Philps Hue and Ikea Tradfri - My experience

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Just thought I would give up update of how to get the Ikea smart lamps to work with Hue and my views on the Ikea products.

I bought 2 x e27 Tradfri lamps during the October half term and couldn't get them to work with my Hue hub. A bit of online researched revealed that the firmware was not up to date.

The good news is that the lamps I bought today all come with the latest firmware, 1.2.217, and in theory should not need the Ikea hub to operate with the Hue hub. I bought 4 x GU10 lamps and also a kit with the Ikea hub and 2 x e27 lamps as I still needed the Ikea hub to update the previously purchased lamps.

So my opinions on the Ikea stuff -

The e27 lamps are very heavy compared to the Hue versions.
The white only GU10's are smaller than the Hue colour GU10's.
The Ikea hub and remote control feel cheap and rather flimsy compared to the Philips items.
It's a real pain to pair the Ikea lamps with the Ikea hub as you have to take off the battery cover from the remote to press a reset/search button. You cannot add lights just by using the Ikea app, you need both.

So how do you pair the Ikea lamps with the Hue hub? Doing a normal search from the app revealed no new lights. However you can force the lamps to reset by switching them on and off around 6 times. When you next switch the light on it will change to a brighter colour/temperature. The Hue app will then find the lamps but you have to start the search first and then switch the lamps on.

So what are the lamps like in action? Too early to say really as I have just spent a couple of hours setting up the Ikea hub and then updating lamps and resetting them.

However the 4 x GU10's have been placed on two oak post to the front of my house in a couple of up/down-lighters and the ability to change brightness and colour temperature is really good. They only go up to 2700k but it does enable a really bright warm yellow/orange that sets the oak off nicely.

So would I buy more Ikea lamps? The answer is yes as they are so much cheaper, at £12.50 each for the temperature adjustable GU10 compared to £25 for the Hue. They don't do a colour changing GU10 just white but even the colour changing e27 version at £35 is around £15 less than the Hue equivalent.

The Ikea app is basic compared to the Hue app but the combination of a Hue hub, Hue app and Ikea lamps should make it more bearable on the wallet.
 
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Having tried the Ikea bulbs recently in store we were quite impressed and will be adding them to the home soon.
Using the Alexa + for control at the moment but your tip is useful as I was considering buying a Hue hub later on for more control over the lights, which Amazon doesn't offer at the moment.
 
One thing I forgot to mention is that I used a e27 to GU10 convertor so that when I was resetting the the lamps i could just plug the GU10 into a table lamp rather than having to put them into a ceiling fitting. Made the process a little easier.
 
THanks for your feedback. Went over to get some today but they only had 2 x gu10. Going to have to go back next weekend. He did say these new ones were all New stock so latest firmware though.
 

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