have 61 zones, so 10 zones per bar plus one extra for that little corner. You can highlight and change multiple zones at the same time to get your perfect design, but it does take time.

Buying Time

The Lifx Beam isn’t anything particularly new, but I love how much easier it is to stick on a wall without worrying whether a section will pop off, and to add more segments or rearrange the shape whenever I want. It feels more like art on my wall than a regular light strip.

My only complaint is that I wish it were a little cheaper; it’s $60 for four pieces, or $150 for six. And Lifx doesn’t sell corner pieces individually, limiting the fun you can have with designs. After all these years of it on the market, it might be too late to hope for more extensions. I’m still in love with mine, though, single corner and all.

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Nena Farrell

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August 21, 2024
When It Comes to Dicing, Breville’s Paradice 16 Doesn’t Cut It

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A few years back, I ran a head-to-head test between two of the best food processors on the market. The Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor and Breville Sous Chef are critical darlings, wonderfully high performers that made testing fun. Yet there’s an extra-difficult trick I’ve always wanted to see food processors pull off successfully: dicing. Imagine those big-meal recipes where you could just stuff spud after spud, onion after onion down the chute of a food processor and—whump, whump, whump—it would churn out perfect little cubes.

Fun as that sounds, the mechanics of creating a dicing machine are quite demanding. Food processors with slicing-disc attachments are great at evenly slicing food crosswise, but doing that on three planes gets really difficult to engineer. A simplified description of how many manufacturers have tried to do it is something like this: Press your veg down through the chute, then a horizontal-spinning blade cuts a slice and pushes it down through a grid of blades.

This sounds great, but it’s crazy hard to make it work well and requires a cumbersome amount of extra parts. With the release of the Breville Paradice 16, I wondered if the time had finally come for a manufacturer to really nail it.

A Wealth of Accessories

Breville does not mess around when it comes to food processors. Its Sous Chef is a sculpted and luxe powerhouse. A Breville rep confirmed that the Paradice is essentially a Sous Chef with an extra $200 worth of dicing attachments. I thought they would work great. This turns out to have been a bit of wishful thinking.

The Paradice seems like one of those products that a very serious home cook would buy for a milestone birthday, but in reality, the dicing capabilities—the whole reason you’d spend an extra few hundred dollars for this model over the Sous Chef—are utterly disappointing.

The Breville Paradice 16 arrived in a box almost huge enough to fold myself into. Inside are two large plastic storage boxes for all of its accessories. On the website, they are referred to as “the chef’s armory storage containers.” Though there is a smaller 9-cup version, if you are short on storage or countertop space, this is almost certainly more machine than you can handle.

Photograph: Breville

However, if you have the room, it comes with a bewildering variety of accessories, all of which are sturdy and come helpfully color-coded. The non-dicing capabilities for this machine are impeccable. With its monster 1,450-watt motor and nice styling, it is the luxury car of food processors with the minimalist beauty of a control panel. If you want to make pizza dough or peanut butter, things that can cause a lesser machine to quail and smell like melting electronic bits, the Paradice is unflappable.

Along with the S-shaped chopper blade, its adjustable-height slicing disc is a space-saving marvel of kitchen engineering that allows you to dial in your desired thickness. There’s a shredding attachment that works wonderfully. For smaller jobs, there’s even a mini-chopper setup that fits right inside the main bowl. Almost every part can go in the dishwasher. I also take every chance I can get to plug in Breville’s wall plug, since it has a finger hole that makes unplugging a breeze.

The Kiss of Death

Despite all this, what you’re spending more for is a dicing feature, and the Paradice cannot dice very well. It just doesn’t. I had a whole list of fun dishes to make, like home fries, summer vegetable lasagna, vichyssoise, and minestrone. I dutifully worked my way through them all, but I learned everything I needed to know on the first onion I ran through it.

I peeled and quartered it to make sure that the chute was properly loaded, then leaned on the pusher and observed. The machine chopped about two-thirds of the allium, and then sort of spread the last third evenly over and into the top of the cutting grid before it jammed. Breville seems to have planned for this, as the Paradice comes with special tools to unclog the grates, which is a strange, time-consuming workaround. Eventually, I skipped this step, pulled the dicing grid out, inverted it, and whacked as much half-chopped food as I could out onto a big cutting board to finish the job with a knife.

