Smart technology has made its way into nearly every room of our homes in recent years. From TVs with programmable features and voice-controlled speakers to ovens that can follow recipes and smart bathrooms that can attend to your every need.
But is a smart bathroom a smart investment? RAVE breaks down the 5 reasons why a smart bathroom is a good idea.
Some people may not understand the purpose of a smart bathroom. But the truth is, smart bathroom technology generally makes bathrooms easier to use and more convenient than ever. And home owners around the country are choosing to adopt them. Analysts predict that by 2023, 15% of all American homes will have a smart device installed.
See our ultimate smart home guide to learn more about these devices.
Smart bathrooms employ advanced devices with voice and touch commands for ease of use that can customize your bathroom experience. But of course there’s more to consider, so let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
- Make Your Smart Bathroom Work For You!
- Into the Future: Top Smart Bathroom Technology
- The Downsides of Smart Bathroom Technology
- Frequently Asked Questions about Smart Bathrooms
- Final Thoughts
Make Your Smart Bathroom Work For You!
Whether investing in a smart bathroom is the the smart decision for you will depend on whether you will enjoy its unique benefits. And whether you can customize its features and make it work for you.
Here are the 5 biggest reasons to embrace smart bathroom technology, and how you can make the most if it:
Better Hygiene
A smart bathroom is not just for luxury. This smart home technology can actually help improve personal hygiene in the bathroom. For one, touchless fixtures and smart toilets, such as built-in bidets and faucets, will drastically decrease the number of harmful bacteria in the bathroom.
Not only that, but touchless fixtures also save you or the custodian time and energy when cleaning. Therefore, increasing the safety of everyone using the bathroom.
While smart and touchless fixtures are more expensive than manual fixtures, the reward will surely outweigh the price for many home owners.
Increased Sustainability
These smart bathrooms are not only great in keeping the spread of harmful bacteria at a minimum, but it also helps advance resource sustainability.
It’s clear to everyone that in the past 20 years, the Earth’s natural resources have been depleting. Information from multiple websites is readily available about the detrimental effects of thousands of products on the environment, causing the Earth to suffer. Many businesses and households are emerging with new and improved bathroom technology for better sustainability and lower energy and water bill.
For example, smart dispensing solutions limit the plastic and consumable waste in the bathroom. This smart bathroom technology adjusts the volumes of soap dispensed and has a buffer time for soap use. This prevents people from extracting more soap than necessary and reduces waste.
Smart dispensers allow you to save resources and money as well. Smart toilet bidets cut out the need for toilet paper and some employ self-cleaning technology which cuts down the need for harsh toiletcleaning chemicals.
Better User Experience
An enhanced user experience is the most apparent reason why smart home technology is a good idea. Because of smart technology, you can program almost every inch of your bathroom to appeal to all your senses.
Imagine a bathroom with a smart lighting system, high-tech toilets with antimicrobial seats, automatic essential oils diffuser, fully functioning sinks with smart sensor faucets, a smart mirror that provides the perfect ambient lighting, and smart showers with the perfect temperature and customizable water pressure.
Expect to spend at least an hour longer in that room with such a well-maintained, clean, and fully functioning bathroom!
Sensors, voice control, and monitoring capabilities also ensure a proper balance between power supply demands, preventing outages for users. These smart bathroom technologies also assist you in quickly addressing clogs, water leaks, and faulty flush valves, reducing restroom disruptions.
These tech savvy devices also collect customer feedback and determine patron satisfaction levels to help facility managers decide whether the restroom is performing correctly and can quickly alert custodians of an issue.
These smart systems, when combined, provide better health management and a more elevated user experience.
Easier Cleaning
It is no secret that cleaning a bathroom can be a daunting task; the person assigned to clean the bathroom may feel burnout from time to time, especially those paid to it, such as custodians. And because of the pandemic, everyone needs to clean their bathroom more often to reduce the spread of harmful bacteria.
Some may manually create and update cleaning and sanitizing checklists, or monitor cleaning staff to ensure room tasks are completed.
The psychological and physical toll is severe. Smart home bathroom technology, on the other hand, enables self-cleaning technology. Task alerts and checklists are automated. Built in apps help with tracking performance, and measuring results, saving everyone time, energy, and effort.
Increased Confidence
You’ll undeniably feel more confident with your bathroom for all the reasons mentioned above.
Since this technological advancement allows you to organize, perform, monitor, and measure a wide range of cleaning, sanitizing, and maintenance tasks more efficiently, you’ll be more confident about your bathroom’s cleanliness.
This streamlined and automated approach ensures that everyone involved in bathroom maintenance has a clear understanding of tasks and expectations. This can really cut down on the delegations needed for a family to keep their bathroom in top condition.
