The Technical Difficulties Podcast

DIY Smart Home Guys - Pete Borchers, Brandon Doyle, Vincent Hylla

A podcast all about the latest trends, devices and topics related to smart homes and home automation. 

  1. 17 APR

    Are Furnaces Dead? The Smart HVAC Revolution Nobody's Talking About| S5E7

    Did you know your Nest or Ecobee might actually be dumbing down your  mini-split — and costing you money? This week Pete, Brandon, and Vince  sit down with Victoria Garcia Massimo, Director of Sales & Business  Development at Airzone, to uncover the missing link between modern  inverter HVAC systems and your smart home. Airzone doesn't make the heat pump — they make it smart. Through  relationships with 200+ HVAC manufacturers, Airzone's control modules  speak the native protocol of your inverter unit, enabling true  per-room zoning, proper efficiency control, and deep smart home  integration that a standard thermostat simply can't deliver. We cover: → Why Nest and Ecobee can't properly control mini-splits & heat pumps → What inverter technology is — and why it changes everything → Per-room zoning: independent temperature control for every zone → Do heat pumps actually work in cold climates like Minnesota? → Rebates & incentive programs available in New England & Canada → Smart home integrations: Home Assistant, SmartThings, Google Home,     Alexa, Savant, Crestron & more → Matter certification and Apple HomeKit coming to Airzone → The future of HVAC — are furnaces going the way of the V8 engine? 🔗 Learn more about Airzone: https://www.airzonecontrol.com/na/en/ --- 💡 This episode is brought to you by ZOOZ — the go-to source for  powerful, reliable Z-Wave smart home devices. From motion sensors and  smart switches to safety sensors and DIY relays, Zooz has you covered  — and backs everything with an industry-leading 5-year warranty. Support the show and get the best deals on Zooz smart home products: 👉 https://www.thesmartesthouse.com?sca_ref=6284708.sXoXFTZinuqY ZoozThank you to Zooz for supporting the podcast! The best Z-Wave smart home products--bar none!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

    35 min
  2. 19 MAR

    Does Home Automation ACTUALLY Save You Time? | S5E6

    Pete, Brandon, and Vince welcome Josh Wallet from Josh's Smart Home YouTube channel for a deep dive into what a fully realized, family-friendly smart home actually looks like in practice — including the wins, the fails, and everything in between. Josh shares the story behind his channel, including the five-year wait just to get approval to start it due to his day job's outside employment agreement, plus the painful early days of hard drive failures, glitchy exports, and uploading an entire unedited bloopers reel by mistake. The crew swap creator horror stories before getting into the good stuff: Josh's impressive custom home build in Pennsylvania, complete with a 14-seat home theater, a basement bar with two TVs, and a smart home stack that has evolved over years of real-world family use. The conversation goes deep on Josh's Home Assistant setup — from motion-based lighting throughout the house and Lutron Pico remotes as manual overrides, to geofencing all five family members for smarter automations. Josh shares his favorite automation of all time: a Z-Wave water shutoff valve tied to leak sensors that once stopped a bathroom sink overflow from becoming a full drywall disaster. He also breaks down his math on how much time home automation has actually saved his family — we're talking 200-300 hours a year in light switches alone, and 700 hours total when you factor in the Yarbo handling mowing, snow blowing, and vacuuming. Of course, the Yarbo hasn't been perfect — it ran over a small tree, ripped a slide off the kids' playset, and Josh famously remote-controlled it from his CES hotel room in Las Vegas while his wife watched the driveway get cleared back in Pennsylvania. They also get into the home theater lighting automation that still hasn't been cracked, why Josh ditched SmartThings out of spite, his commitment to more honest reviews in 2026, and Pete's pitch for using smart home automations to nudge the 22-year-old out of the house. 📺 Find Josh: YouTube: @JoshsSmartHome Website: joshasmarthome.com Travel Channel: @joshwallettravels   Support the show and get the best deals on Zooz smart home products: 👉 https://www.thesmartesthouse.com?sca_ref=6284708.sXoXFTZinuqY ZoozThank you to Zooz for supporting the podcast! The best Z-Wave smart home products--bar none!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

    46 min
  3. 14 MAR

    Smart Cranes, Rogue Mowers & Will AI Replace Us? ft. This Smart House | S5E5

    Recorded live at CES 2026, Pete, Vince, and Brandon sit down in person with Ryan from the This Smart House YouTube channel for a wide-ranging conversation covering the smart home landscape, the realities of being a part-time creator, robot mowers going completely rogue, and whether AI is coming for all of our jobs. Ryan shares what he's been up to over the past year — including a new role as Head of R&D at Ramsey Industries, where he's building the company's first IoT-connected crane product. The crew digs into his Home Assistant tutorial series, including Matterbridge setup and Tesla integration, before going deep on the state of robot lawn mowers — debating RTK vs. LiDAR navigation, sharing some hilarious mower-gone-wrong stories, and previewing what's coming from Yarbo and others in 2026. The conversation shifts to the creator side of things — how to stay consistent with a day job and family, the real struggle of ADHD and project follow-through, AI tools for content production (N8N, Gemini for B-roll cataloging), and Pete's ill-fated secret YouTube channel experiment. They also break down what stood out at CES — from Samsung's senior care smart home tech to the AI buzzword fatigue hitting the show floor — and close out with a genuine debate: will AI eventually replace content creators, or will authenticity always win? Support the show and get the best deals on Zooz smart home products: 👉 https://www.thesmartesthouse.com?sca_ref=6284708.sXoXFTZinuqY 📺 Find Ryan: YouTube:  @ThisSmartHouse   Instagram: @thissmarthouseyoutube

    40 min

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A podcast all about the latest trends, devices and topics related to smart homes and home automation. 

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