12 killer good house devices that had been left for useless

Think about if that fridge to procure simply 5 years in the past all of the sudden up and died—and never due to some technical glitch, however as a result of the producer intentionally reached out and deactivated it, completely. You’d be livid, proper? And also you’d in all probability need a refund, too. 

As wild as that state of affairs sounds for a significant equipment like a fridge or a TV, it occurs extra usually than you’d assume within the good house world. From the doomed Dropcam to the deserted Revolv good hub, there’s an extended, unhappy parade of good house gadgets which have became paperweights.   

We’ve compiled an inventory of 12 notorious examples of killer good house merchandise that—for one motive or one other—had been deserted by their producers. 

These deactivated good house devices have both largely or utterly ceased to perform. In some circumstances, the makers of those bricked gadgets provided refunds, or a reduction on an upgraded or alternative product. However in different cases, prospects had been left excessive and dry. 

Learn ‘em and weep. 

12 stone-dead good house devices

Amazon Echo Look 

Launched: 2017 
Unique record worth: $200 
Date deactivated: July 24, 2020 

It was a heady idea: an Alexa-powered good digicam that might scan your each day outfits and provide you with trend recommendation. Certainly, the Echo Look was one of many unique “look what Alexa can do!” gadgets, predating such out-there Alexa devices because the Echo Loop (Alexa on a hoop) and the Amazon Astro (Alexa on a robotic). 

However the Echo Look by no means actually took off—partly, maybe, as a result of the Look’s digicam lacked a privateness shutter, a minus for a tool that’s supposed to sit down in your bed room dresser. In Could 2020, Amazon introduced that the 3-year-old Look would go darkish simply two months later. 

Amazon did supply Echo Look house owners a free Echo Present 5 in compensation, however nonetheless, the $90 good show didn’t precisely cowl the $200 asking worth for the dead-as-a-doornail trend digicam. 

Amazon Echo Join 

Launched: 2017 
Unique record worth: $35 
Date deactivated: February 29, 2024 

Amazon

Touchdown proper across the identical time because the doomed Echo Look, the Echo Join unlocked a killer Alexa characteristic: the flexibility to make cellphone calls in your landline utilizing voice instructions. All you needed to do was plug your landline cable into the again of the Join field, no further charges required. 

However as landlines gave approach to cell telephones and Alexa gained the flexibility to put calls from cell phone numbers, the Echo Join started to look more and more outdated, and a few unhealthy evaluations didn’t assist.

Nonetheless, Echo Join customers had been caught off guard when, in February 2024, Amazon gave them just some weeks’ discover that the Join would quickly go useless. On the intense facet, every Echo Join proprietor bought a $10 Amazon reward card for his or her bother. 

Revolv good house hub 

Launched: 2013 
Unique record worth: $299 
Date deactivated: Could 15, 2016 

YouTube

One good hub to rule all of them? That was the concept behind Revolv, a fireplace engine-red gadget filled with seven wi-fi radios that allowed you to manage good merchandise from totally different producers, all from a single app. 

That was, on the time, a killer idea—so killer that Nest, which had itself simply been acquired by Google, snapped up Revolv’s mum or dad firm in 2014 and promptly yanked the hub from retailer cabinets. 

Initially, Nest promised to maintain present Revolv good hubs up and working. However by early 2016, Revolv house owners realized that their hubs would cease working totally by Could of the identical yr, leaving them caught with $300 paperweights whereas scrambling for alternate options. 

Iris by Lowe’s Dwelling Automation platform 

Launched: 2012 
Unique record worth: $50 hub, $99 Safety Pack (with varied contact and movement sensors, plus a keypad), $129 Automation Pack (contained Safety Pack parts plus a wise plug and button) 
Date deactivated: March 31, 2019 

Lowe’s

Lowe’s jumped into the good house market early, going all-in with a hub (a second-generation hub landed in 2015 as a free improve for unique hub house owners) and a wide range of sensors, safety cameras, smoke detectors, and different good parts. 

However from the beginning, Lowe’s Iris platform was beset with issues, from a prolonged and bug-ridden setup course of to promised options that had been sluggish to materialize (reminiscent of skilled house monitoring), whereas help for third-party good manufacturers arrived solely in dribs and drabs. Lowe’s ultimately rolled out a raft of welcome updates to handle the prolonged record of buyer complaints, however the Iris platform by no means really recovered from its rocky launch. 

By 2019, Lowe’s lastly threw within the towel, asserting that its Iris merchandise would cease working by March 31 of that yr.

Whereas Iris customers had been confronted with the prospect of rebuilding their good house setups, Lowe’s at the least provided to refund prospects for any Iris merchandise that wouldn’t work on another platforms, whereas Samsung SmartThings stepped as much as assist Iris customers migrate to its personal good platform. 

