I used Singled bulbs (which don’t act as a hub) but Hue bulbs do this too. The bulbs become non-responsive after weeks or months (they might become non-responsive turned on or off – but they are stick in that state once it happens) – regardless of whether I pair them through ZHA or Z2QTT. I delete and reinstall, but the bulb just keeps spinning during their interview process. Anyone else have this issue. I can’t afford to keep replacing bulbs – but they become worthless so quickly when their “smarts” burn out. They essentially become dumb lightbulbs.
I’ve had pretty poor experience with Singled bulbs and I am down to just one in use, a
E11-N14A. It will become non-responsive every week or two. At least power cycling it gets it back online. I’ve replaced the Singled bulbs with these low cost AliExpress bulbs and they have been performing well, I do not use the RGB function that the comments refer to, the CW and WW aspects work fine for me at this price point (verses my USD 50 Hue bulb equivalent), they are zigbee routers however if that is an issue for you :
Zigbee 3.0 18W led light bulb E27 RGBCW https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806150105223.html
Add more Zigbee Router devices and make sure that you never power off the products that are Zigbee Router devices as all those act as repeaters/extenders and should always have power or else other devices connected to them will loose connection. Read and try to follow all the tips here:
Some of that + other general issues are also covered in ZHA integration documentation, so read it too:
For anyone having trouble with Zigbee bulbs not joining: I have a Sengled RGB bulb that got turned off at the switch. After I restored power to it, Z2M still wouldn’t control it, so I force removed the bulb and reset. It reset successfully but Z2M wouldn’t acknowledge it. Turns out adding a short USB extension cable solved the problem immediately, as soon as the Sonoff dongle was in the extender, Z2M immediately started interviewing the Sengled LED.
Hue bulbs have an advertised lifespan of 25,000 hours and I have a couple that are pushing 8 years old. Some applications don’t allow for the smart plug you referenced.
Mostly personal experience. Every “smart” bulb I’ve owned has failed in one way or another. But in most cases I can’t justify he use of a smart bulb when a smart in-wall switch does everything that a smart bulb can do. (Except color. If you NEED color, then a smart light is your only option).
I also asked GoogleAI for the average lifespans, and got this reply:
“The average lifespan range of LED smart bulbs is between 15,000 to 25,000 hours. Regular LED lights can last anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 hours.”
?? What “Applications”? They are Zigbee switches. I integrate my Zigbee devices using the ZHA integration. They present in the switch domain. That is, for example, “switch.living_room”, etc. But most of these are simply used as passive routers/repeaters to extend my Zigbee network.
MY kitchen/family room has 10 recessed light fixtures controlled by a pair of switches wires as 3-way (the U.S. name for two-way switching). One by the door to the garage and one at the hallway entrance from the hallway. Either switch turns the lights on or off.
Hue- close to $1,000 for the bulbs alone. Even more if you buy their Hue Hub.
Dumb LED plus an in-wall Z-wave switch ($40 Zooz switch on Amazon) = $60.
You would also need a Z-Wave dongle on your Home Assistant host, ($35). With this you can control any Z-wave device from Home Assistant.
That is how it works here. I still have 3-way switching (required by the building code), the lighting is controlled by Home Assistant and Alexa, and I get dimmable lights in the deal. Except for color, what else does Hue give except a hole in the budget?
Incidentally, my choice of Z-Wave for the kitchen/family room was simply because I already had some Z-wave devices in my network. I had no Zigbee at the time.