Into the Future: Top Smart Bathroom Technology
But beyond these 5 reasons a smart bathroom is a good idea, you’ll want to know what a smart bathroom really. So let’s take a look at the amazing smart tech that can elevate your bathroom.
Smart Toilets
Smart toilets are packed with techy features that perform several functions aside from flushing. You can add music to your bathroom for a calming effect. You can stream music without touching your phone and use Alexa or Google Assistant instead. Some products also allow you to connect to the Internet for easy access to your favorite tunes.
In addition to providing an improved bathroom experience, smart toilets frequently use far less water than conventional toilets. These smart devices are an outstanding option for environmentally conscious consumers and those looking to save money on energy bills. You can either ditch your toilet paper and opt for a built-in smart bidet, or choose to be smart with your toilet paper use with a tech-enhanced dispenser.
Adjustable Privacy Glass
In addition to providing convenience, adjustable privacy glass help save the environment by reducing power usage. This new technology increases natural lighting, lowers energy use for artificial light, reduces solar heat gain, and reduces air-conditioning needs.
Furthermore, these techy privacy glasses reduce fabric waste to make shutters, curtains, projection screens, drapes, blinds, and dry erase boards. It also removes the need for dust-gathering draperies, blinds, or shutters, improving indoor air quality (IAQ).
Smart Showers
Smart showers are probably the best buy for busy people.
Imagine not having to guess which temperature will feel best, and instead just turning on your shower to the perfect temperature. These devices come packed with features that allow users to control the shower’s heating, flow, and duration.
Many smart showers provide user profiles and water saving features.
Interactive LED Mirrors/Smart Mirrors
Interactive LED mirrors are not your ordinary mirrors; these smart mirrors have a digital display behind the glass. They allow you to connect to the internet, Bluetooth, and even your phone to make phone calls and access apps.
These smart mirrors are installed with switchable LED lights and display information, such as date and time, weather forecasts, traffic reports, daily news, and can even project tv shows.
Interactive LED mirrors are not just used for style and luxury. They are functionally useful for beauty and fitness.
For instance, a beauty-focused smart mirror offers tailored information about your makeup and skincare, while fitness-focused ones give you workout videos and guidance directly on the glass.
Floor Heating System
Nothing beats stepping out of a warm, comfortable bed and into a heated bathroom with heated floors. Furthermore, you can combat the chill of cold air by staying warm while drying off after a hot shower.
These heating systems use radiant heat to heat your bathroom, with several advantages over traditional heating.
Smart Scales
We’re in an era where people are conscious about their body composition more than weight alone, not just for aesthetics but for health reasons. A smart scale helps you track your wellness and fitness goals. Smart scales can also track and store data and communicate with other smart devices such as fitness trackers and smartphone apps.
Body fat percentage, body mass index, muscle mass, water weight, bone mass, and other factors such as resting heart rate can all be calculated by a smart scale. These scales are helpful because all of your data is stored in one location, allowing you to see changes in real-time.
Knowledge is power, and these scales allow you to track your body’s progress and fluctuations like no other.
Chromatherapy Lights
Colors are not just something you see; they are a powerful tool used to influence mood, signal actions, and even create physiological reactions. Specific colors are linked with increased metabolism, blood pressure, and eyestrain.
Now, it is possible to control this through chromatherapy, which uses colored lighting in your bathroom.
Chromotherapy lights are high-intensity LED lights you can control digitally (usually with a simple remote control) and change the setting you want (romantic or relaxing). Most devices come with multiple colors, brightness, and intensity options.
You can combine Chromatherapy Lights with aromatherapy, thermotherapy, sound therapy, and hydrotherapy to create a relaxing spa experience right in your bathroom.
Smart Faucets
Smart faucets are making their way into our bathrooms. These smart home devices are equipped with efficiency sensors and temperature gauges that enable you to control how much water you and the other users can use in the bathroom.
A smart faucet, like your smartphone, can be programmed to do some incredible things. A touchless faucet, for example, uses touchless technology that allows you to turn the water on and off by sensors using infrared technology triggered by motion.
In addition to touchless faucets, other smart faucets combine the benefits of both hands-free and digital faucets. Combination faucets are more expensive than touch-free and digital faucets, but they have more features.
One of the top advantages of a smart faucet is the ability to limit water consumption. You can keep track of water consumption in all rooms where the faucets are installed through the device’s app. Every month, you’ll know how much water is used in each room, helping you develop a water-saving plan for your household.
Smart Water Assistant
A smart water assistant is a smart home technology that will help you conserve water and money while also integrating voice control. This tool can also help you avoid leaks in your home, saving you money by avoiding that ridiculously high water bill!
