Earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, we saw a preview of the WeMo smart appliances by Belkin that will make our busy home lives a little easier to manage, even if we aren’t home. And I’m happy to report that the first of these, the Belkin Crockpot Smart Slo-Cooker with WeMo is just hitting virtual shelves today, and will be ready to help us all get dinner on the table, no matter what time that may be.
The Belkin WeMo Crockpot operates very much like the basic, no-frills crockpot I already own: Stick a bunch of food inside and cook it for hours and hours until it’s time to eat. But, unlike my no-frills crockpot, the “frills” on the new six-quart WeMo Crockpot include the ability to set and change cooking time and temperature from an app on any Android or iOS smartphone.
Busy families: This really is a huge help.
If I find a great chicken recipe that needs to cook for six hours on low, I can go ahead and make it, even if I won’t be home for at least eight hours. The WeMo Crockpot will simply switch to “warm” when the desired cooking time is reached, even sending me a reassuring message that it is doing this so and not continuing to cook my chicken into shoe leather.
Or for those days when I really want to make that ten-hour pot roast recipe in seven hours, I can set the WeMo Crockpot to high for a few hours, and then remotely switch it to low while we are out and have dinner ready to plate when my hungry kids get home.
And, on that dreaded day when you drive to work and realize you never turned the blasted slow cooker on, you can do this from the office–provided you plugged the unit into the socket!–and save an entire dinner that would normally be spoiling on your kitchen counter. Don’t ask me how I know this.
But the best thing is that this is actually a good crockpot all on its own, with easy dishwasher-safe lid cleanup, cool handles, and other features you’d expect. Plus you can control it on the LCD touchscreen right on the pot, should the kids have run away with your phone for some Minecraft time. Don’t ask me know I know this either.
The Belkin Crockpot Smart Slo-Cooker with WeMo is now available starting today at Belkin.com. Thanks to Belkin for sending CMT a review unit to test the WeMo capabilities.
