From scented candles, to essential oils and diffusers, to room sprays, there’s plenty of ways we try to change the smell of our homes. While each of these items can be effective in their own way, those that love to create a vibe with scent, know getting something long lasting and effective can be a challenge. That’s where this new gadget comes in. Moodo is a smart connected scent diffuser that uses fan-powered air and scent capsules to allow you to mix scents, set timers, and even program different scents to trigger at different times of day.
Want to feel energized with citrus in the morning, but need a soft lavender to send you off to dreamland? It’s possible with Moodo. The Moodo device allows you to have up to four different scents which you can mix into one unique aroma, or play them individually. The device pushes air over the capsules to fill the room with scent. You can control the air’s intensity for more or less scent.
Setting Up Moodo
When you order Moodo, you’ll get the diffuser unit, and three boxes of what Moodo calls ‘scent families’. Scent families are boxes of differently scented capsules tailored by Moodo to work together and smell nice when mixed, but can be used solo too. Each capsule is supposed to last about 60 hours.
To start your scent experience, just plug in Moodo and drop in some capsules. Next you’ll connect to Wi-Fi and get your app working, but it’s here I had quite a bit of trouble.
I tried connecting to two different Wi-Fi networks, and had mighty struggles with both. The manual that comes with Moodo says you just need to follow the instructions in the app, which involves connecting to your home Wi-Fi. After numerous attempts, I was unable to connect. The app just kept telling me the connection had failed, and to do a factory reset on the device and try again. I did this probably a dozen times and no luck. Just as I was about to give up, I tried one more time, and bingo!
With the Moodo successfully connected to Wi-Fi you can now control it with the app. In theory.
How to control Moodo
You can do a number of things with Moodo’s app. The app will show you which capsules are situated in which spots inside the device. It seems as though you’re supposed to be able to tap each capsule to control the intensity or the mix. But on my first attempt, nothing worked. When I closed the app and re-opened it, the whole thing had greyed out and I couldn’t do anything. This was getting frustrating. I closed and re-opened the app numerous times and kept getting a message that the Moodo was not connected to Wi-Fi. I moved closer to it and further away. No dice. I tried a few more times, and was finally rewarded with a connection again. Yay.
Again I tried adjusting the intensity of the individual capsules, but I couldn’t change them from the app’s main screen. Instead you’ll need to add a “Custom” scent profile by clicking the bottom of the app. This brings up sliders that allow you to dial in each individual scent.
Another slider on the main screen allows you to turn the fan up or down.
Switching Moodo capsules
Moodo is supposed to know which capsules are in the machine. I Swapped Floral Magic for Wood Royale and waited to see if the app recognized it. It took about 20-30 seconds, but it did. At any time you can save a scent profile and assign it a name so you can get it back again.
What are Moodo scent capsules made of?
Moodo says its fragrances are created by expert perfumers and are produced in France. The capsules are long-lasting, alcohol-free, eco-friendly and cruelty-free. If you look at them, you can see tiny plastic beads inside the capsules. They’re reminiscent of those scent beads you used to see inside toilet paper roll holders back in the 1980’s.
Familes are scent capsules organized into four-packs, each was curated by leading French perfumers. The Moodo smartphone app recognizes which scent family is in the device at a given time, and suggests preset scent mixes.
You can buy 4-packs in families, or individual scents.
How to set Moodo Interval and Schedules
How to set Moodo Interval and SchedulesYou can set intervals or create custom schedules with Moodo.
Intervals allows the unit to operate by turning on for a period of time then off again to meter the use and presumably preserve the capsules longevity. You can set intervals to Powerful (every 10 minutes Moodo takes a 5 minute break), Efficient (Every 10 minutes Moodo takes a 10 minute break) or Saver (every 5 minutes Moodo takes a 10 minute break).
Using the scheduler you can choose a time of day and days of the week for Moodo to come on, and how long you want it to run for. Fortunately the scheduler and the interval tools are straightforward and easy to use, and they work well.
Using Manual Mode
A smart feature of the device is its ability to run manually, meaning other family members and guests (AirBnb maybe?) can control their own scents.
On the back of the device are four buttons, each one corresponding to the scent pod on top. Push the button for the particular cap[sule you want to control, then use an up/down arrow to adjust.
Does Moodo work with my Smart Digital Assistant?
You’re supposed to be able to control Moodo with smart digital assistants, but how you do it is a bit of a mystery, at least as far as the manual is concerned. You’ll need to head to Moodo.co/smart-home to see what it works with. Siri/Apple Home is not one of them on that list, and I couldn’t get it added to my Apple Homekit. The Google Assistant and Moodo also doesn’t seem to work in Canada, since the Moodo is not among the Linked Services. Perhaps this is a Canadian issue, since Moodo’s website seems to indicate it works with all the major smart home platforms. (I’ve had issues with other smart devices not working in Canada due to Apple-Google-Alexa issues in Canada, so this is plausible.)
So for now, I can’t make any claims about how well the device works with your smart home, since for me… it doesn’t.
How does Moodo smell?
In a word, Moodo smells artificial. It’s quite perfumey, which might not be surprising since it’s made by French perfumers. For me personally I found the scents cloying and headache-inducing. They all smelled very fake; even ones that I felt could have smelled very singular and real, like lavender, vanilla or citrus.
Each scent is definitely different and there’s a wide variety of scents available, but if I had to pick a favourite out of the 12 capsules that come with the package, I’d be struggling to say there’s one or two I’d use on a regular basis.
Overall review of Moodo
Moodo is a nice idea in theory, but I can’t recommend it for a few reasons. For starters the app and connectivity is finicky and requires numerous attempts to connect. I also can’t get it working with either Siri or Google.
The other major factor is that I don’t like how it smells. For me personally, I’d much rather have some essential oils in a diffuser; scents that smell real, delicate and authentic. Even on low power, I found Moodo to be a bit too much and too fake smelling to be enjoyable.
Moodo sells for about $168USD with a box of 4 capsules. You can get one from the company’s website.
