Alexa vs HomeKit vs Google: how to choose the best smart home system for you

Table of Content

• Best digital assistant: Alexa
• Google Home vs. Amazon Alexa
• Ring Spotlight Cam Pro review: This premium outdoor camera really lights up the night

For smarter handling of actions like ordering a taxi, food, and answering general knowledge questions-Google will serve you better. Further, Google is more perfect in grasping your commands, while Alexa needs more specific commands. Both Alexa and Google Assistant devices feature microphones that are always listening for a “wake word,” like “Alexa” or “Hey, Google” . Keep in mind that with Google Assistant speakers there are some music apps that only work if you Chromecast them—which means streaming them over Wi-Fi from your phone to the speakers.

Google hasn’t yet solved the problem of syncing its speakers with a Chromecast. Currently Alexa can speak English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Hindi, Japanese, and Portuguese. Alternate dialects may be available, and sometimes, multiple languages can be used simultaneously. In the US you can choose not just English or Spanish, but a combination of the two if you’re in a multilingual household.

Best digital assistant: Alexa

If you try to ask “Alexa, turn on the lights and tell me what the weather forecast is for tomorrow”, you’ll find that it’ll only deal with one of the things you’ve asked. Despite Google’s fine performance in this arena, the integration of the popular Skype service and intercom feature put Alexa slightly over the top. In the end, Alexa gets the edge here, thanks to having slightly more integrations, including with a service as big as Apple Music and Apple Podcasts, which is still the largest podcast directory around.

However, if you're using the Nest Hub Max, and have the Look and Talk feature turned on, you can issue commands to your Google Assistant without the need for a wake word. All you have to do is look at the Nest Hub Max and start talking. One of the drawbacks of using a voice assistant is challenges with language, dialect, and accent. It supports more than 40 languages and several dialects for some of those languages. Both virtual assistants let you Make Phone and Video Calls and send messages.

Google Home vs. Amazon Alexa

While both do pretty well in the case of general knowledge and extendability, for example, if you want the broadest possible support for music and podcast services, Alexa is probably the one to pick. If, on the other hand, you have a household with multiple people in it, each of whom want to get their own personal information via a smart speaker, Google Assistant might be a better choice. Alexa vs. Google Assistant is the Ali/Frazier of voice assistants. Both are backed by two of the heavyweights of tech, and both offer, on paper, many of the same features and functionality.

You can pick up the Google Home Mini in a range of colors, with four flashing LED lights illustrating when it's listening to your commands and showing the volume level. Stepping down from those models, the Echo Dot has a bit of an edge over the Nest Mini, which has fairly weak bass and midrange. Of course, these smaller speakers are much more suitable for nightstands and desks than serving as a room's main audio device. On my phone I tend to use Google Assistant more because I find it better for the type of things I do on my phone, eg consuming media, general questions etc. I don’t use HA for that type of thing so Alexa is used mainly for home automation which means the two coexist quite happily doing different things.

Ring Spotlight Cam Pro review: This premium outdoor camera really lights up the night

This is a bit clunkier than Google Home, since you need to select a category first before controlling an individual device. For faster access, you can group devices or add them to your favorites, which places them in an easily accessible spot on the devices tab of the Alexa app. On the other hand, Alexa only offers personalized shopping, limited media options, calling, and messaging. However, Alexa has Guest Connect so you can access your own data and preferences on a friend’s Echo device.

And Alexa offers an intercom feature that lets you broadcast a message to all other Echo devices in your home. We recommend going with Alexa if you want the most home integrations. It works with thousands of supported smart home devices and is the most capable platform for setting up your connected abode. After a voice-powered assistant that can reply in a humanlike manner and deal with the most requests?

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The limit is to stop accidental orders when you are using voice commands and can’t see what you’re ordering. If you haven’t ordered anything similar previously, Alexa will call out options including the price that you can decline or accept. Obviously, if you’re going to be speaking commands this is one of the biggest factors to consider. While they can perform many of the same basic functions, each has its pros and cons and many of these depend on what music service and appliances are in your home now. Support for viewing and controlling devices with the Alexa mobile app. Things are faster with Alexa, as it does what you ask in a split second.

