Plug-in Dimmers - which one to get?

I'm looking to buy several plug-in Dimmers. They can be ZWave or ZigBee. Power monitoring not necessary. What are your recommendations?

Honestly what is the purpose of the plug in dimmer. Is this for lamps. My suggestion would be to look at Smart bulbs instead. They have gotten pretty cost effect now depending on what you are looking for. Wiz has some bulbs that can be had for around $10 at home depot. Phillips CT bulbs are pretty affordable as well the last time i looked.

I think Ge/Jasco makes some

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I prefer to use "dumb" LED bulbs in lamps with plug-in dimmers. This way, I get to choose the brightness and color temperature of the bulb (I have no need for colored bulbs, programmable or other wise). I also keep a 100% Z-wave setup to maximize my mesh.

A quick look at Amazon shows Plug in dimmers in the $40 range. A 60 Watt Equivelant Philips Wiz connected bulb from Home depot is $12.97. It has dedicated Warm and Cool White pixels. Is fully dimmable in itself. Just because you have color doesn't mean you need to use it. It is wifi so that shouldn't be a problem really, and is 100% lan controlled so no cloud required. As far as CT goes they get very Warm on the CT scale as you can set them to all the way down to 2k. They are also adjustable up to 6k on the cool scale.

I have two Wiz Bulbs in our lamps in our master. Probably 95% of the time it is some variation of white on the CT Scale. and the brightness is adjusted throughout the day based on a few things in Room Lighting with Hubitat. They really work great.

I have a Leviton DZPD3 (z-wave) and it works well -- IIRC, they also have a zigbee flavor too.

I do primarily use smart bulbs in most plug-in fixtures, but I have a couple taller tower-style floor lamps with multiple bulbs. For those, it's cheaper to just use dumb bulbs.

Plus, it's far less hassle to manage & coordinate one device (plug) versus numerous bulbs when you're really just trying to accomplish the same thing either way.

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That is a good point about multiple bulbs in one lamp.

Ha, I wish I could claim I was smart enough to do that right out of the gate lol...

Thinking I was being super suave, I did start off using some smart bulbs in those lamps -- it of course worked fine, but I quickly realized it was kind of a bazooka-to-kill-a-fly sorta deal, so that's when I "downgraded" to smart plugs and repurposed those bulbs elsewhere.

I ended up really only needing one plug that dims -- the other two are fine on just a basic on/off plug.

The things ya learn! :sunglasses:

Well there is always a learning curve with some of this stuff. I have one lamp with a 100W Wiz Bulb that is on a switch controlled outlet. Talk about a funky setup. The switch leaves the relay on, and through hubitat the switch state of on/off (in smartbulb mode) turns the bulb on/off. It is a little overkill now but there was more reason behind it initially.

I have generally avoided smart bulbs. I do have a couple now in my office, but in the rest of the house I prefer to just use dumb bulbs paired with smart plugs. I suppose it really doesn't make any real difference...

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FWIW, i like Hue Bulbs in lamps and the like. Not a big fan of plug-in devices overall. The white Hues are not terribly expensive, and seem to have very long lifetimes. Ive had a number for more than 5 years and hvent had any fail.

S

I have a couple of IKEA Tradfri dimmable bulbs in my office. I installed them to test them out. They work fine, but overall, I still prefer plugs connected to lamps with dumb bulbs.

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Minoston has a plug that is dimmable, available on Amazon. Pretty small and work well for me. I think I've heard there's a newer version as well, haven't seen it yet.

https://www.amazon.com/Repeater-Extender-Assistant-Compatible-MP21ZD/dp/B08TR134T9/ref=sr_1_5_pp

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