21.12.2015

I am a big fan of the hue system and have this lighting already in every room in my house. The dimmer was to complement the system.I'm used to hue working straightaway with simple clear instructions. This did work out of the box but only with the bulb it came with. Getting the dimmer to connect to the bridge took an hour of repeated attempts and fiddling about with a hard to reach and highly temperamental set up button on the back of the dimmer. In contrast any other part to the hue system connects in a matter of a minute or two automatically.On set up you have to get the orange light to blink by pressing the set up button. I got red lights and green light but no orange flashing light.I managed to connect by firstly getting the bulb in the pack installed in a lamp and switched on and working with the dimmer. This part is automatic as the dimmer is programmed to work with the bulb in the pack out of the box. If this is all you want, then this will work straight out of the box.To connect to the bridge and the rest of your system you need to leave the newly installed bulb on. It's easy to switch it off accidentally by pressing the off button on the dimmer so keep an eye on it. You'll need it on to connect the dimmer and the switch to the system. You need to keep pressing the start up button on the back of the dimmer for longer than the advised one second and keep pressing it until you get that elusive orange light blinking, it took about a good thirty attempts before I finally saw the Orange blinking light on the front of the dimmer. Don't even bother trying to connect it without seeing the Orange blinking light it won't connect to the bridge when you can only see either a red or a green light on the front of the dimmer. Don't kid yourself as I did that the elusive Orange light must be the red light I could see, wait until you see Orange blinking light before trying to connect. You'll waste a lot of time trying to connect it and fail, it does need to be blinking Orange. Good luck trying to get that elusive light. My advice get a pin and push that start up button quite hard. You'll feel the button click when it's correctly pressed down.So after a few hours persistence, finally it did connect to the bridge and the system. When it does connect, it works brilliantly and I've been very impressed with the fact I can dim up to 10 lights and switch them on and off. The actual dimmer itself is smart and easy to attach with good quality adhesive fixings. it also has magnets or you can screw the fixing plate into a wall.I've taken a star off because of the very irritating set up procedure. The hue system is typically very easy to install and this dimmer in my view doesn't hold up to the rest of the system in terms of ease of connection to the bridge. When you do finally connect. It is worth it and I have a dimmer upstairs and downstairs controlling all my lights. Being able to switch on and off and dim a set combination of up to ten lights is worth the hassle of set up and the time and perserverence it takes. But Philips do need to not let their high standards slip with this otherwise fantastic easy to install system as they will start to irritate their loyal customer base.

13.2.2017

So, I am a tech geek and want to move into home automation. My other half buys me an Echo for Christmas (which I get moaned at for using?!?!) and decide I wish to explore other options. I was seriously weighing up Hue vs Lifx for lighting and decided to go Hue. I did that as I am not so fussed about having billions (or whatever the real number is) colour options, I am doing this more for the security / fun of it. So I got a Hue Hub and 2 of these bulbs plus and extra 3. The bulbs are sturdy and well made, standard UK fittings (I've had both screw and bayonet models all fine). As I am reviewing the bulbs I will assume you have a hub already (absolutely essential,they do not work without one!!!).I put the new bulbs into the fitting and turned the lights on and then had the app detect new bulbs which worked first time and hey presto, away you go! You essentially name a bulb and assign it to a room. You can then get creative by adding scenes, schedules, events (such as when you arrive home they turn on through geo location of your phone), all brilliant fi you ask me. I have the lights turn on when I arrive home and all off when I leave. These are not the ambient versions which have the various shades of white, but they do all dim very successfully, a nice feature for rooms without existing dimmers.Now, I would say that the lights respond to the correct command about 9/10 occasions, so you have to expect the odd retry. I was also worried that they wouldn't work like conventional bulbs and turning off a light switch then on again would mean still no light. Wrong, when you turn a Hue bulb off at the wall switch, it is no longer responsive to Hue remote commands (bummer). This is understandable but annoying as my other half switches everything off the traditional way (so 1990s). I probably need one of the dimmer switches for Hue but I digress. The good news is when you switch the wall switch to on, the bulb DOES come on. This is a relief as again, my fiancé would have made me rip them all out if it had forced use of the phone app.So a bit of a novelty, but programming a sequence of say 'go to bed' and turning off all downstairs lights then turning all upstairs on with one touch is, I think, a great bonus. The Alexa side of things I must say I haven't got into. It seems a bit clunky frankly and I simply haven't taken the time to group accessories on Alexa. Voice control is not a primary feature for me but I will have a play some time and update this review. It is great having lights come on when we are out, we live rurally and it is pretty isolated if e are out for any length of time. A handy addition to our security profile. I would definitely recommend these bulbs for those who don't care about colours but want to dip their toe in, like a dimmer and desire the added away from home security aspects.Update: Meant to say that linking to IFTTT is great. I have the lights flash when my teams scores a goal. Invaluable ;0)

