---
title: 'Smart Home Fails: Lessons from Our Biggest Mistakes'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=n18t1XfRWJQ'
video_id: 'n18t1XfRWJQ'
date: 2026-07-11
duration_sec: 1188
---

# Smart Home Fails: Lessons from Our Biggest Mistakes

> Source: [Smart Home Fails: Lessons from Our Biggest Mistakes](https://youtube.com/watch?v=n18t1XfRWJQ)

## Summary

The video recounts the journey of building a smart home over two years, highlighting both costly mistakes and successful optimizations. From overpriced Pokéball chargers and a $4,000 bioethanol fireplace to a $15,000 water feature that had to be removed, the creators share lessons learned. They ultimately achieved a highly functional, organized home with smart systems, acoustic treatments, and practical upgrades like the Secretlab Magnus Pro desk and Easy Plant self-watering pots.

### Key Points

- **Initial Mistakes** [00:02] — The creators admit they made terrible decisions when first building their home, including overpaying for niche items like Pokéball wireless chargers ($150 from Japan) that nobody used.
- **Better Charging Solutions** [00:53] — They switched to brick chargers with magnetic bases and tiny USB-C cables, and strategically placed Belkin wall chargers with retractable cables (67W) around the house.
- **Kitchen Mistakes and Improvements** [01:34] — Originally bought a Ninja slushy maker for parties but only drink tea/coffee. Replaced a loud Miele coffee machine with a more intuitive one. Added a Luca tea pot to prevent boiling over, and a frother for powders.
- **Kitchen Organization** [03:14] — Organized appliances, coffees, teas, and powders in dedicated sections with a drawer for extras. Praised the toaster, Beast blender (no drips), Ninja Creami ice cream machine (helped with weight loss), and Simple Human products (soap dispensers, bin).
- **Plant Failures and Solution** [04:34] — Killed hard-to-kill plants, then switched to Easy Plant self-watering pots that need watering only once a month via a reservoir.
- **Acoustic and Lighting Upgrades** [05:13] — Added acoustic panels to reduce echo, replaced dotty LED strips with Omniglow diffused strips. Emphasized the importance of drawer organizers for keeping spaces tidy.
- **Worst Fails: Fireplace and Water Feature** [07:02] — Spent $4,000 on a bioethanol fireplace that was a hassle to light and produced a weak flame. Replaced with a gas Loom pit with LED, speaker, and wireless chargers. Spent $15,000 on a water feature that required daily generator runs (noisy) and weekly/monthly maintenance; water went moldy, so they paid another $1,000 to remove it.
- **Desk Upgrades** [11:59] — All desks upgraded to Secretlab Magnus Pro (sponsored) with cable management trays and magnetic organizers. Desks are height-adjustable and wipeable.
- **Acoustic Treatment for Office** [13:09] — Hired Resonics to install two layers of absorption panels on all walls, making the office extremely quiet (like a library) despite thin walls and concrete floors.
- **Gym and Smart Punching Bag** [14:26] — Replaced a TikTok-famous punching bag with a Bout Smart Punching Bag that tracks punch power and has workout routines. Technogym machines were worth the splurge.
- **Guest Control and Cinema Room** [15:36] — Used old iPhones as Control4 remotes for guests to control blinds, AC, and lights. Cinema room has drop-down screens and a healthier snack cabinet. Added face masks, scalp massagers, and a Hypervolt massage gun.
- **Studio B Disaster** [17:36] — Spent $22,000 on outdoor sofas that were uncomfortable, had dim LEDs, and were not movable. Replaced with wheeled furniture. Frosted mirrors to avoid reflections. Replaced blinds with giant acoustic panels on windows for better light blocking and easy access.

### Conclusion

The creators learned that taking time to make purchasing decisions, choosing the right version over the best version, and investing in organization (like drawer dividers) are key to a functional home. Despite many expensive mistakes, they ended up with a highly optimized living space.