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Joe Ray

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August 20, 2024
The Best Early Labor Day Mattress Deals

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Photograph: Birch by Helix; Getty Images

Birch

Birch is made by the same folks over at Helix, but the Birch line is eco-friendly and makes some of the best organic mattresses out there. Birch is running a 25 percent off sale plus two free pillows for any mattress purchase (use the code LDW25 at checkout). It’s similar sale to what we saw Birch run around the fourth of July and Memorial Day, but still a solid deal. But if you want a better deal, furniture store Raymour & Flannigan is also running a sale and currently selling Birch’s Luxe Natural Mattress for $200 cheaper than Birch. Both have the more affordable Birch Natural for the same price, though.

Avocado

Avocado makes our favorite organic mattress, and for Labor Day the company is running an up to 20 percent off sale. The mattress that we recommend is currently 15 percent off, but only $100 off the usual price, since we often see a 10 percent discount of some kind for Avocado. This is a little better than we usually find, and the same price we’ve seen for other big deal events like Memorial Day.

Leesa

Leesa has made fantastic mattresses for years that tend to always find themselves as our top runner-up mattress recommendation. The Leesa Sapira Hybrid was our number two pick for years as a great all-around mattress, especially for the price (and that’s before the Labor Day sale!), while the new Leesa Sapira Chill recently jumped into that spot with its fantastic cooling cover. The sale isn’t great so far, but it includes two free pillows.

Casper

Casper is pretty famous in the mattress-in-a-box world. The brand recently remade its entire mattress line, and Casper’s new base mattress, The One, is now our favorite all-foam mattress. It’s already a super affordable mattress, but it’s still on sale for Labor Day for a nice little discount. We usually see it for under $900, and now you can get it for $800 instead.

Other Labor Day Mattress Sales

These sales aren’t as great as the ones above, and are often sales you can find year-round. Still, it’s a fine price we’d usually recommend buying these mattresses for, even if it’s not the best discount in town. We’ll update this guide as we get closer to Labor Day with any changes that might make these sales better (or worse!)

Photograph: Plank

Brooklyn Bedding

I’m a recent convert to plank-style mattresses after trying Brooklyn Bedding’s Plank Firm Natural mattress. But we like a few different firm mattresses from Brooklyn Bedding, all of which are on sale right now for 25 percent off with the code LABORDAY25. The code should be automatically applied when you add the mattress to your cart. It’s not a great sale—this is usually the price we see these mattresses listed for. Still, usually we recommend buying them at this price.

Bear

Bear makes our favorite side sleeper mattress, the Bear Elite. Bear is running an up to 35 percent off price right now, but the $1,499 price is one we usually see it available for, so it’s not a particularly exciting sale. Still, it’s the price we recommend scoring it for over the higher price tag it does go up to from time to time.

Purple

If you’re a hot sleeper, start shopping: we think Purple makes the best cooling mattress. Purple’s site has up to $500 off the Restore line, but our recommended mattress is only $300 off—and we often see it for $300 off anyway. Still, it’s a great mattress if you want to sleep cooler at night.

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Nena Farrell

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August 19, 2024
The Rocco Super Smart Fridge Is a Cool Conversation Piece

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Similarly, there’s Smart Mode, which makes it work more like a thermostat when the fridge is sitting in a warmer temperature. There’s also Party Mode, which prioritizes keeping the drinks cold more so than making less noise. After a few minutes, I did hear the compressor get a little louder. I opened it a few minutes later, and it was definitely colder in there. (Rocco gives the temperature range as 37 to 64 degrees Fahrenheit.)

But if I want the drinks to stay colder while I’m having a party where people are opening it often, I could just lower the temperature to where I want it myself. I really don’t see much of a need for all of these modes. Using a wireless Bluetooth thermometer, I tested the temperature changes inside the fridge for each mode to make sure they work properly. I gave each of them 10 minutes to change and tested each shelf on both ends of the fridge. I was pleased to find these were all within just a few degrees difference of what the fridge read.

