Ikea Trådfri Range: Review and User Guide

Ikea Trådfri Smart Lights Review

The Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs work on the Zigbee protocol so you need a device that can communicate with the Ikea Trådfri devices.

If you don’t have any other smart hubs, you can get the Ikea Trådfri gateway, which costs $35. The gateway needs an internet connection — you can use the provided ethernet cable to connect the device to your internet router. You can’t connect the gateway to the network using WiFi. The gateway is fairly large because there space within the hub to coil the wire for a neat display.

However, you don’t need to purchase a separate Ikea Trådfri gateway if you already have a smart hub that works on the Zigbee protocol, such as the Amazon Echo Plus or the Philips Hue Bridge.

In addition to the Ikea Trådfri gateway, you also need to purchase and connect an Ikea Trådfri steering device.

Ikea Trådfri defines the following devices as “steering devices”.

• Ikea Trådfri Remote ($15.99): This device can be used to control up to 10 Ikea Trådfri bulbs remotely, with a range of 32 feet. This Ikea Trådfri remote lets you dim, change colors, or switch the Ikea Trådfri bulbs on/off.
• Ikea Trådfri Wireless Dimmer ($6.99): This device has a range of 33 feet and it can be used to dim or turn Ikea Trådfri bulbs on/off.
• Ikea Trådfri Motion Sensor ($19.99): This is the most innovative of all the Ikea Trådfri steering devices. This motion sensor can also be linked to up to 10 Ikea Trådfri bulbs — it can automatically turn the lights on when it detects movement and turn them off when there’s no movement. This helps conserve a lot of energy. The motion sensor has a maximum range of 30 feet.

Finally, the last requirement is the IKEA Home Smart app installed on your Android or iPhone. If you have an Android phone, it needs to be at least KitKat 4.4 or Lollipop 5.0. If you have an iPhone, it needs to be at least iOS 9.

You can control the Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs without the smartphone app as well. The aforementioned Ikea Trådfri steering devices can be used to perform the basic functions like dimming the lights, turning them on/off, and changing the color/temperature.

However, you need the Ikea Trådfri App — which, it’s worth noting, is extremely simple and minimalist — to access the advanced features like creating ‘moods’, setting schedules, and changing the brightness or colors of individual bulbs rather than collectively.

Now that you’re aware of all the necessities of installation, the following is a step-by-step guide for how to set up the Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs.

Please note that we’ll discuss the installation based on the assumption that you’re installing the Ikea Trådfri devices for the first time and don’t have any other smart hubs. If you already have the Ikea Trådfri gateway or another Zigbee smart hub installed, you may have to skip some of the steps mentioned below.

The following is an overview of the steps involved in the Ikea Trådfri setup:

• Connect the Ikea Trådfri Gateway into your router using the ethernet cable and turn it on.
• Connect the Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs in their place.
• Open the IKEA Home app and connect it to the Ikea Trådfri Gateway using the on-screen instructions.
• Touch the Ikea Trådfri remote or steering device to the Ikea Trådfri gateway to pair them.
• Following that, pair the steering device with up to 10 Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs via the pairing button. You’ll have to hold down the pairing button for a few seconds while keeping an eye on the smartphone app. When the connection is made, you’ll be notified in the app.
• Follow that step for all the Ikea Trådfri devices.

Overall, the setup process doesn’t take too long but it does have one too many steps. The inclusion of the Ikea steering device is especially confusing because it doesn’t do anything vital. The Ikea remote or steering devices are useful for those who don’t want to constantly control the bulbs and plugs from the app — but its inclusion didn’t have to be mandatory.

Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs have a limited set of features. For example, the smart plug doesn’t have energy monitoring and the smart lights don’t have a wide range of colors and temperatures.

Furthermore, the amount of features available to you also depends on how you’re controlling the Ikea Trådfri devices, whether it’s through the Ikea Trådfri steering devices or Ikea Trådfri smartphone app.

• Create groups of lights or devices.
• Dim the lights remotely.
• Turn the lights on/off.
• Change the color or temperature of the lights.

• Dim the lights remotely.
• Turn the lights on/off.

• Turn the lights or plugs on when it senses motion and off when there’s no motion.
• You can make the lights and plugs turn off 1, 5, or 10 minutes after there’s no motion.

The Ikea Trådfri app offers a greater number of features amongst all the options available. However, despite that, the number of features available is still quite limited. The app is extremely minimal and simple to use but the lack of advanced features may be an issue for smart home enthusiasts.

The greater problem with the Ikea Trådfri app is that you need to be on the same WiFi network as the Ikea Trådfri gateway to control your Ikea Trådfri devices. As such, you can only use the smartphone app to control your device when you’re home. You can’t control the devices from work or elsewhere, which is a great disappointment.

The following is an overview of the features available in the Ikea Trådfri app.