Furthermore, this smart device will provide detailed insights into your home’s water usage, and you’ll also receive regular reports to keep you informed of your water usage. For instance, if a leak is detected, you will receive an SMS or push notification to address it as soon as possible.
Smart water assistants can also detect hidden flaws in your water system, such as poor sealing. Some also have features that prevent frozen pipes by sending you warnings ahead of time.
Consumer electronics companies sell various models of leak detectors with the features you need.
Aromatherapy Diffuser
Aromatherapy is a natural plant extract-based healing treatment that improves mental and physical health. You can now do this therapy at home with an aromatherapy diffuser, which diffuses essential oils and create a spa-like experience.
Smart aromatherapy diffusers, unlike traditional devices, provide a deep and consistent experience and allow you to control time, lights, and intensity using smart devices or a simple command using a voice assistant.
These can automate the aromatherapy devices in your bathroom to keep it smelling great.
Smart Thermostat
A smart thermostat is a smart device that you can control using a smartphone, smart speaker, or other internet-connected devices. Smart thermostats typically allow you to program your preferred temperature settings, and you can also integrate them into home automation systems.
Smart thermostats lower your electricity bills by only heating and cooling your home when necessary. Your HVAC system will run more efficiently and use less carbon footprint by utilizing learning, geofencing, scheduling temperature intervals, reminding you when maintenance is due, and diagnosing system problems.
Towel Warmer
A towel warmer has a wide range of applications and benefits. They are used to heat bathrobes and towels so that the user can dry off after a shower or leave the pool, beach, or spa with a warm towel and/or bathrobe.
Water Recycler
A water recycler reuses up to 95 percent of the water from your bath, shower, washing machine, and air conditioning to flush water gardens, toilets, and swimming pools. It provides significant environmental benefits and a profitable investment that will undoubtedly pay for itself.
A water recycler can save you up to 45% on tap water and 45% on wastewater while also contributing to the stability of water supplies.
The Downsides of Smart Bathroom Technology
While there are many great reasons why a smart bathroom is a wonderful idea, there are some clear downsides to be aware of.
- Your smart bathroom can be complicated.
No matter how tech-savvy you are, some smart tech products can be perplexing. It may take some time to understand what you’re doing, so you may have some technical difficulties. If you’re not the technological savvy, you may want to get yourself ready first before deciding on smart bathrooms.
- Smart technology is not perfect; it is neither error-proof nor failure-proof.
There are also times when smart tech can be inefficient, or disruptive, depending on what you actually use it for. Instead of fixing a problem, they can exacerbate it. For example, your water heating device may not work 100% efficiently, affecting your temperature controlled water.
- Smart bathrooms aren’t cheap.
Switching to a smart bathroom can be very costly. Smart tech is not for you if you are not interested in purchasing expensive products. Although using energy-efficient products may save you money in the long run, it is still a significant financial outlay, so you must be sure that you’ll not regret a thing with this investment.
Frequently Asked Questions about Smart Bathrooms
How does one go about designing a smart bathroom?
Many smart bathroom devices can be installed as a DIY project. But they can definitely be rather involved, so be sure that you’re up to the task! There’s no shame in hiring a contractor to install your new smart bathroom devices.
The most important step in designing your smart bathroom is to ensure that you have both the necessary space and the electrical requirements. Many smart bathroom devices needed to be hooked up the internet and an electrical outlet.
So before anything else, make sure that your bathroom has the electrical wiring needed to accommodate the devices you’re interested in.
How do I make my bathroom a smart bathroom?
Essentially, the term ‘smart bathroom’ refers to a bathroom that has been upgraded to include smart devices. Now there’s certainly a distinction between a smart bathroom that includes all the various smart devices we listed above and one that only includes a smart air freshener.
But the line between the two is a fuzzy one. To increase your home’s value, we recommend installing the smart devices people care most about: such as a smart toilet, smart shower, and/or smart mirror.
Will a smart bathroom raise the value of my home?
Yes! Upgrading your home’s bathroom will certainly raise its value. Experts suggest home owners can recoup about 67% of their investment in a mid-range bathroom upgrade. A high end upgrade recoups about 60% of the investment.
So if you’re considering the long-term value, upgrading your bathroom might be a smart investment.
Final Thoughts
There is no doubt that smart bathrooms will be a part of the future.
With smart technology in the bathroom, you can adjust the lighting, use a thermostat for temperature control, and customize everything to your preference.
You can even link smart tech bathroom devices to the rest of the house. Basically, everything becomes a lot less complicated and you finish chores faster with this smart home idea!
However, remember that when it comes to smart tech, your preferences determine the best experience for you. You can go for cutting-edge technology or install a few simple smart home devices that make life easier. Find those that meet your needs and match your personality!
