I can't speak to their longevity, because YMMV, but... my oldest Hue smart bulb is now over 6 years old. The oldest Philips Hue product that I own however, is one of the original Living Colors lights, and that one is over a decade old at this point (and it works with the hub!). I've been using these lights 7 days a week since I got them new. All in all I have a dozen or so of these bulbs now. They vary in quality somewhat (Philips has been updating the hardware over the years). Given their apparent lifespan, their higher prices make sense - and it's worth to note that Amazon does regular sales on these bulbs and you can pick them up much cheaper then.
@@AllThingsOnePlace Oh yeah, my other LED bulbs (including Philips) die all the time, but the Hues have been remarkably resilient. Perhaps I've been lucky. Like any product, I've read some nightmare stories about them, but personally I have been fortunate never to experience any significant annoyances. The worst that ever happens is sometimes a light will get lost and desync, but that's usually an easy fix of turning it off and on again. Where it does get problematic is when you start getting fancy and throw in motion detectors and the like into the mix - then, oh yes, they become a whole lot less smart than the advertising would have you believe - but that's a whole different story.
Yeah, I haven't had any issues with mine, and in terms of visual quality they look good. It all comes down to the app, which overall I wish was a lot better but instead it's taking a turn for the worse. Not a fan they are forcing people to have an account now, and saying it is for security, so these will likely stop working and be trash once that is forced on people. Too bad they are choosing to ruin the good product with software.
I'm glad you're looking at bulbs but I've wanted to ask have you considered looking at popular USB-C laptop chargers? They often don't say they support a bunch of modes but if they do they could be a good source of inexpensive, high output USB-C chargers. My Dell Precision came with a 130w unit, for example, and claims to have two outputs @ 5v 1.0a and 20v 6.5a. Maybe there are other modes unofficially? Thanks!
Bulbs are not as popular as adapters I guess, I will probably not do more of these for awhile. It might support other modes, I have an HP one I tested that does 5,9, and 15 volts. Technically if that Dell is using a USB C port, it is not in specification for the USB C port if it delivers more than 5 amps. The proper way to do that is to increase the voltage to 28V to deliver the extra power as the MACBOOK did, or use a different connector. Anyway, I do have some of the laptop adapters around but haven't tested them yet. It certainly will be a topic in a future video.
@@AllThingsOnePlace I didn't mean to downplay bulb videos. I watched it as I have all the others even though it's actually less relevant to anything I'm doing. I just had the laptop power adapter thought and dropped it on the next video you posted. I'd also be interested in disassembly videos that get into the EE of it all. Thanks!
Interesting video. A few things: • You can use the bulbs without the bridge with a hue switch as well as via your phone with Bluetooth - it's not required. The Bluetooth functionality (which is always on unfortunately) is probably a factor in the higher power draw. • I'm not too sure why you couldn't get the ikea bulbs to work? I've been using them for years with my hue system in areas where light quality is less important. I've never needed the IKEA hub and all have paired with no issues. • You can have multiple bridges but it's not seamless,. unfortunately. I reached the 50 bulb limit some time ago and have to switch between the bridges I want to control in the app. I've been using these bulbs for many years and have never had one fail. Long-term support is great with every bulb and accessory they released for hue over the years still being compatible. Some of mine must be 7 or 8 years old by now.
That idle power consumption is crazy. You are right, electricity here in Europe is much more expensive. Probably why the IKEA performed better, I think I would rather go with that. Thanks for the in-depth look!!
Hello, I just got a new Baseus 100w Adapter, it works really well. Thank you for your recommendation. I'm wondering if you're working on a USB C to DC Barrel cable, I'm seeing some listing on line but I'm a little bit concerned about the safety 😆
haha, yeah, I need to get moving on that. I don't think they have a safety standard for that. It would take 10+ years to create one if there isn't. Industry does not move fast.
I have currently had the older version of the Sengled from 2018 and that broke in like 2 years and I got replaced once under warranty. I had it plugged into my ceiling fan and they said that it has a dimmer built in. The second set broke in like a month so I assuming it was some software update. I bought a Wiz bulb and that worked great for 3 years into a standard pull lamp and that started to go bad last year. I think Wiz is also own by Phillips now as well. I don't really know what went bad on these two sets of bulbs since I only had normal toggle switches and a pull cord lamp. I want to like smart bulbs, but going bad after 2-3 years puts a bad taste in my mouth. Fyi the Baseus with the outlet works well. It gets a tad warm so the double sided tape I had fell off of it so now I have two velcro wire straps holding it up and it works great.
Yeah, time will be the test for these. I saw lots of comments of these lasting a long time. Obviously, my poor Ikea bulb won't last that long since it isn't connected to the heatsink anymore. Good to hear on the Baseus, I picked up one with the 100W and outlets so I'll be putting it through it's paces soon enough.
