Josh Hendrickson
Moen, one of the leaders in kitchen and shower faucets in the U.S., has slowly been working its way into smart homes. It started with whole-home water monitoring and smart showers, and now Moen is ready to expand into your kitchen. Today the company announced the U by Moen Smart Faucet, complete with Alexa and Google Assistant integrations.
Control Your Faucet By Voice, Motion, App, or Handle
At first glance, the U by Moen Smart Faucet doesn’t stand out from other kitchen faucets. But while you can use it like any other faucet by pulling the handle and turning it to the desired temperature, you don’t have to.
Instead, you can call on your favorite voice assistant to take care of the hard work while you multitask. As you’re getting out a pot, you could say, “Alexa, ask Moen to pour three cups of 110-degree water.” The Smart Faucet will turn on, warm the water up to temperature and then stop.
When you get to the faucet with your pot, you will wave your have over it and the Smart Faucet will dispense three cups of water. It’s the kind of sequence that saves you water and time since the faucet isn’t endlessly dispensing water until you check the temperature (again).
As mentioned, you can turn the faucet on and off with a wave of your hand. If that isn’t futuristic enough for you, you can also control it from an app (available for Android and iPhone).
The Moen app will let you create presets for specific measurements, temperatures, or both. For example, you could set up a “baby bottle” preset that dispenses eight fluid ounces of 85-degree water. When you want to use it, ask your assistant to “fill the baby bottle” and it will take care of the warming up process. Just wave your hand over the smart faucet when you’re ready with the bottle.
You can use Metric or Imperial measurements along with specific commands or more generic requests, such as “warm water” or “cold water.” The faucet includes indicator lights so you can see when the water is warming up or cooling down.
A Fit for Nearly Any Home
U by Moen Smart Faucet will come in a variety of styles for nearly every home. The design options include modern, transitional, and traditional looks. The company compared the looks to its Align, Arbor, and Brantford faucets, respectively, among other choices.
While most smart faucets on the market require a free unswitched power outlet near your sink, U by Moen doesn’t. Instead, it runs off batteries that should last up to two years. That’s great because with other faucets, if you don’t have a handy power outlet, you’d have to hire an electrician to run one for you, adding to the overall expense.
Unfortunately, Moen didn’t say how much U by Moen Smart Faucets would cost, but it did imply the price would vary based on the style you choose. The company also didn’t specify a release date. We’ll keep an eye out for more details as they become available.
