Cooking lessons.

I have no idea what would render a kitchen 'smart'. That term could apply to a home in general but not a room in the house.

Smart kitchen design:

Read and understand kitchen design guidelines (spacing, work zones, etc.) Get the NKBA guides.

Read and understand appliance reviews, especially as they relate to serviceability, service rate, and ease of obtaining service for that appliance in your area.

Become familiar with design for resale - talk to some realtors about what sells easily and what doesn't.

Identify your realistic use pattern and use goal for the kitchen.

Smart is not technology. Smart is efficient, practical design using the highest quality appliances and timeless finishes whose cost you are realistically comfortable with, that allow you to enjoy the kitchen now and don't impede sale in the future. There is little about a kitchen that benefits from IOT or "hello Google".

If you mean what most people mean by "smart kitchen" the answer to how far I would go is nowhere. Appliance manufacturers notoriously have no security whatever on their smart devices, and I would prefer not to know that my fridge is helping to participate in DNS attacks in addition to storing cold food. I know nobody at all in tech who isn't horrified by these gadgets.

All the above posts are 100% right.

What are your plans for disposing of large appliances when their smart controls fail or become obsolete? Will those appliances go to landfill after you remove the electronic waste?

An under cabinet tablet holder and Alexa is about as far as I would recommend for a smart kitchen. Technology is changing much too rapidly to invest in appliances that are not secure, and whose technology is already obsolete by the time it becomes widely adopted.

It reminds me of the control panels for the research lab that my husband worked for. There were these giant Star Trek looking consoles, with proprietary coding, developed during the 80’s. All of the new tests in the lab had to have a code specialist to translate into those obsolete machines. A smart phone was 100x the computing power and an easier interface. Any talk of retrofitting new technology was squashed because of how integrated those old control systems were with the machinery itself. It would have been cheaper to just abandon the facility and build a new one.

what writersblock said. security is non-existent because the consumer is not demanding it, except to not buy.

i trust alexa to turn on music while i'm cooking, set a timer, and keep a grocery list. she's not authorized to answer the phone or do anything else, and she's in the far corner of the kitchen where can can't hear anything that goes on anywhere else. i hope that keeps her in line.

if you want to know whats in your fridge, take a photo of the inside before you head out the door. (thats what i do every sunday evening when we leave our weekend house)

"Smart" devices are much too open to hacking.

Internet of Things Teddy Bear Leaked 2 Million Parent and Kids Message Recordings

What they don't tell you is that as we put software into
old-fashioned home appliances, there will be bugs that'll make those
appliances useless. The WiFi goes down? Put on a sweater because your smart thermostat might stop working. A lightbulb malfunctions? Your whole smart home stops working. And with bugs, there will be hackers ready to exploit them, either to creep out babies through hackable baby monitors, or to steal Gmail credentials through smart fridges.

Next: Expect Samsung to turn the refrigerator off because you did not pay the monthly license fee.

Sure, put in your charging stations, cable connections for TV, wire in speakers to connect for music, etc, but I would spend more on good quality appliances rather than a fridge that tells me when I need milk & eggs. Mother boards in standard appliances go wacky from time to time as it is. I wouldn't want another "bell & whistle" item that can render my appliance null if/when a power surge hits it. Just my 2 cents.

Agree with most all other comments. Technologically smart kitchens sound great, but you have to consider that apps tend to be buggy and become obsolete. Most cell phones and tablets have a variety of connections - when you sell your home (and one can never say 'never' to this) think about the buyer looking at older connections and thinking 'dated' or 'adapters needed'. Many people don't really consider the security threat, but someday they will.

I agree with Michelle's comments - now that it what a smart kitchen truly is. FWIW, I have a smart washer/dryer set. Finally decided to give it a try for giggles only. Buggy app, and I removed the app.

If you want to add 'technology', wire for sound and tv if that's something you'll use. A good security system is always a nice addition (smoke/fire, and camera's also). People use more and more appliances in their kitchens, so you could add outlets/plugmolds. Make sure they are GFI as needed, and that you've got room in your electrical service box, ie, consider how many you can add to the circuit box, and the amperage allowed/needed.

