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Are you looking for a way to simplify your home climate control? Sensibo offers an innovative solution that allows you to control your air conditioning and heating from anywhere. In this Sensibo review, we’ll discuss the features of the product, its affordability, and what sets it apart from other air conditioning controllers on the market.
While every home would love to have a Nest Thermostat in every room, you probably have at least one or two “dumb” air conditioners or heaters/heat pumps in your home. I recently got a ductless mini-split for my home office, but was frustrated with the limited controls available from the remote.
The Sensibo Air is the perfect way to make your air conditioner smarter and more efficient. With this device, you can manage your home climate from your phone, set schedules, and even use climate react features to adjust the temperature of your home based on the weather outside.
Sensibo Review: Meet the smart controller
Sensibo has been a game-changer in my home. It’s an all-in-one solution that takes the hassle out of controlling my air conditioner remotely.
Sensibo is a small device that you attach to your air conditioner’s remote control. Sensibo then connects to your existing WiFi network and allows you to manage your A/C from the Sensibo app on your smartphone or tablet, as well as through voice commands with Amazon Alexa or Google Home.
The Sensibo App
The Sensibo app provides powerful features that make it easy to customize your indoor climate. You can set up timers to automatically turn on or off your A/C based on your schedule, as well as set temperatures for different rooms in the house.
It also offers weather-based triggers so that you can cool down or warm up depending on the temperature outside. The Sensibo also learns from your preferences over time and will automatically adjust itself for optimal performance and efficiency, so you don’t have to worry about manually adjusting every setting.
The Sensibo also helps save energy by using its built-in algorithm to predict when it should start cooling and warming before it actually reaches the desired temperature, which minimizes energy waste while maintaining comfortable levels of coolness or warmth throughout the day.
Additionally, Sensibo helps conserve energy by automatically turning off when no one is at home and turning back on just before they return. This way, you don’t have to worry about manually setting times each day and can still enjoy peak savings without sacrificing comfort when at home.
“Like a Nest Thermostat on EVERY “Dumb” AC or Heat Pump”
What we tested: Sensibo Air and Sensibo Air Pro
We didn’t mean to, but we tested both the Sensibo Air and the Sensibo Air Pro for this review. Let me quickly highlight the differences.
Sensibo Air
Sensibo Air is a smart home air conditioner system that offers quick and easy installation. It connects to Wifi, Google, Alexa, and more so you can maintain comfort with just a few taps on your smartphone. Plus, its AI learning capabilities optimize use while reducing emissions.
Sensibo Air Pro
The Sensibo Air Pro takes things one step further by monitoring concentrations of carbon dioxide and total levels of volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) in your home’s indoor air. This way you can be sure that you’re breathing clean air all day long.
We actually purchased an Amazon Smart Air Monitor at about the same time as the Sensibo Air. After experiencing what we could do with the Amazon Smart Air Monitor, we decided to get the Sensibo Air Pro to replace the Sensibo Air AND the Amazon Smart Air Monitor.
Features of Sensibo
The Sensibo Air and Air Pro are packed full of features. Let’s dive into them.
Makes everything smart
Sensibo Air and Air Pro are revolutionary products that make “dumb” air conditioners and heat pumps smart. With Sensibo, you can control your AC from anywhere in the world with just one click. You can also monitor indoor air quality and maintain comfort while saving energy.
The Sensibo Air and Air Pro are compact squares that adds smart, connected features to your window or portable air conditioner and heat pump systems.
In short, it does everything your remote can do – and a lot more!
That’s what makes this product one of the best home products we’ve tested.
Works with Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomeKit
These devices are compatible with Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple HomeKit and other voice assistants for easy control. It also has a mobile app for remote access and control of your AC from anywhere in the world.
It’s great that you can use Sensibo in your existing Smart Home Ecosystem or just use the app. We love products that make life easier. Sensibo does just that!
Read about our guide to smart screens, too!
Air Quality Sensor
The Sensibo Air Pro employs an air quality sensor that is capable of detecting levels of TVOC (Total Volatile Organic Compounds) and CO₂ (Carbon Dioxide) in your home. With this device, you can be sure to know the exact air quality of your home at any given time.
The Sensibo Air Pro also provides alerts if the air quality gets worse. If the levels of TVOC or CO₂ increase levels, the device will send you an alert so you can take action to improve the air quality in your home. This feature is especially useful for those who suffer from allergies or asthma, as they can be alerted when their symptoms may worsen due to poor air quality.
I have a dog that shares my office with me, so sometimes the office would just get “stuffy.” I no longer have to wait to feel like the office is stuffy, Sensibo can automatically alert me if it senses a worse indoor environment and you can even set up automation to start with decreased air quality.
