Apple’s HomeKit platform has expanded to support a variety of device categories since its launch in 2014, including lights, thermostats, ceiling fans, sprinklers, outlets and humidifiers.
Although close in style to a humidifier, one specific accessory missing from HomeKit is an essential oil diffuser, and now connected smart home brand Vocolinc has launched the Flowerbud Smart Diffuser to remedy the situation.
setup
Out of the box, the Flowerbud Smart Diffuser looks somewhat similar to other essential oil diffusers, and it comes in two parts for quick and easy assembly. There is a 6.5-inch wide base that holds the water reservoir and the front has a button for the mood light and a button for the diffuser.
The water reservoir holds 300ml of water, but you need to make two passes with the included measuring cup to get the base to only hold 150ml. At the bottom, you’ll find a port for connecting to the AC adapter’s barrel plug, and a slightly raised rubber foot keeps everything level even with the cord passing through.
Second, a separate top component (designed to look like a blooming flower) simply sits on the base, no screwing or snapping required. When aggregated, flowerbuds are up to 10 inches long.
Once the Flowerbud base is plugged in and the device is turned off, you fill the water reservoir to a safe capacity and sprinkle a small amount of any water-soluble 100% essential oil. It should be noted that Vocolinc does not include, nor does it sell, scented oils with flowerbuds, but quality essential oils are available at most major grocery and department stores these days, including Bed Bath & Beyond, Target, and Whole Foods.
With water and essential oils added to the mix, setup continues by placing the top of the flowerbud on the base and downloading the Vocolinc LinkWise app from the iOS App Store. During this part of the setup, I ran into multiple issues regarding my Wi-Fi network and the Vocolinc’s requirement for FlowerBud to be on a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network.
In the Linkwise app, there’s an “Add Device” button on the home screen, which brings up the usual HomeKit screen that lets you scan a QR code or hold your iPhone up to the Flowerbud to add it. I immediately got an error message saying “This accessory is not compatible with your Wi-Fi router” which means that my Wi-Fi is operating under a 5 GHz network and the FlowerBud needs a 2.4 GHz connection.
Fortunately, my mesh network router has an iOS app that allows me to easily change which Wi-Fi band the router and each mesh point are on, as well as see through each of my devices which band they are operating on. To fix the problem, I switched my entire network to 2.4 GHz, factory reset Flowerbud (holding the “light” and “mist” buttons simultaneously for five seconds), and tried to add it again, but it still failed. Unsure of what to do, I opened the Wi-Fi area of the iOS Settings app, and noticed at the bottom that there was a prompt to set up the Vocolinc FlowerBud on my private Wi-Fi network.
After clicking through a few screens confirming the process, the Settings app prompted me to go to the accessory’s own app to continue setup. Before that, I switched over to my router’s app and switched my main network back to a dual-band 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz setting, to test and see if the Flowerbud would be able to automatically connect to the network it’s compatible with.
I used the HomeKit QR code to search for the Flowerbud again, and this time it added two accessories to the My Home app: a humidifier (for humidity detection and diffusing control) and a mood light. Although the process was a bit difficult, especially for an essential oil diffuser, all interactions since then have been painless.
Home app
After setting everything up on HomeKit, I switched to Apple’s app to make sure the Home and Siri controls would work like any other HomeKit device. Flowerbud did just that last week, and all the voice-based commands sent to the diffuser and mood light are as seamless as my Hue light and Nanoleaf.
Especially with Siri on the HomePod, I’ve had no problem with Siri understanding my commands for the diffuser, although you have to remember that Siri/HomeKit doesn’t think of it as a humidifier as a diffuser, so you’ll need to adjust your terminology accordingly.
If you force-touch on the flowerbud at home, you’ll bring up a humidity control bar, which you can increase anywhere between 0 percent and 100 percent. In terms of essential oil diffusion, this is a control area that will either reduce or increase the misting effect as the accessory tries to increase indoor humidity.
For example, at one point my office humidity was 55 percent, so I raised the humidity level of the flowerbud to 56 percent and a visible mist emitted from the top of the device. At 55 percent and below, the flowerbuds were on and diffusing the oil, but the scent travel wasn’t as strong.
This can make it difficult to find a perfect activation level for the misting effect, but since the indoor humidity in my office stays relatively consistent, I set the Flowerbud to automatically set the humidity to 65 percent every day from 8:00 a.m.
I added this as an automation to my existing morning setup at home and set Flowerbud to turn off exactly three hours after lunch with the mood lights following the same schedule. The flowerbud can automatically turn on when you get home and turn off when you leave to fill your house or apartment with a pleasant scent.