The other primary feature of the app is the vision system. When you first set up the app, sensors in the fridge scan everything you’re storing in it. Every beverage then shows up on your app, organized by drawer. I’m storing some pretty obscure drinks, like OoMee algae-infused beverage and Yaté yerba mate, and it recognized most of them, so I was impressed, although some, like my Dolin vermouth, which is one of the most popular vermouth brands, were not recognized.

Nutrition facts also pop up for each drink, although many of them are incomplete. In theory, you could go to the grocery store and see which drinks you’re running low on just by looking at the app. I found that I didn’t do this much, although I was curious if I was running low on LaCroix once and checked the app to see that I certainly was. So it came in handy.

However, the system is not perfect. Right now it’s showing that I still have one LaCroix remaining, although I haven’t had one in there in a couple of weeks. I would love it if I could purchase something I’m running low on directly from the app.

The dual-temperature system also allows you to make half of the fridge one temperature and the other half another, which you can adjust manually or through the app. While this is important so that I can keep seltzers and wines at different temperatures, this is the one feature that’s on many wine fridges, so it’s not unique to the Rocco Fridge.

Timeless Design

The Rocco has a kind of mid-century vibe but also feels contemporary. I love the fluted glass door, which looks stunning when it’s nighttime and the lights inside are peeking through it. Any time someone comes to my apartment it becomes a topic of conversation. You can turn the light on and off and adjust the brightness from the app.

The top surface of the fridge is flat and sturdy, so it doubles as a bar cart. The raised lip on the sides also helps so that bottles I’m placing on it have less of a chance of falling off. I have a bar cart that’s overflowing with bottles, so it’s nice to have this right next to it for some overflow.

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Andrew Watman

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August 17, 2024
Google’s Iconic Chromecast and Nest Learning Thermostat Are Getting Long-Awaited Upgrades

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(left) Smart Schedule on Pixel-8 (center) Smart Ventilation on Pixel 8 Pro (right) System Health Monitor Pixel 8

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Finally, the Nest Learning Thermostat has a new System Health Monitor to flag potential maintenance needs by tracking your HVAC system’s behavior, such as when your air conditioner suddenly isn’t cooling rooms as efficiently as it used to. In addition, a new Smart Ventilation feature checks outdoor air quality before pulling air into your home, especially helpful if the air quality in your area is poor.

The new Nest Learning Thermostat (plus the included sensor) is available for preorder and costs $280. It goes on sale August 20.

The Future of Google Assistant

Google has been integrating its Gemini chatbot and large language models into its products and services over the past year, but what does that mean for Google Assistant? The Alexa and Siri competitor has been a mainstay for years but wasn’t mentioned once during Google’s developer conference in May. You’d think this spelled the end of Google Assistant, and that it’d eventually end up in the Google Graveyard, right? Think again.

Kattukaran says Gemini’s large language models will power Google Assistant, allowing it to “redefine the next era of the smart home.” The most immediate change? Google Assistant’s voice will sound much more natural and human-like, with improved pacing and rhythm. It’ll offer a more conversational experience and can maintain the context of your conversation as you string together multiple commands and queries.

This Gemini-powered experience will also improve existing features. For example, motion alerts from your security cameras will be much more detailed, allowing you to know exactly what’s transpiring without opening the camera feed. You can even ask the Assistant for information from your camera feeds, like if a FedEx delivery person showed up. Google wants people to ask Assistant to set up home automation too without getting bogged down in menus in the app.

None of this helps Gemini’s branding problem—there are so many variations with different capabilities, like Gemini Nano, Gemini Ultra, Gemini Flash, and more recently, Gemini Live. Google Assistant, on the other hand, was one neat AI umbrella that handled everything. But now with Assistant getting an assist from Gemini, the company is not yet ready to replace it anytime soon, meaning we have to live with two assistants even longer.

The new Google Assistant experience is available for select Nest Aware subscribers as a part of a public preview and is expected to roll out in 2025.