Google has 18,000 skills to offer including ordering Pizza, booking Uber, and others. Home offers you YouTube Music, YouTube TV, Google Play Music, SiriusXM, Pandora, and iHeartRadio. Our employee encountered minimal problems with Google Home in recognizing his voice commands.

Amazon Echo Dot vs. Google Home Mini: Which Should You Get?

For Google, you can add anyone to your home for free as long as they have a Google account. This includes supervised accounts that you create for children using Google Family Link. Both brands have location-based reminders where you can get a reminder upon arriving home, to work, or custom location. For example, if you ask for a reminder to get eggs at Walmart, the smart assistant will ask which store you want to use and give you a reminder on your smartphone when you get there. Want to make reservations at a restaurant or order food for pickup? This is possible too, though you might have to set up a preferred service like Grubhub or DoorDash.

We tasked each of the digital assistants with a battery of 20 general-knowledge questions. If you're interested, we have a lot more to say about these companies. Check out our related articles below to explore what they can do and see our favorite devices for each. Alexa and Google Home each support up to six user accounts, though Google handles its accounts much better than Alexa.

Can air purifiers protect you from the coronavirus COVID-19?

Table of Content

• Ways To Reduce Moisture Levels in Your House
• How Your Home’s Humidity Affects Indoor Air Quality
• Filters In Air Purifiers: How Do Home Air Purifiers Work?
• How to Reduce Stress: Simple and Effective Exercises for Stress Relief

However, there are some important things to be aware of regarding their effectiveness and health impacts. On average, Americans spend 90% of their time indoors, and just like the outdoor world, there can be pollutants in your home. Lindsay lives in Northern California with her husband and two sports-obsessed sons. In her free time, she enjoys ultra running, triathlon, camping, and game nights.

For example, they may send out negative ions that attract particles through static, and neutralize them. In this condition, it is not appropriate to buy a cheap air purifier with a HEPA-like filter with non-tight housing and no gas absorber. This kind of air purifier is only designed to curb mostly visible dust and is only good for all around cleaning.

Ways To Reduce Moisture Levels in Your House

In one study, HEPA air purifiers significantly decreased allergen concentration in both the air and bedding. As someone who lives in wildfire territory, I’ll probably be investing in an air purifier this year, or perhaps making my own. Tell us in the comments if you’ve tried an air purifier in your home and what benefits you experienced, if any.

But it can be hard to know exactly how bad it is, especially in your own home. Simply put, improved indoor air quality will help you breathe better. Minimum efficiency reporting values measure the effectiveness of an air filter at trapping larger particles.

How Your Home’s Humidity Affects Indoor Air Quality

Research shows that HEPA air purifiers can reduce indoor toxins produced by 3D printers, although it is more effective if the filter is built into the printer itself. Research has shown that HEPA filters are highly effective at removing fungi, mold, and other allergens from indoor air. It is important to note that only a true HEPA filter will work in this capacity. Many other filters in the market, even the ones marketed as HEPA-like, do not have this capability.

Not only may your home be a source of airborne allergens and mold, but it may also be a source of indoor toxins from cleaning products, personal care products, and more. Like allergens, indoor mold particles can become especially dangerous for people with asthma and other lung conditions. Air purifiers may work to some degree, but filtration is far more effective in getting rid of mold in the air. An air purifier may work in conjunction with a high-efficiency particulate air filter, the latter of which is best known to trap airborne allergens. The exact particles removed via an air purifier ultimately depends on the type you choose. Certain versions are made with filters to trap particles as air runs through them, while others may neutralize other particles in the air without filtering them first.

Filters In Air Purifiers: How Do Home Air Purifiers Work?

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This results in less frequent and less intense allergy and/or asthma attacks. Yes—and they can be particularly helpful for people who suffer from pollen or pet-related allergies. “Pet allergens stay suspended in the air for months at a time, even if the pet is no longer in the home,” explains Dr. Elliott. “Air purifiers that can capture fine particulate matter are your best bet. It is also helpful for people with pollen allergy, as we inevitably track pollen into the home from our clothes, shoes and hair.” By “fine particulate matter,” she means dust, pollen, mold and the like.