3.12.2018

The TLDR: Awesome piece of tech that integrates incredibly well with Alexa Plus. Allows me to have total control of the power/brightness. Seems very bright for it's power so I'm more than happy I bought it.FULL REVIEW: Bought this bulb as an add-on when I bought the Echo plus during the Black Friday sale. I must admit though that like most men, I seldom read the destructions for any electronic/technology as that would be a slight on our ability to work things out for ourselves. It's like it's a challenge to our masculinity. Because of this it took me several hours before I got it to work, but I'm glad I persevered. My immediate common sense told me that I needed to activate the "skills" within the Amazon Echo App,

12.12.2016

I bought two of these bulbs and the bridge separately to use with Amazon Echo... and boy am I glad I did. It's just so cool to be able to remotely control your lights, and is surprisingly more useful than you would think.The installation process was easy:Plug in the equipment, turn it on, download the app, press a big button on the bridge. If you have Amazon Echo you just install that skill and discover the devices, that was it.Like I mentioned in my Amazon Echo review my son is a light sleeper and refuses to turn his bedroom light off. With this I can either leave the light on and slowly decrease how strong the light is or i can ask Alexa to turn the lights of later when I am sure he is asleep.

18.2.2017

We decided to add a couple more of these amazing lights to our existing Hue setup, but opted for white lights as they were for the kitchen and bathroom. We didn't really fancy disco lighting for those rooms - we have enough of that going on everywhere else!They connected easily to our 2.0 hub and are now controlled via our phones and tablets, with immediate response dimming and switching on/off. With the longevity, ease of switching off remotely and the high energy efficiency, these are another step to reducing our costs - on replacement bulbs and - over time - our electricity bill. It really has transformed the way we deal with home lighting, and has made night-lights and bedroom table lamps redundant with the dimming function.

20.9.2016

I ordered these to start my Philips Hue system off, so i ordered the starter kit because you get the bridge included.The retail packaging ensures they arrive in good condition and are very very easy to set up, basically you just take out your previous bulb and replace with a Hue bulb, you then use the Philips Hue app to assign a name and room to them and away you go, it's really really easy to do, maybe a technophobe would have a problem with installation but for most people who use smart phones and apps it will be breeze.At first i was just going to use the app to play with these but then i gave in and tried setting it up with Siri, what a great idea that was,

19.12.2016

Disappointed initially but impressed later (after spending more money).looking for buying smart light for my echo dot. Came cross these lights in Amazon website and after reading the description mentioned at the top, I found them interesting. Sadly, there was no mention of that these lights will only work smartly with Philips Hue Bridge (PHB) device, so I ordered two of these lights. Got next day delivery and there I was disappointed when found that these lights can not work smartly without PHB.I immediately searched for PHB on amazon, but disappointed to see that there was none. There were other expensive products like starter kits from Philips but couldn't find only PHB.

1.1.2017

UPDATE ON 1st FEBRUARY 2017: Appears to be dimming already! Perhaps a hyped lifespan claim? I will come back here and give it 5 stars if it truly proves to be durable. For now, I am troubled by the slight dimming. Maybe it is subjective perceptual error, but my family members agree that it does appear slightly dimmer within a month. Low warranty period is very disappointing. Hence reducing the rating to 4 stars.Original Review: 5 Stars. A perfect modern smart bulb that works well with Alexa. I use it with a Philips Hue hub and it all works perfectly and flawlessly time after time. It has only been a week and already all the family are completely used to talking to it (through Alexa)

26.10.2019

We got one of these as a bundle with the Echo plus. The bulb was faulty on arrival. Because it was a bundle, I was refunded the cost of the original bulb and had to reorder the bulb separately and this is that bulb.It works prefectly with the Alexa hub. We've placed it on our hallway and using an echo upstairs we can now turn on the hall light before we go downstairs in a morning which is great as we can see where we're going in the winter when it's dark at 7am.It's also great as an indicator to delivery people that we're in. When they knock on the door, we say "Alexa, there's somebody at the door", this is set up as an Alexa routine to turn the hall light on.

