Meross Smart WiFi Essential Oil Diffuser review: Automate your home's smell

There's a lot you can do with HomeKit these days, though I had never really spent much time thinking about how I could automate the scent of my home. However, that's exactly what Meross wants to achieve with its new Smart WiFi Essential Oil Diffuser.

Working in conjunction with HomeKit, this device can add fragrance and humidity to the air on a schedule that suits you, plus it does double duty as a bit of mood lighting. While the design may not be for everyone, I have been pleasantly surprised by the ease of using it and just how nice it is to have a part of your home regularly smelling fresh.

Meross Smart WiFi Essential Oil Diffuser: Price and availability

The Meross Smart WiFi Essential Oil Diffuser retails for $60 in the U.S., though you can often find it discounted from that price on Amazon. Meross also makes compatible versions for the UK, EU, and Australian markets with the right power supply being provided. Regardless of region, it only comes in the one wood-effect finish, which won't be to everyone's taste.

Meross Smart WiFi Essential Oil Diffuser: What's good

Though you could get a regular essential oil diffuser and hook it up to a HomeKit smart plug, an integrated solution will always be better.

It's easy to set the Meross Smart WiFi Essential Oil Diffuser up in either the Home app or the Meross app. You can start in either app and achieve the same result, but I recommend having the Meross app installed as a couple of additional functions are exposed there.

You'll see the Meross oil diffuser listed as a humidifier in the Home app. While it does serve to add humidity to the air, that's not its primary purpose, and it won't compare favorably to a dedicated humidifier. This is the case because oil diffusers are not currently supported as a HomeKit category in their own right.

Regardless, you can use the Home app to turn the oil diffuser on and off and control the brightness and color of the built-in RGB light. Like other HomeKit devices, you can include the humidifier or light into scenes and routines, so your home can always smell great when you arrive home or wake up. The light can be split out into its own tile in the Home app and can be integrated with other scenes and automations if you prefer.

With Meross' own app, you can choose between heavy spray and light spray, which HomeKit does not control; however, the lighting controls are much more finicky and unreliable here.

There are physical button controls for turning the diffuser on or off and cycling between colors for the RGB light on the front. I am a huge fan of physical controls on HomeKit products as it enables non-tech-savvy members of the household to use smart products without the whole system being taken apart.

The Meross Smart WiFi Essential Oil Diffuser is quiet when running, making only a slight purring sound and the occasional trickling of water. It's a fairly relaxing sound to have in the background of your office or elsewhere in the home. The internal reservoir is 400ml which allows for active diffusion for up to 10 hours on a low setting or over several days on an automation that runs for a set period of time per day.

It's worth noting that the mist that comes out of the top is cold, and the water in the reservoir inside also remains cold. If you've used a diffuser before, you'll know this is commonplace, but it's good news for anyone with pets or kids that might be tempted to pull this off the side table.

Meross Smart WiFi Essential Oil Diffuser: What's not good

First things first, let's talk about that design. Though a conical spout is common for a lot of oil diffusers, the faux wood effect is less so, and it's not going to be to everyone's taste. Due to the nature of the product, it needs to be out and on show to work correctly, so if this doesn't match your decor, it may be a non-starter. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the look and would have preferred a more neutral option that could fit in better with a variety of spaces.

It's not recommended that you pick up this product for its lighting function. The lighting effect, powered by just a few LEDs in the base, is subtle and requires a dimly lit room to add any brightness or color of note.

As I mentioned before, the Meross app allows you to choose a heavy or light spray that is especially handy if you don't want to overload your space with fragrance or want the water inside to last longer throughout the day. Since diffusers are not technically supported in HomeKit, I found the best strategy was to set the humidity target to 100% and use the on and off function manually or as part of routines. Apple would need to add proper diffuser support for more granular control.

While I enjoy being able to have my hallway smelling great when people walk into my home, the Meross does recommend cleaning out the Smart WiFi Essential Oil Diffuser every few days. If you want a set-it-and-forget-it solution, a plug-in air freshener would be much better for you.

One other oddity about the Meross package is that, though the internal water tank holds 400ml, the included jug for filling it is only 150ml. It's not a huge issue, but super-odd that these wouldn't match up size-wise, and it requires three trips to the faucet to fill.

Meross Smart WiFi Essential Oil Diffuser: Competition

There are a ton of cool mist humidifiers available at various price points. Some offer essential oil support, though relatively few integrate with HomeKit.

The most comparable products would be the VOCOlinc MistFlow and FlowerBud diffusers, which offer the same sort of HomeKit smarts. The latter provides a similar conical design but a smaller water tank, whereas the former is much larger at 2.5 liters and offers a brighter light function. It's a tad more expensive at $70 but definitely worth a look.

Meross Smart WiFi Essential Oil Diffuser: Should you buy it?

• You want a HomeKit-enabled smart diffuser
• You want a diffuser that offers basic mood lighting
• You don't need the most performant humidifier component

• You only want to use the HomeKit app for controls
• You want bright light capabilities
• You need to add humidity to a large space

If you want a basic but functional, essential oil diffuser that can be controlled via HomeKit and used to automate your home's scent, the Meross Smart WiFi Essential Oil Diffuser is a great buy. You can set a particular schedule to suit your preference through routines, which will always allow your home to smell great. It also offers some mood lighting, though it's best suited for dimly lit rooms. It comes with physical controls just in case the app is acting wacky, which is a plus.

The device's physical design, however, won't be for everyone, and the quirky humidifier workaround in HomeKit means you'll probably find yourself going between the Home app and the Meross app to achieve everything you want to do with it. Additionally, the odd proportions of the water tank means that you'll likely have to make three trips to the faucet to fill it up all the way.