Me to EVE door Sensors ...... after the update to 16.3 they are not working / recognized anymore...... they are moving towards Matter, this is programmed obsolence, very disappointed with Eve Products
I do a LOT of research on devices and brands before buying, so currently with about 180 homekit devices in my home, there are very few regrets. I went full on Philips Hue around 7 years ago, and have not regretted that decision at all. I'm also very dedicated to Aqara and have many of their products as well. I also have the LogiTech Circle View camera, and at first I hated it, as it would go offline constantly. But then I gave it a static IP and it's been rock solid ever since. I also have a few other brand devices here and there including a few Meross devices and Vocolinc Humidifiers, which have been good so far. So with all that said, I'd say the one device I regret buying would be some off brand smart plugs by the name of Offong. I bought a 4 pack, and all 4 died within a few months.
Definitely the nanoleaf essential bulbs. I got them to replace my Google home Deltaco bulbs since I also have HomeKit, and nothing works. The response and speed is fine so far, but I had nice scene automations that are now only accessible in the nanoleaf app, unable to be automated because there a “matter device”. And all these shill reviews saying how great they are, and no one mentions how scenes don’t work. Yes you can add them to HomeKit, they just light up in one static random color. I’ve lost an entire day so far to these stupid things.
A word of warning to everyone planning to buy Eufy cameras, don't. They are known to upload footage or stills from the cameras to their servers despite explicitly stating that it's local storage only. Many RU-vidrs including LTT and JRE have dropped them (and Anker, which is the same company) as their sponsor. Be careful out there.
Very much agree with you on Hue. It’s reassuringly expensive! However I take a different view on Eve. I have invested in a lot of Eve gear - mainly because I see thread as the future protocol for low bandwidth IOT devices. My Eve devices have been absolutely bullet proof and incredibly fast/responsive. If I had to hazard a guess I might suggest you may not have had enough thread devices for this endpoint to take advantage of thread. I started with a number of Eve energy socket and those provided thread throughout my home (though now HomePods serve the same function). I suspect your door sensor defaulted to Bluetooth instead.
Thanks for sharing your experience! At the time with eve i had 5 HPM and 2 Apple TV's 2021...more than enough to start a thread network. plus, the eve sensor was within 10 ft direct line of sight for a homepod mini and still no response, so im personally not on the thread hype train. Thanks for watching! 😊
@@AdamsTechLife that’s really strange. I’m sorry you had that experience. Generally it takes a 24 hours of so for the thread network to establish and become self healing - but it sounds like it couldn’t do that for whatever reason. I have thick brick walls in part of my home and I had to ensure the Eve energy sockets were positioned so it could leap. I haven’t use any Aqara products yet, I’m afraid I subscribe to the notion that ‘if the product is too cheap, it’s probably you who is the product’.
Agree, Thread has been awesome. I have around 10 Nanoleaf bulbs, 2, Nanoleaf strips, 2 Thread Wemo Stage and a wemo plug in - all Thread. I think it really seems to be the more the better when it comes to Thread. I try to go Thread first whenever I am buying devices now. What I have noticed is also exactly like you said, give Thread 24 hours. I even had a view devices that would stay Bluetooth for a day before switching to Thread. I use the Eve app to see my Thread Network. Aqara has been my pain point. Devices 10 feet away from the hub and the best i get connection wise is "acceptable". further away, forget about it. I guess I could get some extenders
I have found Thread bulletproof. Much like your Hue experience. And in the Eve app you can actually see the Thread devices in the network, see which is the border router, etc. I have only had issues with thread once in the last 2 years, after a power cut. I turned all the Thread devices off, then turned on the Apple TV 4Ks (hardwired), and then after a few minutes added the Eve power plugs, then nanoleaf bulbs, and finally all the low energy Thread devices, like Eve Room. After all that, I powered up all the homepod minis. This ensures one the wired Apple TVs starts as the main border router, and where possible peripherals connect to the Apple TVs. Otherwise you might find a remote homepod mini is the main border router, and that leads to sucky performance.
