Happy Saturday y'all! *A word of warning!* I am getting reports that the echo can't control the colour of the lidl lights (it can control warm white and cool white just not purple etc) I thought I had tested this but possibly not and I'm ill in bed now and can't test it. Apologies if this is the case! This video is not sponsored by anyone, I just really like the Ajax stuff. Sadly it's UK only at the minute, but there's a link to a well rate US equivalent below too... As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. By buying through any of the links below I will earn commission at no extra cost to you :) Ajax on Amazon UK: amzn.to/3n6IXvt Gledopto on Amazon US: amzn.to/2Kfh4CM
I obviously didn't explain very well what the sunrise and sunset modes actually do in the hue ecosystem. Alexa can be triggered by sunset and sunrise as a schedule, but she can't make a light emulate the sunrise by slowly fading the light up and down over a set period.
When the zigbee evolution starts soon... you have done a video on it... will all of the old zigbee bulbs still work? including the hue lights that have bought most of the market?
like the features, setup was difficult for some of my devices (August Door lock, ru-vid.comUgkxhB5YOMNj04GuoAosExygP4cH-dKeb4aB Bose speaker)... but all switches and outlets (5), thermostat, tankless water heater. Unfortunately all I can do is turn on/off Bose. It doesn't support volume or changing channels, but I believe that is due to the particular speaker I have.... Worth getting if you already have other devices to use it with... I don't sit around and ask Alexa questions much so that doesn't really matter to me....
Found this really useful I have at least 50 hue bulbs and strips and I agree the price is through the roof - do these work with the dimmer switches as I have them all over the house
I did this today in a Lidl in Bristol....the cashier looked at me as if I was very strange...I don't think it helped I said it each time a new bulb was rung through.
Hi Wayne, as far as I know they will yes! I haven't tried it but I have used the remote on other 3rd party bulbs successfully so there's no reason why not.
I saw these in Lidl yesterday and a thought "hmmm... I wonder if Paul will review these?" STOP READING MY MIND WITHOUT ASKING PAUL, THAT'S NOT COOL!!! Only kidding, read it anytime you like mate.
Hey Paul, thanks for the informative review! One thing that I've been missing, in fact from many reviews out there is not how bright some bulbs get, buy how far you can dim them down. Especially the IKEA bulbs, which I own a few of don't dim very low and will always be too bright for our bedroom and dining table, for example. For that reason, I find myself buying Hue lamps more often than I want to. Would be great if you could also shine some light on that aspect. Thanks!
Paul, thank you for your review. I love your reviews and the way you present them. You’re a star. Sadly, my experience with Lidl smart stuff has been disappointing. I bought 6 x e14 colour change bulbs. I introduced one to my Echo 4th gen (Discover devices). She said she couldn’t find it, although it appeared in the Alexa app nonetheless. However, that is the end of the good news. When I asked Alexa to turn it on, she said it wasn’t responding. I could turn it on and off in the Alexa app, but couldn’t select any colour. Regrettably, they will have to go back. I can’t say I wasn’t warned. Lidl state that their stuff doesn’t work with Amazon Echo, and my experience has been that they’re right. Shame, I had such high hopes, especially after Paul’s review. For the record, I’m not new to Smart Home technology. I have 10 Alexi, over 70 smart lights of most flavours, smart plugs, Ring Alarm, etc. So, while I would never claim to aspire to the dizzy heights of knowledge of Mr. Hibbert, I do have a fair amount of experience with this stuff.
It doens't matter if the Lux meter is accurate or not. The fact is you are using the SAME lux meter everytime, which means the comparison is valid. One thing is definitely brighter than the other, and ANY meter will show that. As long as you use the same meter, the comparison is fair. I ditched my hue hub a while back, and I am selling off my Hue globes. I thought the Lidl stuff had to be based on Tuya :) It just had that feel about it.
I bought the Lidl GU10s recently to replace 8 GU10s in my living room, they're great and at a great price! Thanks Paul 👍 To be able to change the colours - I used the Sengled LED bulb device handler. It works great in SmartThings. Ooohhh the Zigbee!!
