Smart Light Switches: I'm rethinking EVERYTHING!
Now that I’ve used Lutron smart light switches for a year, let’s talk about how well they are working and if I have any regrets about spending too much money…
Lutron: https://amzn.to/3R1QDOj
Kasa: https://amzn.to/3CwUMpz
Zooz: https://amzn.to/3dQhTkq
(affiliate links)
DISCOVER MORE
I just spent thousands on Lutron: https://youtu.be/GBWtmJPCyGc
Ultimate Smart Light Switch Comparison: https://youtu.be/Vt6hcSDh1wE
Ultra Seamless Home Automation Ideas: https://youtu.be/9lfLoc-Y67k
FOLLOW ME
Subscribe: https://bit.ly/3joO1dZ
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SmartHomeSolver
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smarthomesolver/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@smarthomesolver
0:00 Intro
0:27 Lutron 1 year later
1:39 Kasa: still really solid
3:12 Don’t sleep on Zooz
5:10 Lutron regrets?
6:30 We can’t talk about this…
———-
MUSIC
Doctor Momentum by Slynk
The End by EVA
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6UIs5b0zSXztIW5GHkCTkK
Dumb question : why would you want "smart" light switch? Looks like the same as the other ones, you push the button
It’s 2031, time to update this review!
Please note power outage and generator took out 30 of my Lutron Maestro switches to sensitive to power surges and changes cost me 2500 in new switches and labor. Lutron says Hurricane acts of god void warranty Bullshit not happy
You gotta use gateways / hubs. All chinese Zigbee 3.0 are way better, considering price range. $20 for a switch is still crazy
US switches are a bit different from EU stuff.
you literally didn’t explain anything
Now 2 years later, how things going?
This Smart Dimmer below I found has overcurrent capability. You can lower the gauge of your wire with this. 120V to 220V. Wifi. No internet required. 🎉
https://youtu.be/vFKL3MQ4E24?si=KDjNY3DL-Zg_E2Gm
The fact you need turn the lights off and on and even dim it, makes it dumb.
Firstly, why the hell you need wi-fi in dimmers? You can use just one MCU per house to turn off lights, like a kill switch. The fact you buy power supply and expensive MCU for every switch makes it expensive. And acces to some random server? Why? Its only adds delays and additional risk of failure.
Damn, I cant watch how this dumb smart devices fixing imaginable problems for overprice and still have failures with connection and accessibility…
You gotta use gateways / hubs. All chinese Zigbee 3.0 are way better, considering price range. $20 for a switch is still crazy
I personally feel that smart home stuff is mostly just a fad. From a fad list some things are adopted to the trend line (tried and true). I tried to install about 2,000$ if Brilliant light switch’s and can’t even get it to work much at all… A basic switch with a dimmer is about 95% of what you will use and the idea of using my phone was only nice when going to bed and wanting to make sure everything was off… and I have a feeling in 6 months I would stop doing that.
the cheapest, replace triac for a mosfet circuit.
What if you want to use smart bulbs?
I’m confused here. Isn’t a major feature of the Lutron that even though you turn the switch off/on at the switch itself, it doesn’t disconnect it from your Home Assistant? And doesn’t the Kasa fail to do that? I figure that would be a big annoyance if it cut off from the home assistant every time someone manually turned off the switch. I get that if you’ve set it up right, you won’t be touching switches that often but kids/visitors/someone who wants to override an on-light is going to turn them off. Second question: I suspect that however Lutron allows it to essentially be always "on" even when the light is off may use additional electricity to accomplish this. Is that true? Is it a lot? My main goal is to save on electricity by using motion sensors for lights along with some automation programming. I don’t need fancy colors. But I also don’t want to overpay such that it takes me 3 decades to recoup my investment. LED lights aren’t that expensive to run but all this automation sure is. So, I need to go as cheaply as possible.
Are there 0-10v smart switches that you are aware of?
Why did you paint your walls with … cottage cheese?…
My daughter said to tone down the dad jokes… it’s a parent she doesn’t get it.
In 10 years when I’m in my 40s… Ouch, it’s only 1 year now!
I did Kasa and Leviton. The Leviton switches stop working PERIOD and then will just randomly start working again no their own. I think it has something to do with power blips. But the Kasa have ZERO problems.
I’m on the hunt for a real 3 way smart switch. Meross broke after 3 years, many similar reviews. Kasa did not working, and techsupport says 50ft traveler wire max is my problem.
I’ve never heard of zooz, do you have any videos covering their many models? I don’t have any z wave products but I’m open to getting a hub. I’m not sure which zooz switch I’m supposed to buy.
Shelly i4 be like…
Watched several of your videos over the years.
Was just looking up Kasa switches yesterday and then YT recommended this one today. Love it.
I’m stumped though. I’m trying to find a cheap solution that turns my dummy ceiling fan into a smart one but without cutting power completely so I can still use my Phillips Hue and Govee lights that I would have inside the ceiling fan.
Any ideas?
For outdoor year round light control, Lutron is the best option. You can program to auto turn on and off with reference to sun raise and sun set times. Also for some lights inside the home you can program that way as needed. Then you don’t have to adjust auto turn on and off during course of the year. No brand offers this feature.
