this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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"it just works!"
I've had a similar setup, and bluntly, their not the brightest bulbs, and they're not the best bulbs, but they are one of the easiest to set up and get working. They mostly just fire and forget....
I hate the saying "it just works", but hue, despite all of its shortcomings, just works.
I've had at least one bulb fail outright, started illuminating "white" as an off purple color? It's hard to describe. I have no idea why, but that went into the bin. I also had one bulb that was in-between uses, fall and smash, I think it still works but it has sharp glass on it, so that's probably going to the bin. I have one other bulb that's failing right now... This one is... Different. It blinks. You'll have it at a steady, full brightness (or whatever) and the bulb will just shut off for 1/10th of a second every few seconds. No idea why. It's probably headed to the bin. Luckily it's in my hallway, so I don't see the problem most of the time.
They're expensive, and you don't get a lot of light per bulb considering what you pay for them, but they are easy. That, in and of itself, would be the main reason I would suggest to anyone who isn't a complete nerd, to get hue. Anyone with enough technical prowess and the willingness to set up home assistant, should probably go to different options. Anyone too busy to bother with their lights and just wants something that they can control with their Google home/Alexa/Siri.... Hue is a good option.
Not saying there aren't other good options, but hue is the one that I know and would suggest.
The flashing one sounds like a ballast issue (these are LEDs right?) and the weird purple could be caused by a dead LED in the group that if it was working would balance the color to white.
Since they're expensive you'd hope they wouldn't have these hardware issues... But I'm also just guessin.
To be fair, I've had most of the bulbs for more than 10 years. I'm pretty sure I picked them up in 2013/2014.
The first failure was about 2 years ago.
So getting 8-12 years of service isn't bad. Most of my bulbs are white/color ambiance A19, which run around $40-75 each (currently)... So it's about $5-10 a year per bulb. Not terrible.
Yeah you're right, the fact they lasted that long changes my mind about their value
There's a lot of technology that people should spend more money on, in order to save money.
Home networking, as an example. People generally won't spend more than $100 ish, to get a wireless router that they expect will service their whole home for years and years. And in some circumstances, maybe that happens, chances are, you're heading back to Walmart/bestbuy/wherever to pick up a new router in a couple of years.
I have business grade gear or better, and I bought most of this stuff years and years ago, and I have no stability issues nor any need to upgrade. I expect that will remain the case for many years to come. While others are out upgrading their wireless router because of one reason or another, I'm enjoying stable, and fast, network access.
The insane thing, to me is that people will spend upwards of $100 a month to have high speed Internet to their door, but then won't spend $100 a year for a way to get that Internet into their devices. Insanity.