Alexa-Compatible Devices for Your Smart Kitchen

By Harry Guinness

Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant can do a lot to help out in the kitchen. Some of the best features baked in are:

• Set multiple timers, so you know when to check the oven or take your pasta off the heat.
• Find out how many grams of flour are in a cup, pints of milk are in a liter and all sorts of other common kitchen conversions just using your voice.
• Add items to a grocery list, or even order them straight from Amazon.
• Throw on some tunes, so you can rock out while you cook.
• If you have an Echo Show, watch videos and follow along with recipes.

Your Amazon Echo devices can do even more to help by controlling all the other smart appliances in your smart kitchen. You probably know that with most Alexa-compatible devices, you can issue voice commands to your Echo smart speaker to do things like set your oven temperature, turn on your coffee maker or check how your chicken is cooking.

However, you can also use Alexa’s Routines feature to create your own custom schedule for different devices. Want your coffee to start brewing as soon as you get out of bed? Well, with the best Alexa-compatible kitchen devices, you can do that, too.

Control your cookers

The best Alexa-enabled kitchen appliance you can get is probably some kind of smart cooker. With voice commands, you’re able to turn it on and off, set the temperature and check how long something has been cooking without leaving your sofa. And with Routines, you can schedule your oven to start cooking at the same time every day.

There are quite a few different Alexa-enabled ovens, so, however you like to cook, there’s probably one for you.

If you want a regular range or wall-mounted oven with smart home features and Alexa integration, check out the GE SmartHQ line. There’s a GE smart oven that will work perfectly for most kitchens—and they don’t take up any counter space.

If a microwave is more your style, you’ve got a few options. There’s a GE smart microwave and an Amazon Basics Microwave—which even gives you a 10% discount on popcorn orders.

Along with the Basics Microwave, Amazon also makes their own Smart Oven. It’s an all-in-one microwave, convection oven, food warmer and air fryer—with Alexa integration, so you’ll be told when your food is done.

For a dedicated air fryer, look no further than the Cosori Smart Air Fryer. It’s a favorite smart device for a healthy smart kitchen.

And if convenience is what you need, the Instant Pot Smart WiFi Multicooker takes one of the most convenient cookers around and makes it even more convenient with Alexa integration and an app, so you can control it from anywhere.

Make your morning coffee

Programmable coffee makers have been around for years and, sure, having your coffee start brewing at the same time every day is nice, but what if you have to get up earlier than normal? Or want to sleep a little later?

Well, with an Alexa-compatible coffee maker, like this one from Hamilton Beach or this GE Café Specialty Drip Coffee Maker, you’ll be able to start your brew without leaving your smart bedroom.

Make other kitchen accessories hands-free

Cooking can be dirty work, especially if you’re dealing with raw chicken, so being able to control your vent or faucet without having to touch anything is a pretty cool feature.

For smart ventilation, GE makes a line of smart wall-mount hoods. You can use Alexa to turn on the fan (or light), so when things get smoky, you don’t need to worry about panic-finding a switch.

The U by Moen smart faucet brings voice controls to the kitchen sink. You can ask your tap to pour out set measures of water at a certain temperature, or just to turn on and off.

A probe thermometer is the best way to ensure your food is perfectly cooked through, but having to constantly check one is a hassle when you’re serving up a full meal. The Meater wireless smart thermometer solves this problem nicely: You can just ask Alexa how close your food is to the target temperature.

Check on your refrigerator

An Alexa-controlled smart refrigerator might sound like a bit of a novelty, but it can be surprisingly useful—especially when it has extra features like those in the LG and GE lines of smart fridges.

For example, with the LG Studio smart refrigerator, you can ask Alexa to check the status of the filtered water tank, turn on Ice Plus mode to make more ice and, if you want to, change the set temperature.

The GE Profile Series similarly lets you control the temperature, boost the cooling for a short while and even brew coffee or tea.

For everything else, smart plugs

Smart plugs, like the Gosund WiFi Smart Plug WP3, enable you to turn any appliance into an Alexa-compatible smart appliance.

If you’ve got a kettle, toaster, coffee grinder or anything else that can activate when it turns on, you can set it up and then use a smart plug to start it when you want. For example, you can pre-load beans into your coffee grinder and set the grind size the night before—plugged into a smart plug, you can have it turn on and start grinding as you wake up.

The big caveat here is that you can only turn devices on and off as if you’re plugging or unplugging them. If their settings are stored digitally or they won’t operate without power (say, your toast won’t stay down unless the toaster is on), then it won’t really work.

Don’t forget the smart home classics

While the focus here is on the best smart kitchen appliances, don’t forget that smart home classics like Sonos smart speakers and smart light bulbs, like the Philips Hue line, which are just as awesome in the kitchen as they are in any other room of your house. Plus, they’re obviously Alexa compatible.

Product features and availability may have changed and are subject to change.