X Touch-Free Kitchen Tools And Features To Consider Adding To Your Space

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If you've been looking for ways to upgrade your kitchen and make your space more convenient and cleaner, touch-free appliances and features allow you to use voice or motion activation to control your kitchen without your hands. When your hands are full or messy from food prep, hands-free technology can make cooking easier and prevent you from spreading messes. Whether you need an extra hand while trying to put away groceries or you've been handling raw meat, not needing to use your hands to turn on your sink or open your fridge can be a big help.

Besides the convenience of touchless technology essentially giving you an extra hand, eliminating some of the surfaces that you need to touch to use can help make your home a little cleaner. It's no secret that kitchens are home to many high-touch surfaces where germs are likely to spread, such as light switches, appliance knobs and handles, trash can lids, and cabinet doors. While you'll still need to clean and disinfect your space, you won't have to worry about as many areas being handled constantly and inadvertently spreading germs. Plus, touchless technology ranges from smaller tools to large appliances, allowing you to make upgrades that fit into your budget and space.

One simple upgrade you can make in your kitchen is to replace your trash can with a touch-free version. When your hands are full of gross, stinky garbage, you don't want to be fiddling with the lid or a sticky foot pedal to open the trash bin. With a motion-activated garbage bin, all you'll need to do is hold your trash above the lid or wave your hand near the sensor, and it will open for you. This prevents you from having to grab the lid when your hands are dirty and stops you from spreading germs. 

Many of these high-tech garbage bins have sleek designs that will give your kitchen waste bin a stylish makeover while making your space easier to use. For an even more advanced trash receptacle, some versions come with voice controls as well. Motion-sensor bins with simpler designs can cost around $50, while higher-tech options with voice and motion controls may be up to $300, like the Simple Human rectangular sensor can.

If you've been wondering how to use smart tech to make your home healthier, an automatic soap dispenser is a small addition to your kitchen that makes washing your hands or dishes super easy. Rather than having to touch the soap dispenser before washing your hands, you can keep your germs to yourself with a motion-activated hand soap dispenser. These nifty kitchen tools will also work with dish soap, allowing you to have the detergent poured directly onto your sponge without laying a hand on the bottle. Most automatic soap dispensers run on batteries, making them convenient to set beside your kitchen sink.

Whether you need a pump for foaming hand soaps, dish soap, liquid hand soap, or even hand sanitizer, there are tons of motion-activated dispensers to choose from. Additionally, certain automatic soap pumps will allow you to place your hand at different heights to give different amounts of detergent. Sensor-activated soap dispensers can also be a rather affordable upgrade for your kitchen or a splurge, ranging in price from around $20 for simple designs to over $100 for fancier options. For example, a Simple Human dish soap pump and sponge caddy is $120, while this touchless foaming soap dispenser on Amazon is usually about $20.

Having to touch the sink to wash your hands when preparing food can be gross and annoying, spreading messes and germs throughout your kitchen. Luckily, there are tons of different kitchen sink faucets that turn on when you wave your hand below them. With this upgrade, you can keep your kitchen cleaner and get your hands washed faster. Many automated faucets come with a handle as well, allowing you to continue using the water if your power goes out.

Touch-free sink faucets are a great addition to your kitchen and certain types will also have voice activation features. With this smart tech, you can control the temperature and water pressure verbally, making these faucets a totally touchless option. Many automated faucets will turn themselves off after not sensing movement for a moment, ensuring you're not wasting water. You may need to remember to turn your sink handle off when cleaning or other times you don't need water, as you could accidentally activate the sensor. The more budget-friendly hands-free kitchen faucets can be found for about $150, while better brands or higher tech designs can cost around $500 or more. You may also need to consider the cost of installation if you're not planning to DIY this project.

Light switches are notoriously known as one of the dirtiest parts of the kitchen that everyone forgets to clean. Every time you walk into or out of the room, you're touching the switch and potentially spreading germs throughout your household. By using motion- or voice-activated lights in your kitchen, you'll cut down on the number of high-touch surfaces in your space.