As for individual mood lights, Apple’s Home app treats FlowerBud like any HomeKit light, so you can force touch to adjust its brightness or choose a new color. The options you select will be saved when the light is turned off, so the next time it’s turned on you’ll have the same brightness and color options you prefer.
Vocolinc compares Flowerbud to Hue in this area, noting that there are 16 million colors to choose from, and in my tests displayed a nice array of accessory color options, from bright pinks and purples to deep reds, dark blues and soft shades of yellow, orange and white.
Vocolinc LinkWise app
You can also choose to perform all of these controls in Vocolinc’s LinkWise app, but I wouldn’t recommend doing so. While the app’s user interface is simpler and slightly better than some of the third-party HomeKit accessories I’ve owned, it’s still one of the greatest HomeKit-connected apps I’ve ever used.
You have to long press the device icon to get to Flowerbud settings in the app, but this entire section was inaccessible to me for about a week after I got the diffuser, as the app would crash every time I tried to open it. The company confirmed to me that they are working on a fix and has since updated the app with a slightly new UI and resolved the crashing bug.
In the flowerbud control section, I was able to control the flowerbud mist level (on a scale of 1-5), customize the lighting, create a weekly schedule, and set a timer to turn off the diffuser (30 minutes to 8 hours). While these controls are in-depth, Apple’s Home app gave me enough options that I never felt the need for a connected diffuser even when the LinkWise app was broken.
In some cases Vocolinc’s app is better (especially with the granular misting scale), but for the most part it’s easier and more intuitive to control Flowerbud using a combination of Home and Siri.
daily use
As far as actual essential oil diffusion goes, the Flowerbud is comparable to other diffusers I’ve owned, and even better in some categories. Vocolinc recommends you place the Flowerbud in a room measuring 400 square feet or less, and I found the device’s ultrasonic diffusion reliable and plentiful in my ~140 square foot office, with enough power to carry the aroma into a nearby hallway and bedroom. .
The device itself was silent, but you could occasionally hear water dripping when you were close enough to it; I found that the faint sound added to the relaxing effect of the diffusion process.
The 300ml/10oz water reservoir sits right in the middle of the diffuser spectrum, with most low-cost diffusers growing to 100ml tanks and high-end ones up to 500ml. 300ml was a perfect balance for the Flowerbud, a water tank large enough that the “set it and forget it” automation features felt useful, but small enough that you could drop it down and smell a new essential oil every few days. can go .
From the first time I filled the tank it took five days for the water to completely drain, and each of those days the flowerbud went on for 3-4 hours at a time. I often had to add a few drops of essential oil to keep the scent strong and noticeable, which was every 2-3 days.
Flowerbud’s buttons serve double duty with long presses. The light button has a quick press to turn the mood light on/off and a long press to change the color, while a quick press of the mist button turns the device on and lets you cycle through 1-2 fog speed levels and a long press. Sets a two-hour, four-hour, or six-hour mist timer.
All of these are accompanied by a loud beeping noise to confirm your inputs, which can be a downside to using Flowerbud next to your bed while someone else is sleeping. Still, the entire time I used Flowerbud I relied solely on these physical buttons to make sure they worked as intended, and then used Siri and Home for all Flowerbud controls.
I loved the design of the unit and its all-white enclosure, which blended in perfectly with my office. I thought the Flowerbud was less visually busy than rival diffusers, with just two buttons on the front and the only visible text being the VocoLink logo, which is subtle enough thanks to the light gray shading.
Still, the unit’s all-plastic encasing makes it feel a bit cheaper than high-end ceramic diffusers, and even with a full tank it can feel light on its feet. If you order one, double-check to make sure the rubberized feet secure the bottom of the device as well; Mine was loose in the box and it took me a few days to figure out why the diffuser was slightly to one side.
bottom line
Overall, Vocolinc has obviously made some concessions to bring the price of the Flowerbud down to the average mid-range price of an oil diffuser, cutting corners with some of its smart automation features and its physical design, but in the end I’d say the company struck a great balance between the two.
There are some issues with the device, particularly related to its initial setup and buggy LinkWise app, but the post-setup experience was a breeze, and VocoLink’s app can largely be ignored in favor of controls provided by Apple’s HomeKit, Amazon’s Alexa, or Google Assistant. , making the Vocolinc FlowerBud Smart Diffuser a fun and unique addition to most smart homes.
How to buy
You can buy the Vocolinc FlowerBud Smart Diffuser on Amazon for $49.99.
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