## Transcript

of truly [music] terrible decisions. 2 years ago we built realize at the time is we were making >> greatest mistakes of our lives. So, here's where we went wrong, but then
also how we [music] eventually turned this into a home that's optimized beyond living room. When we first moved in, I spent an entire [music] week trying to find the perfect wireless chargers specifically designed to look like
Pokéballs. These were so rare I ended up paying [music] $150 to import them from Japan. So, imagine my pain when I realized no one wants to use wireless chargers. Every time someone came over and we're playing
a game over there, ah, for goodness sake, and their battery was running out, they didn't want to banish their phone to the other side of the room just to charge it. Leading us to what we've realized is the better solution,
bricks covers the power needs of every phones, they charge laptops. They've got this magnetic base to pop them back onto know how to use them. And then you just keep these tiny [music] USB-C cables
plugged into them all times cuz they're practically invisible from the front. bothered to grab one, we found that these Belkin wall chargers are an insanely [music] useful product to have strategically dotted around the house.
67 watts of power, enough for most laptops, USB-C with the cable [music] built in, and the cable itself is retractable. So, no cable mess either. >> But the kitchen mistakes cost us quite a lot more. The first big change was the
this idea that we were going to host parties every other week. We had Cîroc bottles and a Ninja slushy maker to turn those into something even more fun. But the reality is we only really drink tea and coffee. So,
the slushy's gone, but in its place we have figured out how to truly master the warm beverage. So, for coffee, my My was surprisingly don't go for a machine from >> [music] >> but I hated it. It was so loud, it took
so long to do anything, and most of all, the user interface was abysmally basic couldn't tell what drink you were asking it to make cuz it just shows such limited information. And it's only when we got fed up and changed it out for a
clicked just [music] how many generations behind Miele is in some ways. This thing was the same price, just miles more intuitive to operate, especially if it's a [music] guest using it. And then if you make tea in a pot
like I do, the Luca will fix your problems. It's this incredibly simple but cool piece of engineering where as your tea boils, instead of the foam bubbling over the edge, this makes it fall back on itself.
So you can leave it fairly unattended on high heat and not flood your kitchen with chai. And then for any type of powder drink, this is hot chocolate or matcha, you just throw the milk in, throw the powder in, and
this will get it to the perfect 80° C and really frothy. >> [music] >> It's actually all froth. Ah. Nice. And then the way we formatted this
all is the appliances for coffee, teas, and powders are on that section. Then above that is all the regular actual coffees, teas, and powders themselves. And then if you want anything extra, this drawer opens up and that's coffees,
teas, and powders. This cabinet is just pure joy to me. Now, there's a bunch of things in this kitchen that I do think we nailed first time. Like the toaster. Of course, it's the one and only. Like seriously, look at this slice of bread.
>> [music] >> And the Beast blender is something we got later on, but it's been instantly amazing. It's just seriously fast, like
type thing. >> [music] >> And there's no drippage anywhere. Then in here, the Ninja Creami ice cream machine has [music] earned its place for eternity. This machine was responsible
for about 50% of my weight loss transformation. And then every single simple human product we got, too. The kitchen roll holder that's also secretly inside, [music] the touchless soap dispensers, one for dish soap, one for
hand wash, and the bin, too. All of this stuff, in the entire 2 years, haven't >> I like this stuff enough that I've actually bought a bunch of it as gifts for friends. Because nothing says I care about you
But not everything was perfect on first try. Like the plants. We originally bought these very nice, hard-to-kill indoor plants. Realized that we're not particularly green-thumbed when they
still died, but then found a brand called Easy Plant, who basically made this self-watering pot, which means that instead of needing to water the soil like once a week, you actually instead just take that off and water the
reservoir roughly once a month. And this makes sure that the plant has what it pretty much every plant in this house is now an Easy Plant. We've added an air off a bunch of things that you [music] don't necessarily want to be marinating
in all day. We got some acoustic panels. They just help to [music] take some of that empty room echo out, but that's also nothing compared to what we've done dotty-looking LED strips under our island. Those have now been axed in
Omniglow, which are pretty perfectly diffused. But, do you know, the most noticeable upgrade for me day-to-day is the organization inside of Actually, I want to have a serious talk about organizers. There was a point in
my life when I thought the idea of something like this was completely buying this whole new thing that actually eats further into your drawer tidy? I was wrong. Drawer dividers like this,
drawer organizers like this, drawer trays like this, this stuff is absolutely essential [music] if you want your rooms to stay clean cuz they allow you to create just the right amount of space for each type of product within
something from them, you've created a situation where the easiest thing to do done. I swear, when you move into a new place, it's like this black hole opens
up where your tape, your scissors, your Blu Tack, [music] it all just disappears into. You'll keep buying them, you'll keep losing them unless you have good systems. I literally bought a magnetic pair of scissors for this exact reason.
this thing back. Plus with the right organizers, you'll also always know when top-ups ready. And even though, [music] yes, organizers can take up space, use them well and they'll actually free you space by just helping you use what you