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Nena Farrell , Julian Chokkattu

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August 6, 2024
This Safe, Sturdy Cat Decor Won’t Shed in Your Living Room

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Catit assured me all the Vesper furniture is made with toxin-free materials, and it follows the formaldehyde emission standards (TSCA Title VI compliant) for composite wood products put forth by the EPA.

Runner-Up

The Mau Cento Tree got the most compliments of any furniture I’ve owned. Beyond being pretty, my cats loved it. I often found two of them fast asleep in each basket, or my little girl Eely slumbered in the fuzzy cave. They leap on and off, scratch the designated scratchers, and play with the pom poms. It’s very expensive, though parts are replaceable.

Each piece is made from real wood (sourced ethically from trees that “no longer bear fruit,” according to the company), and the brand donates 5 percent of earnings to animal welfare and environmental conservation organizations and plants a tree for every order. Mau shared test results with us that showed no lead, cadmium, or formaldehyde was detected in the products tested—this included plush bedding, sisal ropes, metal frames, particle board, tree trunk, plywood, and other woods and fillings. We were happy to see this, though the brand did not explicitly state that the furniture was nontoxic.

Cat Beds

The Prettiest Cat Bed We’ve Tried

It is unbelievably cute to see my little cat Eely-Rue poke her head out of the Happy Camper Cat Bed if I happen to disturb her slumber. The panels have wood veneer on one end and gray felt on the other. I set it up with the felt on the outside, but you can put it together the other way too. The top and bottom are completely open, and a super plush pillow acts as a nice bed. I’d crawl into this if I could fit. Like Catit above, Tuft and Paw is TSCA Title VI compliant.

Tuft and Paw products are stunning and we recommend a few here. The prices are steep, however, and if you were to outfit your entire cat home with Tuft and Paw, you’d spend over a grand before blinking. The brand emphasizes its dedication to crafting high-quality products, working with cat behaviorists to help design each of its items. It starts with an idea, then designers conceptualize that into a few options. Behaviorists are consulted throughout the rest of the process. About the Happy Camper Bed, founder Jackson Cunningham told me, “Initially there was only one entrance hole, but after discussing with the behaviorist, we decided to add a second opening hole and make the top open, because cats feel safer with more visibility and extra ‘escape routes.’”

On every product page, there’s a drop-down menu that explains some of the costs included in getting a product to market. That doesn’t include the salary of its employees and other costs, but it at least puts cost into perspective. For this bed, materials cost $87.15, labor and storage cost $24.90, duties (aka importing) cost $14.94, and transportation costs $37.35.

The biggest bummer with Tuft and Paw is that it doesn’t offer returns for even slightly used products if your cat ends up hating it.

A Soft Cave

Catenary’s Moon Cave offers two soft bed options. If your cats like small spaces for napping, leave it as a cave. If they prefer some headroom, push down the top to turn it into a traditional pet bed. There are tons of two-in-one beds like this that you can find for cheap, but I appreciate that the neutral, soft design here blends into the corner of my living room instead of standing out like a brightly colored toy. Maybe I was influenced by photos on the website, but I’m imagining this looking perfectly cozy underneath a Christmas tree this winter. The bouclé—aka looped yarn—is also machine washable.

Window Beds

Cats love lounging in the sun, so beds that sit on the window make perfect sense. I’ve been using the K&H Pet Products Kitty Sill Fleece beds for years. It isn’t fancy, but the beige fleece blends in pretty well. If your windows don’t have sills for them to sit on, there are options with suction cups to stick right on the glass.

Suction cup cat seats always make me nervous, especially because I have a couple hefty boys here. But Tuft and Paw’s Cloud Nine Window Hammock is secure, as long as you thoroughly clean your windows and give the cups time to really stick. I’ve also used the Kitty Cot ($45), which is more affordable though not as aesthetically pleasing. I’d recommend adding something soft to both—both offer blankets or pads for an extra cost, but I wish they could be attached even with snaps or velcro, so they don’t slip around if a cat leaps onto it.