Yes - no other smart bulb has been as reliable as Hue! Idk why people hate bridges so much. Your products are so much more reliable with them. Also - if I could throw every LIFX light strip in the garbage, I would. Those things have given me hours-long headaches with updates not working or losing connectivity all the time.
I agree, Philips hue is great! It's expensive, but totally worth not having to always be fixing things lol. And yeah...lifx light strip is surprisingly awful from my experience too. Thanks for watching and for commenting! 😊
Yeah, if you consider RELIABLE 1-3 years, absolutely! Out of a dozen hue color lights (not including 8 white bulbs), they all die out the same way quick: they begin this irreparable rapid blinking/noise-pitch. I can honestly say Philips Hue will never be purchased by me ever again. It's about 6 years later and I only have two white bulbs and one color bulb left. Hue refuses to replace these lights since they are considered out of warranty after a year. Their website says two years, but Hue refused to replace between 1-2 years after purchase.
I started my smart home about two years ago. I had to do something while in lockup, right? So started with Meross smart bulbs, a led strip, and plugs. I thought the price was affordable. But after a few months, they started dying out on me like flies. First, the plugs went offline, completely unable to get them to work again. Then the bulbs kept having lots of connectivity issues, and finally my led strip failed. In Mexico we have an old saying, "Lo barato, sale caro", which means you end up paying a higher price when you try to cut corners getting a cheaper, but a lower quality product that eventually will break down and leave no option than purchasing the 'expensive' option. Therefore, spending more money than you would have if you just went ahead and purchased the higher quality product in the first place. So I also went with Philips Hue, and I've never looked back. LOVE IT! Also, in part thanks to your reviews, I went with Eufy cameras. One of my cameras had some issues when connecting to homekit, but after updating to 16.3 iOS they seem to be resolved. Never had an issue with my Eve Contact Sensors so I'm good there.
I had trouble with my thread lights because apple home was selecting my HD apple tv as a hub... it does not have thread so i had to set it to manually use the home pot and i have had zero issues since
Interesting about the Nanoleaf bulbs. There might be a variation in Europe, but I changed networks, home etc... without any issue. I started years ago with Hue, and it's reliable but always late to any advance in technology, and bloody expensive. I have two homes with a mix of Hue, Nano, and Eve and never had any issues with any of them. I would say the nano is more responsive and offer a great range of dimming than the Hue. Put simply a Hue at 1% or 10% is the same, now on the other hand the Nano has much stronger gradients in my home. Maybe it comes down to having Eve products that act as main thread nodes.
I will react further on this. Thread on Eve products works wonders, but I believe you didn't have a "parent" (being any product with constant power, like a eve Energy, etc), thus your different devices jumping roles constantly. And Eve VS Aqara is not a very fair comparison, yes it's cheaper, but at the cost of privacy. The products are built very differently. Although I enjoy having both, I do not like my Data linked to Chinese servers. Especially for cameras.
I started my "smart" home in 2018 when I picked up my first Apple TV4k. Started iHome smart plugs, then added a few Meross. We have two Nanoleaf bulbs that were mediocre at first but now they run 100% with automations and have been for over a year with no issues - unless there is a power outage, they you need to reset them - so dont turn of the power to them. Also went with lutron for switches.... simply put, I dont realize they are smart until I say ... hey Siri.. goodnight and the whole house goes dark.... Tried Sengled....keywork tried.
1000% Nanoleaf essentials bulbs. They never stay connected even after multiple attempts to reset. I plan on slowly migrating to the always reliable Philips Hue bulbs.
I always find it interesting how people have different experiences with these and wonder the why. I have 10 of them and they are my most solid devices. My worst - aqara leak sensors
@@outlanderbz yeah it’s crazy. I bought thinking they’d be great. Would having them on a ceiling fan with light switch matter at all? They are never switched enough to reset them. And obviously when switch is off, they bed not responsive but they are that way even when on. Happens with lamps too where they stay on 100% and are turned off via Aqara button.
