Lutron Caséta Deluxe Smart Dimmer Switch Kit (2-Pack) with Smart Hub - Compatible with Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Ring & Google Assistant - P-BDG-PKG2W-A - White - Perfect for Smart Home Lighting Control & Automation

I’ve had Lutron ‘electronic’ dimmers since they came out about 20 years ago.Throughout they’ve kept up with new tech like CFL’s & LED’s & allowed programming switch using the 2 key built-in buttons.ORIGINAL UNITS: were VERY elegant, aesthetic & simple - only 3 BUTTONS + parallel LED indicators - VERY easy & intuitive to operate: a single long & narrow ‘rocker’ button on the side that you pressed up to increase intensity and down to decrease.Once you had set your desired intensity level, all you needed was to TAP ONCE the main large rectangular button (taking 90% of the switch) to turn lights on to that LAST desired level, AND TAP ONCE MORE to fully turn off.At bottom of switch was a very small discrete ’pull kill switch’ to prevent electricity from flowing at all to the light /source.SWITCH was SIMPLE, ELEGANT, INTUITIVE & super functional.These units also had a feature that if u ‘long pressed’ them for a few seconds when ‘on’ (vs tapping on/off), they would give you 30 secs before they’d turn off for you to exit the room & not trip over items in the dark.Moreover, once they reached the 30 seconds, they wouldn’t just turn off out right, but would slowly dim 10% at a time so you’d know it was turning off and either exit the room or go back for more time.MAIN ISSUE with ‘SMART’ UNITS: switches themselves are fairly ‘DUMB’ in comparison to original ones. Besides ability to be controlled remotely, they have absolutely no other logic in them.They now have FOUR BUTTONS (plus kill switch) which are COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY and layed out in the same space where there was only 1 tap button before - so they are almost impossible to nail and press the desired button in the dark.WORST OF ALL, DIMMER is not just PLAIN DUMB, but ALSO FORGETFUL - whatever DIMMER SETTING you set it to, it WILL FORGET the moment you turn it off.Who was the genius that ’REIMAGINED’ an elegant intuitive easy to use dimmer into this nightmare? He/she should be FIRED IMMEDIATELY.I’m guessing he/she thought you’d walk around the house with your phone in hand and whip out the app, and flip through menus and screens until you found the right switch to turn it on off?Even then, you’d still have to remember what dimmer setting you like for EVERY LIGHT IN THE HOUSE so you can TAP IT ONE-TAP-AT-A-TIME (75 taps for 75% - or slide close to it and then fine tune tap to reach specific value) - again, shot in the head wouldn’t be sufficient of a penalty LOL.TO DEAL with this EGREGIOUS LACK IN JUDGEMENT, you need to BUY ONE PICO REMOTE (@$12-20 each) FOR EACH DIMMER as the PICO BRINGS a FIFTH ROUND BUTTON (literally LAYED OUT on ‘TOP’ of the other 4) that you CAN PROGRAM for a specific dimmer setting.WHY?????????????? was this even necessary?In the end that IS how I’VE HAD TO DEAL with this EGREGIOUS LACK IN DESIGN (a very expensive fix).Also, ONLY BECAUSE I’m someone who enjoys having ALL THE LIGHTS ON at the same time throughout the house, I created SCENES in the app that just TURN ON ALL THESE LIGHTS in the house (or a room) AT ONCE using all the desired dimmer settings - you can also program the PICO REMOTE to store ONE SCENE settings in this ROUND BUTTON. However, note that remotes don’t link to the scene directly - alternatively, once you activate a scene via APP, then you tell the PICO to store all the dimmer settings for the lights you’ve ASSIGNED TO IT.However, note that if you update that scene in the app, you ALSO need to REPROGRAM EACH SEPARATE PICO for that scene (i.e. say you & your spouse each have a PICO on their nightstand to turn off the house lights and you add/remove a light/lamp to the scene, etc).UNFORTUNATELY, if you are one of those persons who turn lights on/off as they enter/exit each room, LUTRON IS NOT FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!Especially since they are SIGNIFICANTLY MORE EXPENSIVE than pretty much all other similar systems out there.The only plus to this system is that it IS RELIABLE in turning lights on/off quickly and that it doesn’t bog down your Wifi router by having 30-50 switches and items hooked up to it when you do full house.Lastly: note that if you want to add these to CEILING FANS, it can be PROHIBITIVELY EXPENSIVE as you need 1 FAN-SPECIFIC DIMMER + 1 LIGHT DIMMER (~$130 for these) These geniuses haven’t figured out what every other $30 fan remote add-on unit out there did since late 80’s, which is ONE WALL SWITCH + ONE CEILING FAN CANOPY REMOTE UNIT.CONSEQUENTLY: you’ll need a 2-SPACE WALL ELECTRICAL BOX to put BOTH DIMMERS and a 4-WIRE CABLE going to EACH FAN (if you don’t have this, adding it with electrician can cost I’m guessing $150-$300 depending where you live).But it doesn’t stop here. Since you’d want to control the fan using a PICO REMOTE (else find phone, open app, find that fan, adjust each setting), you need to add another $30-$60 for that bc FAN PICOS cost way more & are harder to find (unless online).So, you are looking at a total cost $310-$500 PER FAN to use the CASETA system; and that’s if you don’t add additional items like the PICO REMOTE PEDESTALS bc these are TINY REMOTES & easy to lose inside drawers, linens or furniture.My home wiring wasn't made for the newer devices so these really help me integrate my home. These switches and controllers need a hub to operate (Wish they could find a way to integrate with the echo directly).I took a chance on these for a new build, and so far I'm loving them.Haven't tried the WiFi / Alexa etc features yet, but I have confidence it'll work as advertised.Contacted Lutron about a random question, a real person with actual understanding of their products answered my question in less than 2 minutes!These are the best smart home switches I have ever used, and I've been into it since the early 2000's. These are responsive and reliable. The only missing feature is dim level memory or a way to set a default dim level. