These Smart Faucets Let You Monitor Water Usage On Your iPhone

Given the rising costs of, well, pretty much everything these days, it's safe to assume most folks are looking to save a little money anywhere they can. While consumers don't have much say in what many things cost, they do have more control over what they pay every month when it comes to home utilities. With numerous must-have smart home focused devices available that allow homeowners to track and control things like water and electricity usage, it's arguably never been easier to figure out where you can save. 

Electricity usage is, perhaps, easier to correct by avoiding a few common mistakes, or even adding solar panels to your home's electrical grid. Likewise, many utilities providers now allow customers to view usage through their websites, and you should be able to adjust electric and water consumption based on that data. However, if you're looking for a more practical way to track your water usage in real-time, such stats may not help. Thankfully, there are now several smart faucets available on the consumer market that are equipped with technology that lets users easily track their water consumption from one day to the next.

That includes several smart faucets from Kohler that can help users monitor water usage through their iPhone via HomeKit, or the Kohler Connect app. Here's a closer look at Kohler's Tone, Graze, and Artifacts faucets, which may help you trim a few bucks off of your water bill every month.  

Kohler has a relatively broad line of smart faucets, though it appears only three can be equipped with water usage monitoring functionality. If you're looking for a model capable of tracking water usage on your iPhone, you'll need to narrow your search to those faucets with voice-activation capabilities. These appear to be the only models that come with access to the Kohler Connect app required to monitor that sort of consumption in the kitchen. To add such a device to your kitchen on the low end of the cost scale, Kohler's Tone Touchless Faucet is likely the model for you.

While a Tone is on the lower-end of Kohler's smart faucet lineup, an app-enabled model in Polished Chrome finish — which is typically the cheaper of the various finishes offered — will still set you back at least $707.85 direct from the manufacturer. Even a low-end Tone comes with quite a few desirable features, including touchless on-off functionality and voice-activated command options that allow you to tell your faucet exactly how much water to dispense. The Graze also has a swiveling three-function pull-down sprayer that allows you to adjust the level of water pressure and style of spray.

Yes, the Kohler Connect app indeed helps you track water usage, as well as any unusual flow of water from the faucet on your iPhone. Overall, the Tone boasts solid reviews from users in the Kohler web store, though some felt it flimsier than other Kohler products, and still another customer took issue with the device's technological setup. 

To be clear, if your kitchen design calls for a more distinctive look than just polished chrome, Kohler offers many different options for their smart faucets. The price, however, goes up when you start selecting more specialty finishes, and can even push the overall cost of your Kohler smart faucet well over $1,000, depending on the model and the selected finish. For this piece, we'll continue to showcase polished chrome, as it is the more cost-effective finish for Kohler faucets — and that includes the touchless, voice-activated Graze Faucet. 

As for the cost of a Graze Touchless Faucet in polished chrome, it will run you $805.27 if you purchase one directly from Kohler. For that money, you get most of the same features that come with the Tone, including touchless on-off, voice command controls, a three-function pull-down spray nozzle, and a temperature memory feature. As with the Tone, the Graze also features a high-arc spout — though with a back-to-front width of 10-3/4", it is a touch wider compared to the Tone's 7-13/16".

As it is, that extra bit of clearance — along with a sleeker minimalist look — appear to be the major differences between the Tone and the Graze. That said, the extra three inches alone may be worth an additional $100 for folks who are regularly cooking large meals with bigger pots and pans. Though the Graze is relatively well reviewed by users on Kohler's web store, it should be noted that at least one customer claimed to have issues adding the device to their Apple HomeKit setup.

Look is a big part of what separates the different models of Kohler smart faucets that allow you to track your water usage by iPhone. That being the case, if sleek and minimalist is not the style you're going for in your kitchen, you might be happy to know that, for a few more bucks, you can pick up Kohler's Artifacts smart faucet, which may be better suited for those looking for a warmer, more farmhouse-friendly look that still has all the functionality of the other models. 

You can get that more sculpted Artifacts look for $885.45 in a polished chrome finish, complete with touchless activation, voice command controls, as well as the Kohler Connect access and Wi-Fi capability required for usage tracking and HomeKit setup. Like the other faucets on this list, Artifacts require a 2.4 GHz password-protected Wi-Fi connection for some of those notification features to properly function, and all three are indeed powered by a hard-lined AC current.

While that AC setup means you will never need to replace a battery in a Tone, Grove, or Artifacts Kohler smart faucet, the hard-lined power will, of course, have an effect on your energy bill. So you might need to do some additional research in regards to how much the water monitoring system is saving you compared to how much extra energy the faucet is using. Either way, at 4.2 stars out of 5, the Artifacts kitchen faucet is the highest-rated device with water usage tracking capabilities. However, some reviewers claim the touchless on-off system is overly sensitive on this model, and at least one user had issues connecting to their smart home base.