I have had exactly the same experience as you describe. I swapped Eve for Aqara for the same reasons. Philips has been rock solid for me too. Luckily I started with Eufy outside so saved me any heartache. I do have LIFX but I use it differently. But they were problematic in general. Thanks for your viewpoint on these.
I recently bought 1/2 dozen Nanoleaf to replace my Philips wiz, and they've been a headache. Looks like I'm going over to Hue. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences.
I have a giant HomeKit network, without offloading the bulbs to hue, my 2.4ghz network would be destroyed. You can get any cam working with home kit with a raspberry pi and homebridge. I use amcrest and security spy to lock them down, too many features missing in home kit to make it my default nvr, security spy also does ai detection for humans or delivery trucks etc.
I went with Lutron Caseta light switches (no regrets other than a lighter wallet) and mostly Aqara sensors. Tried out some Eve ones with Thread and was not impressed. The ConnectSense in-wall electrical plugs is a love/hate relationship. When they work, they work very well. When they go unresponsive it is a PITA to get it back into HK. The thing I regret most is my Honeywell T-6 Lyric thermostat. I'll be replacing that some time this year.
Lutron is great, I feel you on Eve, I had issues with them too. The eco bee is a great thermostat! Thanks for sharing your experience and for watching!
Thank you for you honesty with your setup, I think you have problems with your network as the Nanoleaf are rock solid when working on thread and next to useless when on Bluetooth. So in my opinion you are only just covering up your issues with your network by bypassing the network with hue and Aqarq. I agree that Lifx are below average for reliability
LOL, Adam's video makes me think of Paul Hibbert's line, Sponsership cancelled, LOL. Seriously though. I'm glad you made this video. I do share in your sentiments about the Eve Door and Window sensor. I had practically the same experience. One that I thought was going to be a regret was my purchase of the Hunter Aerodyne ceiling fan. It spent the first three months of its existence in my home going to no response in as little as 5 minutes or lasting as long as three days. But their firmware developer worked with me and eventually got it worked out to where its very reliable now.
Aqara has been rock solid for me. I am starting to replace my eve contact sensors. Especially now that i am developing a home assistant home. The eve sensors won’t connect.
because I just bought a new Schlage Encode Plus front door lock, I bought a brand new AppleTV so it can become the hub for HomeKit. Before I call the locksmith to install the new Schlage lock, I'm wondering if I won't be able to unlock the door if I unplug the AppleTV from the power outlet. I can't think of anyone to ask this question to.
Belkin WeMo light switches and dimmers. Terrible. Constantly having to reboot them. They were more reliable when using Homebridge, but still had connectivity issues. Went over to Lutron Caseta. Also Logitech Circle view camera and doorbell. Both terrible as they would constantly show as offline all the time.
Are you sure that the Nanoleaf light bulbs were using Thread and not Bluetooth? I've found that with my Nanoleaf strips, I had all kinds of lag and disconnection problems at first, exactly like you describe, then I discovered that they were connecting to my hub via Bluetooth, and once I switched them over to Thread they were fine. That said, I'm using HomeAssistant's HAP support rather than an actual HomeKit setup so YMMV.
Yes they were using thread. keep in mind, you can't manually tell a thread device to "connect" to a thread router, it's all done automatically. i have many home hubs, and even a homepod was within 5 ft of the bulb and it was slow to respond.
I regret buying Arlo security cameras. Never once connected to HomeKit. Called support a dozen times, getting no solutions. Even though they run off their own hub they still randomly go offline for some strange reason that i have yet to answers for.
Yeah I've been skeptical about using arlo, haven't used them before but sounds like a bad choice for homekit when there are way more reliable options out there. thanks for sharing!
Haven't used merkury bulbs, but dang...that stinks! philips hue is expensive, but i'd rather pay more if that means it actually works and doesn't give me issues lol. you're paying more for peace of mind too
Yeah...after doing it 10 times (initially) then 10 more times (after they disconnected) I said nah I'm tired of this lol. I was surprised they had wifi issues tbh. Thanks for watching! 😊
Ugh. My Philips Hue bulbs are awful. Totally random results. Constantly coming on when I don't want, going off or dim when I want them on. Was hoping to find a good alternative
@@ctlspl mine is a drawer where HomeKit devices go to die. I’m thinking of taking a few products over to my mothers house since I got her a Apple TV. Only thing is I don’t remember every reason why I had to remove a device.