I’ve got a bit of both. Already had the hue bridge so no need to get the Lidl one. Bought the lidl e27 colour bulb and the led strip. the strip is great! The colour bulbs... ‘okay’. When you sync with an amblight tv you can see that they are a bit slower and whilst the colours are fairly accurate when bright they struggle when dim. And are rubbish when using things like sunrise / wake up routines. They just don’t seem to have the graduation that hue bulbs do. But for a tenner, I’ll be getting some more for general use. Did you not get them to work with those routines at all? It works for me but just doesn’t start very dim and the steps between colour abs brightness changes are very obvious.
Hi Paul, Apparently Lidl is the same all around Europe, I bought some bulbs, sockets, LED Strip before traveling outside Sweden. So I didn't test them, but they use ZigBee 3.0 Protocol which a lot of hubs support. If the software is done by Tuya, that's the best thing I have heard today after missing my 2nd flight bcz the first one was delayed. Great video
Bought a Lidl Gu10 bulb a couple of weeks ago as a trial to work with my Hue Hub (which I’ve had for a looooong time) after seeing this. Worked perfectly. The only problem I’ve found sometimes is that if it’s set on warm white and you turn it off at the switch it sometimes forgets it was warm white and goes back to cool white. Keep up the good work! 👍👍👍
@@paulhibbert These Philips people aren’t silly are they. I just went into the settings for the power on and it says “Not Supported” for that bulb 🤷♂️
@@paulhibbert These lights and smart speakers are just a gateway drug. I've just set up curtain opening/closing robots that can interface with my air-conditioner through a hydrometre/thermometre. I mean they cost plenty sure, but I will save money somewhere down the line with the heat control... But really my robot vacuum cleaner was lonely.
Not sure if already been posted, but there are device handlers already written for the bulbs and LED strip to enable colour changing. Also for the three way remote so you can switch each of the individual sockets on and off as child devices ------ Sweet.
Paul, If you’re running SmartThings, there’s a DH to get colour working on the strips and bulbs using ‘Sengled RGBW bulb’ DH. I too found the lighting strip absolutely shocking at colour and returned that sharpish. Secondly, the 5M strip you posted at the start if the video isn’t smart, it’s the 2M version. Thirdly, you missed the fact that these lamps comes with a 3Yr Warranty too.
@@paulhibbert some advice if you can. Ive got these working with SmartThings/Alexa no issues and the plugs too. Ive just set some plugs up for family member using a Tuya hub and Alexa. I can get Tuya to find the plugs but cant get any alexa control. Its all linked and ive discovered devices but nothing. I take it control of Tuya sub devices can be done? I dont ise Tuya Thanks
Thanks for this Paul, I've been to Lidl today and picked up a LED strip and a couple of sockets to add to my hue set up. All have connected to the Philips hue app without issue. Best thing that has happened; I was using the light strip to replace a philips hue as it has stopped working and it has picked up all of the right colours almost automatically. It was like the Lidl strip was saying, "oh, I know what my job is here" and just did it. It also looks like the strip can be used as an extension for another if 2 are bought. I can't remember you mentioning this but must have missed it if you did. Great work buddy and thanks again
You inspired me to buy an Amazon Echo 4th thingy, because of the Zigbee Hub. Oooooooooooooooh the Zigbee!!! It only cost me £59.99. I really appreciate you, and your videos! You have kept me sane, so far!!
I am just starting this mission of understanding how to build a smart home, and I am glad to find your channel. Unbiased, fun and very informative. Happy New Year, from Portugal 😁
As much as you may or may not like this idea, I have a Phillips hue hub. It was a present but I've been using IKEA ZigBee devices with it. I'd love to see a video of all the devices that work with the Phillips hue hub so I don't have to buy their overpriced devices but also don't want to buy another hub because what I have "just works". This is all about cost saving with what I already have.
Great video Paul. I went to my local Lidl this morning in the hope of getting myself a couple of their smart plugs and to my disappointment they had all sold out. What if some people have bought a few bulbs to try them out and now want some more to match what they already have. Shame!
