Why You Can Trust CNET Quirky+GE Aros Smart Air Conditioner review: Quirky's air conditioner is smart cooling at a smart price
With Nest-like smart features and an attractive price point, the newest appliance from Quirky+GE looks like their best yet.
- 10 years product testing experience with the CNET Home team
We've seen several small-scale gadgets from the Quirky+GE partnership, but its first appliance, the Aros Smart Air Conditioner, might be its most appealing offering yet. That's not just me saying that -- with its Nest -like smarts, futuristic-looking design, and $300 price point, the Aros quickly shot up to the top of Amazon's pre-order charts soon after being announced in March.
Quirky+GE Aros Smart Air Conditioner
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
After spending some time with the Aros, I'm convinced that the buzz was justified. As air conditioners go, it performs admirably, and the design looks better than just about anything else on the market. Throw in its smart features, which include remote scheduling, geofencing, and a handy budget tracking mode, and the Aros looks like a steal at $300 -- especially when comparable, non-connected AC units sell in roughly the same price range.
Designed to impress
Amid a field of bland-looking competitors, the Aros is certainly an air conditioner that stands out. With a glossy, white build and a vivid LED display that vanishes into the face plate when not in use, the Aros looks the part of a modern smart appliance. Still, the design isn't one that stands out too much. There's a fine line between eye-catching and ostentatious, and Quirky+GE's design team have landed on the correct side of it.
For the most part, the design is a practical one, too. The touch controls on the front are intuitive and easy to use, and the upward stream of air was effective, and preferable in my eyes to one that blows straight out.
It isn't a perfect build, though. The flaps on the sides of the unit which close the gap between the Aros and the window frame are essentially horizontal window shades that hook onto the unit. They look a little cleaner than the accordion-style flaps that do the job on most AC units, but unlike those other flaps, they don't create a snug, insulated fit. You'll definitely have a little bit of air leaking out (and I could even imagine bugs crawling in). If it bothers you, it's an easy fix with a bit of duct tape, but that's far from an ideal solution for such a design-centric appliance.
Another important facet of the Aros' design is the noise that it makes. Like most air conditioners, it's far from silent, with a fan that's especially audible on high settings. The compressor, on the other hand, ran incredibly quiet in my tests, with almost no audible vibrations or buzzing. I appreciated this, as the hum of the average AC unit typically bothers me a lot more than the whir of the fan.
Overall, the Aros didn't seem any noisier to my ear than other air conditioners I've lived with in the past, and the team at Quirky claims that it's benchmarked at or below the noise level of comparable 8,000 BTU units. Still, if you're especially noise-conscious, and hoping that Aros would feature a noticeably quieter design than what you're used to, you might come away disappointed.
Features
Standout design aside, you'll use the Aros in much the same way you would any other air conditioner. There's a Cool mode for those especially hot days, a Fan mode for basic air circulation, and an Eco mode that alternates between the two. All three modes are capable of blasting air at low, medium, or high settings.
One basic difference between the Aros and most other modern air conditioners is that the Aros outsources all remote controls into your smartphone, with no physical remote control for the unit. That's an understandable omission, but I think I'd still prefer to have a dedicated remote for those times when my phone is charging in the other room.
LEDs on the face of the machine will let you know what settings you're currently running, along with the current room temperature. Those LEDs will change to display the target temperature as you adjust it up and down, then change back to the actual temperature after a few seconds. Leave the Aros running for a few minutes, and the LEDs will turn off for a more inconspicuous look.
Like the Pivot Power Genius , the Spotter , and the rest of the devices in the Quirky+GE family, Aros connects to your home's Wi-Fi network using the free Wink app for iOS and Android devices. I thought that Wink was one of the standout home automation apps of last year, with a playful, helpful design and easily understandable features, both of which apply to the new Aros controls.
The Aros bears the same house-shaped home sensor as its Quirky cousins. Using the Wink app, you'll flash an automatic light pattern at the sensor in order to connect the Aros to your 2.4 GHz home network. I tried this out multiple times with the Aros on two different networks, and it worked perfectly each and every time.
The Wink app offers basic remote controls over the Aros using a display that mimics the face of the machine itself. Each and every control located on the Aros is also located within the app, so whether you want to adjust the target temperature, change cooling modes, or just turn the machine on or off, you'll be able to do it from your phone.
You'll also find access to the Aros' smart features within the Wink app. Most notable among these is Smart Away, which uses geofencing-based presence detection to track when you're home and when you aren't -- and turn the Aros on and off accordingly.