Smart bulbs have their place. Bathrooms, Kitchen's, Laundry rooms probably not, they may be better on a smart switch, but in areas where you may want colour, or different white temperatures, then smart bulbs are fine. Comparing Hue (Zigbee) to WiFi is completely impossible. Lifex and Nanoleaf are two of the worst WiFi bulbs, and expensive too. LifEx is almost as expensive as Hue. So when getting any SmartHome device, I would just say completely avoid WiFi devices, even if you have to buy a small Zigbee or Zwave hub.
I regret buying a tplink bulb it worked ok until i got a new isp and router so when i reset the bulb to add it to my new network it dit now even enter pairing mode so now it is useless and sits in a closet collecting dust
I have a mixture of Hue and nanoleaf bulbs. They've both been great. Thankfully I've never had a nanoleaf no respond. I do have 3 eve energies and 4 nanoleaf bulbs in my thread network...so maybe that's helping. I have an old eve door/window (the bluetooth and not thread version). Have to say it's been rock solid.
@@AdamsTechLife it's not all great. I did have to completely reset my HomeKit home twice after 'upgrading' to the new HomeKit architecture. As for regret products...it was the Logitek camera. Got a refund and replace it was the EveCam (so far so great).
@@JohnG225 was this after updating to the new HomeKit architecture? If so how did u resolve? I reset the hubs but still no joy. Did you delete the home and start again? I keep getting none of your home hubs are responding since the update. System was amazing before hand, going to give up on smart home shortly if I cannot fix. My head is melted with all the notifications. 😂
@@DavidMcIntyrealphacam Hi, yes this was after the new architecture. I have a few device as my HomeHubs...latest Apple TV, original HomePod and some minis. Essentially I completely rebuild my home :( Step 1 - remove all devices from 'home' (not sure if necessary) Step 2 - delete my HomeKit home and remove home app, then reinistall home app from app store (not sure if removing the app is necessary) Step 3 - reset my AppleTV make sure on latest OS (or HomePod - recommend using newest device initially as HomeHub) Step 4 - create a new home Step 5 - re-add devices (all needed resetting as well :(). Step 6 - reset all HomePod minis and update to latest OS via macbook air (plug in USB C to MBA) Step 7 - reset original HomePods. Note of caution here. I was getting 'configuring forever' and when I added a HomePod that was on 16.3 to my new home everything broke again. I would great a temporary home to update old HomePods in and then reset again and add to your proper home once upgrade is done) Step 8 - curse Apple and have a beer :)
@@JohnG225 Thanks for the reply. Appreciate the help, I thought this was the answer as I have tried everything else. I was just hoping it was not 😀. I have jumped to step 8 already 🤣
LIFX is one of my biggest regrets too, both bulbs and strips. They constantly fell off my network and resetting them was a major pain. These are great bulbs that would benefit from a Zigbee connection. I agree with you about Hue bulbs. High price, but rock solid, year after year. I have had good results with Thread devices though. The Nanoleaf bulbs and strips I have still work great, as do the Eve contact sensors and smart switches. The Eve contact sensors do go through batteries quicker than I’d like, though. Unless absolutely necessary, I avoid Wi-Fi-based lights whenever possible.
I was surprised LIFX was given me so many issues tbh, their app is WAY better imo than Philips hue. I don't really care for the Philips hue app. wish there bulbs and strips were better. Thanks for sharing your experiences!
Wondering if you’re setting up thread connection correctly? I’ve had Nanoleaf bulbs everywhere for awhile now and they have been extremely reliable in my experience.
i mean i have a homepod mini and connect eve device to home app...the device is supposed to connect to thread automatically, no manual switch required.