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that they can operate without a neutral since one of my switches is a switch loop.I use a few of these around the house, and I plan to expand the use of them. These work great for a smart home setup, and I use the Amazon Echo to control the lights. However, these are not perfect....they are just closer to perfect than any other option I have seen. So I will make a Pro's and Con's list, and then explain a bit of why I prefer them over other brands.Pro's:Easy installReplaces existing switchesWorks with Amazon EchoClean flat appearance (adjustable)Optional remote (I do not use)Works with nearly all light fixture stylesYou only need a single IP addressCon's:You need a dimmable lightDoes not dim LED the same way it does other lightsExpensiveRequires use of Lutron AppNow, lets start with the install. This is simple, just shut off the power, remove the old switch, and connect this one to the existing ground, positive, and negative (and the pos & neg are not in any specific order!). They even include the screws and plastic wire caps, so it is twist on and screw it in. No tape (although you SHOULD use it!). So since you are replacing the existing light switch you do not need to do anything else, no wire runs and no electrical box install.So now we move to working with Alexa, or the Amazon Echo device. I don't call mine Alexa, because my daughters name is Alexis. So everytime we talk to her the other her responds....whichever her we were talking to. I use Amazon. But it is nice, just say "amazon turn off the bedroom light" and get a quick "ok" and boom, darkness. It makes us lazy. Or rather, it stops the "It's your turn to get the light" arguments with my wife, and makes it easier to take care of the baby at 2 am without getting out of bed. But here is the catch, Amazon can only pull the information from the Lutron App. You CANNOT use ONLY Amazon Echo to set it up! You cannot even rename the device. So you are forced to use the Lutron app to set up all the home devices, and name them properly so they are usable with Amazon Echo. Once your entire setup is done you are free to uninstall the app. Although to be fair the Lutron app is pretty good in itself. But this leads to another concern here, if you use the device as part of a smart home you absolutely MUST purchase the Lutron hub....in this case I used Casetta, but since I do not use the PICO remotes I am unlikely to cross the 50 device limit. This is another $150 ish, but it is worth it.Why would a $150 hub for controlling light switches be worth it? Well, if you are like me and are setting up a real smart home, you probably have a lot of other tech stuff in the house. A smart thermostat for example, or maybe even a server or two, a cloud device, and a firewall. For those of us tech geeks who have all of this, but do not want to pay for t-he expensive licenses, we use a free version of whatever we are using. In some cases for the firewalls you are limited on your number of devices. So, if I was going to connect 50 light switches in my house I would use up all of my devices....just to create a smart home. This is not worth it. However, Lutron made it easier, that little hub takes an IP address and that is it. All other switches connect to the hub, not using an IP address that would be counted as a device on the firewall. You have no idea how hard I looked for this particular feature! With all my kids tablets, the computers, phones, servers and cloud....not to mention the other smart home devices....I am already near my limit. This keeps me under it.That covers almost all of the real issues. But the not so real issue that people forget about is that not all lights are made equal, ESPECIALLY with the older filament style bulbs being illegal to produce now. A dimmer on these bulbs worked every time, without any changes needed. But this is not the case anymore, the new light bulbs are required to be dimmable. If they are not you get little flashes in your light bulb while it is off....all....night.....long.Get a dimmable one and this problem goes away, however the LED lights do not dim well. You get off, 75%, 100%. Nothing lower then that....so dimming is not really possible here. However, I got the dimmer because it is cheaper than the regular switch, and who knows....I might find a good bulb that dims properly.Me gusto mucho este kit porque trae todo lo necesario para empezar, la instalación de los apagadores es como cualquier otra, y lo bueno es que no requiere un cable neutro extra a diferencia de la mayoría de los atenuadores inteligentes que están en el mercado, el bridge es muy simple, elegante y de bajo perfil, la configuración desde la app es de lo mas fácil.Me gusto lo fácil que es usar la app y que prácticamente no hay delay en su uso y lo que tardan en prender las luces, ademas que con la app también puedes vincular productos de sonos para crear escenas.Lo que mas me gusto es el hecho de poder controlar las luces desde cualquier lugar, es decir el bridge lutron te permite ver que luces están prendidas en tu casa sin necesidad de tener un hub adicional conectado a la nube.Yo lo utilizo con alexa (a pesar de que aun esta en ingles) y con homekit de apple y todo funciona perfecto, hasta el momento el sistema no me a fallado me encanto, lo recomiendo mucho.Me gusto el control pico que puedes tenerlo en todo momento y controlar la luz desde la cama, NO ME GUSTO QUE AL CONFIGURALO CON EL TELÉFONO SIGUIENDO TODOS LOS PASOS INDICADOS PARA ELLO , NO RESPONDE NI CONTROLA LAS LUCES, ES DECEPCIONANTE.Todo okSin duda un gran sistema!!