• Power On/Off: Remotely turn the Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs on or off.
• On/Off Schedules: You can create specific on/off schedules for the smart lights to turn on and off at established times.
• Rise and Shine: With this feature, you can make the lights gradually turn from warm to bright approximately 30 minutes before the time you set. As such, the gradually brightening lights will imitate sunrise and make you wake up naturally.
• Away from Home: With this feature, you can make your lights and plugs turn on and off at pre-set times when you’re away from home. This is a feature used to deter potential burglaries but it’s not much different than the On/Off schedules option. In various other smart devices, the ‘Away’ feature makes the lights and plugs turn on/off at random intervals — in this case, you have to set the times yourself, which isn’t very useful.
• Rooms/ Groups: You can combine different devices in the same room or group to control them together.
• Moods: Moods refer to sets of colors and brightness levels that can be applied to groups of smart lights. As such, you can achieve a high degree of specificity with the light in relation to different times and moods. For example, you can have a generally warm aesthetic during dinner or a dimly-lit aesthetic while watching TV.
• Voice Controls: You can control Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs using Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri.

Missing Features

The following are some of the primary features missing from Ikea Trådfri devices that are available in their competitors.

• Energy Monitoring: The Ikea Trådfri plug doesn’t let you monitor energy consumption or give you weekly/monthly energy reports.
• Away: The Ikea app does have an ‘Away from Home’ feature but it’s not as effective as the Away feature in many other smart lights and bulbs. In many other smart lights and plugs, the Away feature randomly turns your lights and devices on or off when you’re away from home. This creates an impression that you’re home even when you’re not. In Ikea Trådfri lights, you have to manually schedule it, which isn’t a long-term or sustainable solution.
• Color Range: Ikea Trådfri smart lights have an extremely limited range of colors and shades, with a maximum of 20 color options in some of the bulbs. Compared to that, many other smart lights have thousands of color and shade options.

Ikea Trådfri Amazon Alexa Setup:

• Connect the Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs to the steering device and Ikea Trådfri gateway.
• Access your Ikea app and go to the setting page.
• Choose ‘Integrations’ > ‘Amazon Alexa’ > ‘Enable’.
• Enter your Amazon credentials and tap ‘Allow’. This will link your Amazon and Ikea Trådfri accounts.
• Go to your Amazon Alexa app and go to ‘Devices’ > ‘All Devices’.
• Tap the ‘+’ icon, followed by ‘Add Device’.
• Select ‘Light’ > ‘Ikea’.
• Follow the on-screen instructions and tap ‘Continue’.
• Tap ‘Discover Devices’ so Amazon Alexa can look for your Ikea Trådfri devices.
• Once Alexa discovers your devices, you can group them into separate ‘rooms’.
• You can now control your Ikea Trådfri bulbs using voice commands.

• Alexa, dim the Living Room lights.
• Alexa, dim the Living Room light by 50%.
• Alexa, turn the Kitchen lights off.
• Alexa, brighten the Kitchen lights by 50%.
• Alexa, make the bedroom lights warmer.

Ikea Trådfri Google Home Setup:

• Connect the Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs to the steering device and Ikea Trådfri gateway.
• In the Ikea Trådfri app, go to ‘Settings’ > ‘Integrations’ > ‘Google Assistant’ > ‘Enable’ > ‘Continue’
• Select your Google account.
• In your Google Home app, go to ‘Add’ > ‘Set Up Device’.
• You’ll be presented with two options. Select the option ‘Have Something Already Set Up?’.
• From the list of third-party platforms, select ‘Trådfri — Ikea Smart Lighting’.
• You’ll be asked if you’ve added the Google Assistant integration in your Ikea Trådfri app. Tick the box and tap ‘Confirm’.
• Select your Google Account from the list.
• Your Ikea Trådfri bulbs will appear in your Google Home app. You can select them and tap ‘Add to a Room’ to group them.
• With this, you’re all set to control your Ikea Trådfri devices from Google Home or through Google Assistant voice commands.

• Hey Google, turn on the Trådfri bulb.
• Hey Google, turn off the Trådfri bulb.
• Hey Google, set the Trådfri bulb to 75% brightness.
• Hey Google, turn the bedroom lights off.
• Hey Google, set the bedroom lights to 50% brightness.

Ikea Trådfri Apple HomeKit Setup:

• Did you purchase your Ikea Trådfri bulbs before the Apple HomeKit integration was available? If so, you’ll need to first update the Ikea Trådfri bulbs to the latest firmware and find out your Ikea Trådfri gateway’s eight-digit HomeKit code.
• To discover the HomeKit code, you need to access the Ikea Trådfri app and navigate to ‘Settings’ > ‘Integrations’ > ‘Apple HomeKit’. Write down the HomeKit code you’re shown.
• Go to your Apple Home app and navigate to ‘Add Accessory’ > ‘Don't Have a Code or Can't Scan’ > ‘Enter Code’.
• Enter the eight-digit code you were shown.
• The aforementioned steps are necessary for those who purchased the Ikea Trådfri bulbs before the HomeKit integration. If you’ve bought them recently, you may have the HomeKit code printed on the box.
• Having completed these steps, your Ikea Trådfri gateway is now connected to your Apple Home. As such, Apple Home will discover all your connected Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs.
• As you go through all of the discovered Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs, you can change their names, enter room locations for grouping, and include them in your HomeKit favorites.
• You can now control these devices from your Apple Home app or from your Control Center (if you added them as favorites).
• You can now control your Ikea Trådfri devices from the Apple Home app or using your voice via Siri in your iDevices or Apple HomePod.