@@AdamsTechLife I use my Apple TV as my hub. I have 2 eve door sensors and all Nanoleaf bulbs. I had to reset one of the door sensors and I had to reset one of the Nanoleaf bulbs that wouldn’t update. Otherwise it’s been flawless. The Circadian lighting is a major plus with Nanoleaf too. Sorry you’re having trouble but it definitely has to do with your thread connection. I don’t have experience with the HomePod so can’t help you there but I personally stay away from Phillips’s Hue as they charge waaaaaaay too much & require a proprietary hub that severs no other function.
There's something wrong with your network setup. I use LIFX bulbs and strips all throughout my house, Eve Door and Windows Sensors and even have a couple of Nanoleaf Bulbs and some Elements panels and everything is rock solid, fast and responsive...
I regret buying the original Eve Home indoors. Mostly because it could only be battery operated, and the batteries had to be changed every couple of months. Also found the air quality sensor often gave questionable results. Also when I later tried to re-add the device to HomeKit, I found the device code was nowhere to be found on the device, so that device could never be reconnected and used again.
Awesome content!!! I will say I took the plunge into nanoleaf bulbs (20 of them, some grouped in one multi-bulb fixture) and have had minimal issues. When I have had issues two things have fixed it. One, if my Apple TV 4K becomes my home hub, thread is less reliable. So restarting will fix it. The other fox if it’s just the bulbs that are not responding, find a bulb that IS responding and control that one by changing colors. I find it seems to reset the thread connection a lot of times. Hope this helps someone and I’m not crazy thinking these work.
Same - nanoleaf here as well but no problem thus far and they were on clearance at Amazon (I’m guessing for the new matter-enabled ones) Only thing I would like is a remote button. Even a simple one that sets its behavior back to the Home app default would be good. If anybody has an idea ?
@@Halarue what I did was invest in an aqara hub. And then I use their buttons to control the lights. One click on, double click off, Long press is a scene. Also the Aqara T1 cube is AMAZING if you can remember what each side does.
Nanoleaf bulbs, they were hard to update the firmware in the beginning (18 months ago) but seemed to work ok for me until about a month ago. Even with a reset they refused to connect, so I replaced them with Hue bulbs because the Hue bulbs which predated the Nanoleaf bulbs in my home had never given me any trouble. I'm a fan of Aqara products because for the most part they work excellent, but 2 products that I'm not impressed with is the new Cube, find it slow to respond to commands and the vibration sensor has mind of its' own and gets lonely, notifications in the middle of night. The vibration sensor has been retired & replaced with a Aqara motion sensor.
I had issues with my nanoleaf bulbs recently, but it wasn't nanoleaf that was at fault...it was the new HomeKit architecture which pretty much broke my smart home. After factory reseting my HomePod minis, Apple TV and readding it's been fine.
@@AdamsTechLife thank you! I also got disappointed with Nanoleaf’s color brightness (except for the whites). Too bad it didn’t work as expected, Nanoleaf is so much less expensive, have a cooler looking bulb, and use thread). I was going to try Lifx, until I saw this video 😂.
@@AdamsTechLife also, which lightstrip would you recommend for the brightness (but that also has good color accuracy)? As in light up a room with just light strips.
I think you need to reconsider your conclusions. Consider for a moment that the problem is actually apples implementation of thread in their HomePods and Apple TVs. All of my unresponsive problems have been caused by HomePods
I like how Aqara is affordable and the lineup of products the offer. The biggest issue I have is it’s a Chinese company and adding something to my home network that can and will phone home to China hakes me pause. Sure I could add rules on my network to block it but that’s going to be a cat and mouse game to keep track of, making sure there aren’t servers in other countries, firmware updates don’t reset things. I just don’t trust China in any way and adding a bunch of possibly BOT’s on my network just is too big of a risk. Sure there are these same risks with them all but we all know how China would do anything to take America down. They won’t need balloons if every home has multiple devices in it to report back or be used to launch an attack. Or maybe the balloons will start communicating with these devices. Lots of possibilities. Bottom line is China cannot be trusted on every level. And dispute and verbiage on there website that too should be taken with a grain of salt!