Benefits of using the Sensibo Air and Air Pro
Detecting Indoor Air Quality
It’s important to know your home’s indoor air quality because it can have a significant impact on your overall health and comfort. Sensibo helps to detect indoor air quality and alert you if it gets worse, which helps to maintain a healthy home environment.
Energy Efficiency
Sensibo Air and Sensibo Air Pro help to save energy by allowing you to preset temperatures for certain periods of time or even turn the AC off when no one is at home. This helps reduce consumption and lower electricity bills in the long run.
In Colorado, we even have Variable Rate Pricing (aka Time of Day Pricing). I can set the Sensibo to a much cooler (or warmer) than normal temperature before the rates increase. This isn’t just good for my wallet, but it’s also good for my environment.
Do you really need Sensibo Plus?
Sensibo PLUS is a $2.50/month add-on that unlocks a ton of great features from your now-smart A/C Unit.
Sensibo Plus helps you save money on energy bills by optimizing your AC’s performance. It uses advanced analytics to detect anomalies in performance and adjust settings accordingly so that your AC runs as efficiently as possible.
Additionally, Sensibo Plus has an anti-mold feature (not something we need in Colorado – it’s too dry for that) that monitors humidity levels and prevents mold from growing inside the vents of your AC unit.
Sensibo Plus also helps you save money on energy bills by optimizing your AC’s performance. It uses advanced analytics to detect anomalies in performance and adjust settings accordingly so that your AC runs as efficiently as possible.
Additionally, Sensibo Plus has an anti-mold feature that monitors humidity levels and prevents mold from growing inside the vents of your AC unit.
Don’t worry, you can 100% use many of the features of the Sensibo Air and Sensibo Air Pro, without paying the $2.50/month, notably schedules and geo-fencing, and still get a ton of value. But you don’t NEED the $2.50/month to use this product.
Maintains Comfort and Saves Energy
As I mentioned, I have a ductless mini-split in my office, where I spend 70-80% of my waking hours.
Mini split ductless systems offer a variety of benefits that make them an efficient choice for heating and cooling individual rooms. Unlike traditional central air systems, mini splits don’t require large air ducts to work, which makes them much more energy efficient. They also operate quietly compared to ducted models and improve the overall air quality in your home. With a mini-split system, you can control the temperature in each room individually, allowing you to save energy by only cooling or heating the areas that need it.
The last sentence is one of the most important for our home. We have a large home and it always seems silly to cool or heat the rest of the home, when only 150 square feet are being used by someone.
Using the Sensibo system allows us to double-click on this issue, providing us with a much more efficient heating and cooling system while also bringing comfort to all parts of the home, as Sensibo turns on/off the ductless mini splits, suggest changes to the schedule (like opening the window when it’s colder outside) and also help make sure the mini-split is turned off when leaving the home.
Installation & Setup Process
Installing your Sensibo Air or Air Pro is a simple and straightforward process. With just a few steps, you can have your air conditioner up and running in no time.
First, download the free Sensibo app on your smartphone. This will be used to control your air conditioner remotely. Next, introduce your Wi-Fi network to Sensibo and pair it with your air conditioner’s remote control. The Sensibo App Installation Wizard will guide you through the rest of the installation process.
Once everything is set up, you can enjoy all the smart features that Sensibo has to offer.
Honestly, the longest part of the process was simply getting an account set up. When I set up the Sensibo Air Pro (after setting up the Sensibo Air), it literally only took a minute (plus 3 minutes for the firmware to update).
User Experience & Performance
While the overall User Experience (or “UX,” as the cool kids would call it), was not a perfect, Apple-like experience, it wasn’t bad either.
My biggest complaint about the overall user experience was that it was incredibly difficult to figure out how to change from Celsius to Fahrenheit. On my ductless mini-split, it still shows a Celsius degree about 75% of the time, but it’s not a big deal because the Sensibo App showed the Fahrenheit degree once I figured out how to change it.
Set-Up
This was, perhaps, the easiest part of the whole process. Ironically, it took longer to create an account than it did to set up my remote in Sensibo’s app.
After setting up my account, it took about 2 minutes to set up/activating Sensibo – and about 3 minutes for the firmware to update.
You can’t even set up an Amazon Alexa or Google Nest Home device in that little time.
Performance
The Sensibo Device is one of those great products that “just works.” You can easily use it with voice control or set up climate react that adjusts to the room temperature.
The Sensibo devices are compatible with almost any smart home system, bringing the physical controls to Apple Homekit and much, much more.
You can also sync the indoor air quality monitor to trigger other actions – outside of just notifications.
Pros & Cons
I’ll be honest here, there aren’t a whole lot of negatives, overall. So, let’s start with the positive.
