Ahhhhh, spring is almost here.  Birds are chirping, the skies are clearing, and flower buds are blooming.  Well, it’s still winter around these parts, but with the sweet scent of lavender and coconut wafting through the air thanks to my VOCOlinc Flowerbud Smart Diffuser, it certainly takes me away to my favorite months of the year.  Being the first to enter the Humidifier category in HomeKit, there is a bit of well-deserved excitement surrounding this product and we’ll be exploring the features and usability of this unique HomeKit accessory.  

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Features

• Ultrasonic, adjustable cool mist humidifier / essential oil diffuser
• 300 lumen “mood light” with full color and white spectrum
• 300 ml capacity

Need to Knows

• 2.4 Ghz Wifi range
• 300 ml water capacity
• BPA-free
• Ideal for rooms up to 400 sq. ft. (122 sq. m.)

Pros

The biggest thing that the VOCOlinc Flowerbud has going for it is, well, it’s monopoly.  It’s the only smart diffuser that works with HomeKit on the market.  Beyond this fact, however, it has an aesthetically pleasing design, decent build quality, and is simple to use.  

The Flowerbud is controllable not only manually and automatically through the LinkWise app and other HomeKit apps, but it has simple physical buttons on the face of the device allowing you to set timers for oil diffusion and to power on/off the 300 lumen “mood light” and to cycle through pre-selected colors.

Via the LinkWise app, you can also set a timer for how long you’d like the diffuser to diffuse between 30 minutes and 8 hours.  This is a limitation of Apple’s Home app, though with some clever scene and automation creation, you can kind of work around this issue, but it is unnecessarily complex if you ask me.

Cons

The Flowerbud’s tank holds 300 ml of water which VOCOlinc says should get you around 8 hours of mist time.  Though I found this to be accurate, if you’re planning on running this thing more often than that, be prepared to fill the tank and potentially overuse the device leading to it no longer functioning properly.

This diffuser works well in small spaces, but doesn’t have a huge output.  I’m even hesitant to call it a humidifier.  I monitored the humidity in the room that it was in via an Eve Room and the humidity only increased from 1 and 5% depending on the proximity of the Eve Room to the diffuser.     Though the scents it throws off occupy a small bedroom or office, it likely won’t be a good solution for larger rooms like living rooms or dining areas.

Though not a huge problem, two of the three rubber feet on the base of the accessory had fallen off sometime after the device was packaged.  While this is nothing a touch of super glue can’t fix, it may offer insight to the build quality, but only time will tell.

The App

VOCOlinc’s LinkWise app is relatively simple to use, but if you are used to other apps such as Apple’s Home app, the other Home app, or Eve’s app, you’ll probably find it’s layout and structure a bit odd and your likely to not use the app that often.  It has a very unique mix of text-based drop down menus and confusingly labeled icons that aren’t particularly user-friendly.  I think VOCOlinc is aware of this fact as on the Home tab, and default tab when launching, of the app, clearly labeled is the “Add Device” button which quickly allows you to add setup a device.

However, other than being able to update the device’s firmware, which there was an update when I first setup the device, the app also offers three different lighting effects that aren’t available in Apple’s Home app: breathing, flashing, and smoothing.  During our testing, we discovered that although Apple’s Home app doesn’t support lighting effects, HomeKit does!  We were able to create a scene with the lighting effect  and that scene was then accessible in HomeKit with the same lighting effect.  Unfortunately, if you try to edit the behavior of the Flowerbud accessory in the scene through the Home app, it will disable the lighting effect functionality.  Here’s a video on how to use various automations with the Flowerbud, including the one I just described:

Final Thoughts

The Flowerbud is a welcomed addition to my HomeKit setup.  My wife and I have rather enjoyed incorporating it into scenes and automations when arriving home and quite like the subtle scents it provides.  We haven’t completely rid our home of candles, which do produce VOCs by the way, but the diffuser has allowed for a more comfortable bedroom.  The inclusion of the mood light puts off a warm glow and I personally like the “smoothing” light effect attainable from the LinkWise app.I also think that the price point of the Flowerbud is very reasonable for what it offers and I can say that overall I am pretty satisfied with the device.  My wife had been wanting a diffuser for some time and we had trouble finding one that: A) had a hard on/off switch for control via a smart plug, and B) had an aesthetically-pleasing design; and VOCOlinc’s offering came to the rescue on both fronts.  I’ll give it a bit more time to see how the device holds up with more extended use, but it is likely that I’ll add at least one more to my setup.

Do you have the Flowerbud? What are your thoughts on this as a smart device or as a diffuser? Sound off in the comments and don’t forget to track us down on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @myhomekithome.

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Links & Resources

Learn more about VOCOlinc’s entire range of HomeKit-enabled smart home gear at https://www.vocolinc.com

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