Scratchers

The Best Scratcher

Not every piece of nice cat furniture needs to cost several hundred bucks. I’ve used a few of PetFusions’s loungers and they held up really well under ferocious cat claws. They also look cool and are strong enough to support my weight (sometimes ya gotta reach something up high, you know). Cats can scratch one side to oblivion and then you just flip it to a perfectly clean side.

Better Cardboard Slabs

Corrugated cardboard scratchers are great because most cats love them, and they’re easy to replace. With the exception of the large PetFusion lounger above, most are just thin rectangles. They do their job but don’t look like anything special. Catenary’s Bloom scratchers, though, take it up a notch, using pet-safe dyes to create a beautiful, natural design mimicking flora and fauna. It has no impact on whether or not my cats will scratch them (they will), and they honestly look nice on my floor. For $60, you get a set of three, and each one is reversible.

Don’t have that much space to spare? The Boots and Barkley Wave Scratcher ($15) from Target is not as cute, but my cats love it.

A Beautiful Side Table Scratcher

Sometimes you see a product on Kickstarter and count down the days until it’s available—that’s what I did with the Hilde & Phil Cat-e-Corner. It’s a real wood side table for you, a scratcher for your cats, and a protector for your furniture arms. The sisal scratch mats are replaceable and attach to the wood with sturdy velcro, so it’s a long-term investment for you and your pets.

Depending on the height of your furniture, you may need to add a riser. The website has exact measurements, but if it’s taller than 25 inches, you’ll need a 2-inch riser. If it’s taller than 27 inches, get a 4-inch riser. The use of risers also means you can swap them in or out if you change furniture instead of having to get a new table altogether. I love that the brand is named after the founder’s cats—it’s my dream to open a business named after my beloved pals.

A Couch With Scratch Pads or a Cushion

The Work in Progress Cat Couch is adorable and can be used as a scratcher, a bed, or both. The base price includes a cardboard scratcher that can be flipped over and then replaced (then you can recycle the old one). Or you can get a really pretty cushion for an additional $110. One of my cats immediately scratched and lounged on it—cats often lounge directly on cardboard scratchers, so you don’t have to get the pillow right away.

Like some of the other products on this list, I think it’s expensive given its simplicity. However, Work in Progress (WIP) is a small business. If you can afford it, it’s nice to support small businesses like this, rather than a major company like Petco or Walmart. The Cat Couch is manufactured from Baltic birch wood in Arizona. It’s finished and sealed, meeting the Greenguard low-emissions certification, so it should be safe for pets. The cushion is filled with polyester and the cover is a linen-cotton blend.

An Upscale Carrier/Bed Combo

I’ve tried quite a few carriers across the price spectrum, and I was impressed by Tuft and Paw’s Porto Cat Carrier (8/10, WIRED Recommends). It’s soft but sturdy, and doesn’t collapse under the weight of a cat. It has transported my cats to vet visits and kept them comfortable in the car during a cross-country move. Some cats will sleep in any carrier if you leave it out, but I like that this one can be transformed into a little bed by unzipping one side and unfolding the faux shearling pad. The entire thing is framed in zippers, so it can go from a structured carrier to completely flat. That gives you more options for getting fussy cats in or out.

Litter Boxes and Enclosures

A Great Basic Litter Box

My cats are perfectly fine using plain old litter boxes, and yours probably are too. You can class it up a bit with boxes disguised as plants or hidden inside side tables, but Tuft and Paw’s Cove litter box takes a simple litter pan and elevates it.

It’s hefty, so it won’t move around if your cats like to kick. Speaking of kicking, the detachable shelter keeps litter and pee inside—just in case your cat has a high stream. The box has a dedicated space for the included scoop and dustpan. However, I wish you could purchase the shelter separately. Weirdly, this box doesn’t fit into the brand’s litter box enclosure, but the brand released a new Cubby version ($69) that does work with its modern Haven Enclosure ($699)—we haven’t tried the Haven, but we’ve been coveting it from afar.

The Best Litter Box Enclosure

Putting a litter box inside a piece of furniture meant to conceal it can give your cats some privacy, conceal odors, and hide little turds from your guests.