Dyson Pure Hot And Cool Air Purifier, Heater And Fan

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But if a HEPA system is run over a period of time, it can take out a big chunk of viruses — somewhere in the high ninetieth percentile (99.94 to 99.97%). And long enough exposure to the UV light in an air purifying device can disable some viruses, including COVID-19. Instead, they’re designed to kill any viruses, bacteria or mold spores floating around by exposing them to ultraviolet light. HEPA stands for “high-efficiency particulate arresting.” As the name suggests, these filters are really good at pulling things out of the air and holding onto them so that they can’t be recirculated. The fibers in a HEPA filter are designed to trap particles as small as .01 micron in diameter — just a tiny fraction of the width of a human hair. Sanitizers are designed to kill bacteria, viruses, mold or fungal spores that can also be floating around.

To keep an air purifier working well, remember to regularly check its filters.

We support clean air for all and we know it’s possible for every single indoor space. As such, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 should get filtered out by air purifiers using HEPA. In that way, such air purifiers could help to reduce the transmission of the virus. However, whether that means these purifiers can stop direct transmission — say an infected person sneezes or breathes out viral particles a few feet from you — is not clear. The air purifier takes time to capture these particles and by the time the air gets pulled into the purifier, it might have already made its way up your nose. They're effective at filtering out most polluting particles, although some are likely to still remain on soft and hard surfaces like furniture or walls.

The CADR indicates the amount of clean air a purifier can produce at its highest fan speed. If the unit can successfully filter tobacco smoke, dust and pollen particles at a certain rate, the manufacturer will submit the purifier for AHAM verification. The most comprehensive air purifiers include True HEPA filters, a high CADR rating, activated carbon filtering, and a UV light source to reduce viruses. Air purifiers improve indoor air quality, limiting your exposure over time to harmful pollutants. When you take a deep breath, you want to fill your lungs with fresh, pure air—not dirty air filled with allergens and dust.

Coway Mighty Smarter Hepa Air Purifier With Eco Mode

Aim to put your air purifier where there is air flow, and where you believe there is a high concentration of pollutants. For example, place it on a side table, mount it on the wall, or place it near a door or window. Consider HEPA filtration, which has been the most extensively studied and proven to filter particles as small as 0.3 microns.

Regardless of the purification method, they all follow a general pattern. The EPA and many doctors agree that air purifiers are helpful—especially if the outdoor pollution is high, or if it’s too cold to throw open your windows and let in tons of fresh air. Despite their promises, are air purifiers a reliable solution to get rid of indoor pollutants?

The most basic filters will be able to trap larger clumps of dust and dirt. These filters get more and more efficient, all the way up to HEPA grade filters. Dust and other debris accumulate in your furnace, central A/C and ductwork. Installing a whole-house air purifier will reduce maintenance on your home’s comfort systems. A UV air purifier will decrease the amount of dust and microorganisms accumulating in your home, reducing the amount of cleaning you need to do. By adding an air purifier to your home, you can ensure that pollutants that cause breathing issues and health problems are eliminated from the air.

Do Air Purifiers Work? An Expert Explains If Air Purifiers Really Help With Allergies

Table of Content

• Why Don’t Air Purifiers Seem Not to Work Sometimes?
• An effective, comprehensive way to improve your indoor air quality
• Do Air Purifiers Actually Work?
• Best HEPA filters assist in the removal of pollutants.
• What are medical-grade air purifiers?
• Are air purifiers effective at removing cooking odors?

However, it is important that before investing in a costly machine to assess whether your expectations line up with what a particular HEPA air purifier is capable of doing, and their safety. Before joining the Primal team, she earned her master’s and Ph.D. in Social and Personality Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, where she also worked as a researcher and instructor. Secure the filter to the fan, making sure that air can’t escape out the sides. Air is meant to go through the filter in one direction, indicated by arrows on the side of the filter, so make sure you have it oriented correctly.

Severe allergy or asthma sufferers should consider an air purifier. He commented that, because of the turbulence they create, someone would have to be situated a very short distance away from an air purifier for it to have any real impact. In addition, factors such as location, flow rate and how long it’s operating for will all affect how well an air purifier works. HEPA and CADR rating systems use slightly different measurements to compare filters, but you can use either or both to evaluate products as you shop. However, make sure you compare like with like, pitting HEPA seal againstHEPA seal and CADR rating against CADR rating. Ventilate your home by opening a window and running fans if you need to use harsher chemicals.

