Home Depot’s Hubspace ecosystem just keeps getting bigger

Since its 2021 launch, Home Depot’s Hubspace smart home ecosystem has expanded rapidly and now consists of at least 150 products. At CES, the home improvement retailer announced five new smart home products: a home security system, a thermostat, a hose timer, a bathroom fan, and—believe it or not—a smart chest freezer.

Despite its name, Hubspace does not rely on a central hub connected to your router. With a few exceptions—Hampton Bay Landscape Spotlights, for example, communicate via Bluetooth—every component has its own onboard Wi-Fi adapter, and you program and control the cloud-based system with an app your smartphone. In the case of the spotlights mentioned above, the lights can communicate via Bluetooth with a low-voltage transformer that serves as a bridge to Wi-Fi. Hubspace devices can also be controlled and programmed with Alexa or Google Assistant.

In many cases, Home Depot uses its existing private brand names—Hampton Bay for lighting products, such as the example above—to market Hubspace devices. Look for the presence of the Hubspace logo to know if it’s a smart product or something more conventional.

Vissanni Smart Chest Freezer

Big appliance manufacturers such as LG and Samsung already offer smart refrigerators, but Home Depot says it makes even more sense for your freezer to be smart. If you’re buying food in bulk—especially meat—you want to know as soon as possible if the power is out or your freezer door was left ajar.

With Home Depot’s 8.87-cubic-foot Smart Chest Freezer, you can verify that the freezer is running and at the correct temperature with a glance at the Hubspace app. A “blast freeze” option lets you quick-freeze its contents should you leave the door open too long, as might happen if you’re loading it with a side of beef. The freezer will also send you an alert if the freezer’s internal temperature is abnormal or if it goes offline for more than 30 minutes.

Hubspace Smart Home Security Kit

Home Depot

This 5-piece kit is reminiscent of the Arlo Home Security System we recently reviewed. Designed for DIY installation, it consists of a keypad for arming and disarming the system, a 24-hour battery backup, a motion sensor, and two door/window sensors. It can be expanded with additional sensors as needed. You’ll be notified in the Hubspace app when doors and windows are opened, when unexpected motion is detected, and when the system’s onboard siren fires off.

Home Depot says the system can be expanded with Hubspace smart locks and motion-detecting lights, and that it can be controlled with Alexa or Google Home smart speakers. We don’t yet know if it will also support home security cameras. We do know that Home Depot is targeting apartment dwellers with this product and doesn’t plan to offer a professional monitoring subscription that would summon emergency responders.

Husky Smart Watering Timer

Home Depot

If you irrigate your garden with a hose or a drip system, a smart hose-bib timer like this can help your plants thrive without wasting any water. This battery-powered model features two independently programmable hose connections, allowing you to irrigate two zones according to their needs.

To reduce battery consumption (AA batteries in this case), the Husky communicates over Bluetooth, but each one comes with a Hubspace-compatible smart plug to serve as a bridge to your Wi-Fi network. In this respect, it’s similar to Orbit’s B-hyve smart hose timer, except Home Depot’s Bluetooth bridge can serve the dual purpose of controlling a lamp that’s plugged into it.

You can of course create irrigation schedules, but the Husky Smart Watering Time doesn’t have a connection to a weather-forecasting service in the cloud. You can, however, set a rain delay–for multiple days, if appropriate–to prevent unnecessary watering.

Commercial Electric Smart Exhaust Fan with Bluetooth Speaker

Home Depot

Despite its branding, you don’t need to be a contractor to buy Home Depot’s Commercial Electric products. The Commercial Electric Smart Exhaust Fan with Bluetooth Speaker is designed for bathroom installation. It combines an 80/110 CFM (cubic feet per minute) exhaust fan with a full-RGB and temperature-tunable (from a warm 2700 Kelvin to a cool 6500K) LED light and a Bluetooth speaker.

An onboard moisture/humidity sensor will turn the fan on automatically when ventilation is required; e.g., while you’re taking a shower or running a bath, shutting the fan off when it’s no longer needed to conserve electricity. A motion sensor is also onboard, and the fan comes with an in-wall switch to turn it on and off. Home Depot says the fan will run as quiet as 0.8 to 1.0 sones.

Hubspace Smart Thermostat

Home Depot

The smart thermostat market is one of the most hotly contested segments of the smart home industry, so I’m particularly curious about what Home Depot’s device will offer. It looks relatively simple—there’s an LED display, but nothing like a touchscreen display or even glass—but it will come with a C-Wire adapter kit for homes that don’t have that power source already in the wall. An extra backplate is also included, in case you need to cover up exposed screw holes when you remove your old thermostat.

Programming can be done with a smartphone app, of course, and connectivity comes via both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Home Depot says it can be installed in less than 30 minutes.

Pricing and availability

Home Depot is holding its cards close to the vest as to how much these new Hubspace products will cost or when they’ll ship—other than to promise a date in 2024. The devices are on the show floor, so we know they at least have prototypes.