anyone using these zigbee bulbs?
If you mean the ones like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H8LZ7QK then I have several. There have been various versions of the Syvania bulbs and they all work about the same.
These bulbs, like most Zigbee bulbs, do not work well as repeaters for non-bulb devices. What this means will vary from installation to installation. I had them work for a long time and might have one or two drop off the mesh once or twice a year. As I expanded my system and added lots of motion detectors it became a much bigger issue.
To combat the problems I picked up a second Hubitat hub to just connect to my Zigbee lights and some repeaters. By creating two separate meshes I was able to keep the Zigbee bulbs happy and reduced my failure rate to near zero.
They work well when setup on a mesh with only lights and repeaters. They still have been known to work well on a single mesh but that varies by installation.
the ones i was looking at were pn 73693 don't need them to be repeaters can set them up as non-mesh
It would be helpful if you added a product link.
You don't have a choice. Zigbee is a mesh network so you really can't set them up as a non-mesh. They will do that themselves. Also, most bulbs are repeaters regardless. If you add any other non-bulb devices to the mesh they may or may not pass through one of the Sylvania bulbs.
The bulbs work great. I was just giving you a heads up about what you might see. The bigger your HA setup the more likely you will have issues unless you split the devices. My oldest Sylvania bulbs are six years old and still going strong.
I have since moved to Sengled bulbs as they are one of the few Zibgee bulbs that don't act as repeaters. They are still on my Sylvania mesh but that's OK as the Sylvanias will route other bulbs just fine.
just finished rebuilding my whole system which consists of only 8 INNR bulbs and 4 3rd reality repeaters. i went from sengled to the innr and added the repeaters for a more reliant mesh. i have 4 zwaves. 3 contact sensors and one motion sensors that is working fine as a totally passive network but i may add a zwave wall switch if it needs it.
all lights and tv are controled via alexa and a couple of automations. nowhere near as complicated as some of the folks here.
I had about 30 of those bulbs and I first replaced all of them under warranty as they seem to overheat and burn out. I found that they would lose connection with the mesh when they overheated, which caused issues with devices routing through them. I eventually replaced them all with Hue bulbs on the Hue bridge, buying them from Costco online and in-store when they had them. The other Sylvania lights have been reliable for me, but stay away from the A-19 bulbs. They were in open fixtures and would get to hot to touch.
Echo, same as Ken. The A19 are notorious for failing. So much so that right now Ledvance is giving me grief about warranty claim #7. I replied "do you have any idea how many of YOUR devices I've purchased to have 7 legitimate returns?" Instead of thanking me for putting up with their poor quality, they're whining about my number of claims. In all fairness the first 6 returns were handled well, but now thy're acting like "how dare you !"
I have 2 of the 73693 bulbs that failed and won't fully illuminate, and like Ken says they get hot as hell and drop off the mesh. When they work they don't give me any problems on my mesh. Sylvania replaced the prior Zigbee SOC in their bulbs with a new one, which performs much better, however the reliability is poor for the A19 RGBW.
I also have the recessed 5/6" downlights, 14 of them and they've been good , with a few occasionally falling off. They pair right back and don't seem to affect my other Zigbee devices or the mesh.
The Smart+ bulbs are reasonably priced, and if I can get 4 bulbs for the price of 1 Hue, to me it's worth the small amount of extra hassle, to each their own.
NB-the last I checked the Hue recessed lights have a high frequency flicker that could affect some people. It's not visible to the naked eye, but a camera can pick it up. The Sylvania have a steady output(or maybe flicker at 2,000,000 fps and even the camera can't pick it up?)
1 Like
I’ve got 18, 5 are the high output version that’s hard to find, but they never drop. None have died in 3-4 years of use. They need some pretty solid repeaters though, because there signal isn’t strong surrounded by steel and joists.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