The smartest kitchens start here first,

New to Kitchen forum? Read me first! FAQ

: )

Remember to install the outlets with the UBS built in! and i like the rocker switches for kitchen uses. much easier to tap with an elbow than a regular flick.

I feel like such as old fart sometimes as I hate a lot of the smart technology. I hate that we're all "out there" without security and privacy. I only have one social media account (Twitter) and I don't even use my name on it (and I don't Tweet). Technology changes so quickly that the only thing I would consider installing is a monitoring device that could tell me I had a water leak before it became a huge deal. WiFi can sometimes be spotty and it's not a great idea for us to be completely reliant on it. As an aside, we just had much of our house hardwired and the company we used said they've had more and more business from people leery to rely on just WiFi technology.

I also think of the cost factor for the smart appliances and such. Since these things are replaced frequently (does a refrigerator even last 10 years these days?), I would rather spend my money on things like cabinets and good flooring.

I feel like appliance manufacturers are investing a lot of money into trying to convince the public we need "smart," wifi connected appliances - I keep seeing articles that say they're the new thing. And just like I'm not going to listen to the fashion publicists who tell me that fanny packs are back in style, neither am I listening to the appliance publicists - that that very much is who is driving this trend.

Not convinced? Think through how you would *actually* use a wifi oven, or dishwasher, or washer and dryer. All of these items require you to actually do something (put in clothes, empty dishes, etc.) to be useful, so I'm not sure what added benefit I'd get from wifi. I've never wanted to turn on my dishwasher away from home; either I load it and start it immediately, or I load it and forget to start it, in which case I don't remember until I come home and find dirty, rather than clean dishes. The same is true of the washer and dryer. There have been one or two times in my life I've been running late and wished I could start my oven preheating, but that's not enough that I'm willing to let it drive an appliance purchase.

I'm not into internet connectedness of appliances but I think there is value in having alarms sent to your phone. Not that I do! But many kitchen remodels wouldn't have to happen if people got a text message when their dishwasher started to leak.

Infrastructure for future modernization includes plenty of power outlets and smurf tubes while you have stuff torn up.

As a someone who works in tech and should be the prime demographic for "smart" IoT things, I'd go as far as going out of my way to find the dumbest appliances possible.

Security on these things is an absolute joke, I don't want to have a kitchen full of complex machines that run the risk of getting weird and having to reboot themselves if the power blips out for five seconds, or god forbid, the WiFi signal hiccups, I don't want an appliance that can be fed firmware updates remotely without notice or consent (remember the time Nest issued a bad firmware update that bricked a bunch of thermostats in Vermont in the middle of winter - lot of exploded pipes), I don't want to interact with clunky "smart" screen interfaces when I can just write a list on a notepad (or ask Siri), and I don't want my appliances advertising to me pr remotely having the capability to advertise to me.

Astroturfing perhaps. Pretty dumb move.

Cosi, no thanks : )

Have you seen the British TV series "Humans"? It's about android household helpers, who cook, clean, and take care of the kids. That's what I want, although it didn't quite work out perfectly...

Sophie and fuzzy wuzzy, thank you. Removing myself from notifications on this thread now.

I'm not even putting in USB outlets - they'll be obsolete when the next connector/device comes along.

meh maybe. They have been around since the "smart phone" phase started.

If the technology were to change they would make adapters anyway. By the time that all happens it will be time for another remodel.

OT, but how does one remove oneself from notifications on a thread?

Kristin, if you're on a laptop (I don't know if the phone app works similarly), scroll all the way down the page until you get to the teeny tiny letters that say

Click to switch off notifications about new comments

and click. Very useful feature : ) .

Thank you!!! I thought I'd checked everywhere, but it never occurred to me to look that far down!

Gradually, all devices are switching to USB-C with PD (power-delivery). Most modern cell phones already do this. Apple announced that they'll switch away from their proprietary connectors. And laptop manufactures have also joined this trend.

This is great -- except it means that all those USB wall outlets are obsolete. Yes, you can buy USB-A to USB-C adapter cables. But they'll just end up charging devices in trickle mode, if even that.

I might reconsider if I could find a proper USB-C/PD capable wall outlet. But for now, I feel that USB wall outlets are already obsolete when doing a remodel.

The OP may not be a spammer, but rather marketing research.