I messed up and bought a Philips Hue bulb to work with my new SmartThings Hub. I’m feeling overwhelmed by options (especially as had to install a new router today- so many devices!) and don’t know which brand to go for.
I need e27 Edison screw. Ideally I’d like to be able to dim and adjust warm / cool, but at this stage just want something easy!
Any simple suggestions / links to help my tired brain?
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Why is that a mess up?
Where are you located? Options vary in different parts of the world.
I messed up as don’t have a Hue Bridge and didn’t plan to get one. I don’t feel it’s worth it for one bulb.
And I am in the UK, sorry for missing that, pretty important!
You can get it to work directly w/ the SmartThings Hub, but the process is a bit hacky.
Should you decide to return the bulb and try something different this is the list of officially supported lighting for the uk. Select a bulb you like and it will let you know the requirements. I’m personally a big fan of Lifx bulbs and they will do what you want, they are definitely an option to consider.
https://www.smartthings.com/gb/products/-/filter/categories/lighting-and-switches
I prefer Sengled Element Zigbee bulbs, as they pair directly to the hub and are fully supported. Best of all, they are very low cost.
The only officially recommended way of using a Hue bulb with the smartthings hub is by going through a hue bridge. (The topic title is a clickable link)
Meanwhile, can you return the hue bulb?
A Good replacement in either the UK or the US that does not require an additional bridge are the IKEA Tradfri lines. Very inexpensive, well engineered, work well with smartthings, and are surprisingly brighter than most of the more expensive competition.
The product descriptions will say that they need their gateway, but you can use the smartthings hub instead.
The IKEA smart bulbs and the plug-in pocket socket will work with smartthings. The handheld buttons and remotes will not be fully compatible.
There are several brands on the official “works with SmartThings” compatibility list, including the IKEA. For technical reasons, I would recommend the IKEA over the Sengled, just ask if you want to know those details, But since the IKEA are also brighter and less expensive, you may not care about the other reasons. 
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Thanks for the info. I Saw the Ikea ones could work but thought I read some old threads there were problems. Tempted to take a trip there tomorrow!
I had read about the hacky ways to use the hue bulbs, but can’t find a basic step by step. I’d not get much back for the bulb as opened the packaging so happy to chance locking it to STs to make use of it!
Can anyone point me to a basic set of steps? I’m relatively techie but have limited time/ patience due to the tiny humans I care for!
There were problems with the IKEA when they first came out, but they were corrected by September 2018.
As far as using a hue bulb without the hue bridge, did you read the FAQ that I linked to?
The problem is that any other zigbee devices you have may try to use the hue bulb as a repeater, and like most of the bulbs, it tends to lose messages some of the time when repeating for anything other than another bulb. This is a big problem and very hard to diagnose, because the bulb will look like it’s working fine, but some other battery operated sensor will appear to be going off-line all the time.
So, seriously, adding the hue bulb to your system can mess up your entire zigbee mesh. This problem does not occur with the IKEA or Sengled bulbs. It does occur with Hue and Osram. See the note near the end of the official supportbase article:
https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/214191863-How-to-connect-SYLVANIA-Bulbs
Note: SYLVANIA bulbs have a known firmware issue that can occasionally cause them to fail as ZigBee repeaters. This can potentially cause other ZigBee devices to fail to update and/or respond.
This problem does not occur when the hue bulb is communicating through the hue bridge, but otherwise you can get the same problem.
Just to echo @JDRoberts - I had a bunch of issues with Ikea bulbs before, but now they actually appear in the SmartThings app (Add Device > Lightbulbs > Ikea) and seem to work for me right out of the box (no messing around with the IDE or anything, just pair it with the hub and bingo.)
Also they’re crazy cheap in comparison to Hue, and so far have worked really, really well.
Good luck!
That’s not strictly true. I got this one partially working with ST on Friday: Products - Discover Our Full Range Of Furniture And Homeware - IKEA
You have to do the following:
- Pair the Ikea bulb with your ST hub (should work out of the box)
- Pretend to pair another bulb ( Add Device > Lightbulbs > Ikea) but instead pair the remote
- Remote will appear as a “Thing” - it will pair but ST will have no idea what to do with it
- Take the remote over to the bulb, hold it within a few cm of the bulb and hold the pairing button again.
- Hold it until the bulb flashes to confirm
Once you do that, the remote will control the bulb. On/Off works, Dim up/dim down works, but the side to side colour temperature preset stuff doesn’t work. But, it means the bulb will now work from the ST app (including any automations, etc) AND can be controlled from the Ikea remote.
Since SmartThings doesn’t know what to do with the remote, you can’t do anything else with it (trigger scenes etc). You might be able to by hopping into the IDE, but OOTB you can’t. You also end up with an unknown device in your app for each remote, but that’s not a big issue for me I don’t think.
I believe you can also pair up to 10 bulb to a single remote using this method, but I haven’t tried it yet.
Yes, you can use the buttons as a parallel means of control, but that’s not the same thing as “working with SmartThings” as most people expect as you can’t use them to do anything else like change a Mode, turn on a zwave light switch, start an automation, etc. And it’s a long and complex explanation and likely to flood a thread intended for answers about smart bulb brands. 
I’ve gone ahead and updated my post above to “not fully compatible” to better clarify the issue. Thanks for bringing it up.
Thanks for all the suggestions. If I can get there I may give Ikea a go.
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I also give a thumbs up for ikea tradfri. As my first smart bulb I bought one, but at the time i wasn’t sure if I should have followed the pack and bought a hue instead, but 19 bulbs later, I am very happy indeed with the tradfri bulbs and would recommend them. I currently use them inside and outside the house, and have 1 remote and 2 dimmers. Mind you, I would personally not recommend the dimmers, they are horrible to use, even my wife and kids hate them 
…but the remote works great.
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Thanks, I bought two ikea ones and set up the first yesterday. All the plug sockets and half the bulbs were sold out, which was a pain!
It seems to work well, and a great price. Would really like some of the cheaper ones, though!
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And I gifted the hue bulb to a friend I discovered had a few.
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