I liked that the Wink app offers full customization over what you want the Aros to do when you exit or enter the area. You can set it to turn off when you leave, or just set it to turn down, for instance. I only wish that it offered that same sort of customizability over the geofencing distance, which is locked to 100m by default. Other apps that use geofencing, like the Revolv app and the IFTTT app, will let you adjust the size of that circle on the map -- the area you call home. It's a nice feature that you don't appreciate until it's gone, as I learned with Aros.
Aside from a smart scheduling feature that will let you program the Aros to turn on and off automatically at set times, the other key feature is Smart Budget. Using Smart Budget, you'll be able to tell the Wink app exactly how much you'd like to spend on your air conditioner each month. The app will use the usage rates for your specific area to track your consumption as the days go by. If you need to use Aros a little less in order to hit your target, the app will let you know.
All in all, I came away impressed by what the Aros has to offer. Smart Budget in particular seems like a feature that I'd use regularly, as I love my conditioned air, but hate big power bills. The fact that I'd be getting those kinds of smarts for a similar price to what I'd pay for a comparable non-smart unit only makes them all the more appealing.
Moving forward, Quirky expects Aros to get a dedicated IFTTT channel in the near future, just like the rest of the Quirky+GE lineup. That'll make for a nice IQ boost, as IFTTT integration means you'll be able to sync your Aros with popular Web services, as well as other smart devices like Belkin WeMo Switches , the Netatmo Weather Station, and the SmartThings network of sensors.
Additionally, a SmartThings rep has confirmed to us that, like the Quirky Pivot Power Genius, the Aros will soon be directly integrated into the SmartThings ecosystem via SmartThings Labs. To me, that seems like an especially smart place for it.
Performance and usability
To test the Aros out, we lugged the thing out to one of our engineer's homes, then installed it in the window of his living room. I say "lugged" because the Aros weighs over 60 pounds, which is more or less on par with other 8,000 BTU air conditioners, if not 5 or 6 pounds above average. At any rate, you'll definitely want a friend to help you lift the thing into your window.
Installation was fairly straight-forward, especially if you've installed an AC unit before. The Aros comes with easy-to-follow instructions, although they seem to have left out the step where you attach the catches for those ventilation flaps onto the side of the machine. Whoops.
As for the unit's performance, we came away quite satisfied with the Aros' ability to cool a room (per Energy Star, an 8,000 BTU air conditioner is best suited to cool about 350 square feet). A decent air conditioner should be able to spit out air that's at least 20 degrees cooler than the air it sucks in, and with the Aros, the difference was 26 degrees. Even on the low setting, the Aros did a great job of making us all feel cold in May.
Despite the occasional crash, the Wink app is a cinch to use to use, with minimal lag between pressing a button and seeing a result. Smart scheduling worked perfectly with creating both one-time events and recurring automation schedules, and the Smart Budget feature was as simple as it gets.
The Aros didn't ace our tests though, particularly with regards to the Smart Away feature. We tested the feature out using both iOS and Android devices at two different locations and on two different wireless networks, and weren't able to get it to work reliably.
This was a clear disappointment, but not one that we've seen represented in other reviews, including the dozens of reviews already up on Amazon. We spoke to the engineers at Quirky, who worked with us to try and figure out what was going wrong, but they claimed the bug was one they hadn't seen before, and one they couldn't replicate in their lab.
We're continuing to play with the Aros, and will post an update if we're able to figure out why Smart Away was such a problem child for us. Still, given the experiences of other users, I'm inclined to believe Quirky when they say that this looks like an isolated failure.
Conclusion
Among air conditioners that put out 8,000 BTUs, the $300 Aros is a clear standout, and a major winner for the Quirky+GE brand. With solid cooling performance and a similar price point to dumb conditioners that look terrible, the intelligent Aros looks like a bit of a no-brainer.
While the Aros isn't the first Wi-Fi-enabled air conditioner -- there are some obscure models like the Friedrich Kuhl line -- it's arguably the first one with mainstream appeal. That said, it isn't the only way to smarten up your AC. Plugging an existing unit into a Belkin WeMo Insight Switch would provide you with a basic level of remote smart phone control, along with the ability to cool according to energy usage. New crowd-funded options like Tado Cooling go a step further, offering controls even more precise than simple on/off functionality. Options like these also offer a high degree of flexibility, since, for the most part, you can use whatever air conditioner you like.
That said, the Aros is an undeniably appealing appliance in its own right, and a smart buy for anyone looking for smarter performance from their air conditioner this summer.