Quick confession: I take a picture of my stove before I leave on long trips. I’ve been living with OCD my entire life, and this is one of the little lifehacks I’ve created to silence that anxiety. In this case, it’s the very real and perfectly understandable concern that I’ve left the gas on and am therefore going to burn down my house.
I don’t quite qualify as Ome’s target demographic (yet), but I still find the concept of remote monitoring and shutoff for burners to be broadly appealing. The Smart Knob press material points to the aging-in-place community – that is, older people who still live independently. The Atlanta-based startup notes that unattended cooking is the top cause of house fires. It’s one that impacts an outsized number of older adults.
The knob, which launched Tuesday, isn’t Ome’s first foray into the space. The company says the new model builds atop user feedback about its predecessor.
“Over the last few years, we have collected invaluable feedback from our customers and made significant enhancements to our solution,” founder and CEO Akshita Iyer says in a release. “We are thrilled to now launch our next-gen Smart Knob with improved design, broader compatibility, upgraded features, and an even easier installation process.”
This second-gen product is around half the size of its predecessor and is compatible with a wider range of ranges. Ome says the installation process has been streamline and that the new model will last up to four months between charges.
Iyer, a Duke grad who previously appeared on Shark Tank, found inspiration close to home. Her mother, who lives with Parkinson’s, left the stove on one day and nearly started a fire in the process. Not every story like that has such a happy ending, however.
Ome’s $ 129 solution can be retrofitted to work on “most” ranges. Once fitted, it attaches with a 3M peel-off adhesive. There’s also a four-pack option available for $ 499.
In addition to remote monitoring and control, the system has an automatic shut off feature when cooking is unattended, programmable cooking times, and sends alerts to a connected smart device.
The new Ome smart knob is up for pre-order starting today. It will ship in early October.
