Joe Tries
A regular guy figuring out his house, one thing at a time.
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All posts →My smart home after 5 years, and what I'd change
I've had a smart home since 2021. Most of it I'd buy again. What I'd change: solar, winter heat, a first-gen Ring doorbell, and my cameras.
Smart home brands that shut down or changed the deal, and how to spot the next one
Wink, Insteon, Iris, and most recently Wemo. A running list of smart home brands that died or quietly moved the goalposts, why it happened, and the warning signs that show up months before the announcement. Every date sourced and linked, and cross-checked against my own catalog.
How I made my garage opener with no app or WiFi open from my phone
My basic Genie opener was a dumb motor on the ceiling. I didn't want to replace it, I just wanted to open the garage from my phone on my walks and let people in when I wasn't home. A cheap add-on did it, one wiring step tripped me up, and it has run for five years.
Is a variable speed pool pump worth it? Three years with my Pentair, and my real electric bill
My single-speed pool pump died in the middle of a Southern California summer, so I put in a Pentair variable speed. Three years later, these are my numbers: what it pulls, what it cost, and why the time of day it runs matters as much as the motor.
Matter, Thread, Zigbee, Z-Wave: what they actually are
I run a smart home and could not have explained the difference between Matter and Thread if you paid me. So I went to the groups that make these standards and read what they say. This is the plain-English version, with every source linked.