Hue vs Innr vs Trafri - Why pay more?

Harkon321

Looking to purchase some Hue bulbs, switch etc.

I bought an innr bulb to test fitment but have since seen the Ikea Trafri bulbs.

What are the limitations of going this cheaper route?

Do they fit a standard GU10 fitting?
I believe they can now link directly to a hue bridge.
Will they therefore work with the hue dimmer?
Work with Alexa?

StormHD

Hi, I’ve just fitted the TRÅDFRI bulbs across most of the house. A mixture of GU10 and E27 bulbs.

I have two Hue E27 bulbs in the mix also which came with a starter pack.

The main limitation is that colour isn’t really an option. Yes there is a Tradfri bulb which is colour, but you need to buy it with a switch which drives the price up.

The other limitation is that I found the Ikea motion controllers to be rubbish. However their switches are much better than the Hue ones.

Motion activation was key for me so I Linked my Ikea bulbs to a Hue Hub. You need to make sure your Ikea bulbs are on the latest firmware (easy). Once this is done they’re easily found.

There are two types of Ikea GU10 bulb. The £7 warm white (adjust brightness only) and the £12 white spectrum (also change from bright white to yellow).  

The £7 are exactly the same as standard GU10. Totally flush. The £12 are very slightly proud in the middle (flush to edges), but still look great.

StormHD

Oh and regarding Alexa.  They work now if you connect via a Hue hub.  If you use the Ikea gateway instead that will work with Alexa very soon,

Bl4ckGryph0n

Quality of light. Huge difference in my opinion. There is something very special with the light a philips bulb produced in my opinion.

Sure we’d like to save a bit of money. But even my wife and children noticed it when we looked at the Ikea bulbs. Sure they do the “same” thing, but actually to our eyes they do not.

cmclean

Can't comment on the non Hue bulbs but I found the Hue bulbs to be a nightmare to setup. Never once had a bulb found without having to manually enter the serial number for it. For that alone they are a total #fail in my opinion

If it was a cheaper bulb I could possibly forgive but at that price the setup should be much more straightforward

Harkon321

Can you expand on this at all? I haven't seen them in person but on the spec sheets they run the same light frequency and the tradfri are 400l compared with the hue 250lm.

Bl4ckGryph0n

Look at the light!

You can’t explain it with specs. When viewing the light it will be very clear. To us it is worth the price difference.

dollag

maybe a faulty bridge?

I have numerous hue lights both strips and bulbs throughout my house and not one was hard to connect up. they were just there and with a push of a button, all connected.

StormHD

For others I’d definitely recommend trying out both before making a decision. I find the light from the Ikea E27 bulbs to be much nicer than the Hues in fact.

There’s also no issue at all with the Ikea GU10s. I’ve used both types of Tradfri and they’re great, exactly the same as the good quality LEDs they replaced.

Ikea have a fantastic returns policy (which I had to leverage to return the motion sensors). So you can buy them totally risk free.

Bl4ckGryph0n

Seriously? It is so harsh by comparison, in my opinion.  But yes I guess if that is a preference then that you are correct.

It’s a valid point. Whilst they do the same, they aren’t experienced the same. Definitely worth viewing both to see what you prefer.