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Gift Dad a smarter home for Father's Day

The right smart home gadget can help your dad cook, garden, entertain and more.

Andrew Gebhart
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1 of 14 Brian Bennett/CNET

Breville Precision Brewer

If your dad is a big fan of coffee, he'll be delighted to receive the $300 Breville Precision Brewer. It brews big, tasty pots of joe with incredible consistency and has a number of flexible features so Dad can make the just the type of coffee he likes. 

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2 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

Meater

Maybe Dad doesn't have to burn the burgers. The $70 Meater accurately tracks the temp of your roast while it cooks and keeps your phone updated via Bluetooth. 

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3 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

Instant Pot Max

If your dad wants to join the Instant Pot craze, get him the newest model, called the Instant Pot Max. It's slated to be released soon, and it'll have all of the cooking capabilities of older models, plus a bunch of new cooking modes along with a canning feature. 

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4 of 14 Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Simple Chef HF-898 Air Fryer

The Instant Pot is a better bet for most cooking needs, but if your dad wants a handy accessory for cooking wings in his basement bar, this Simple Chef Air Fryer does the trick for a reasonable $70. 

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5 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

Tapplock One

Enough food. Dad also certainly wants to keep his home safe, and the Tapplock One can help. It's a cool $100 padlock that you can unlock via Bluetooth, fingerprints and even Morse code. 

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6 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

Ring Spotlight Cam

Dad can keep an eye on the porch and the yard with the $200 Ring Spotlight Cam. It's easy to install and has motion sensors and a bright light so you can see what's going on at night. 

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7 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

SimpliSafe

To keep the whole home on lockdown, give Dad a $230 SimpliSafe starter kit. SimpliSafe is a well-rounded DIY system with a fancy new look and affordable monitoring. 

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8 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

Chamberlain MyQ Garage

The $50 Chamberlain MyQ Home Bridge lets you control your garage door with a voice command through Apple's digital assistant Siri. Especially with the bridge, the feature rich $100 MyQ garage is easy to recommend for adding smarts to your garage. 

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9 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

Orbit B-hyve Faucet Timer

If your dad wants help making his garden grow, get him the handy Orbit B-hyve Faucet Timer. Unlike most smart sprinklers, which require a whole in-ground sprinkler system, this $40 Faucet Timer twists onto an ordinary hose and can add weather monitoring and app controls to a simple oscillator.

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10 of 14 Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Nest Hello

Say hello to our favorite video doorbell. The $230 Nest Hello lets Dad talk to whoever is at the door via an app. It also recognizes faces and works really well with a Google- or Nest-equipped smart home. 

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11 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

TP-Link Kasa Wi-Fi Smart Plug Mini

Maybe your dad doesn't have a lot of smart home devices yet, but is eager to get started. A smart plug is a great first gadget to get, and the $30 TP-Link Kasa is compact and affordable. Add app-enabled smarts to anything you want to plug in, and you'll also be able to control your device with Amazon's digital assistant Alexa or Google's comparable Google Assistant

Sonos One
12 of 14 Sarah Tew/CNET

Sonos One

An affordable smart speaker that sounds great, the $200 Sonos One works with Alexa, so your dad can control it via voice commands. It'll even work with Google Assistant soon if he prefers. If you're not familiar, smart speakers can play music, search the web, give driving directions and control smart home devices. They're great devices to put at the center of a smart home and Sonos One combines the two major assistants into one great-sounding speaker. 

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13 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

Google Home Mini

If you want to get a smart speaker for your dad but are looking for a more affordable option, check out the $50 Google Home Mini. It certainly won't sound as good at playing music as the Sonos One does, but it delivers all the same smarts for a lot less. 

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14 of 14 Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Nanoleaf Aurora

Finally, if you want to help Dad give his smart home a boost in style, Nanoleaf's colorful light panels look great and sync to a variety of music. The $230 starter kit for the Nanoleaf Aurora Rhythm Edition includes nine panels. In addition to rocking with the music, you can control the lights with Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant. 

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