Their stuff is expensive but it just works
this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
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Smart Homes
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I played around with a lot of smart bulbs when if first started making my house a little smarter. Almost every one was plagued with issues - too bright on 1%, weird color balancing, connectivity problems, no transition time, etc.
Hue bulbs just work and are now in most of my fixtures. The only time they don't make the cut is when they don't work aesthetically.
Yeah I had a house full of those Costco colored bulbs but Wi-Fi bulbs really fuck up your network and they don’t always respond well. Hue is fucking expensive but now I have something like 75 hue devices and I don’t have any issue. I did have one problem with one of my bulbs that wouldn’t connect no matter what I did, but not a bad failure rate overall.
Its the advantage that zigbee devices have. Although wireless protocols like wifi, bluetooth and zigbee use the same wireless band, their implementation works better in some usecases over others. Zigbee is designed well for coverage (as it can daisy chain between devices) and connecting a shit ton of devices to a single hub that requires low data input/output.
They do need to update the app so you can see all your bridges and devices at the same time. It’s annoying to have to switch bridges in the app. Voice command works well enough however but you can’t really switch between scenes unless you make a bunch of shortcuts
I wish I could love the Philips hue LED strips, but I bought some and couldn't get them to work for the purpose I wanted because their connectors between strips were so short.
They need to add more versatility to their products because they're a really good baseline and good products otherwise.
So far I’ve only purchased hue bulbs. I’ve been absolutely thrilled with every single one. Based on the reports I’ve seen I will 100% be investing solely in their products for smart bulbs/lamps unless another product steps it up.
I bought 12 of them 10 years ago when I bought my house and still have 10 of them going strong. One of the failed ones still works too in white and red so I still get use from it. Money well spent in my book. 👍🏼
We have several of their items. I’d recommend all of the ones I’ve tried. Strip below the couch for mood lighting. Bulbs all over (a few we’ve had for about a decade and still going strong). Some bar lights behind the tv lighting. And my partner uses one of the stand alone spotlight ones (I don’t remember the name). I’d rebuy all of the stuff we’ve gotten from them. Our apartment has terrible electrical and we’ve had almost all our bulbs blow that came with it. After being fed up with having to have maintenance visit so often because the ceilings are higher than we can reach, we just use the hue.
I just wish the app was better. They could simplify it a lot. In particular I find it’s kind of a pain to set scenes.
In my last house, I had the hue bridge implemented into homeassistant. All light bulb names and rooms/groups and scenes synced with whatever was established on the hub. Gave me the reliability of the hue hub and the flexibility of homeassistant.
It definitely requires more patience to tinker with and get set up, but I highly recommend anyone who is motivated to give it a try!