Following on from our article about Home Automation using Oittm Smart Plugs, I decided to look at other items in the range to see what was within the art of the possible, and one item which caught my eye was the Oittm Essential Oil Diffuser, which again offers Smart home connectivity.
What is an Essential Oil Diffuser
Essential Oils are highly concentrated versions of the natural occurring oils, many people believe that they bring health and wellbeing benefits, but at very least they smell nice.
Traditionally Essential Oils are mixed with water and heated to spread the smell around the room, but as technology has improved electronic versions of diffusers have started to appear, which makes the process a great deal more practical.
Scent with Style
There is no doubt that the Oittm Essential Oil Diffuser is a stylish bit of kit which will look nice is any home with it’s nice rounded edges looking like a modern vase.
There are stylish buttons around the base of the unit and a multi-colour LED band and bulb adds an extra light feature into your room.
Whilst very different then the old school diffusers this is clearly a modern take on classic.
Setting up the Oittm Essential Oil Diffuser
I had initially had a couple of issues setting up the Oittm Essential Oil Diffuser, with the Oittm app on my iPhone not being able to see the device.
However the solution became apparent after a while, I simply left the Oittm Essential Oil Diffuser powered up and active for a period of time ~30 mins after which the device connected to my phone without issue.
After I got over this initial hurdle getting the Oittm Essential Oil Diffuser up and running was relatively straight forward, I filled the water tank upto the line, added a few drops of essential oil, plugged the device into the wall and I was ready to go.
I’ve not had a single problem since.
Controlling the Oittm Essential Oil Diffuser
There are two ways in which you can directly control the Oittm Essential Oil Diffuser, online and offline.
To control the diffuser offline you can use the labelled buttons that are on the front of the device, which allow you to control the diffusion rate, set the inbuilt light settings and trigger a timer, which will switch off the diffuser after 1, 3 or 5 hours. It’s very straightforward and intuitive to use.
Of course most of our readers will be interested in the Oittm Smart App which accompanies the Diffuser (and other Oittm devices), as it allows you to control your Oittm devices through an App, not only can you manually turn on and off the device but you can set up rotas for the device to turn on and off at set times.
The app is easy to use and if you don’t want to use any further smart options then it provides all the functionality you need.
You can also link the Oittm Diffuser to Voice controlled smart assistants, when testing Alexa I found it very easy to connect my Oittm Account to the Alexa Smart Homes service, after which a simple Alexa command controlled the device.
Making the Oittm Essential Oil Diffuser Smarter with IFTTT
Oittm have made a Smart Home skill which works with IFTTT.
IFTTT is a cloud based service which allows you to set responses to trigger variables, the shear number of triggers can turn connected devices into very smart tools.
A Diffuser might seem an odd example for this but in the example below I’ve created a smart rule which turns on the device at automatically at Sunset, therefore as its starts to get nice we get a nice smell of lavender in our bedroom, another example might be that you could also trigger the device based on your location, so you could arrive home to a nice scent.
Closing thoughts
The Oittm Essential Oil Diffuser is a stylish addition to the modern connected home and at about £35 offers very good value for money, the ability to add Alexa & IFTTT services means that you can set the diffuser up to be as automated or as configurable as you desire.
You can purchase the Oittm Essential Oil Diffuser from Amazon by clicking here.
