Over a year ago I said this in my Lutron video…
If I were moving houses right now, I would replace all my light switches with Lutron
Ohhh, yeah, Definitely didn’t expect to move so soon, I guess it’s time to put my
money where my mouth is!
If you’ve followed the channel for a while, you’ll know I’ve used a wide range of
smart devices.
Including smart switches.
From inexpensive to high end, and everything in between.
If I can save some money and get a less expensive device, I usually will.
Things have slightly changed for me over time though.
Reliability is becoming much more important.
If you’ve ever had a smart home device go offline, not work properly, or become a brick,
you know the frustration.
It can feel like your smart home is creating more issues than it’s solving.
That’s why Lutron really stood out to me when I originally tested and reviewed it.
Lutron was EXTREMELY reliable.
If you don’t believe me, go read the comments on my last video, but… does that reliability
REALLY justify the cost?
There’s plenty of other solid smart light switches out there.
Some of them may have even more features and cost less.
Later in this video, I’ll get into why some smart devices DO cost more.
Spoiler, it’s not because of corporate greed.
This was something I spent a lot of time thinking about while I was moving into my house.
We were budgeting all the new home expenses and wondering if spending thousands of dollars
on Lutron dimmers and shades would be worth it.
To help me figure out where I should spend my money, I thought about what smart devices
I use the most on a regular basis.
For me, lights are at the top of the list.
So we decided we wanted to invest in smart lighting that will last a long time.
We finally were like okay, let’s do it, let’s spend a lot on Lutron dimmers.
So far, it’s been great.
My family loves them and they have had zero issues.
They are not perfect though.
The buttons are difficult to press sometimes, and I wish I could run other smart home scenes
with multiple button presses.
That’s why I’m also using a few OTHER smart light switches as well.
Like Brilliant, Zooz and Inovelli.
Since they can control smart light bulbs and run scenes.
Sooo technically I’m not getting Lutron for every switch, but there will be a lot.
I also get asked often my thoughts on getting a bunch of less expensive WiFi switches like
Kasa.
Honestly, I haven’t had 30+ WiFi switches installed at once, but if I had to guess it
probably would be fine.
Especially if you have good WiFi.
I’m basically paying more money to play it safe, but that doesn’t mean it’s the
right thing for everyone.
When it comes to smart shades, we had a similar discussion between Lutron and IKEA.
The Lutron Serena shades are highly rated, but very pricey.
The IKEA shades were much less expensive and are also highly rated.
What it really came down to though, was the window size.
The IKEA shades have a few widths to choose from, but only up to 48 inches.
Lutron on the other hand are custom built for any width up to 96 inches.
The two rooms I really wanted smart shades in, the theater room and my bedroom, have
windows which are 70 inches wide.
That pretty much ruled out IKEA.
So, we ended up going with Lutron in those two rooms and IKEA for a few of the other
rooms with smaller windows.
Lutron did give us a small discount for the shades, but we still paid a lot of money for
them.
But let me tell you, these things are awesome!
When I set them up I was wondering how I was going to set the length like you do on the
IKEA shades.
I connected them to the smart bridge and turns out, you don’t have to set the length at
all!
Lutron does that for you, so it just works right out of the box!
That really surprised me.
The shades are also WAY quieter than I expected...like nearly silent.
Especially compared to IKEA.
Now that we have used them both for a while, it’s easier to see why Lutron costs more.
Besides the higher build quality, the Lutron shades have just worked flawlessly.
They are also really easy for my wife Aly to control with the Pico remote.
Especially since you can use it to only open them partially.
The IKEA shades have also worked well, but there have been a few hiccups, and the button
can’t partially open them.
The Lutron shades just feel more like a premium product that you can customize exactly how
you want.
In the end we are happy we spent a little more for these in a few rooms.
The big question is, why do products like Lutron, Philips Hue and others cost so much?
Lutron Caseta came out around 7 years ago and the prices haven’t really come down
much, if at all.
So why are they still so expensive?
The reason is, software, not hardware.
As some of you know I was a full stack developer for years and I saw first hand how much it
costs to develop and maintain quality software.
I would develop an iOS app and then Apple would make some changes and break everything.
APIs would change and require updates.
The list goes on, and the same thing happens in the smart home space.
When Lutron Caseta first came out, it wasn’t compatible with many other companies.
Since then, they’ve added more and more to where it’s compatible with nearly everything
now.
For example, they recently made it so you can integrate your Ring doorbell or outdoor
cameras to turn on the Lutron lights if someone’s at the door.
Yes you can do this with a hub pretty easily, but if you don’t have one you could use
their integration instead.
When you buy into solid companies like Lutron, the chances of it being supported and improved
down the road are much higher.
Okay so it might feel like I’m only saying a bunch of nice things about Lutron because
I’m obsessed with them.
That’s not true.
Lutron and more expensive devices are not for everyone.
There’s nothing wrong with buying less expensive devices and sometimes they can work just as
good.
But the reason companies like Lutron are important is that they are raising the bar for the whole
smart home space.
There are too many smart home companies that fail.
We need smart home devices that are well-supported and good long term investments.
One way we have lessened the blow of buying so many Lutron switches is by spacing out
when we buy them.
Pretty much every time I go to Home Depot I buy a few more switches.
That way I don’t have a huge pile of switches to install in one day.
Then I can slowly automate them as I set them up.
I know it’s hard to pull the trigger on getting more expensive smart home tech, but
when it’s high quality it can make a huge difference.
There’s still plenty of smart home tech that I spend less money on and it’s really
up to you what’s worth it.
Hey Reed, let’s take a break from buying light switches.
I’ll sell a few things around the house.
Okay but what are you going to sell?
All right kids, come on we’re having a picnic for dinner!
Where’s the table?