Zigbee bulbs in nz

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pdh

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#3413114 10-Sep-2025 04:26

Further to the 'new & less expensive' Hue announcement from 2 weeks ago...

They are (finally) bringing out a 'Pro' bridge that will significantly up the device count.
One bridge to rule them all ?
That's good news for me - as my second bridge is rapidly filling.

They are doing a doorbell (with video stream) - bit late to that party.

Connecting to the Sonos eco-system - to give smart lighting verbal commands (as well as Alexea, etc).

An ultra-low power consumption & lo-dim (down to 0.2%) bulb (A19).

Good to see some new activity in the Hue-sphere - albeit initially in the American space.
Euro / Oceania market lagging a bit as usual.

frstep

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#3416513 19-Sep-2025 22:22

Arachan:

On IKEA, I hear they're transitioning away from zigbee, it may be that when they open in nz they only have the new range and not zigbee.

Really? Where did you hear that from?

I bought a whole lot of Ikea kit on a recent trip to the UK... it is all zigbee and so far 100% reliable. I can't understand why they would migrate away from zigbee. One thing I like about Ikea is that their products are mostly sold for many many years.

richms

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#3416514 19-Sep-2025 22:28

frstep:

I can't understand why they would migrate away from zigbee.

Because people are convinced that matter is a better option. I have found that it totally sucks and the worst part is that it requires scanning a QR code on each device (or one on its manual that you have to keep just for the QR code) to add each device, and then to connect it to the other smart home platform you have to generate a code or QR code in one app and enter it in the other one. Great when you have 20 lamps in a chandelier and why I stuck with cheap zigbee or tuya bluetooth bulbs. Power on, lamp is blinking, find device - 20 devices found, 20 devices added. Done.

Richard rich.ms

Arachan

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#3416516 19-Sep-2025 22:42

frstep:

Arachan:

On IKEA, I hear they're transitioning away from zigbee, it may be that when they open in nz they only have the new range and not zigbee.

Really? Where did you hear that from?

I bought a whole lot of Ikea kit on a recent trip to the UK... it is all zigbee and so far 100% reliable. I can't understand why they would migrate away from zigbee. One thing I like about Ikea is that their products are mostly sold for many many years.

From chatter on the HA subreddit: https://www.ifun.de/ein-erster-blick-auf-ikeas-neue-home-smart-produkte-2026-263685/

frstep

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#3416699 20-Sep-2025 13:46

Arachan:

From chatter on the HA subreddit: https://www.ifun.de/ein-erster-blick-auf-ikeas-neue-home-smart-produkte-2026-263685/

Ah, ok. Interesting. Maybe as Matter matures it will be fine... I'm confident IKEA will have done a lot of testing.

Arachan

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#3416704 20-Sep-2025 14:16

FWIW I went for some $6 zigbee bulbs from aliexpress, they are doing the job for now and are cheap enough that it won't sting if I have to upgrade them down the line.

I'm not at all sold on Matter over Thread, Zigbee "just works" and I haven't faced any issues with it so far (up to around 20 devices connected so far.

New World

Shop on-line at New World now for your groceries (affiliate link).

pdh

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#3416793 20-Sep-2025 19:17

I'm a staunch advocate of Zigbee - or more specifically Hue.

I've got 71 devices - varying 8 to 3 years old - and have had no glitches or interference.
(That's 15 switches/dimmers, 8 motion sensors, 4 plugs, 2 bridges & the rest lights - downs, GU10s & strips.)

I've had one light go bad.

The worst I've experienced is coming home to find many lights on - a result of our nasty local form of power interruption; where the returning power cycles on/off (wholly or partially) 10 or 20 times in a few seconds. That crazy flicker triggers the Hue 'over-ride' function of a hard 'on', instead of their programmed 'return to where you were when the power went off' function.

Can't really blame Hue too much for that - my desktop computer and my fridge & freezer control circuits really hated it also.

Since putting a BESS (22 months ago), none of those has been exposed to unplanned outages - and none have misbehaved.

diddler

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#3440951 7-Dec-2025 12:54

Can confirm there is no zigbee smart bulbs on Ikea NZ website, Launch was this week.

richms

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#3440959 7-Dec-2025 14:16

diddler:

Can confirm there is no zigbee smart bulbs on Ikea NZ website, Launch was this week.

Friend who got some in AU and then returned them warned me off them as their tunable whites stop half way at 4000k in anycase.

Richard rich.ms

frstep

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#3441072 7-Dec-2025 16:49

It is super confusing at the moment... I assume the sensor devices with "Last chance to buy" are zigbee only and that Ikea hasn't yet launched matter replacements. Any idea if there is a timeline for them to launch things like new door/window open sensors?

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