Pros
There’s so much to like about the Sensibo Air and the Sensibo Air Pro, starting with just how easy it is to set up. I was worried that setting up Sensibo would be a long and arduous task, but the Sensibo App Install Wizard made it surprisingly easy. I was able to get my Sensibo Air Pro up and running in just a few minutes.
The last big thing I want to talk about (in terms of positives) is Sensibo’s integrations with Alexa, Google Home and HomeKit (AKA “Siri”). If you use Apple, Amazon Alexa or Google Home, you’re in luck. Sensibo works with all of them perfectly.
The truth is, Sensibo just works. It found my device the VERY FIRST time and it worked perfectly. I was incredibly shocked.
Cons
These cons are going to be very nit-picky, and I know that.
For starters, the overall user experience could use a bit more polish. This isn’t a deal-killer here, but Sensibo could do a better job of making navigation easier.
Also, it was a little difficult to find out where to change from Celsius to Fahrenheit.
Fluctuating Prices
The other con I want to mention is Sensibo’s pricing. Sensibo Air is quite expensive at about $100. The Sensibo Air Pro has some extreme fluctuation in price. I bought the Sensibo Air Pro for about $140. But when I went to go check the cost of the Sensibo Air Pro on Amazon for this review, it was $215. I guess that’s the market for you!
What can you do without the monthly subscription?
You can use all the main features – even Geo Fencing, without buying the monthly subscription.
I’d encourage you to try getting the Sensibo and NOT buying the monthly subscription first to see if it’s something you want or need.
Sensibo Air vs. Sensibo Air Pro
This one was pretty easy for me. I had just bought the Amazon Smart Air Monitor and wanted to pair that functionality with Sensibo’s ability to control my smart air conditioner or heat pump.
The long story short here: if you want to know your air quality conditions, and adjust your thermostat accordingly, get the Sensibo Air Pro. If not, the Air should be just fine.
Sensibo Sky vs. Sensibo Air
The Sensibo Sky and Sensibo Air are both smart air conditioner controllers that allow you to control your AC from anywhere. However, there are a few key differences between the two.
The first difference is in design. The Air has an updated design that is slimmer and more modern looking than the Sensibo Sky. It also comes with HomeKit support, which allows you to control it using the Apple HomeKit app. The Sensibo Sky does not have this feature.
Another difference is in voice assistant support. The Sensibo Air supports voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, while the Sensibo Sky does not. This means that you can use voice commands to control your AC with the Sensibo Air but not with the Sensibo Sky.
Cost Savings of using Sensibo
The Sensibo can detect temperature and humidity levels in the room, allowing you to adjust the settings accordingly. It also has an automatic on/off feature that turns off the AC when no one is home (Geofencing feature), saving even more energy and money.
Additionally, it works with Alexa and Google Home, so you can control your air conditioner with voice commands. With all these features combined, the Sensibo Ar and Air Pro are an excellent choice for anyone looking to save money on their air conditioning costs.
On top of that, a ductless mini-split is one of the most energy-efficient options for heating or cooling a space. So, energy efficient + energy efficient = SUPER DUPER Energy Efficient.
The Best Smart Home Devices
Here’s the thing that no one talks about with a smart home: it shouldn’t require any control.
Yes, you read that correctly. They should just work automatically.
That’s exactly what this device does. It can act 100% on its own, without you messing with it. And that’s the reason we love it the most!
Final Thoughts about Sensibo
The Sensibo Air is the perfect way to make your air conditioner smarter and more efficient. With this device, you can manage your home climate from your phone, set schedules, and even use climate react features to adjust the temperature of your home based on the weather outside.
In conclusion, Sensibo is a great product that offers an effective and efficient way to control your air conditioner. It’s quick and easy to set up and works with all the major voice assistants (Alexa, Google Home, HomeKit).
That being said, it’s not perfect. Sensibo Air can be expensive and the user experience could use some polishing up. But if you’re looking for a product that will help bring comfort to every corner of your home, Sensibo is definitely worth checking out.
Overall, we are happy to give the Sensibo Pro our We Tried It Seal of Approvall. The overall user experience may not have been perfect but Sensibo delivered on its promise – providing me with an easier way to control my air conditioner and making sure I’m comfortable in every corner of my home. Sensibo is definitely worth checking out if you are looking for a smart air conditioning solution.
There’s no doubt that Sensibo is the best way to control your air conditioner and make sure you’re comfortable all year round. Sensibo is easy to set up, works with all major voice assistants, and offers a great user experience overall. The only potential downside would be the cost – Sensibo Air can be expensive – but if you want a smarter way to enjoy your air conditioning, Sensibo may just be worth it! Overall, I’m happy with Sensibo and highly recommend it as an effective and efficient solution for controlling your air conditioner remotely!