Kohler Expands Smart Home Products to Emphasize Wellness, Touchless Living

Global kitchen and bath brand Kohler recently added products to its smart home portfolio with a focus on personal wellbeing and promoting touchless living for consumers.

Launched at the first-ever virtual Consumer Electronic Show, the four new products include the Stillness Bath, Innate Intelligent Toilet, Touchless Bathroom Faucet collection, and two new products emerging from a collaboration with home water monitoring brand Phyn and Kohler.

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"As we grow our leadership in smart home innovation, our products make it possible for consumers to easily enjoy the advantages of touchless and connected experiences, without adding clutter or complexity to their spaces," says David Kohler, president and CEO of the Kohler Co. "We believe there is a delicate balance when it comes to technology in the home – and will continue pioneering opportunities for seamless control in the bathroom and kitchen with an eye toward gracious living and wellbeing."

As the company explains it, millions of people around the world are spending more time at home, so they yearn for balance and seek an escape from the stresses and anxieties of everyday life. The potential for technology to create more moments of wellbeing, and making it easier to unwind, destress, and find peace, is a driving force behind's the company’s continued investment and product development in smart home technology, Kohler adds.

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The new additions to the smart home portfolio include the following:

Smart Stillness Bath

This experiential bath draws its inspiration from Japanese forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku, Kohler says. Transforming the bathroom into a spa-like environment for quiet mindfulness, the Stillness Bath offers a sanctuary for self-care and wellbeing. It starts with water filling from the bottom of the bath, overflowing into the Hinoki wood moat to create a soothing sound. Full spectrum lighting surrounds the bath, setting the mood, and creating a chromatherapy experience. Fog then envelopes the surface of the Stillness Bath, immersing the bather in a feeling of deep relaxation. Finally, essential oils can be added into the bath's experience tower, which softly emits invigorating aromas to stimulate the senses and promote focus.

Innate Intelligent Toilet

Innate is the newest addition to Kohler's portfolio of intelligent products. Kohler says the unit includes all the comfort, convenience, and cleanliness features that people expect but at a more affordable price. Innate includes a heated seat, auto open and close, intuitive remote, and personal bidet functionality. Further, as many homeowners look for more DIY projects, Innate features Kohler's easy, ready-lock installation.

Touchless Residential Bathroom Faucet
The touchless bathroom faucet offers hands-free activation for washing hands, brushing teeth, and other daily tasks. Having the ability to wash hands at the end of the bathroom routine without touching the handles of the faucet decreases the potential spread of bacteria and germs in the space. Kohler launches an integrated faucet with embedded sensors as well as a remote puck that allows for a retrofit solution add-on to any of the company's single control bathroom faucet.

Kohler and Phyn Partnership

Kohler will launch two co-branded products with Phyn in 2021—the Kohler Whole Home Water Monitor Powered by Phyn. It will come in a DIY unit and a Pro version with an automatic shut off. These products represent a continued evolution of the company's focus on water safety and peace of mind. Both products leverage Phyn's patented, “best-in-class,” high-definition pressure wave analysis to monitor water flow to immediately notify a homeowner if a leak is detected anywhere in the home and to provide detailed insights into how each fixture uses water. The DIY version mounts under a single sink and can be easy installed by a homeowner. The Pro variation is installed at a water main, either inside or outside the home, and can mitigate costly damage through an automatic water shutoff feature.

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In addition to the four products, Kohler has expanded other smart home technologies that incorporate new features:

The brand's collection of Konnect voice-activated and touchless kitchen faucets now offers a "wash hand" command that walks consumers through the recommended steps for proper handwashing, activating the water for wetting and rinsing, along with audible guides for lathering and cleaning.

Kohler OnCue Plus Generator Management System will now be available with additional voice control. Kohler is launching a new OnCue Plus action on Google and a new OnCue Plus skill on Amazon Alexa to help homeowners control their Kohler standby generators whenever and wherever they are by just using their voice. This voice control feature will allow users to have easy access to their generators to ensure it is ready for any outage and provide them the peace of mind when they are away. Kohler Generators would be the first in the standby generator market to offer such voice control capability, the company says.

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