It is possible to connect a cheaper Tradfri lamp to your Philips Hue bridge, with a few tips. Yet there are also drawbacks.
Pair with Philips Hue Tradfri lamp
Smart lights are a fun way to make your home a bit more intelligent. You can switch them on, dim them or give the lamps a different color via an app. It is even more fun if you do this with your voice via Siri. Philips Hue is best known when it comes to these smart lamps, but IKEA is now also participating in its Tradfri series.
Smart lights work by connecting them to a bridge, which communicates between the lights and your router. The Philips Hue lamps need a Hue bridge, and you cannot just add a cheaper Tradfri lamp to that. Or yes? With a few simple tricks this is still possible. We will walk you through the steps.
1. Reset the lamp
The first step in adding a Tradfri bulb to a Philips Hue bridge is to turn the bulb into a correct fitting. You don’t have to do anything special for that. The lamp should now switch on and off when you flip the light switch. Then you have to reset the lamp. You do this by turning the lamp on and off six times in quick succession.
2. Locate the bulb
In the Philips Hue app, tap the gear at the bottom right for the settings. There you choose ‘Lamp configuration’, press the plus sign and then ‘Search’. The app will now search and probably will not find anything if your Tradfri lamp is on. Therefore, switch off the lamp for a moment, then press ‘Search’ and switch the lamp on again.
3. Add the lamp
Subsequently, the Philips Hue app no ​​longer has problems searching for the lamp. Now you can add the lamp to the app and to a room in your house. Via the app you can then switch the lamp on and off and dim it, just like Philips Hue lamps.
Cons: No voice control or updates
Although it is possible to add Tradfri to Philips Hue, there are also some drawbacks. The biggest drawback is that Siri and HomeKit can’t handle it. You cannot control the Tradfri lamp with your voice without a Tradfri bridge.
In addition, we had a problem that the lamp would not dim completely. The lowest level was still quite clear. This may have been due to our fitting, but it could also be due to the software. That’s the next drawback: you need an Ikea bridge to update the lamp’s software. This may cause the lamp to have some bugs that have been fixed with an update.
It is therefore absolutely possible to link a Tradfri lamp to your Philips Hue, for example if you receive one as a gift or see it as a very good offer. However, we do not really recommend it. If you want to use a Tradfri lamp, it is more convenient to buy a Tradfri bridge with it.
Philips Hue 3.0
Later this year, Philips will introduce some major changes for Philips Hue, including a new design for the app. Curious about what will happen? For example, Philips will improve its Hue lamps in 2018.