Phillips Hue and IKEA Tradfri

Rew

Have the whole house done in them for about 8 months inc 6 GU10s. I find I need to reboot the hub every so often as it goes unresponsive and occasionally have to power cycle a light to get it working again. Haven't had many issues with the lights once they were setup, setup was a bit tedious. The little dimmers are awful and should be avoided at all costs, they die very quickly. The round one with actual buttons has been good and no issues. I have Hue also and its def more solid and less hassle.

jmBuildExt

I have about 20 of them. I use Alexa to control them almost exclusively.
On the little wheel things I think they work better when you have it in a fixed position. I have one stuck down to the counter and it worked well, but I never really used it. More of a gimmick to show people who came round. As above I went to use it a few weeks ago and noticed it was dead. Lasted ten months at most.
As above, ive noticed that some lights become unresponsive after a while. At which point I have to reboot my hub. Seems to fix it every time though. It's necessary maybe every couple of months.
Overall, for the price, I'm happy.

... What is the new hardware revision of the GU10 bulb addressing? I've noticed they get amazingly hot!!

Tails142

Have 2 colour change bulbs in one room and another room with a colour bulb in a floor lamp and three white spectrum candle style bulbs in a chandelier.

I find they can flash briefly a few seconds after being turned on at the wall. The chandelier is controlled by a wheel style controller and is a bit hit and miss, some times only two bulbs will come on instead of all three and have to give it a few turns to get them on. Find the same happens with the colour bulbs changing/dimming, sometimes one bulb will not change and they go out of sync.

I have the hub, which occasionally seems to hang and has to be plugged out and back in to bring it back to life. I usually use an app on my phone called Hue Essentials to change colours/set moods as I find the controllers only good for dimming.

With the white spectrum bulbs I never really use the cool white, only the warm white so it's a bit pointless. Maybe I will use the cool white more in the summer.

I will be redoing lighting in the kitchen and dining soon and thinking of going with phillips hue setup, just find the ikea stuff a bit flaky. Having never tried Hue though I can't really compare yet and price might be a factor when it comes to it.

Also my wife has taken zero interest and mostly gives out about the lights being too dark, although I think they're fine.

Alkers

Tails142 wrote:

Have 2 colour change bulbs in one room and another room with a colour bulb in a floor lamp and three white spectrum candle style bulbs in a chandelier.

Are the colour change bulbs available here? How are they?

Rew

Simona1986 wrote: »

Are the colour change bulbs available here? How are they?

They have series of set colours (variations of white, orange, blue purple and red) you you can only have those exact colours. With Hue you can pick any colour.

lawred2

Can they be ordered online?

Tails142

Rew wrote: »

They have series of set colours (variations of white, orange, blue purple and red) you you can only have those exact colours. With Hue you can pick any colour.

No they do a full colour spectrum bulb just like Hue where you can choose any colour light.

https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/products/lighting/smart-lighting/trådfri-dimming-kit-colour-and-white-spectrum-grey-white-art-70338951/

It is fine although having a hub to command it through a phone app gives you better control over the colours I find.

Ikea do online ordering now and delivery via An Post, think its €7

lawred2

Can only see white bulbs online

Tails142

lawred2 wrote: »

Can only see white bulbs online

The one I linked for €40 is their colour bulb "Colour and white spectrum grey/white" - I agree the image of the bulb doesn't give much away that is what it looks like when it's turned off to be fair, lol

lawred2

Tails142 wrote: »

The one I linked for €40 is their colour bulb "Colour and white spectrum grey/white" - I agree the image of the bulb doesn't give much away that is what it looks like when it's turned off to be fair, lol

ah yeah - I see they're still being sold in 'kits'

I was told down in Ikea about 18 months ago that they'd be sold individually in a few months :rolleyes:

Rew

Tails142 wrote: »

No they do a full colour spectrum bulb just like Hue where you can choose any colour light.

https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/products/lighting/smart-lighting/trådfri-dimming-kit-colour-and-white-spectrum-grey-white-art-70338951/

It is fine although having a hub to command it through a phone app gives you better control over the colours I find.

Ikea do online ordering now and delivery via An Post, think its €7

Had a play with it there, the wall controller limits the colours to a few and the app lets you pick more (25 diff shades). Its still not like Hue though, even if I use the colour wheel in HomeKit seems to be limited to those 25. With Hue you can make tiny adjustments. Form a practical perspective there is no diff though those 25 are plenty.

L1011

Rew wrote: »

They have series of set colours (variations of white, orange, blue purple and red) you you can only have those exact colours. With Hue you can pick any colour.

You can pick other colours with the app or Google/Alexa.

However their colours do not match Hues ideas of the same colours so you get hideous clashes if you mix them

Someone put up a list of 60 or so colours that Google Home can command it to do on reddit

L1011

Everything is in stock again finally in Ballymun

2011

Form my experience:
1) Pairing is easier if all smart builds are powered off with the exception of the one that you are trying to pair. This should be as close to the bridge as possible.
2) Only use Philips Hue bridge, switches and motion detectors.
3) One in ten IKEA lamp will fail prematurely. IKEA are very good with returns.
4) It is not possible to dim the E14 lamps as low as the Philips Hue equivalent.
5) Despite the above they are great value for money. Not as good quality as the Philips Hue but plenty good for most areas in the house.

Rew

2011 wrote: »

3) One in ten IKEA lamp will fail prematurely. IKEA are very good with returns.

Had my first one fail this week, all bought back at the end of July. Just stopped working entirely one day.

2011

Rew wrote: »

Had my first one fail this week, all bought back at the end of July. Just stopped working entirely one day.

Bring it back, they will replace it no problem.
Buy a few more while you are there.

Rew

2011 wrote: »

Bring it back, they will replace it no problem.
Buy a few more while you are there.

Yeah I will at some point soon, the whole house is already done, I even had a spare for it so going out there means ill only come back with some flat pack furniture ill have to build...

super_sweeney

I got give a few of the Ikea styrbar remote controls. Anyone tried to pair these with philips hue? I cant seem to figure it out. There is a few posts online but they are of the older remote

niallb

They're not directly supported but you can add them to your hue network using Hue Essentials on a phone.

I've only done this with the older one, but the process should be the same. Look for "Touchlink" in the "Hue Essentials" app. You need to be almost touching the hub with the remote when you join them. I didn't use it for long as I now use the remote as a media controller using Home Assistant.

Once paired with the Hue bridge it will stop working with any bulbs you had paired with it in the Tradfri system. You need to pair any tradfri bulbs directly with the Hue bridge too - and they need to be really close to it while you do it too.