Why Don’t Air Purifiers Seem Not to Work Sometimes?

Research studies report that after continued use of an air purifier, patients can experience fewer allergic reactions and asthma symptoms. However, air purifiers are not meant to be a direct replacement for medications. Air purifiers can be beneficial to prevent the aggravating particles from getting into your eyes, throats, and lungs in the first place.

Like smoke, odors can be eliminated by using an air purifier with an activated carbon filter. The charcoal in the filter absorbs distasteful smells like those of body odor, litter boxes, and cooking fish. But make sure your air purifier also has a HEPA filter to deal with particles—a carbon filter alone will not trap dust or pollen. Even if you are in perfect health, indoor exposure to particulate matter, lead, oxides and others can cause short and long-term health effects. Not to mention the countless indoor sources of air pollution that we breathe in daily and perpetuate through regular living habits. The harsh reality is indoor air pollution requires control solutions.

An effective, comprehensive way to improve your indoor air quality

Volatile organic compounds or VOCs are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at room temperature. Common examples of daily VOCs include benzene, ethylene glycol, formaldehyde, methylene chloride, tetrachloroethylene, toluene, xylene, and 1,3-butadiene. Air purifiers can capture VOCs from the air so they don’t end up harming human health. As we mentioned above, some products include one or more of these features to strip harmful particles from the air. By sending out negatively charged ions into the air that latch onto particulates. This bond causes the pollutants to stick to surrounding surfaces and fall onto the floor.

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Do Air Purifiers Actually Work?

Filter-equipped air purifiers may also remove smoke in the air, including smoke from landscape fires and tobacco smoke. Still, air purifiers can’t get rid of the smell of smoke entirely, and there may still be instances of smoke stains on walls and ceilings despite their use. Ionic air purifiers emit large amounts of negative ions into the air. In the same way that static works, these ions attach to particles in the air and ground them. However, there can be negative health consequences to ionic air purifiers that negate their value as an air purifier.

A whole home air purifier can filter up to 99% of all contaminants, making it the most effective and efficient way to clean the air your family breathes and protect them from harmful indoor pollution. I’m all for getting as many houseplants as you can reasonably fit in one space. Unfortunately, though, they probably won’t deliver the air purifying benefits you want.

Best HEPA filters assist in the removal of pollutants.

Many of the most common triggers for allergic reactions are eliminated by using an air filter. The best whole house air purifier is one that provides total protection against dust, viruses, allergens, VOCs and all sorts of air pollutants. An active air purifier targets the source of air pollutants, swiftly and effectively eradicating them. This prevents indoor air pollution from becoming unmanageable. A whole-home active air purifier is installed directly into your HVAC system, reaching every corner of your house.

An air purifier is an appliance that pulls in air from inside your home, filters it, and releases cleaner air back into the room. In addition to simply filtering out large particles, air purifiers sanitize air that passes through them. It is one of the most effective and studied air purifiers on the market. Unfortunately, they are mostly smaller than 0.3 micron and constitute more than 90% of air particulates. As alluded above, HEPA air filter is most efficient for particles 0.3 micron and above.

These are all things that occur naturally, but can aggravate peoples’ allergies if they inhale them. The most common type of home filters right now are HEPA filters. Air cleaning devices such as air purifiers help improve the quality of your indoor air by removing or reducing pollutants and allergens.

Particles considered “fine” are less than 10 microns in diameter (ultrafine ones, such as soot, smog and viruses, are less than 2.5). For comparison, a human hair is about 50 to 70 microns in diameter. Still, air purifiers work best in conjunction with proper filtration and home cleaning techniques. An air purifier won’t work to increase indoor air quality alone, but it can certainly help.

Understanding how the purifiers work, what their differences are, and what type of issues each is best suited for will go a long way towards making the best choice for your home. If routine allergies or asthma symptoms negatively impact your life, the evidence that a HEPA filter improves respiratory health may encourage you to shop around for an air purifier. The best air purifiers generally cost between $200 and $900 on the high end, but since it’s recommended to run them constantly, expect a spike in your electricity bill. If you’re concerned about your bottom line, look for the blue Energy Star sticker when shopping to take home a certified model that uses 40 percent less energy to operate.