realized we were running out of room for shoes, but of course then we found shoe organizers that let you stack each shoe on top of its other half. Now we could host a millipede if we wanted to. But now we've had my proper dad chat
about drawers, it's time to swallow my pride and talk about our worst fails. Like how we originally spent $4,000 buying an indoor fireplace for our garden. And it's not entirely our fault. There
are many companies who will try to sell you bioethanol fireplaces like this for you that they're just like a normal fireplace but with less harmful emissions and less plumbing required, which are both technically true. It just
means that you're effectively dropping 4K on a tub which, as promised, was almost no hassle to first set up. Instead, [music] it was a massive hassle have to manually pour in the bio-ethanol. It was such [music] a pain
to light. And most importantly, the resulting flame, I mean, it was basically just a big [music] candle. Cavemen would be ashamed. Point being, one. Get a gas fireplace like the Loom pit
about 30 seconds to get a fire going. That fire is like four times the size. And then the reason that we went for this one specifically is the extra tricks. It's got an LED strip hidden underneath, a speaker system inside, and
even two unexpectedly clutch wireless chargers. chargers. My friends actually use these ones.
small fry compared to the office. Our original vision was this Japanese Zen garden themed room incorporating as many earthy elements as possible like moss, wood, and even this giant water feature in the corner. But we've ended up
changing literally [music] 50% of this room. Partly just because we found ways to make it even better. Partly because attitude at the start of this was we're only going to build our dream house
get, let's just get the best [music] version of that thing. And while that mindset did pay off for many things in this house, it was not the best approach for the whiteboard. In the pursuit of whiteboard maxing, we ended up with this
Samsung Flip Pro. And after a few months came to the humbling realization that normal whiteboard didn't offer. [music] And then because of all the tech, the thing's just so heavy and unmaneuverable that we
>> didn't end up using it at all. This incredible piece of hardware we use all the time. There's a whole bunch of small refinements here like the DeltaHub Carpio has ended up feeling like the
final missing ingredient for the perfect mouse [music] setup. It lifts and cups your wrist to eliminate the strain that I didn't even realize was there until I started using it. I've upgraded the keyboard to the fairly new 2026 Mood
Sonnet. This is a very extreme purchase, but the benefit comes because they can customize the look, the sound, and the feel of the keyboard to exactly what you have in your mind. Plus, if we ever have a break-in, then
this can be my weapon. We changed our under-desk elliptical to one from Decathlon, which to my surprise has ended up more affordable, smoother, [music] and with higher resistance than any other high-end one I've tried. And
then here, I'm currently in the process of testing what's either going to end up as one giant gimmick or literally the god of all office chairs, because this thing is motorized. So, you grab this remote and you press to control exactly
where you want the lumbar support to be. [music] This has seat heating, seat ventilation, which is unbelievably clutch on a day like today where somehow clutch on a day like today where somehow the UK has hit 38° C.
>> [screaming] >> And then even three different levels of massage. Oh yeah, and a footrest. But, as comfortable as this is, well, it is really, really comfortable. I'm still slightly TBC on whether I want
to [music] charge. But, there are three overarching permanent changes to this room. Like, for example, there's no water feature anymore. The thing was beautiful. I loved the vision,
but living with a large water feature inside your house, even if you're down it's not worth it. For starters, we spent $15,000 [music] getting the thing fully fitted. It needed a lot more parts than we
originally expected, like a generator that, once set up, needed to run once per day for 3 hours, and [music] it sounded like this. Then, we were told that we needed to maintain the water with three different treatment plans.
do once a week, one set of things that you have to do once a month, and then a have to do once every 3 months. Fail to do any of that, even a few times, which of course we did, the water goes moldy. It started to smell so bad that
ultimately we decided the best course of action was to fork out another thousand get the thing taken out and use the space for a fourth desk, which is such a generational L that it has kept me up at least a few nights.
And not just because of the generator. The second major change is that every single desk has been upgraded to the Secretlab Magnus Pro, our sponsor, but are still height adjustable like our previous ones, but the [music] magic is
this leg. This means that with just one cable into the very bottom here, which you can barely see, it gives you power to not just your desk, but every single that does this better. It essentially gives you mains power, but [music] up
here. So, all your messy desktop cables, instead of trailing off the end of the desk, can instead just fall down into this tray, stay plugged in, and become like 97% invisible even as you're moving the desk up and down. And the other
thing is, it's just insanely clean, both literally, I mean the thing's like one giant [music] wipeable coaster, but also aesthetically, because it's magnetic too, you can manage the 3% of remaining cables by just snapping these organizers
down on top of them. But sadly, the cost of all four of those plus the entire water feature fiasco is still less than the cost of our third modification. This. We realized after a few months using the original office that it just