Yes, I need to do that as a priority in 2023. I have A power bank (nothing new) that will be on the list of power banks that have been tested so finally will have something from them. It won't be in a video specifically just a point of comparison for data.
I'd love to see a comparison between Ikea and Hue of the white curves for the "tunable" white ranges of the various devices, compared with regular dumb bulbs at various white points. I know, super niche.
Niche is kind of what this channel does, haha. I want to get some better light measuring equipment. Time to eBay. I have a few lux meters but I need something that can measure color temperature. I am not sure how complicated it is to measure CRI too. Lumens basically don't mean anything so not so important on that and it is too complicated and expensive to setup a goniophotometer. I think that color temperatures and color rendering between different bulbs would be very interesting.
Maybe? The claims didn't say anything. I bet its something like 1 watt of total LED for each red, green and blue, then several watts of LEDs for the white setting. They could have a 10 watt blue LED and a 10 watt red LED, etc. with careful software but yeah it would not be so small then.
Someons claimed that Philips Hue bulbs and led strips were among the few smart bulbs where you could actually notice a 1 % difference in brightness. Was that your experience too?
They do have very fine control over the brightness and the colors, in white mode color temperature, in color mode any mixing. They appear to have very low flicker, it's just fast enough you can't tell, which is very welcome. In terms of quantifying not sure if it's 1% exactly in terms of raw light output but you notice when you change the setting on the app.
Run far, far away from these. They keep losing their settings, refuses to upgrade firmware, and always revert to that horrible dark yellow. Do not recommend. Wait until a reputable company creates a working version.
Hey Dr. Juice! I just bought a Cable Creation Cable & I Put the Cable Creation TH-cam Team on Game to Your Website & TH-cam Channel as Thier Cables were Excellent Test Subjects 👍🏽 👌
I can't speak to their longevity, because YMMV, but... my oldest Hue smart bulb is now over 6 years old. The oldest Philips Hue product that I own however, is one of the original Living Colors lights, and that one is over a decade old at this point (and it works with the hub!). I've been using these lights 7 days a week since I got them new. All in all I have a dozen or so of these bulbs now. They vary in quality somewhat (Philips has been updating the hardware over the years). Given their apparent lifespan, their higher prices make sense - and it's worth to note that Amazon does regular sales on these bulbs and you can pick them up much cheaper then.
That is a good point, if they last that long, the extra price is okay. I have had many cheaper LED bulbs burn out.
@@AllThingsOnePlace Oh yeah, my other LED bulbs (including Philips) die all the time, but the Hues have been remarkably resilient. Perhaps I've been lucky. Like any product, I've read some nightmare stories about them, but personally I have been fortunate never to experience any significant annoyances. The worst that ever happens is sometimes a light will get lost and desync, but that's usually an easy fix of turning it off and on again. Where it does get problematic is when you start getting fancy and throw in motion detectors and the like into the mix - then, oh yes, they become a whole lot less smart than the advertising would have you believe - but that's a whole different story.
These bulbs are up there in terms of quality of life improvements for me. Been working for years now.
Yeah, I haven't had any issues with mine, and in terms of visual quality they look good. It all comes down to the app, which overall I wish was a lot better but instead it's taking a turn for the worse. Not a fan they are forcing people to have an account now, and saying it is for security, so these will likely stop working and be trash once that is forced on people. Too bad they are choosing to ruin the good product with software.
I'm glad you're looking at bulbs but I've wanted to ask have you considered looking at popular USB-C laptop chargers? They often don't say they support a bunch of modes but if they do they could be a good source of inexpensive, high output USB-C chargers. My Dell Precision came with a 130w unit, for example, and claims to have two outputs @ 5v 1.0a and 20v 6.5a. Maybe there are other modes unofficially? Thanks!
Bulbs are not as popular as adapters I guess, I will probably not do more of these for awhile. It might support other modes, I have an HP one I tested that does 5,9, and 15 volts. Technically if that Dell is using a USB C port, it is not in specification for the USB C port if it delivers more than 5 amps. The proper way to do that is to increase the voltage to 28V to deliver the extra power as the MACBOOK did, or use a different connector. Anyway, I do have some of the laptop adapters around but haven't tested them yet. It certainly will be a topic in a future video.
@@AllThingsOnePlace I didn't mean to downplay bulb videos. I watched it as I have all the others even though it's actually less relevant to anything I'm doing. I just had the laptop power adapter thought and dropped it on the next video you posted.
I'd also be interested in disassembly videos that get into the EE of it all.
Thanks!
Interesting video.
A few things:
• You can use the bulbs without the bridge with a hue switch as well as via your phone with Bluetooth - it's not required. The Bluetooth functionality (which is always on unfortunately) is probably a factor in the higher power draw.
• I'm not too sure why you couldn't get the ikea bulbs to work? I've been using them for years with my hue system in areas where light quality is less important. I've never needed the IKEA hub and all have paired with no issues.
