The best Prime Day deals for some of The Verge staff’s favorite gadgets

Most of the things I own are, frankly, just unreliable enough to be annoying. All except for one or two — and of those, the one I love most of all is the Meross Smart Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener for HomeKit. And my love for it isn’t just about its rock-solid performance — it’s because, as far as I can tell, it’s compatible with almost any garage door opener on the market and across time itself.  I don’t think that’s an exaggeration, either. The chunky mustard yellow all-metal box that cranks my garage door open — the Model 455 by Automatic Doorman — was made, by my loose estimation, sometime between the fall of Rome and 1975. 

But Meross’ adapter was $30 — and to my amazement, after a very simple installation, it worked and continues to do so almost every time I need it to. Best of all, I don’t have to carry the chunky remote with me on my bike when I leave because I can just talk into my Apple Watch when I return and coast right in. 

Sean Hollister, senior editor

The single fastest and most reliable device in my entire smart home… is whichever dumb-as-a-brick appliance I plug into this tiny box. Seriously, I’m pretty sure the Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Mini is the only smart home device that’s never let me down. Whether it’s a string of Christmas lights, a garage freezer, a hot water recirculation pump, a humidifier, a bedside lamp, or a fan — all genuine examples from my home — I always know Alexa or Google or Siri or Home Assistant will flick that virtual switch in an instant and / or follow my programmed schedule.

Plus, I get some energy savings, too! My Brother printer used to draw 4W all day every day; now, I only spend 0.5–0.8W for the Smart Plug Mini it’s plugged into. I just wish TP-Link stopped making so many new versions so I could tell you which one to buy. I do know I’d have bought these energy-monitoring ones if I’d had a little more foresight. 

Victoria Song, senior reviewer

I always lose my keys. I must open the Find My app every single time I need to leave the house to find them. It’s worse when I go for a run because it means having to stuff them in a running belt, pocket, or worst of all — my sports bra. So installing the Nest x Yale Lock has been a game-changer for me.

For runs and walks, I can head out the door with nothing but my headphones and smartwatch. It’s so freeing! Same for just leaving my house to do literally anything. My spouse and I have the questionable habit of listening to scary true crime podcasts right before bed. That used to mean playing rock, paper, scissors to see which of us had to run down three flights of stairs to check if the door was locked. Not anymore! Now we can just ask Google Assistant or whip out the phone. I love that we can also create temporary guest passcodes for pet sitters or relatives that visit. It’s only been a few weeks, but this has been the simplest yet most high-impact quality-of-life upgrade I’ve done in a long time. 

Victoria Song, senior reviewer

At my last apartment, I kept all my plants in the windowsill. Unfortunately, we were on the ground floor, there were bushes outside, and whenever my spouse opened the window for some fresh air, we got fungus gnats. 

First, I tried neem oil and diatomaceous earth, but they were stinky and didn’t work well. You know what did? Good ole sticky bug traps. Push ’em into the pot and watch in fascinated disgust as it catches all of the nasty critters. (Just be careful if you have cats or other curious pets — one of my cats had a small bald patch on his butt for a week after a trap got stuck on him.) They’re also cheap and handy in the summer if you’ve developed a fruit fly situation in your kitchen.

Amelia Holowaty Krales, senior photo editor

I love a toaster oven! It’s compact, works fast, and is perfect for reheating pizza, making nachos, and yes, even toast. I use my toaster oven more than my regular oven for sure — and probably more than any other item in my kitchen. I have a pretty basic model like this one, but these days, many come with other features, like air frying and convection oven capabilities. 

Becca Farsace, senior producer

Okay, hear me out! Watering cans take up too much space, and single-use gadgets are a waste of money. So ever since I got overly involved in my coffee routine, I have been watering my indoor plants with the Aroma Housewares Professional electric kettle (this is, sadly, no longer sold, but any similar kettle will do). The gooseneck is perfect for making it over the ridge of a pot, the spout is small so it allows for control over where the water is falling, and the handle makes it feel just like a watering can. Plus, it sits on my counter looking pretty, right next to my faucet where I need to fill it up. So instead of buying a kettle with an open mouth spout, just buy one with a gooseneck and bada bing — you got a two-in-one gadget. Just make sure it has cooled down before you start watering!

Victoria Song, senior reviewer

A lot of people will tell you that rice cookers are single-use appliances meant only for rice — they’re wrong. A rice cooker is best at cooking rice, but it can do a lot of the same things as an Instant Pot. For instance, you can use it to cook hardboiled eggs or oatmeal, steam vegetables, make porridge, make one-pot meals, and even bake a cake. 

I grew up with giant 10-cup rice cookers at home, but I didn’t appreciate how versatile this appliance was until I left the country for college. A tiny two-cup rice cooker kept me fed in my cramped 250-square-foot Tokyo apartment. It was programmable, so I could wash my rice, stick it in the cooker, and know that when I woke up late for class, I could still whip up some ochazuke or oatmeal for a quick, cheap, and nutritious breakfast. (It also took the hassle out of steel-cut oats.) Whenever I had a craving for sweets, it was so easy to take pancake mix and bake a Japanese-style cheesecake for one.

I’ve since graduated to a 5.5-cup Zojirushi Micom Rice Cooker, and it’s one of the handiest tools I have for meal prepping. When I was sick I made ample use of its porridge setting to make a congee-type dish with chicken and ginger — just like my mom used to make when I was a kid. The fact that it’ll keep something warm for days, meant I could crawl out of bed, scoop out some porridge, and crawl back into bed with minimal effort. When I’m feeling lazy, I throw eggs in there, and bam — some extra hard-boiled protein. Mine also comes with a little basket, so it’s super easy to throw in veggies or steam frozen dumplings.

But what I like most is that rice cookers are more space-efficient than Instant Pots. In my kitchen, the one spot where I could fit an Instant Pot is instead occupied by a rice cooker, blender, and spoon rest. A multitasking kitchen gadget that doesn’t take over your entire counter? That’s a must if you live in a small space.

Barbara Krasnoff, reviews editor

We use a lot of garlic in my household, and traditional garlic presses never did it for us — they usually produced a messy, slushy paste. A friend of ours introduced us to the garlic rocker, which is not only fun to play with but produces beautifully minced pieces of garlic, perfect for sautéing and other uses. And it looks like a strange work of art, which means we can keep it on the counter just for show.