5 Costco Finds That Can Help You Build Your Own Smart Kitchen – BGR

There’s a distinctive, futuristic appeal to a kitchen full of smart gadgets and appliances, each one tuned into your particular needs and habits via companion apps and Wi-Fi connection. Of course, futuristic smart kitchens don’t pop up out of thin air; if all of those appliances weren’t already there when you got your home, you’ll need to install them yourself. If you’re in the market for kitchen tech like smart refrigerators, dishwashers, and microwaves, Costco should be your first stop.

Whether in its physical storefronts or online, Costco sells a multitude of kitchen and kitchen-adjacent products, from the smallest robot vacuums to the heftiest refrigerators, each ready to sync up with an app on your smartphone and meet your personal use case. Taking the competitive pricing that comes with Costco membership into account, you may be able to get your burgeoning smart kitchen off the ground for far less money than you would shopping elsewhere, not to mention additional perks like complimentary tech support for electronics.

One of the most crucial appliances in any kitchen, smart or otherwise, is a good refrigerator. You need a reliable model that keeps your food and drinks cold, though if it could also provide smart features like automated water dispensing and temperature-control drawers, all the better. In fact, those are two of the features present on the GE Profile French Door Refrigerator, available from Costco for $2,499.99.

This stainless steel refrigerator has two French doors for its main compartments, plus several additional drawers below. The main doors are actually doors-within-doors, hiding additional compartments to store large items like wine bottles. The water dispenser on the front has hands-free AutoFill tech, allowing you to set down a bottle or glass and walk away, knowing it will only fill up as much as necessary. The top drawer has adjustable temperature settings, which you can customize for different kinds of food, drinks, and snacks. Most importantly, the whole unit can be connected to a smart device over Wi-Fi, allowing you to customize the color of the internal LEDs, enable features like Turbo Freeze and Turbo Cool, and more.

GE’s refrigerator has received a 4.3 out of 5 rating courtesy of Costco shoppers. The highest-rated reviewer appreciated the ample space in the main compartment and drawers, as well as the convenience of the AutoFill dispenser.

Nobody likes doing the dishes after finishing a big meal, which is what makes a dishwasher such an obviously attractive purchase for any kitchen. If you’re going to leave the task of cleanup to an appliance, though, you want to be sure it’s one with the right features for the job. The Samsung Smart Dishwasher, available at Costco for $849.99, should have everything that you need.

This dishwasher has several built-in functions to optimize its cleaning procedure. For instance, Pre-Blast Cycle rinses off any miscellaneous food waste before the main cycle, eliminating the need for rinsing your dishes before loading them. Additionally, the Smart Dry feature circulates warm air throughout the cleaning chamber, which helps to protect any plastic dishware from more intense temperatures. It can connect to your smart device over Wi-Fi via the Smart Things app, sending you signals when its cycle is finished, invaluable if you’re elsewhere in your home and can’t hear it. There is a good chance of that, considering it only has an operating sound of 42 decibels, whisper-quiet compared to similar dishwashers.

Samsung’s Smart Dishwasher has a healthy 4.0 out of 5 rating from Costco shoppers. The highest-rated reviewer loves the cleaning power of the Storm Wash feature, though they do note that this feature only affects a small section of the internal chamber rather than the whole thing.

Convection ovens have gradually become one of the mainstays of kitchen appliances, whether it be the humble toaster oven or the newer and fancier air fryer. Both types have their place, but ideally, you could get a single appliance that serves both purposes, with some extra smart functionality for good measure. That’s a job for the Cosori Smart Air Fryer Toaster Oven, available at Costco for $129.99.

This hearty 32-quart convection oven is small enough to fit on your counter, but large enough to fit all kinds of meals, including pizza, roast chicken, or even up to six slices of toast. It can cook at any temperature from 80 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, with 12 different cooking presets for different jobs, including air frying, baking, dehydrating, and more. The oven can be synced to your phone via the VeSync app, allowing you to remotely adjust temperature settings, monitor your current cook job, and utilize remote voice commands.

The Cosori Smart Air Fryer Toaster Oven has a 4.5 out of 5 user rating from Costco shoppers, most of whom generally like its cooking efficacy. The only consistent complaint, including from the highest-rated reviewer, is that the oven takes a bit longer to heat up than you may expect.

While convection ovens have definitely moved up in the world of kitchen appliances, there’s still no substitute for the sheer convenience of a good microwave. Whether you’re making a quick meal or just want to heat up your morning coffee, nothing makes it faster or simpler. If you’ve got space over your range for a Microwave, consider installing the LG Smart Over-Range Microwave, available at Costco for $449.99.

This smart microwave is designed to cut down on the guesswork that comes with preparation. Internal humidity sensors monitor the state of whatever you’re heating, automatically shutting down at the right time to prevent over- or under-cooking. There are six auto-cook settings to choose from for most jobs, though you can also set your time of choice easily enough. With the help of the ThinQ smartphone app, you can make meal preparation even simpler; just scan the barcode of the meal’s packaging, and the app will send ideal cooking instructions directly to the oven. That app also allows you to sync the microwave’s miscellaneous features to other LG installations like ranges and cooktops.

Costco shoppers have collectively given this smart microwave a 4.4 out of 5-star rating. The highest-rated review notes that there’s a bit of a learning curve to understanding all of the features and settings, but once you understand it all, it’s great for all kinds of heating jobs like softening butter, thawing frozen food, and steaming vegetables.

Putting together a smart kitchen isn’t just about finding appliances for cooking and food storage; it’s also about upkeep. No one will be impressed by your smart appliances if you’ve got crumbs all over the floor. To really complete the ideal kitchen, you need the Shark PowerDetect Robot Vacuum and Mop to keep things immaculate. It’s available at Costco for $479.99.

This cleaning robot is ready to clean floors across your entire home, kitchen included, of course. With a combination of filtered vacuum suction and self-lifting mop pads, it can tackle both wet and dry messes along the floor of your kitchen, using internal LiDAR and 3D sensors to safely navigate around obstacles and obstructions while it works. You can use the SharkClean app to program a cleaning schedule, as well as set no-clean zones and target spot cleans, all of which can also be synced to a smart home assistant like Amazon Alexa. When it’s done cleaning, it automatically returns to its base, emptying the dust bin, cycling out water and cleaning fluid, and cleaning off its brushes all on its own.

Shark’s PowerDetect Robot Vacuum has earned a 4.2 out of 5 rating from Costco shoppers. Users enjoy its efficacy at both mapping out their homes and keeping them all clean, with the highest-rated reviewer in particular using it to clean the hardwood floors throughout their home.

If you’re going to be spending a large amount of money on smart appliances and gadgets for your kitchen, it’s definitely important to know ahead of time that you’re actually getting your money’s worth. To that end, in order to select reliable products, we focused on smart appliances available from Costco with a user rating of at least 4 out of 5 stars.