13.1.2017

I bought this extra bulb to use with a Phillips Hue starter kit I'd received over Christmas.It came nicely packaged and was simple to use; just put it into the light fitting and switch the light on. Once that's done you can then go into the Hue app, select 'light setup' press the + icon then the 'search' button. The app found the new bulb without issue and I could then edit details like name, groups etc. The light is nice and bright on full setting, and the dimming 'slider bar' in the app allows you to finely tune the lights output to your own requirements.Alexa will control the bulb too via the Hue hub (as long as you have the skill enabled in the Alexa app)

14.12.2018

I have several of these lamps (and sockets) that I use throughout the house.Whilst all of the other Hue lamps I have are E27 (ES), this one is B22 (BC) for a table lamp. The first one I ordered was defective (all of the others no problem), in that it only worked intermittently - failing to connect to network so was unresponsive. Amazon, as always superb, sent a replacement next day, and I just repackaged and took to post office for return (pre-paid label printed from Amazon) .I have tried other types (RGB+W), which are the most common type of this type of product, which whilst working okay don't provide a natural warm white anything like these Phillips ones - and why do I want green or red lights anyway?!They work perfectly with Alexa,

25.9.2016

Easy enough to set up and works very much as advertised and the IFTTT is a breeze to use. All I have at the moment is 4 white lights as I really can't see myself ever using the full gamut of features of the coloured version. For convenience (e.g. remotely turning on the lights for our arrival at home or, integrated with my Nest thermostat, getting up on cold, dark mornings), or security (e.g. switching on the lights on a semi-random schedule when we're away) it works well, and no doubt will work even better as we acquire more components for our smart home. I very much like the fact that it sets up it's own little wireless network (i.e. separate from my already somewhat crowded home wifi network)

2.10.2016

Having bought colour bulbs before I opted for white as I intended these for use in hallways. I have however chosen to keep a colour bulb in the main hall used (I like the colours option there) and may use the 2nd white on the stairs. I actually prefer the white mixes possible from the colour bulbs but the price makes that an uneconomic argument for the price of two bulbs.The white is a soft warmish yellow-white. There's no option to change this e.g. to a cooler daylight but it is dimmable.I like that I'm able to either automate or remotely turn on my hallway light when I'm on the way home so I'm not coming back to a totally dark house,

26.2.2017

This bulb is great quality - there is no flickering at all just solid, bright, pure, lovely and warm white light. There is no strobing effect with fast moving objects such as waving your hand under it. It has a very smooth on and off fade. I got it to work with Samsung Smartthings Directly with a fair bit of googling. Here is how:Login to your Smartthings API webpage, make sure to use the EU/UK one. Click on "My Devices". Here you will find your bulb, then change the device type to "ZigBee RGB Bulb". Bam! Now you can turn it on and off, dim it and include it in your home automation etc. Be warned, I have heard it is very hard to unpair the Hue Bulbs after this - e.g if you wish to change to a Philips Hue Bridge however I cannot confirm if this is true.

14.9.2016

These bulbs are great if you have a hue bridge. It appears to be long lasting (although it would take years before I could be sure of that!) and I love that it connects to the Hue bridge. I have my lights automatically going on and off so that whether I'm home or not it looks like someone is. Obviously not all my lights, but I have three bulbs connected to the Hue bridge that I can control by the ap. If you already have a Hue bridge then you know what you're getting, and this is a handy extra bulb. If you don't have a Hue bridge then don't buy this bulb, you need the bridge to work it so go and decide which one you'd like and then you'll know whether you need extra bulbs.

Philips Hue White 9W B22 - Reviews

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