Hive house safety merchandise 

Launched: 2017 
Unique record worth: Numerous 
Date deactivated: September 1, 2023 (Hive Leak sensor), August 1, 2025 (all different Hive safety merchandise) 

Amazon

UK-based Hive had large plans for the good house again in 2017. Initially centered on good heating and thermostats, the model was poised to department out into house safety with the Hive HomeShield alarm and the Hive View indoor and out of doors cameras (pictured above), whereas the Hive Leak Sensor would preserve its wireless-enabled feelers out for water leaks. 

However by 2019, Hive started dialing down its good house ambitions, first withdrawing from the U.S. and Canadian markets (Hive gave directions to customers in North America on learn how to get rid of its ineffective good devices on a help web page) after which asserting it might exit the house safety market altogether, with its portfolio of digicam and safety gadgets slated to go useless by August 1, 2025. (The Hive Leak misplaced help and connectivity in 2023.) As for refunds, the choices aren’t nice. 

Hive selected to cut the merchandise as a result of “as a wise know-how model in the course of a local weather disaster, we all know our focus wants to vary,” based on an organization assertion. 

Samsung SmartThings first-generation Hub, ADT SmartThings Dwelling Safety & Security System, SmartThings Hyperlink  

Launched: 2014 (first-gen Hub), 2017 (ADT SmartThings Dwelling Safety & Security System), 2018 (Samsung Hyperlink) 
Unique record worth: $99 (hub), $550 and up (ADT SmartThings Dwelling Safety kits), $40 (SmartThings Hyperlink) 
Date deactivated: June 20, 2021 

Jared Newman / Foundry

One of many greatest and most stalwart of good house manufacturers, Samsung SmartThings has nonetheless seen match to show a few of its older merchandise into paperweights. 

Again in 2021, Samsung pulled help for the unique SmartThings Hub from 2014—not an enormous shock, provided that the hub was seven years previous on the time. Nonetheless, attributable to compatibility points, first-generation Hub house owners had been confronted with the prospect of recreating their good house setups from scratch. 

Extra vexing was the choice to axe the a lot newer Samsung Hyperlink (a dongle that allowed the Nvidia Protect to carry out double obligation as a SmartThings hub, pictured above) and the dear ADT SmartThings Dwelling Safety system, which had been (respectively) solely three and 4 years previous. 

Samsung and associate ADT provided house owners of their useless merchandise a mix of refunds and reductions on newer {hardware}, and the SmartThings ecosystem itself lives on, centered across the SmartThings Station, Aeotec’s Good Dwelling Hub, and Good Dwelling Hub 2 (simply introduced at IFA in September) . 

Phillips Hue Bridge (first-generation) 

Launched: 2012 
Unique record worth: Included in a $199 Hue starter equipment  
Date deactivated: April 2022 

Signify

Signify-owned Philips Hue first started promoting its industry-leading good lights means again in 2012, and the primary Hue Bridge (pictured above on the proper, with a giant purple slash by it) got here bundled with three Hue bulbs.

Hue discontinued the unique Bridge in 2015 in favor of an upgraded (and now sq.) mannequin with extra sturdy processing energy and Apple HomeKit help, however continued to maintain the older Bridge working with frequent software program updates. 

By 2020, nevertheless, Philips Hue introduced that first-gen Bridge “not has the sources to ensure the evolution of the Hue system.”

Whereas house owners of the outdated Bridge may nonetheless use it regionally with the Hue app (so strictly talking, it’s not stone useless), the machine misplaced all on-line providers after April 2020, together with out-of-home management and voice instructions. 

Leeo Good Alert Nightlight 

Launched: 2014 
Unique record worth: $99 
Date deactivated: Late 2019 

Greatest Purchase

Launched again in 2014, the Leeo Good Alert Nightlight was a easy related machine that might hear for smoke, carbon dioxide, and water leak detectors going off. Doubling as an evening gentle, the Leeo Good Alert may warn you through cell alert if it heard any house alarms blaring—and better of all, the month-to-month service cost was zip, a rarity within the good house world. 

Sadly, the no-cost service (which means no recurring earnings for Leeo) might have sealed the destiny of the Good Alert Nightlight. After notifying prospects in August 2019 that it was dealing with uneven monetary waters (the corporate mentioned it explored the opportunity of imposing month-to-month charges, however by no means adopted by), Leeo introduced two months later that it was “unable to maintain the community on.”

Its web connection gone, the Good Alert misplaced all its smarts, though it may nonetheless work as a nightlight. (The colour-capable gentle turned white as soon as the community help shut down). 

Logitech Concord common remotes (first-generation fashions) 

Launched: Numerous dates 
Unique record worth: Numerous worth factors  
Dave deactivated: March 2025 

Amazon

Ever since 2021, when Logitech first introduced it might cease making Concord remotes, customers knew their beloved gadgets had been dwelling on borrowed time. 

Whereas Concord remotes had been by no means broadly common, they had been cherished by house theater fanatics with a number of A/V gadgets to juggle. Relatively than coping with a pile of remotes on their espresso tables, they might use a single Concord distant to manage all their parts. 

