<p>I have some cheap Feit electric wifi lights from Costco and thus far I have had no issue. I have 7 of them. I named them all in Google home and the Feit electric light app.</p>
<p>Somehow I feel Paul's experience with Philips Hue newly entitles me to feel smug about not jumping on the IoT bandwagon yet. Thank you for taking one for the team, Paul! </p>
<p>If the Philips Hue bulbs turn out to be too unreliable replace them with TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi bulbs. They are currently on sale at Amazon for $24.99 each. They work over 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, no hub required. Also, they work with Google, Alexa, and Cortana. (No Homekit support) </p>
<blockquote><a href="#383676"><em>In reply to Patrick3D:</em></a><em> </em>You know you're heading down the wrong street in tech when someone suggests you spend even more money to fix the problem.</blockquote><p><br></p>
<p>The problem with your Hue lights are any of the following:</p><p><br></p><ol><li>2.4 GHz interference</li><li>Range issues</li></ol><p><br></p><p>To solve the interference issue, disable any 2.4 GHz wifi (can be a pain, I understand).</p><p><br></p><p>To solve the range issue, move the Hue hub closer or place hue bulbs/lightstrips between the hub and the problematic light. Hue uses the zigbee system to build a mesh network on the 2.4 Ghz band, more devices improves the reliability of the network.</p>
<p>I once saw a nature documentary where a Tapir wandered into a river and was eaten by a school of Piranha.</p><p>Could this be applicable to these devices?</p><p> </p>
<blockquote><a href="#383720"><em>In reply to drjohnnyray:</em></a><em> </em>I doubt Nintendo would name a console The Piranha.</blockquote><p><br></p>
<blockquote><a href="#383792"><em>In reply to iantrem:</em></a><em> </em>My LED bulbs must be so lonely. They can only talk to themselves.</blockquote><p><br></p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Considering I can't get an Echo Dot to do anything but play Spotify, I'm not surprised by the light fiasco. This podcast was just one big advertisement for plain LED bulbs.</span></p>