One of the best reasons to make a trip to IKEA is to pick up some cheap smart home kit.While the company was a little slow to roll out its new range of smart bulbs, they’re now available in many stores around the world.There’s just one small problem you should look out for.
Kajplats is IKEA’s new range of smart lighting Many stores now have stock Kajplats is the name that IKEA has chosen for its new range of smart lighting products, completing the company’s transition to Matter over Thread.It replaces the Tradfri range that relied on Zigbee.For some, the wait has been a long one with all Zigbee models sold out long before the Kajplats range arrived.
Matter over Thread means that the bulbs should work with a wide range of smart home systems.Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung have all signed up to use the Matter standard, but so far version mismatches have hampered IKEA’s idyllic vision.Other platforms like Home Assistant and Homey are also compatible.
For this to work, you’ll either need an IKEA Dirigera hub, a smart home hub from one of the major proprietary platform holders that also acts as a Thread border router, or a Home Assistant server (or Homey hub) with Thread support via an add-on like the ZBT-2 radio.There are several variants of LED-powered bulbs available, including small and large screw bulbs, plus GU-10 spotlight-style bulbs.These come in both white spectrum (from cool to warm) and RGB color, in a range of brightness levels ranging from 450 up to 1600 lumens.
IKEA has some eye-catching clear “LED filament” bulbs, which are a personal favorite.These are currently only available in white spectrum, but I’d love to see a color version (like GE’s Cync Matter smart bulbs) for use in my Home Assistant signal light.It’s too easy to buy the wrong bulb Is this IKEA’s worst packaging to date? The problem comes down to a simple case of poorly designed packaging.
Here’s the image used for a white spectrum bulb: Now here’s the image used for a color bulb: You might think it’s silly to call out packaging of all things, but I’m not the only one who has been caught out by the subtle way that IKEA chose to differentiate between color and white spectrum.On actual packaging, it's a lot harder to tell the difference: Look for the full spectrum color wheel in the very corner of the box, and the red-green-blue transition (rather than the blue-orange-yellow one).Getting this wrong means trip back to IKEA to swap them over.
To be fair, the company gives you a year to make changes, but you’ll also find yourself loading up on kitchen utensils, bathmats, and hot dogs again.A secret Zigbee mode That’s a lot of power cycles I’ve not managed to get my hands on IKEA’s new bulbs yet, but eventually my Tradfri lights are going to start dying so it’s only a matter of time (pun very much intended).Despite the bulbs officially being Matter over Thread devices, some Home Assistant tinkerers appear to have discovered a “secret” Zigbee mode.
According to the community, Kajplats bulbs work with both Zigbee Home Automation (ZHA) and Zigbee2MQTT (Z2M) in Home Assistant.Commenters note that it’s easier if you have a lamp with an easy-to-use on-off switch, and there’s even a smart plug blueprint available that automates the process.One Home Assistant Community member comments: “I was able to get a Kajplats E27 470 lm working in ZHA by power cycling 12 times.” Another poster notes: “I needed to reset it first (power-cycling 6 times) … I then power-cycled it 12 times, with a 1s pause in between states (on for 1 second, off for 1 second, etc) and it paired after that in Zigbee mode.” This is encouraging news for any Home Assistant users who have yet to adopt the Matter over Thread standard, and who are still quite happy with their Zigbee mesh network.
I’m hopeful that improvements will be made to these Zigbee handlers in the future to account for the range, since these aren’t the only new IKEA products to also work using Zigbee.IKEA KAJPLATS LED bulb E26 1600 lumen, smart white spectrum Need lighting for both homework sessions and cozy dinners? No worries – this smart bulb can be dimmed wirelessly and adjusted to suit any need and occasion.Based on the universal standard Matter.
$14 at Ikea Expand Collapse IKEA KAJPLATS LED bulb E26 1100 lumen, smart color and white spectrum Movie night, hanging out with friends or making the kid’s room even more fun? This smart bulb can change color, be dimmed wirelessly and adapts to suit any need.Based on the universal standard Matter.$13 at Ikea Expand Collapse IKEA got two things right when it adopted Matter over Thread.
The first is a decision to use Thread, rather than Matter over Wi-Fi (which would potentially invite a whole bunch of additional problems).The second is the price, with the most products in the new IKEA smart home range being cheaper than the previous models.
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