Already had lots of hue apart from hallway and kitchen. 7 GU10s and 3 light strips later and the whole house is covered. I wasn't paying £40 a bulb for GU10s but at £10 I was all over that. Coupled with the Sun £10 off £40 Lidl vouchers and I was a happy man
Totally agree with this. For the price they really are amazingly good. Did you notice that the brand they are using (Livarolux or what ever it was) was interchanged with their Silvercrest brand on the smart plugs? They use that on their other products. Seems like they forgot which name they was going for! I guess this will be the new name of their smart home division and we will see more from them. I bought the standard white bulb and went back for the coloured ones only to find out the Echo Plus didn’t change the colours. I just took them back and picked up a few more whites. Also grabbed a few plugs too. Strangely the Alexa app reports the standard whites have RGB in them but they obviously don’t change when selected. For value they are amazing. I hope these are a permanent fixture.
I was bought the hue bridge for crimbo and was lucky enough to of found the Lidl smart bulbs b4 spending loads of money on the Phillips ones, I’m not a massive disco person so the white lights are perfect for me, love them, work so well and are a bargain, wish I’d bought more tho for spares!!
Glad you covered this; I was wondering if the Lidl stuff would work with my Philips Hub and One Light Bulb set that I bought before I knew better. Shame that their hub only works with Google, I am surprised that they didn't decide to make it work with Amazon Echo though, that means the majority of their target market won't want to pick it up. I bet it will be consigned to the bargain aisle in a few weeks time because of that decision.
Managed to pick up a couple of the LED strips. Set up was easy with Smartthings, although out of the box no colour as Paul said. Quick search on the Smartthings forum got me to a custom Device Handler and now they're ready to go in my kids' room for Christmas 👍
When I got my Amazon echo 4 I was just blown away by the sound as now they don't do the echo plus anymore. It's also by watching this video that you have made me realise I have a Zigbee hub, also the echo I bought came with a Philips hue bulb. I know Philips are more expensive but I just know they work well, and will eventually have the Hue range. Ooohhh the Zigbee
Paul, thanks for the video. Bought the 2m strip today and install them around the mirror (wife’s orders lol)in my corridor. My plan was for an electrician to run a cable from a socket up the wall (wall would have needed to make good, painted etc) and install LED light around the picture rails around the corridor. That plan has been scrapped as I love the brightness of the Lidl strips. A 2m strip lights up my corridor nicely and even when at lowest level, still throws out enough light! I am using my hue hub as I’m not bothered about different colours etc. Thanks again for the recommendation! Much appreciated. Keep up the good work matey....oooohhhh the Zigbee 😂😂
Hi Paul. I got some of the light strips from "The Middle o Lidl", and found that the sunset-sunrise thing does seem to work with them, and i never even asked it to. Granted, the strips may have gotten themselves knotted up in my IFTTT routine, but hey, they work. Don't know about the bulbs though as I haven't tested them.
Am I the only person who can't get the Lidl stuff to work with Zigbee2MQTT? Ah yes, frickin' Tuya. That'd be it. As for Hue being expensive - as far as I'm concerned, Hue works. First time. All the time. When you turn on multiple bulbs simultaneously, all the bulbs turn on simultaneously. I can't say the same for any other kit I've tried. To me, the Hue kit is worth every penny. The "it's too exepensive" argument is, to me, like saying "I'm not buying a Tesla, I can get a Nissan Leaf for much less money" (having driven both, I know which I prefer). I see your argument about "You're buying stuff that doesn't work?", but perhaps the people saying "Hue just works" are the more super-userey type people - integrating with Home Assistant, MQTT and other control mechanisms. I can rely on Hue. I've had all sorts of problems with the other, cheaper 'compatible' kit.
We're all conveniently forgetting that it's one of the dimmest products on the market 😉 people love to tout its reliability but I cut a section of this video where I was having to hold a section of my hue LED strip because it won't stay fully lit all the way along unless I press it at one section. Plus my hue bridge currently won't connect to Alexa, it stopped working the other day and I can't figure out why. It won't connect to the hue website either, says it can't be found, so I went to factory reset it to find the reset button has broken and can't be reached with a pin. 🙄 I won't worry too much though, they'll force me to upgrade to a 4th gen bridge soon enough I'm sure 🤣 All joking aside, a big chunk of my automation right now is down because of the hue bridge, yet my tuya smartlife stuff has been rock solid for years. I would prefer a completely local solution but Hue is so much more flawed than everyone makes out.
