The IR is brighter than I thought, I can see the entire room from my wifi camera as if it was daylight. It does feel a bit warm to the touch while the bulb is on IR mode thought. But aside from that, it does its job. Would be nice if there was a way to turn off the IR from the app, which I hope will be fixed soon enough.
Overall this is a great light. I have a unique lighting situation from what I found and this serve its purpose. The light is bright and has a wide gamut of colors. I installed 2 of these and the app installation was easy at first but I could not get it to connect to Alexa. I noticed in the Lifx app it said the cloud was disconnected, but I was logged into the app and did the setup procedure as instructed. I almost put it away in disappointment when I decided to reset the bulb and try an install a second time. This time it worked and it linked it to the cloud. Alexa was able to find it and now controls the bulb with no problem.
So I set up a 2nd bulb and the installation was much easier and worked flawlessly. If you install this bulb in a lighting fixture, you need to make sure it stays powered on, or else the IR will not work and the bulb will not connect to wifi. I installed mine in a socket connected to a light switch and can turn the light on and off with the switch without losing power to the bulb. To do this I did the following:
1. Installed a z-wave light switch.
2. Connected the lead and load wires together and connected them to the Z-wave lead(hot) terminal, so the light remains on all the time. The z-wave switch will continue to toggle its status.
3. Installed the Lifx bulb and app
4. Connect switch and bulb to a smart hub(i.e. Vera, smartthings, etc..)
5. Set bulb to toggle on and off in sync with switch. (create a scene or smart app in hub)
6. Viola!!!!!!!! Enjoy!! So far it works like a charm.
IR
The IR light works when the light is powered off through the app or other remote device. If the bulb power is cut the bulb will not work. But when power is reapplied it will turn on to its last lighting state. Once the light is off the IR turns on automatically. It works on a wave length higher than 940nm meaning it can not be seen by the naked eye and there is no noticeable red glow like IR bulbs on surveillance cameras. Those are generally around 850nm. If your camera is not IR sensitive to 940nm then it will not work. In my experience with this bulb the IR worked well and served its purpose in my application. I noticed the IR light source is more intense coming from the top of the bulb rather than the sides and is not as even as the actual visible light from the bulb. But if you needed a bulb with a dual purpose then this is a winner.
Pros:
1. Light works well and has a good strong signal to my wifi router
2. Does not require a hub to connect
3. Wide color gamut.
4. Fun quick settings and scenes in the app (like flicker, strobe, music sync.)
5. IR works well with IR enabled cameras sensitive to 940nm
6. Works with Alexa, Vera, Smartthings, Nest, IFTTT..........
Cons
1. App is a little buggy. The app froze a couple of times while circling the color wheel. I saw this on a video review and they had the same results.
2. Setup wasn't perfect. I don't know why it did not connect properly the first time but after a reinstall it worked fine.
3. Pricey..The closest competition to these are the Phillips hue color bulbs which are cheaper but require a hub. But hue does not have the IR feature(yet).
Overall this is a good bulb if you find you need a dual purpose solution.
Beautiful lighting! My whole house uses LIFX lights and they are second to none - they are brighter and richer in colour than any competitors' product I have seen. I initially had connectivity issues with the LIFX Color 1000, but these have been fixed in recent firmware updates and LIFX Support staff were very friendly, thorough and honest with their help. From my tests so far it looks like the new LIFX + has a rock-solid connection out of the box - it's been connected for the last three weeks nonstop.
They are easy to use and control with great themes and effects, and together with the Logitech Pop I have elegant and configurable wall switches that anyone of any age can use - my three-year-old daughter gets to have her colour theme and she can turn it on when she wants :) without necessarily using a phone or app to control them. Now with the IR in the LIFX + my security cameras see clearly at night into every corner without disturbing us at all. Well done LIFX on another beautiful part of my life! I can't wait to try out the new LIFX Z strip lights too :)
I purchased 2 of these, as well as Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance Kit, which included 4x Gen 3.0 (glass) bulbs.
The Lifx+ Bulbs definitely seem superior in my honest opinion. They are brighter, the color range seems wider, and the color temperature calculation is more accurate IMO. I also like the shape better, though I can see how the Hue bulbs may fit better in some fixtures, this isn't a problem for me.
