Ok, so I know about the bulb compatibility app, but I have tried at least the GE light bulbs that are dimmable and have been tested. Unfortunately, I still get flickering occurring even at 40% or so. At least one of the bulbs is more susceptible to flickering than the others, but it’s a bummer frankly. Before I go spending more money on other bulb brands, are there particular ones that are more compatible or reliable than the GE bulbs?
I have about 40 Inovelli LZW42 bulbs that are coming up on 4 years old. Only 1 failure in that time. I would say that is reliable in my opinion. Put your switches in SmartBulb Mode, use Z-Wave Associations and boom, no more flickering and RGBWW to boot!
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If budget isn’t an issue, it’s hard to beat Philips Hue for smart bulbs. They’re basically considered the gold standard as far as smart bulbs go.
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Yeah, I do love Philips bulbs and have many in other locations in the house. In the particular location that I’m deploying the switch, I have four bulbs in a fixture. Thus I was worried about binding that many bulbs and whether they would all switch on/off when the dimmer switch is pressed, etc. Thus the dumb bulbs. But maybe I should look into this.
I’m seeing failures of LED bulbs not only with a dumb dimmer switch, but with a dumb on-off motion switch. I assume the GE bulbs are higher end - the two that I pulled to check are low-end Ecosmart bulbs from Home Depot that lasted around 5 years. So I’m interested in hearing the recommendations here, but not because of anything that’s attached to my Inovelli switches…
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I had 6 super cheap sengled bulbs bound to 1 blue switch and every so often 1 wouldn’t turn on when I tapped the switch. A second tap always solved this. I’d be much less worried with 4 bulbs, especially 4 high end bulbs like hue.
If it’s dumb bulbs you’re looking for, I’ve got no clue. I’ve been on smart bulbs for a while now. lol
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Group binding should solve this problem as well if your hub supports it.
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That was group binding with Z2M. But I don’t think it’s an issue with binding as much as it is with the bulbs being crap lol
Sounds like the bulbs for sure then. I’ve got group binding with 8 hue bulbs and separate group with 4 ikea kitchen strips and all of those work fine with Z2M.
Cree bulbs are generally very high quality, but they seem to have cut down production on their regular bulbs and pushed their smart bulbs more, which use some custom Tuya backend. I’ve tried to snag their bulbs when I can. They’re also higher CRI than most other bulbs.
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Hey, new guy here, I am totally unaware of Inovelli light bulbs. I do not see any bulbs on the website. Has anyone tried INNR bulbs? we have gone to Innr over the Phillips Hue. The issue we are having is finding manufacture with variety of selection. Innr only has a few bulb types. I’m also concerned Philips is going to force one to use their app and eco system. The WIZ bulbs are terrible. Haven’t tried any GE bulbs yet.
Inovelli stopped making bulbs quite a while ago - I don’t believe they are considering geting back in the business anytime soon (if ever).
Hue bulbs sold today are all ZB3.0 - they can be paired directly to any (reputable) zigbee controller. You may lose some Hue-specific niceties by bypassing their app, but it’s certainly possible to avoid their app if desired.
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thank you, makes perfect sense then. I am familiar with Phillips both Hue and Wiz versions. I have several Hue bulbs as well as Innr bulbs throughout the house. utilizing Home Assistant and blue series switches (works extremely well) also have Alexa and Home Kit running.
seems as though Phillips ran with smart bulb concept and is leading the pack right now.
Check out “The Hook Up” on YouTube. He does some extensive tests on bulbs and their flicker rate noticeability. All LEDs flicker but whether it’s human detectable is depends on the drivers and your sensitivity to it.
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This comment actually lead me to buy some Philips non-flicker bulbs and it seems to be working great with the 2-1 dimmer switch. I also switched to trailing edge dimming for this switch which I think may also be helping. Regardless, pretty happy.
The best dumbs bulbs I’ve used for dimming range and not flickering were some cheap “Edison” bulbs off Amazon. Of course, I haven’t tried many but these things worked well.