@@paulhibbert But the dimmest product is only a problem if you're just replacing the pendant bulb in the middle of the ceiling - if you're designing a new lighting scheme (and why wouldn't you, the ability to do this is one of the key advantages of automation), then you put in enough bulbs to give you the lighting you need. In a lot of cases, multiple dim bulbs often provide better lighting than fewer bright bulbs anyway. As for Alexa (or Google) - I don't have them so I can't comment.
I just bought the Lidl stuff on Thursday. Been wanting to get in to the smart home thing for ages hence why I watch your videos. I was going to go IKEA, due to price, but concerned over the Tradfri Hub. I was so impressed how quick and easy it was to set up and how well it linked with my google hub. Agreed the colours in the bulbs aren’t amazing, but for side lamps and the like they’ll be fine. I’m just glad I’m not scrabbling under the Christmas tree any more! Again great review Paul. I appreciate the time you put into these videos and reviews.
Great video. Made me interested in starting my smart home. Just one question. Wouldn't I be able to pair the Lidl Hub with IFTTT to have something like the sunrise/sunset mode?
Hi Paul! I bought some Livarno Lux smart lights at Lidl which I installed easily on Echo 4th generation, but I can't control the colours. Do you have any tips? Nice video mate 😀
im really dumb when it comes to this stuff but will the lightbulb work if i dont have a smart plug or a hub? or do i have to buy one of them in order for the bulb to work?
I just discovered your channel today, about 30 minutes ago lol. I have been laughing but also very very impressed about how informative and in-depth you are. I am a virgin smart home newbie and look forward to getting set up as you do!! Cheers!!!
Alexa routines DO support sunrise/sunset. You choose a trigger of SCHEDULE then it offers you 3 choices: at time, sunrise or sunset, and for the latter two you can specify an offset +/- so many minutes.
I always like your videos and your opinions. I couldn’t help thinking if the hub will connect to smart life app and that app works with Alexa would that be a work around and make it work with Alexa?
Hi Paul, loved the video and got myself some of this kit. I started it up with the Lidl Home app and it all works nicely, but would I be better with the Tuya app and start the process again. The reason I ask is that there are only limited number of devices in the Lidl app versus absolutely masses in the Tuya app, so I could possibly extend with other Zigbee devices. Thanks if you get chance to answer
I went ahead and did it anyway, and most things I have work well in the Smart Life app. - the only thing I can't get to connect is a TP-Link Kasa smart plug (this might be a 2.4MHz vs 5MHz WiFi issue.
They look amazing. But do they work with the Phillips Hue Sync Desktop App. Im planning to to sync my lights with the TV while gaming on the PC connected to it.
Hi Paul, I bought some ajax gu10 pro bulbs after watching your video and frankly the white light was very bad (30° and 120° bulbs). The light was «flickering» at about 60Hz and the spectrum was not good at all. I also bought hue gu10 and innr gu10 color bulbs and found that even though the innr produce a very decent light, if i put a white paper at about 50cm of the bulb,I can see variations in color on the paper when the light is «warm white». On the hue side I see a more homogenous light. What I am trying to say is though I like your content I think you could focus more on the quality of the white light of the bulbs you test (CRI, flickering, homogeneity etc.).
Just a little thing... would you demonstrate the dimming function between the Lidl bulbs and HUE bulbs? Just put them on 5%. I want to see the difference. And also the turning off sequence.
Great video! Subscribed a while ago. I have gone and got a 3 way plug extension from this range, couldn't get recognised by my HUE unit. Thought it was worth noting. Thanks and keep doing this kind of thing! 😊
Can you try to get the color temperatures to match before checking the brightness with your fancy antenna? A bulb might decide to have a "warmer" white so it means the brightness will be reduced.
Just watching this. Maybe it has been mentioned BUT please include the low end as well. I like my IKEA bulbs, but even on the lowest level they are still very bright. OH THE ZIGBEE! Carry on...
Picked one of these up after watching your video, absolutely phenomenal for the price. Was planning to outfit my kitchen with Hue strips or 3rd Party Ajax ones but these will do nicely, you can get HomeKIt support via Homebridge also!
Thanks for the great video as always. Will the hue hub be able to bridge the silvercrest smart plugs to homekit\hass etc? Not sure if hue only works with lighting???
