Glass front doors are great for letting light in during the day but not so great when you want privacy at night. The Home Depot has a smart solution for this problem – a glass front door that can switch from clear to opaque on a schedule, with a voice command, or by pressing a button.
The smart glass Feather River door is a prehung fiberglass front door with built-in smart glass. A button on the door lets you change the glass from clear to opaque, and it works with The Home Depot’s Hubspace smart home app to control it from your phone. You can also set the glass on a schedule and have it be clear during the day and opaque at night. The door costs $798 for a three-quarters lite, $899 for a half lite, and $998 for a full lite, similar to a non-smart front door.
The smart glass door in half lite. It doesn’t come with a door lock or handle; you need to supply your own. Image: The Home DepotThe door in three-quarters lite. Image: The Home Depot
Hubspace is The Home Depot’s attempt at demystifying the smart hom
e for its customers. Despite the name, the smart home platform doesn’t require a hub, just the Hubspace app. With it, you can connect and control a wide range of The Home Depot’s store brands, from smart lights and shades to bathroom fans and thermostats.
The smart glass door is the retail giant’s first Hubspace collaboration with a third party. It works with the Hubspace app and can connect to smart home systems like Amazon Alexa or Google Home to use a voice command to make your door clear or opaque.
The smart glass works over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and requires power. The door has a battery built into the frame, which a USB cable can power if you have an outlet nearby. The battery is removable, and the door comes with a second battery and a charger.
The battery only powers the glass and the connectivity. Unlike The Home Depot’s first attempt at selling a smart door – the $4,000 M-PWR smart door from Masonite – the Feather River door doesn’t feature built-in power for a smart doorbell or door lock. It’s a s
tandard door outside of the glass. You can add a battery-powered smart lock, and the door acts as a Bluetooth-to-Wi-Fi bridge for Hubspace-compatible Bluetooth locks.
The door is designed to fit a standard entryway and comes with a frame and weather stripping for easy installation. According to The Home Depot, the glass is exterior security strength, and a hurricane glass option is coming soon.
Along with the new door, The Home Depot is launching a number of other new connected products that work with its Hubspace app:
Vissani’s 8.8-cubic-foot smart chest freezer, $299, is available now. It can switch between fridge and freezer mode and send alerts if the temperature changes significantly or if the freezer goes offline. Defiant Smart Home Alarm Kit, $99, is a DIY smart alarm kit with a keypad, two door / window sensors, a motion sensor, and a base station with a battery backup and a built-in siren. The contact sensors have a bypass button to temporarily disarm the system when you want to let the dog out at
night.Defiant Fingerprint Electronic Touchpad Deadbolt is a $119 smart lock that uses Wi-Fi and features a fingerprint reader, a keypad, and a traditional key. Hampton Bay Permanent Mount String Lights are coming in October. They start at $99 for 50 feet and can be expanded up to 100 feet. The LED lights feature 50 lumens of individually controllable white light and full-color LEDs.
Source: Tourism Africa