Whether you'd prefer a motion sensor that turns your light on when you walk into the room or a version that can be activated with your voice, there are tons of options for hands-free light switches on the market. Smart switches can also be rather affordable, such as the voice or app-controlled Tapo light switch at Best Buy for about $25 and the $25 Lutron motion sensor switch from Home Depot. Upgrading your kitchen light switches is an easy way to add touch-free technology to your kitchen and limit your exposure to high-touch surfaces.

Have you ever needed a paper towel and struggled to pull one off the roll? Luckily, this problem can be a thing of the past with an automatic paper towel dispenser. Rather than fighting with your holder to pull off just one paper towel, these dispensers are motion-activated and will provide towels with the wave of your hand. If too many towels come out, some automated paper towel dispensers can be activated again to reel in the excess.

These high-tech paper towel holders also have some other convenient features, like allowing you to set the amount of towels that come out at once. While certain automated towel dispensers can be mounted beneath your kitchen cabinets to keep them out of the way yet easily accessible, other options will sit on your countertop and can be moved to different spots in your kitchen or home. Though paper towel holders are often a fairly budget-friendly kitchen tool, these motion-activated dispensers are pricier. You can find the Innovia under-cabinet paper towel dispenser for about $119 on Amazon.

Replacing your regular oven with a Wi-Fi connected appliance is one way to make your house a smart home and include more touchless technology. Smart ranges connect to your internet and also to your smartphone, giving you the power to change the settings on your oven with your voice or through the phone. With this hands-free capability, you won't have to mess with the buttons or knobs on your appliance to preheat the oven or change the temperature. Not only does this give you an extra helping hand when yours are full or messy, but it also reduces the number of high-touch surfaces in your kitchen.

To set up your smart range, you will need a voice assistant (like Alexa) activated on your phone. Depending on the model you choose, you can simply tell your oven to turn on the light inside, set a timer, or adjust the temperature or mode. These appliances typically come with many other unique features and abilities. If you're thinking about upgrading this feature, be sure to put enough money aside, as they are often priced from around $1400 to over $3000.

If you find yourself constantly going to the fridge and opening the door to see what's inside, a smart fridge could help you save some of that cold air and add more touch-free tech to your space. These refrigerators often have screens on the front, which can display what's inside your fridge, or they'll connect to your phone so you can check the contents from anywhere. Other touch-free features will open the door for you, so there's no need to grab the handle. Some models are voice-activated as well and will open the refrigerator door or change the ice machine settings when you ask. When you're putting away groceries, cooking, or trying to decide what to snack on, having touchless features on your fridge will add convenience to your daily routine.

Similarly to smart ovens, high-tech refrigerators will need Wi-Fi for all of the features to work and a voice assistant like Alexa for verbal commands. With certain LG refrigerators, a feature called InstaView will show you what's inside the fridge when you knock twice on the door's glass panel. Though this isn't entirely touchless, you can use the back of your hand or your knuckle so you won't have to grab the door handle. Smart fridges may also have sensors near the bottom of the door that allow you to open it by stepping nearby, adding touch-free convenience to your kitchen.

For those who are looking to integrate more touch-free technology into their kitchens, some dishwashers have a feature that allows you to open them without pulling the handle. In fact, these appliances may not even have a handle to grab, and use a knock-to-open system instead. Not only does this cut out another high-touch surface in your kitchen, but it could also give your kitchen a more seamless aesthetic. Some Miele dishwashers feature this knock-to-open technology, though other brands also have smart dishwashers with some hands-free features.

While you'll still need to knock on the dishwasher door for it to open, two light taps are enough to signal the machine to pop the door. You might use your elbow to knock on the dishwasher door, keeping your hands free. Though you may be concerned about pets or kids constantly running into your appliance and opening it, the sensors are made to distinguish between accidental bumps and intentional knocks. Alternatively, some models have a key to temporarily disable the knock-to-open feature. If you're looking for even more touchless features, other smart dishwashers have some voice control capabilities by connecting to devices like Alexa or Siri, allowing you to turn your appliance on and off and select a program verbally.