Essentially the most highly effective—and costly—Concord remotes could possibly be programmed utilizing an internet database of tens of hundreds of house theater merchandise, whereas a Concord desktop software allowed you to arrange elaborate automations that might energy up your TV, your A/V receiver, and different parts in the proper order, and with the right inputs chosen. 

When it first introduced it was discontinuing the Concord line, Logitech (which acquired the Concord model in 2004) promised to maintain the Concord servers up and working for “so long as prospects are utilizing [them].”  

Up to now, Concord’s servers are nonetheless working, however Logitech did go forward and minimize help for 2 dozen of its first-generation Concord remotes, together with the Concord 670, 720, 880 and 880 Professional, 1100i, and the Concord for Xbox 360, whereas additionally killing off the legacy desktop app that these older remotes relied on. (Newer Concord remotes that work with the MyHarmony web site and Concord cell app are nonetheless useful.) 

With their help minimize off, older Concord remotes can’t be reprogrammed anymore, nor can customers add new gadgets to them or configure new automations. The remotes will nonetheless work with their final programmed configurations, however with out on-line Concord help, their smarts are successfully gone. 

Nest Studying Thermostats (first and second generations) 

Launched: 2011 (first technology), 2012 (second technology) 
Unique record worth: $250  
Date deactivated: October 25, 2025 

Walmart

The 2011 arrival of the primary Nest Studying Thermostat arguably kicked off the good house period—and certainly, if you happen to requested a random individual on the road again then to call a wise machine, the Nest thermostat would in all probability be the one they’d say.

There have been a number of iterations of the Nest thermostat through the years, together with new and improved Nest Studying Thermostat variations (the fourth technology is the newest), together with a few budget-priced variations: the Nest Thermostat E from 2017, and the plain-old Nest Thermostat in 2020. By means of all of it, loads of loyal Nest customers saved utilizing their older Nest thermostats—why repair what ain’t broke, proper?

However in April 2025, Google delivered a hammer blow, asserting that it might drop help for the first- and second-generation Nest Studying Thermostats on October 25, 2025. Not solely would the gadgets cease getting software program updates, they might additionally not hook up with the Google Dwelling app, nor would they be controllable remotely or by Google Assistant.  

The 2 oldest Nest Studying Thermostats gained’t go utterly useless on October 25, 2025; you’ll nonetheless have the ability to modify the temperature, mode, schedules, and different settings manually on the machine itself, simply as you’ll on another dumb thermostat. However as soon as Google cuts off help for the gadgets, the very high quality that made these growing older Nest thermostats so particular—their smarts—will vanish. 

It’s not all unhealthy information for house owners of the first- and second-gen Nest Studying Thermostats, nevertheless; Google has mentioned it supply these customers $130 off the acquisition of a fourth-generation Nest Studying Thermostat (which is at the moment promoting for $280).

Dropcam HD and Dropcam Professional 

Launched: 2012 (Dropcam HD), Dropcam Professional (2013) 
Unique record worth: $149 (Dropcam HD), $199 (Dropcam Professional) 
Date deactivated: April 8, 2024 

Amazon

Two of the unique good safety cameras, the Dropcam HD and Dropcam Professional revolutionized the DIY house safety market with their good-looking designs, top-notch (for the time) video high quality, and inexpensive worth tags. 

None of this escaped the discover of Nest, which scooped up Dropcam in 2014, simply previous to Google’s acquisition of Nest.  

In contrast to what occurred with the Revolv good hub, Nest saved each Dropcam models operational for a decade earlier than lastly slicing off on-line help for each fashions in early April, 2024. Nest even provided the final remaining Dropcam customers a free Nest Cam, supplied they had been Nest Conscious subscribers. 

Nest Safe 

Launched: 2017 
Unique record worth: $499 
Date deactivated: April 8, 2024 

Google

The Dropcam HD and Dropcam Professional weren’t the one merchandise that Nest reached out and killed on April 8, 2024. On the identical day, the Google-owned model additionally pulled the plug on Nest Safe, its DIY house safety system. 

Launched in 2017, the Nest Safe bundle contains the central Nest Guard element, which affords an built-in keypad, siren, and movement sensor, plus two contact sensors and a pair of NFC-equipped Nest “Tags” that may arm or disarm the system with a faucet. 

Nest Safe garnered some admiring notices for its engaging industrial design, in addition to the tight integration with Nest’s different good house gadgets. However the hefty $500 price ticket for simply two contact sensors and an alarm was a significant turnoff, and Nest discontinued Safe in 2020…proper across the time that Google sunk $450 million in ADT. 

As with the Dropcams, Nest Safe stopped working in April 2024, rendering its alarm and window/door sensors ineffective. That mentioned, Google did supply Nest Safe customers a brand new ADT safety system value as much as $485—both that or a $200 Google Retailer credit score.