Tuft and Paw’s litter box enclosure is one of the most beautiful pieces of furniture I’ve seen, but it’s pricier than a lot of us can afford. WIRED reviewer Louryn Strampe has tried this Rena Litter Box Enclosure from Wayfair though, and you can often find it for around $120ish (and usually even less). It simply isn’t as pretty as Tuft and Paw, but it doesn’t look like a poop receptacle either, and there’s ample space on top for some decorations to further blend it in with your house.

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Medea Giordano

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July 31, 2024
How to Buy an Air Purifier: A Step-by-Step Guide

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You don’t buy an air purifier in a vacuum, literally. Perhaps your old purifier is no longer working or you’re an indoor air novice, but the moment has come for you to buy an air purifier.

While you might be tempted to purchase something small that can be tucked away under a desk or that viral purifier that keeps showing up your FYP, I suggest the very act of buying an air purifier gets reframed. And, while in your research you might read about aesthetics or how the purifier blows air, such as from the bottom or horizontally, none of that matters if the purifier is too small to clean your room or if it’s placed in the wrong location such as a windowsill or against a wall.

For more tips on how to keep your indoor air quality under control, check out our guides to Best Air Purifiers and Best Indoor Air Quality Monitors.

Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting that’s too important to ignore for just ~~$2.50~~ $1 per month for 1 year. Includes unlimited digital access and exclusive subscriber-only content. Subscribe Today.

Step 1: You’re Not Buying an Air Purifier, You’re Fitting Your Room for an Air Purifier

Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro

Before you browse online or head to the store, think of the process of buying an air purifier as fitting your room for an air purifier. While we don’t use the word “horsepower” in terms of air purifiers, by fitting your room, you are really looking for air exchange power.

The main question: Is that cute viral air purifier powerful enough to clean the air in your bedroom or living room? And how does one figure that out? The first part is doing third-grade math. You will need a tape measure. I used a basic 25-foot measure that I bought at a hardware store years ago. With the help of one of my kids, I measured the length of the room and then the width, and then multiplied the length times the width to get the area or square footage.

Step 2: The Height of Your Ceiling Matters

Even though you’ve found the area of your room by doing the length-times-width formula, you’re not done. And before we go any further, the height standard used in many air purifier calculations—known as the clean air delivery rate, or CADR—is an 8-foot-high ceiling. When you add height by multiplying the length times the width times the height, it will give you the room’s volume or cubic square footage. Sometimes, depending on the model of air purifier, you’ll need the cubic square footage; sometimes you will need only the square footage.

Yes, figuring out the sizing of an air purifier in the US is confusing due to American measurement systems—Nate Bargatze explains it well in this skit from Saturday Night Live. I digress. Getting back to your room: Rooms with high ceilings such as A-frames, cathedral ceilings, double height ceilings, and the like will have the added burden of figuring out the cubic square feet of their room, because this will mean you need either a bigger air purifier or two purifiers to clean the air.

Step 3: It’s All About the Numbers

Photograph: Coway

The most important room is the one you spend the most time in. For most people, that’s the bedroom. Say you’ve found your bedroom size and it’s 200 square feet, and your ceiling height is around 8 feet. You find an air purifier with an advertised CADR of four air exchanges an hour for 200 square feet. That’s not going to be strong enough. Why? Most air purifiers make the most noise at their highest setting, like 50 decibels or higher—similar to a modern refrigerator. That means when you run that same air purifier at a lower setting, it won’t efficiently clean the air in that 200-square-foot room.

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Lisa Wood Shapiro

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July 29, 2024
You’re Probably Using Your Air Purifier Wrong

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I’m not saying I would do this, but if I visit your home, I might look around to see if you have an air purifier. If you have one, I might estimate the cubic footage of your room and then, if I’m left alone, I might open the purifier to look at the filter.

I know I’m being a bad guest, but I am in the service of a greater good.

Depending on what I find, I will fight the urge to tell you that your air purifier is too small to effectively clean the room, or that the purifier shouldn’t be placed against a sofa or a wall, or that the filters need to be changed, or worse—the plastic encasing the filter was never removed when the purifier was first purchased.