The handles of your cabinets and cupboards are touched constantly and can be the unexpected spot in your kitchen you should disinfect daily. Luckily, touchless cabinets eliminate this germy surface, letting you open the doors with a slight nudge, a pedal, or entirely hands-free. While this is a great tool for those looking to make their space more hygienic, no-touch cabinets can also provide more accessibility and easier access for people who struggle with mobility. Drawers will sometimes come with these features as well, giving you even more touch-free features in your kitchen.

There are a few options for touch-free tech when it comes to cabinetry. Through motion sensor technology, your cabinets will swing open or closed when you wave your hand in front of them. Otherwise, a foot pedal on the floor allows you to open the doors without touching them. In some cases, automated cabinets have a sensor that you can lightly bump with your elbow to open them. Voice-controlled cabinets are also available, so you can tell your cupboard to open itself. When considering installing touchless cabinets, you'll need to think about how you'll connect them to your electrical system. You'll want to keep in mind that buying and installing smart cabinets could be much more expensive than traditional cupboards, depending on the type of cabinets and any customizations for your kitchen. You could DIY a simple sensor switch for around $20 per cabinet, or spend thousands on the purchase and installation of a more sophisticated system.

When figuring out how to choose the right range hood for your home, you might want to consider touchless options. Most range hoods just have buttons to adjust the fans and lights above your stove, but touch-free options allow you to wave your hand in front of the hood to control it. Higher tech options will also pair with assistant devices like Alexa to make your range hood voice-activated. With these touch-free features, trying to turn up the fan speed while cooking with messy hands will be a thing of the past.

Not only does switching from buttons to motion or voice control help make your kitchen a little cleaner by reducing your need to press buttons on high-touch surfaces, but touchless range hoods can add convenience to your food prep. Depending on the model you choose, your range hood could have a motion sensor, as well as voice activation and remote control capabilities through an app. If you're concerned that the sensors may be finicky, these hoods also come with manual buttons just in case. You can find touchless range hoods for under $300 for some models, though other versions can be more expensive.

If it seems like you never have enough hands while cooking, automatic pot stirrers could be a wonderful touchless tool to add to your kitchen. These unique kitchen gadgets give you a helping hand to your kitchen, stirring a pot or pan for you while you're busy with the rest of the meal. While automatic pot stirrers are not entirely touchless, as you have to press a button to turn them on, they will help you cook without having to constantly grab a wooden spoon to stir.

Many of these stirrers are designed with three heat- and food-safe legs that sit in the pan and move around. Simply set the automatic stirrer in your pit, choose a setting to engage the stirring speed, and let it go. Alternatively, other automatic stirrers clip onto the side of the pot and rotate a stirring stick. These often come with various attachments to mix different foods. While these hands-free gadgets can be helpful, they may create more splatter than stirring by hand and could struggle with denser foods, like thick, chunky sauces. Though automatic stirrers may not be the perfect tools, they can add a bit of hands-free convenience to your kitchen, especially when cooking large meals.

If your fridge doesn't have a water dispenser, these countertop appliances could be a staple in your home to conveniently get a drink. With a sensor activated water dispenser, you can grab a glass of cold water without your hand or the edge of your cup having to touch the appliance, making it less likely to spread germs. Depending on the model, the sensors could be in different spots on your water dispenser. Some versions have the sensor above where you place your glass, so that it automatically dispenses water once it senses your cup below. Otherwise, the sensors could be inside the control panel, allowing you to move your hand in front of your appliance to pour your water.

 With dispensers that have both hot or cold settings, you'll be able to hold your finger in front of the temperature you'd like to have a hot cup of tea or a refreshing glass of water hands-free. At Home Depot, you can find a touchless water dispenser for around $340. An automatic water dispenser with both hot and cold options can be purchased at Amazon for $199, though this model requires your glass to touch the dispenser button.