I only have one Nanoleaf lightbulb, but it has not had any issues for me yet. I'm trying to stick with Thread items as much as I can. I'm sure that as Apple keeps making HomeKit updates and Matter gets growing pains we may see odd compatibility issues as the 3rd party companies try to keep up with firmware updates. What I really want to see is a way to view our Thread networks from Apple. We can't troubleshoot issues if we don't get any feedback from the Thread network. My Nanoleaf app just shows the one bulb in Thread, and I don't have an Eve Energy to make their Thread app work. I have no idea if my 2 HomePods, AppleTV, and Nanoleaf light are doing anything with Thread.
I have 15 nanoleaf bulbs for about 7 months now. 30 is the max before issues according to nanoleaf themselves. Great lights, if they ever disconnect just unplug and reboot your HomeKit hub.
Hi man… great video but you main issue is not called Nanoleaf or eve (two of my favourite brands) your issue is called wi-fi and your HomeKit is giving you issues. Besides this the other massive issue you have but seeing your video is that you work with too many different brands and now you reduce your HomeKit to basically Phillips and aqara so reducing the brands installed brings less conflicts so better HomeKit experience I really found your video helpful but in the same time misleading just saying from a RU-vid “friend” that also cares about HomeKit and smart home. Have a great day. MADpack
other people have many issues with eve and nanoleaf (as you'll see in the comments of this video) so it's not just on my end ;) thanks for watching and commenting!
This video is so helpful! Thanks so much!!! Can you please share what lighting you use for your background that lights the wall in front of the shelf & wall behind you??? Is it the light strip?
So glad I could help :) the lights on the wall are nanoleaf triangles, the middle light is a novostella light on a smart plug, and a couple of bar lights from walmart lol
The Onvis light strips have turned out to be the least reliable light strips I've had. I have four sets of these in two separate homes. All four of these have disconnected from wifi multiple times in the last year or so. Whenever this happens it requires removal from the Onvis App, factory defaulting, adding back into the Onvis app and then Apple Home. Then I have to set up the lights all over again. I'm done with these. All four have disconnected for the last time. It took a couple of weeks but the last two disconnected at the same time the other night making all four sets inoperative. I won't be adding them back in.
Hello, thanks for sharing your experience with the Onvis light strip, that stinks. I actually use the onvis light strips and i haven't had issues but it stinks your experience wasn't great
Might have something to do with the eero pro systems I have in both homes. I did try a TCP Link Decco system for awhile. That didn't help. Went through all of the usually trouble shooting with no help. Strangely enough, two of the four units just came back up on their own. Never saw it do that before and this happened multiple times. They were down for about 24 hours. The other two are still down for several weeks now. @@AdamsTechLife
I have the Nanoleaf bulbs and never had an issue with them. The thing with thread is that the more thread items you have the better it gets. Each bulb works as a thread router. There for if you have very few bulbs and HomePods or any other thread router, then maybe that’s why It didn’t work for you? I have around 8 Nanoleaf bulbs 2 HomePods, and one Apple TV with thread. All my bulbs work with no issue.
That's funny, they've been the least reliable for me. Aqara is not sponsoring me. They're just the few brands I've actually had the best overall experience with and spent my own money on their products. Thanks for watching! 😊
I regret to see your choice of going with Aqara ZigBee stack - that is already outdated technology and criticizing every THREAD / Matter stack. This must have been a Aqara / Philps supported.
I started my smart home with iHome smart plugs. I currently use Aqara for all my sensors, have hub one being a G2H camera. Have 4 Nanoleaf and have had no issues. What I regret buying is Arlo Camera. Being battery operated you usually miss what triggered the motion and that is frustrating.
I will agree, yes, battery powered cameras do have their flaws, but it's great for areas where you can't run wires. I haven't used Arlo myself, but I've heard mixed reviews. Thanks for watching! 😊
Did your Thread devices used Bluetooth instead by any chance? I heard that they wouldn’t use Thread sometimes for sone reason and default to Bluetooth instead. I got new Onvis door sensors and they work so fast over Thread.