My love/hate relationship with Lifx Bulbs

💡 Lighting
1

I currently have a bit of a love/hate relationship going on with lifx bulbs. I've got about a dozen of them scattered around the house, and for the most part they work fine, but they do have some quirks that are starting to drive me nuts. I'm hoping that some of you people that have tried some of the other brands (like the matter bulbs) could tell me if they have the same issues. Looking mostly for Wifi bulbs has I have only a zwave mesh and unfortunately zwave bulbs are pretty much non-existent.

  • default power on after a power outage. Sigh. its really annoying to have half the lights in the house go ON at 3:am after the slightest power flicker. Do any of the wifi/matter bulbs remember their last setting?

  • reporting back of state to hubitat without having to poll. Here is an example. LIfx integrates with homekit separately, so ask siri/homekit to turn off the bulb. Of course now hubitat loses the state of the bulb until polling happens. Its like having the old Pre-zwave+ polling issues all over again. Do the new matter bulbs have this same issue?

  • lifx bulbs just randomly deciding to drop wifi until powercycle (at which point, of course, they come on.. sigh). How reliable do people find the other new wifi/matter bulbs.

  • Maybe its just me. Anyone else out there that has lifx bulbs that can post their experience or their experience with the newer bulbs?

Richard

2

I have 5 Lifx bulbs that I have been using since Hubitat started supporting Lifx, and I have to say, they have been very stable. I have seen the occasional glitch where they seem to lose connectivity, but this is extremely rare, maybe 3-4 times since I’ve had them. When this occurs, I can usually go to the app and put them in the state I need them. Shortly after, everything gets back to normal.

3

I have gone with Hue lights on the Hue bridge. I have never had to rejoin one in the 5 years I’ve been using them. They stay off after a power outage (or on if they were on) , which is why I only use Hue in our bedrooms. You can often get them on Costco.com for a much better price.

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4

I have had two Lifx color bulbs for two years installed above the kitchen island. For that location they are perfect. Love the even light. They have never dropped off. Over the past six months I've replaced 11 Sengled bulbs with Hue and the Hue bridge. The Sengleds would randomly drop off line requiring a power cycle to wake them back up. Problem completely solved with Hue.

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5

I have 5 of the Tapo L535E 1100Lumen which is around 75 watts. I have been using for around four or 5 months with no issues. I would recommend them.