wasn't quiet enough. We have concrete floors all over the house, which are really bad for echo. And then these are really thin walls, that there's a kitchen on the other side, and potentially in a few months, a
crying baby, too. So, we started to play around with acoustic paneling. We tested some of the more plug-and-play options like this. These things, [music] they don't cut enough noise out. Plus, they stick out a lot visually. So, eventually
we decided that the only way we were going to get the result was to fully commit. We got a company called Resonics to measure out and fit two layers of absorption across every spare wall here. It's gotten to the point now where even
noise happening in the kitchen, as you can hear because we're shooting this clip on the phone, then all you need to do is to take like I want to say 12 steps into the office over here, and as soon as you've done that, shut the door
behind you, it is literally like stepping into a library. Ow. So quiet. And I think the panels actually look incredible, too. If anything, they're adding to the earthy
elements [music] vibe. And we did pretty much the same thing to our entryway. This room was atrocious to film in before. It was just so echoey. Plus >> [music] >> you'd hear it at the top of the house.
And so, this acoustic treatment has been an extremely expensive, but at the very least conclusive way to fix that. The gym has been mostly perfect. Zero regrets splurging on the Technogym machines. They do just feel like a cut
making our own. But it was this >> [music] originally. It was one of those classic products that look great on TikTok that, let's be honest, you're just not going to use as part of any realistic workout.
we replaced it with its bigger brother. This is the Bout Smart Punching Bag. And smart whiteboard, we made sure that before any kind of tech, this was just a great punching bag. Thankfully,
it has the tech, too. That was weak. It has all sorts of tech, your punch power. It can show you how much you've damaged different parts of the bag like a boss in a video game. There's even these entire workout
routines where this dude shows you what to do and the closer you get to him, the higher your going to score. Now, if you haven't already realized at this point, optimization. I will actually spend entire weekends looking at tiny little
pain points and then figuring out how to iron them out. Like, for example, we realized that when guests come over, while they can get fine control over things like the AC, blinds, and lights using these Control4 tablets that we
have in the hallways, the ideal is to give them that full control from within the rooms. And that while you can buy Control4 home remote specifically for expensive than just using some of the iPhones that we already had around.
[music] So, because we're in the Japan room, it's a nice pink iPhone and on it, you can see we've gone to the extent of [music] actually writing out instructions for the three different apps they should be using to set [music]
exactly where they want the blinds to be or the temperature of the room. And this is also a full working remote for the Samsung Frame TV on the wall. So far, our guests love it. >> Nice sleeping now.
We are literally in here every evening. The second and third screens that drop like they might be a gimmick, but I'm happy to say they are not. The only thing we've really had to improve is the food cabinet because [music] it turns
long day, it's pretty easy to eat a bag of whatever you've kept right next to you. Or five. So, the snacks and the drinks have gotten quite a lot healthier over time. But also, we realized, since this
has become our default place for relaxation, that it's the perfect place Like, we've absolutely fallen in love with these फेस masks. They make your skin clearer using red and blue light.
These scalp massagers from Breo give you tingles all across your body in like the best way possible. And then I've also found it really to keep a Hypervolt massage gun in this section cuz turns out when I play football, I keep
just to be clear. And then when we're done rehabilitating, everything just goes back into its charging place or base. [music] base. [music] Ah, [sighs] I just love systems.
But the single greatest L of our entire house project has to be studio B. Like the sofas. I spent $22,000 buying what I thought was the perfect furniture for this room. It was angular and futuristic and even had LEDs baked
inside. So I had this idea that we could theme even the color of our sofas to the were the worst things we could have gotten. That furniture was designed for the outdoors, so it was about as [music] comfy as a plank. The LEDs were so dim
see them. And then because the things were powered, we had like eight extra [music] we couldn't move anything around, which is kind of like the that the entire point of this room is that everything is movable. That's the
types of sets for different kinds of videos, which is why now we've gotten everything we can mounted onto wheels. Yeah, even this giant TV. I originally surrounded the room with these 7-ft
would make the studio look more futuristic. And it did. It's just we didn't factor in that it would make it almost impossible then to film any kind reflection in them. So now we've gone and frosted everything over. And then
also we had blinds like this across this entire window area to stop the light coming in. That was actually a poor solution too because every time the be for filming, you couldn't actually get in or out of the building without
pulling them all the way back up again. So I'm pretty chuffed with my idea to sub those all out for giant acoustic panels that just stick onto the windows themselves. They do the same thing as blinds, but they block even more light,
because they're completely stuck on, when the door opens, [music] so you can leave. As you can see, going straight from getting our first home to trying to make every single buying decision in a matter
of weeks, we made a lot of mistakes. And if you're going to take anything from time as you can when you're making the confuse the best version of something with the right version. And then three,
have too many of them. have too many of them. Buy more drawers if you have to.