• You can have multiple bridges but it's not seamless,. unfortunately. I reached the 50 bulb limit some time ago and have to switch between the bridges I want to control in the app.
I've been using these bulbs for many years and have never had one fail. Long-term support is great with every bulb and accessory they released for hue over the years still being compatible. Some of mine must be 7 or 8 years old by now.
Thanks! Yeah, no idea on the Ikea bulb. I thought it would be more seamless. Good to hear about the long life.
That idle power consumption is crazy. You are right, electricity here in Europe is much more expensive. Probably why the IKEA performed better, I think I would rather go with that. Thanks for the in-depth look!!
It would be interesting if Ikea expanded the range of the smart products more like the Philips.
Hello, I just got a new Baseus 100w Adapter, it works really well. Thank you for your recommendation. I'm wondering if you're working on a USB C to DC Barrel cable, I'm seeing some listing on line but I'm a little bit concerned about the safety 😆
haha, yeah, I need to get moving on that. I don't think they have a safety standard for that. It would take 10+ years to create one if there isn't. Industry does not move fast.
I have currently had the older version of the Sengled from 2018 and that broke in like 2 years and I got replaced once under warranty. I had it plugged into my ceiling fan and they said that it has a dimmer built in. The second set broke in like a month so I assuming it was some software update. I bought a Wiz bulb and that worked great for 3 years into a standard pull lamp and that started to go bad last year. I think Wiz is also own by Phillips now as well. I don't really know what went bad on these two sets of bulbs since I only had normal toggle switches and a pull cord lamp. I want to like smart bulbs, but going bad after 2-3 years puts a bad taste in my mouth.
Fyi the Baseus with the outlet works well. It gets a tad warm so the double sided tape I had fell off of it so now I have two velcro wire straps holding it up and it works great.
Yeah, time will be the test for these. I saw lots of comments of these lasting a long time. Obviously, my poor Ikea bulb won't last that long since it isn't connected to the heatsink anymore.
Good to hear on the Baseus, I picked up one with the 100W and outlets so I'll be putting it through it's paces soon enough.
Nice and informative video. I'm in the "smart socket/fixture not bulb" team, but it would be nice to see how they look inside.
Yeah, smart socket/fixtures are one of the things I want to get into too. I will eventually open up the Philips bulb not sure when though.
Is there any chance that u might look at some aukey products in the future?
Yes, I need to do that as a priority in 2023. I have A power bank (nothing new) that will be on the list of power banks that have been tested so finally will have something from them. It won't be in a video specifically just a point of comparison for data.
I'd love to see a comparison between Ikea and Hue of the white curves for the "tunable" white ranges of the various devices, compared with regular dumb bulbs at various white points. I know, super niche.
Niche is kind of what this channel does, haha. I want to get some better light measuring equipment. Time to eBay. I have a few lux meters but I need something that can measure color temperature. I am not sure how complicated it is to measure CRI too. Lumens basically don't mean anything so not so important on that and it is too complicated and expensive to setup a goniophotometer. I think that color temperatures and color rendering between different bulbs would be very interesting.
I have these all over the house...so knowing about the idle power consumption is interesting. I wonder how much it's costing me!
Yeah, few tenths of a watt doesn't seem like much but it starts to add up to dollars fairly quickly.
Shouldn't specific colors draw less power?
Maybe? The claims didn't say anything. I bet its something like 1 watt of total LED for each red, green and blue, then several watts of LEDs for the white setting. They could have a 10 watt blue LED and a 10 watt red LED, etc. with careful software but yeah it would not be so small then.
@@AllThingsOnePlace red spectrum is always known for low power.
Someons claimed that Philips Hue bulbs and led strips were among the few smart bulbs where you could actually notice a 1 % difference in brightness. Was that your experience too?
They do have very fine control over the brightness and the colors, in white mode color temperature, in color mode any mixing. They appear to have very low flicker, it's just fast enough you can't tell, which is very welcome. In terms of quantifying not sure if it's 1% exactly in terms of raw light output but you notice when you change the setting on the app.
The IKEA new hub is USB-C so that is a good side compared to Philips. Hue does still have better color.
mmm, I might have to check that out.
Yo rochester I was just at Genesee last week
Nice! Yeah, the brew house thing is not bad.
Run far, far away from these. They keep losing their settings, refuses to upgrade firmware, and always revert to that horrible dark yellow. Do not recommend. Wait until a reputable company creates a working version.
Thanks or commenting. Weird that you had that many problems...
Hey Dr. Juice! I just bought a Cable Creation Cable & I Put the Cable Creation TH-cam Team on Game to Your Website & TH-cam Channel as Thier Cables were Excellent Test Subjects 👍🏽 👌
Nice! I need to get going on round 4 of cables. The bin of cables has reached full.