I'm not 100% sure on this one. You would thinks so but I know I've had issues using the hue bridge for 3rd party bulbs before when accessing from a Homey hub, so I suspect the hue bridge might prevent that 😔
Thanks Paul, I’m happy to confirm that I’ve managed to get two light strips (including colour) two E14 and two of the silvercrest plugs all connected to the hue bridge. The lights then turn up on Alexa app without hass, but the plugs required hass to get into Alexa and Homekit. Colour controls for the strips are working fine for me in Alexa, hass and homekit. But the colours are very low brightness as you reported. Going back to buy more. Oooh zigbeeee!
Some things that were not mentioned in this video: The min brightness (of the E27 bulb at least) is really bright, like 1% on Lidl Bulb is 30% on Hue bulb. No point in using these for the sunrise since they will be really bright from the start and it is annoying. Also, the difference of brightness between the warm/cool and color is also annoying, you need to set 100% brightness for color, but for me anyways the cool white 100% is too much for my use case. And the red seem dimmer than blue/green for me anyways. And the bulbs do work with Hue, but they function strange, I had a normal Hue bulb and a Lidl bulb in the same room, some scenes didn't apply on the Lidl bulb properly, they were in rgb mode instead of cool/warm white mode or vice versa. I had to pair them to Home Assistant using CC2531 and Zigbee2Mqtt for them to work as I like, and had to do a scene that was previously a really dim warm white by using rgb leds in an orange color. I also got a bulb which had a really annoying hum to it on cool white that I had to return. Overall, since they are cheap, you can't really complain too much, since I now have also an ambient color bulb instead of just a cool/warm bulb and can do more things, but some people might prefer the "just works" experience of other brands. Can't say I really recommend these over the Ikea bulbs for example, where a color bulb is 2x the price of lidl bulb at least in my place.
I agree, same experience with E14 bulb. I returned them. For E27 I was lucky to find a starter set with 3 bulbs n the bridge for 75€, cheaper than LIDL 😅 last week I found a hue play with adaptor for 40€ (normal price 60€). GU10 was not even an option, because the LIDL ones have a much longer format. Well... I will stick with philips n keep searching for good offers 😅
Paul thanks for the video....really relevant. I'm considering buying a 4th gen amazon hub and have a hue hub atm. Will I be able to get rid of the hue hub if I have the 4th gen alexa and will my hue lights still work with it and if so HOW?? I use the coming home function for alight on my drive will this still work?? So many questions lol Again many thanks for all of your videos mate!!
I think I haven’t post a comment on your videos before but have to say I really like them, learned a lot of smart home thanks to you. I’m a Philips hue user cuz 2 main reasons, I was a newbie when I started on to smart home and cuz on my country there are no many of the alternatives you showed here and the ones that are (lifx for example) are even way more expensive than Philips Hue (and yes talking about Amazon) still I’m with you, if there’s no real reason for it, go for the alternatives
Great video as always Paul!!! I'm having a headache trying to deicide which zigbee switch to buy. I plan on using smartthings as my hub and integrating it with an Amazon Echo. Can you advice please?
Thanks for the video Paul, didn't know about these until I watched your video. I went out and got the last 2 from our local store. The Lidl power sockets work with my Hubitat (UK C5). They just use the generic ZigBee driver. Can't believe they're cheaper than the IKEA Tradffi ones that are £10 and are a better shape (more boxy compared to the IKEA ones but also more square. Also, the reason the Lidl over my old goto IKEA ones are they have the manual switch on them where as the IKEA ones don't. Just makes them more versatile, yes you can have a ZigBee switch but this is built in. Wish there were some actual ZigBee wall sockets in the UK, all the ones I've found are WiFi. Just would help reduce the wall bulk. If they also then had energy monitoring, that would be awesome. Thanks for the funny, entertaining and informative video! The wife still calls you the 'ohhhh the ZigBee guy'... :D
Shall i just buy the whole set or get a smartthings hub and connect all of them to that? I’m very new to these kind of things and looking so start my collection so there is more to come of course
Colour changing the LED strip works fine with Alexa if you use a Hue Bridge -- but not if a ZigBee enabled Echo finds it first. If you delete the strip from the app, connect it to a Hue Bridge and run discovery again, it will give you colour changing capabilities. Also, it automatically remembers the last power-on state -- something that you don't get with Ikea Tradfri.