I have been working to program a piece of software to run my house lighting. I have this program syncing with f.lux, so the color temperature is always correct with the day night cycle, while also keeping it in sync with my monitor's color temperature. This has been working pretty great so far, but honestly I've found the Hue API to be a bit better. Lifx offers a LAN API, but it is a bit primitive. The other API uses web requests, which take a second or two to process. Thanks to Hue's bridge, the API calls are a bit quicker and more reliable. This isn't a huge issue though, as the Hue bulbs respond in about 1 to 2 seconds, while the Lifx bulbs respond in 2-4 seconds. The wait time is no issue for me. The Lifx APIs are still very capable, and very easy to use. My only real complains are the delay, as well as the random "429 Too many requests" error, despite me being no where near the advertised rate limits. I'm using the same software to control both my Lifx and Hue bulbs, and I'm monitoring my web requests very closely. I make about 2 requests per minute on average, never exceeding 20 requests. The API documentation states "Currently, each access token is limited to 120 requests for a 60 second window", but somehow I keep getting the 429 error randomly.
Other than the API issues which are admitted a niche concern, I've had absolutely no issues with these bulbs.
All in all, I had no idea I could have so much fun with a lightbulb..
I started with one. Currently I have 12. These things are awesome in my opinion. Besides the multitude of colors and, the different whites, when I use them for photography, It's super easy to set them up to match the color of my video and strobe lights They were having some issues with the application at the beginning of the year but, they seem to have finally got that fixed. The app and the widgets work great on my LG V20, LG x10.1 tablet and there is also an app on the microsoft store also that works great on my pc's. No hub needed for these babies. Plus they work great with either Alexa Dot or Google Home. And if you use video surveillance for your kids room or anywhere in the house, you can set them up to have infared when you turn the lights off All that and you set different timers, different themes, and you can also make them work as strobe or party lights that follows your music
Feature Product
- Works with Amazon Alexa to support dimming, shades of white, and color settings through voice control (Alexa device sold separately)
- 16 million colors, warm to cool whites and infrared for night vision
- Easy to set up, built in wifi - no hub required
- Bright - equivalent to 75W bulb
- Works with Alexa, Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant
Description
LIFX + (Br30) Wi-Fi smart LED light bulb with infrared for night vision, adjustable, multicolor, dimmable, no hub required, works with Alexa. With LIFX, how your bulb connects is important, so all of our WiFi technology is built right into each individual bulb - no hub required. Works with Nest.
If you just need one bulb, this is the one. But LIFX is challenging to scale. Deciding to dip my toe, I started with a Hue pack, a few LIFX bulbs, and some third-tier bulbs (Senegal and Govee). At first, LIFX was my top choice for lack of hub. after setting these up, clearly that's not a benefit–it's a deficit. LIFX bulbs must all be set up individually, including wifi. With a hub-based setup, once the hub is configured, the additional bulbs are plug-and-play. Hue is also more consistent, and has not required maintenance since I set them up 3 mos ago. The LIFX bulbs periodically become unresponsive and need to be rebooted. Of the 4 LIFX I have, I would guess that I've had to reboot one per week in the last 3 mos. I have very strong signal in the house, with Eero mesh. In general, LIFX products do have better potential than Hue, for example, the LIFX light strips can display gradients, and this particular bulb is something you will not find with Hue–this fills the room with 930nm IR (invisible, no subtle red) when "off". This is great for security cameras, and why I will be keeping my LIFX bulbs.
Love this light! Set up your schedule for reminders. Choose a color to let you know its time to leave for work. Set a color and a dim brightness to let you know you have more or less time to snooze. Turn the lights ON before you get home and OFF after you leave. Use the themes for parties and holidays. Coolest thing I've purchased in a while.
pros:
it's very bright. very nice colors.
lifx support was prompt and helpful.
cons:
1) app is not user friendly to adjust the IR feature.
2) it needs 2.4ghz (20mhz, channel 1/6 etc etc) so it doesn't connect to some routers.
i've asus rt88u and it didn't connect to it (whatever i've tried) and i had to setup a dummy access point just for it to connect.
read their forums/reddit and make sure if it works with your setup.
Amazing bulbs. Extremely bright and lovely colours. The best I have seen and the app is so easy to use and set including the widget for IOS. Better colours and brightness than the Philips Hue and works well with Alexa and works even better with Homekit and Siri without a bridge. Has better control of colours, brightness and scenes with Alexa than the other lights I have tested. So far I have had no issues setting it up and no issues of network connectivity. I have 4 bulbs and ordered 4 more. The infrared is working well too though I only tested it for a few hours with a camera that I had lying around. Overall ... very pleased with the product and was quite happy with the pricing discount as I bought 4 LIFX+ color bulbs for the price of 4 LIFX bulbs.
I now have 4 lights and I choose these because they don't need a hub, and they work with nest and IFTTT. Love the fade on and off options, schedules, and having a patio light that can change with the seasons. Also having the security of a bulb that lights up your room on your nest cam when the lights are off.
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