I like my Leviton WiFi smart switches. I am installing some GE Cync to try them out. I’ve heard good things about them.
yes kanie is next in line
Well I have limited experience with these items. I do have considerable electronics and computer experience however. I chose the Kasa-TP Link brand because TP Link has been a electronics manufacterer for 30 years. They were very strong in the router market and still are. Right now at Christmas on Amazon you can score these for about 50% off. I added several smart outlets for $5 each. That is hard to beat. The only drawback to all these smart devices is they are collecting tons of data on you and your habits. You also have to be careful that your devices follow standard electrical codes. Many of them don’t. In that regard I think you are pretty safe with TP Link. On smart outlets always make sure they are rated for at least the same amperage as your circuit breaker is, in most home circuits that would be 15 amps, TP Link outlets are 15 amp rated. Do not put a 10 amp outlet on a 15 amp circuit, that could be problematic, that is of course, if you consider burning down your house a problem.
Thank you my fellow millennial for the Kanye joke
If a switch doesn’t last you 20 years of they’re shit
I have a Kasa Smart switch I bought several years ago that I hate. It doesn’t have any kind of button bounce protection. What I mean by that is when I would press it to turn it on or off a lot of times it will turn the light on then right back off. I assume this is from the micro bounces/jitter or whatever you want to call it in the switch mechanism. It would sometimes happen two or three times in a row trying to switch the state of the light. Maybe I had a bad switch or a bad model but it has really turned me off of Kasa.
Any opinion on latest from aqara ?
Did you include the cost of the Lutron hub with your pricing?
I really don’t want to have to pay for a hub when I have an AppleTV and a HomePod speaker that could do that for me.
About 5 years ago I put Kasa switches on my stairs, in my bedrooms, and for my front and back door. At the time I was using a Google Home Mini and a Google Home speaker. Now, I’d like to go more Apple compatible so I’m looking at TP-Link’s new Tapo line that supports matter. I’m going to try those throughout the rest of the house. If all goes well, maybe I can completely eliminate Google from my home.
Anything that uses the cloud or WiFi is bad. Been using HomeSeer since ‘98. Zooz, zwave and locally based is fastest!
and now you’ve got 3 additional app’s on your phone that you can’t get rid of either taking up space and memory on you phone ugh I know that feeling. lol and I’m sure you’ve got more that 3 extra home automation apps too haha
I thought Lutron was good 15 yrs ago but half of my Lutron switched failed and I had to replaced them. Technology improve so fast these days and now I am replacing old Lutron with Tp-link Tapo switches and relocated still working Lutron switches to secondary not so important locations.
You will be smart to replace switches (and light fixtures if not bulbs) with new ones every 5 or 10 years when technologies advanced. It will be much more cost effective and energy efficient.
Good review. But why do you keep looking to the left and/or right? What are you looking at?
After a few different brands of smart switches, I switched to Lutron Caseta and couldn’t be happier. I don’t like my smart home to look like a smart home. The switches blend right in and my wife who doesn’t really do tech doesn’t even think twice about them since they function the same way any paddle switch would. Cosmetically, the white indicator lights are aesthetically appealing and I like the dimmer slider separate from the switch paddle so it’s able to be preset and you don’t have to adjust it every time. One push to the preset level and a second push to full brightness. Absolutely worth the extra cost to me. Only drawback with Lutron is the lack of outlets in the lineup. They do have a plugin lamp outlet but I feel like in-wall outlets is an area where Lutron could add new products.
I’ll stick with regular switches.
really? there are guys out there got nothing valuable to do but mess around with their light switches? That is great.
Definitely wouldn’t pick your lottery picks because in the interim this video, it’s become pretty inherently clear that Kanye wont become presedent 😉 anyway, thanks for the tech tips, bro
I have 39 Kasa (now Tapo) switches and plugs, and most are 3 years old and this year I’ve had 4 hs200’s and 1 hs210 fail. Not fun to replace and I was expecting a much longer life. You’ll lnow they’ve gone into an unrecoverable failure when they start to have epileptic seizures ( switch flickers on and off non stop, regardless of reset button presses. No option but to replace. I’ve used up all my spares and am now looking for a different brand. As I expect the Kasa’s to continue to fail I’m hoping a Lutron will last much longer. Maybe I got an early HW batch that isn’t as robust as everyone else?
Lutron dimmers don’t need a neutral. In my old home, this was a game changer…
I think when you’re doing this for your own home, the money should be less of a factor than features and/or aesthetic. Yes, you might save $60 20 times on the higher end, but even $1,200 isn’t a crazy price to have all of the modern features when up upgrade/build/restore your home. The idea is that you’re less likely to even want to go for an upgrade down the road as new products come out that are inevitably better than any choice you could make in the present. First pick which is more important to you – features or aesthetic – and make your choice from that place first. It’s not like you’re cranking out smart home developments; if you were, you’d want to base it on price and either go with the least or most expensive to charge as little or much as possible, depending on your strategy.
The video ended as I finished typing this, and I’m ngl, that ending made me feel as embarrassed as it made me feel justified. Seriously. Well played.
Hi, Are the Lutron Zigbee ? Thanks
Zooz Make The Best e -Bikes
Would be cool to have a follow up to this before 10 years. I currently am looking at having my smart bulbs (Kasa) work with smart switches in unison. Not sure if Inovelli, Lutron, Zooz and others are the right choice. Not a fan of Lutron because of the 0 to 100 I rather it have it remember the last place it was on. Philips Hue has a dumb design for the switches and I can see controllers getting lost and move around.
Kind of wondering what your thoughts are on this since you use multiple different ones in your home. How would you do it if you didn’t have motion sensors and has to be guest compatible?
hell no
Litron Caseta is wildly overpriced and a rip off. Doesn’t speak highly of the company and it’s decision makers
I love when the manufacturer knows the precise time at which I turn on my lights and for how long.
How do you tie the zooz into hue and HomeKit?
A like for both the great content and the excellent dad jokes!