Purchased Lidl Zigbee colour bulb and while my Echo Plus was able to connect to it, I kept getting “Device Malfunction” error in Alexa app. I was able to change the various white colours and dim the bulb but no colours. Also noticed the bulb was running very hot compared to my WiFi LED bulbs. Pity was was a good price but going to return.
Hi Paul, excellent video as always, but hoping for some advice, I am invested in Tuya Smart life (Plugs & Bulbs), but looking to get a gateway but not sure which way to go. Would the Echo 4th gen work or should I nip to Lidl and get their hub? Thanks
The echo 4th gen will give you more freedom of suppliers, but the lidl hub will allow you to keep all your devices under one app. It really depends on your priorities really. I don't like to keep all my eggs in one basket, so I prefer to go with the echo. 😊
Thanks for a heads up! I went and got 5 of the led light strips, for my man cave! Working perfectly with the hue bridge, although I may switch them over to hubitat.
Thank you for the very nice informative and funny video! I made a “mistake” buying 8 Wi-Fi TECKIN Bulbs (no zigbee, no d-wave, but smartlife ap/Tuya app compatible, alexa compatible), and now I am struggling to understand what kind of cheap but distance-efficient sensor I can use with it. Could I use the LIDL Motion sensor connected to an Zigbee ECHO (4. Generation) to control my Wi-Fi Teckin bulbs? Thank you very much again for helping.
I will reiterate one of my major issues with the Hue ecosystem, I manage two smart homes, one is 5000km away. I got a new phone, all my smart home apps, Tuya, eWeLink, ecobee, magic home, leviton were able to reconnect via the login. Phillips Spew requires you to be adjacent to the hub to switch/add phones. Right now, with travel restrictions, ain't happening.
I really want to buy this stuff but can't get to Lidl at all, I wish they would sell it online, id happy pay a premium on the postage to. Looks like amazing stuff, Oh and BTW phillips hue people seem to agree with you, I 1st learnt about this product on Philips Hue groups, they are going nuts and buying loads of it. Oh, I almost forgot to say, great video as always and thanks for the video Paul
@@paulhibbert my wife found out a few days ago she has it so none of us can leave for another week :( hope yours comes back negative mate. Look after yourself and don't worry about youtube, it can wait a little while and will still be here when your better.
you just made me go to 3 different Lidl stores to get this product so I can try it and see if smart lighting is for me. Thanks I guess! What app is your personal favourite to control zigbee devices from different manufacturers?
Paul really enjoyed your videos and find them funny and very informative. I notice on this one you mentioned that you cannot get the lights to work from sunrise to sunset. I thought that was a bit odd as many of Alexa routines use that very parameter and work well. Which also means that I only have to set up the routine once and its good all year. I hope that helps and should work with your Phillips lights too.
I saw these when I went to Lidl at the weekend, but didn't purchase as I wasn't sure about the Hue compatibility. Having now seen your video, I will head to Lidl now and get some! Thanks for your vids Paul they provide information and a load of comedy. #ooooohthezigbee
Got such a starterkit and added it to the Tuya app. The bulbs were immediately discovered - but I couldn't for the life of it figure out how to add that remote controller. How did you achieve that?
Hey Paul, I'm a new subscriber to your channel, loving it so far! I'm new to the whole smartbulb thing so have no hub etc at all, which would you recommend as starter (that's not HUE)? I'd like to have multi colour functionality in all rooms I plan to put the bulbs in, as in the video the lid straps aren't the best at colour, just white. Cheers
Hi @Paul Hibbert, I just got 3 bulbs that I was going to use with the Echo 4th gen dot, alas the dot dont have a zigbee hub. The lidl hub dont connect to Alexa as per your video. What I would like to do i get a Tuya zigbee hub (£16) and some Tuya zigbee wall switches (£18 each) from Amazon, will this setup work and can I still use alexa to control them ie colour change, scheduling etc and the wall switches to turn them on/off. The reason I ask is because in the video you seem to imply I need to get either a Hue or Smart things which are expensive. Thanks and looking forward to your reply.
thanks for the review! any idea how it is with the IKEA hub thingy (i have one of those) will it work with google home devices through the ikea hub?? or if not is two zigbee hubs in one house bad??