This urge to give unsolicited indoor air advice goes deep. I knew no better until I was on the air quality beat. I didn’t think about my indoor air, nor did I understand how making a few changes and using an appliance or two could have a lasting impact on my health, the quality of my sleep, and my mental acuity. And I want the same for you. Be sure to check out our related guides, like the Best Air Purifiers, Best Indoor Air Quality Monitors, and Best Robot Vacuums.

Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting that’s too important to ignore for just ~~$2.50~~ $1 per month for 1 year. Includes unlimited digital access and exclusive subscriber-only content. Subscribe Today.

Size Matters

Know the room size

Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro

Ceiling height relates to purifier strength needed

Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro

You might have an air purifier already. Is that the right air purifier for the room? I, too, used to think a small, aesthetically pleasing air purifier was all I needed. Not anymore.

First, find out the square footage your air filter is sized for and realize that air purifiers are often sold promoting the square footage at their highest setting. Remember, the highest setting is also the loudest setting.

Most likely, you’re not blasting your purifier, so then what is the square footage for the setting you usually use? And you’re looking for this formula: What are the number of air exchanges that can happen in a specific-sized room within an hour?

The ideal number, known as the clean air delivery rate, or CADR, is found on the air purifier’s label. The higher the number, the larger the room it can clean. Be aware that the CADR is based on rooms with 8-foot ceilings. If your ceilings are higher, like those found in an A-frame, you’ll need a purifier with a higher CADR.

The Right Fit for the Right Speed

Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro

You’re not entirely done when you figure out the CADR. There’s still an air quality Goldilocks process that needs to happen. For example, if you’re using your air purifier in your bedroom, know that “sleep mode,” means the purifier is working at its lowest setting.

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Lisa Wood Shapiro

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July 28, 2024
The Best Mattresses for Side Sleepers

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Is sleeping on your side good for you?

If you’ve ever tried to consciously change your sleeping position (maybe because of a medical procedure or odd bed) you probably know it’s tough to fight your natural inclinations. The good news for side sleepers is the broad consensus among experts is that it’s at least as good as any other option.

Sleep experts at Houston Methodist say side sleeping has “the least negative impact on health.” Which is great! The only things worse for you than sleeping on your side are not sleeping enough or sleeping in any other position!

I have always envied back sleepers but sleeping on your back is the “worst position” according to the Mayo Clinic, which calls side sleeping “a good way to sleep.”

What type of mattress is best for side sleepers, hybrid or memory foam?

We prefer hybrids for side sleepers. Given that you’re putting more weight on a smaller surface area you might think that memory foam is nicer than a hybrid mattress that has a layer of springs (often called coils). On memory foam, you sink into a fluffy little cloud and get support on the sides. The problem is that when you’re sleeping well and not moving much, over the course of a night, that foam will slowly but surely compress under you. If it’s just one layer of cheap foam, after a while it will feel like you’re sleeping on a yoga mat. That’s why mattresses with multiple layers of foam of different weights are better, and why we like hybrids better yet. That layer of springs means the foam doesn’t compact nearly as much in my experience. A good hybrid gives you a chance to sleep for a solid six hours without needing to change position, which isn’t necessarily the case for me on an all-foam mattress. Hybrids also tend to sleep cooler because there’s less mass of solid foam absorbing heat.

What’s the ideal firmness for side sleepers?

Most side sleepers gravitate toward softer mattresses, which usually means memory foam instead of innerspring mattresses. Over the course of a night, though, you want to be sure you have a mattress with enough support. All types of mattresses can offer that, but be sure to pay close attention to the firmness scale the company advertises and the firmness options within it. Also take your body type into account, as the more body weight you have, the firmer the mattress you’ll want.

What’s the best type of mattress for heavy people who are side-sleepers?

I am a bigger guy—smaller now than when I started testing mattresses, thanks to semaglutide, but still a bigger guy. I’ve found that the bigger you are the firmer you want your mattress, as otherwise your body weight will compress the foam and springs below you too much.

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Martin Cizmar

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July 27, 2024