With Apple HomeKit integration, you can go beyond the basic features of the Ikea devices. You can now set complex scenes and automations as well. You can set up a chain or commands so a single command with control several of your Ikea devices simultaneously. The following are some examples.

• Hey Siri, turn on the Bedroom Light.
• Hey Siri, dim the Bedroom light by 50%.
• Hey Siri, turn off the Kitchen lights.
• Hey Siri, bedtime! (You can create this automation to make Siri turn off all the lights and plugs simultaneously.)

Do you have a range of Philips Hue bulbs and lights installed already? Are you now considering Ikea Trådfri lights and bulbs because they’re cheaper and you want a more reasonable means of expanding your smart lights?

If so, you may be concerned that you may need two different apps to control the Hue lights and the Ikea lights. However, Ikea Trådfri is perfectly compatible with Philips Hue, which is why you can control your Ikea Trådfri bulbs from the Hue app as well.

Philips Hue supports the Zigbee 3.0 protocol but also works with Zigbee Light Link protocol, because of which it can also support your Ikea Trådfri devices. As such, if you already have a Hue, you don’t even need an Ikea Trådfri gateway.

While you can technically connect Ikea Trådfri to your Philips Hue, this isn’t the most elegant solution. Connecting the two devices can be quite painful, time-consuming, and you need to follow several different steps to accomplish that.

Make sure all of your Ikea Trådfri bulbs are updated with the latest firmware. If you bought your Ikea Trådfri devices recently, they’ll already have the latest firmware and you can skip this step. If not, you’ll have to update the devices from the Ikea Trådfri app — a process that may take several hours. You can do so by following these steps:

• Turn your Ikea Trådfri bulbs on.
• In your Ikea Trådfri app, go to ‘Devices’.
• Select the bulbs you want to remove and tap ‘Remove’ > ‘Proceed’ > ‘Remove’. Once you do that, the light’s icon will disappear from the app.
• Now you need to factory reset your Ikea Trådfri bulbs. Hold down the power button six times — the bulb will blink the sixth time to indicate that it’s been reset.

Connect your Ikea Trådfri to the Philips Hue Bridge

• Connecting your Ikea Trådfri to the Hue Bridge requires a lot of patience.
• You’ll have to bring all of the devices extremely close to the Hue Bridge, almost touching them, to establish a connection.
• Turn all other Zigbee devices off to minimize interferences. Turn all your Hue bulbs off as well.
• Go to the Hue app and tap ‘Add Light’ to search for new Ikea Trådfri bulbs. If they don’t show up, repeat the process until they do.

Just like the aforementioned Philips Hue Bridge, the Samsung SmartThings Hub is also compatible with a Zigbee protocol. As such, if you already have a SmartThings Hub, you don’t need to purchase an Ikea Trådfri gateway.

If your Ikea Trådfri devices are already connected to the Ikea Trådfri gateway, you’ll need to first disconnect them in order to connect to the SmartThings hub. Once you’ve done that, the following steps will help you connect your Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs to the SmartThings hub:

• In your SmartThings app, tap the ‘+’ icon and select ‘Device’.
• Tap ‘IKEA’ > ‘Lighting’ > ‘Start’.
• Choose your SmartThings hub for the device.
• Add the device to a room and tap ‘Next’.
• The SmartThings app will detect your light and you’ll be able to control it with your SmartThings app.

1. Create Moods: With smart lights, you can dim the lights, make them warmer, or change the shade. As such, smart lights offer a high degree of customization with which you create specific moods for your home.
2. Schedules: You can create smart schedules for when the lights should come on or off automatically. For example, you can set the lights to turn off at a certain time of the night or come on during the evening. This makes them extremely convenient.
3. Remote and Voice Controls: No longer do you need to go around your entire home, making sure all the lights are turned off at night. You can simply control all of your lights wherever you are using your smartphone app or even your voice via Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri.
4. Safety: Smart lights and bulbs have ‘Away from Home’ features with which you can turn the lights on and off when you’re not home to make it seem like you’re home, thus deterring burglaries.
5. Creative Lighting: Some smart lights come with a wide range of color options so you can color-coordinate your lights with your walls, time of the day, weather, etc.
6. Energy Saving: Some smart plugs monitor the energy consumption of the device connected to the device. This allows you to monitor how much energy you’re spending on certain devices and thus become more energy-efficient and cost-efficient as a household.
7. Parental Restrictions: You can control the smart plugs and lights in your children’s rooms to make sure they turn off at a specific time of the night, thus ensuring they go to bed and don’t watch TV or play video games.
8. Gentle Awakening: You can set up your smart lights to gradually increase in brightness when you want to wake up. You can also select the shade of light you want at the time. As such, you can program the light to imitate natural sunlight, making you wake up naturally and gently.
9. Cooking: With smart plugs, cooking a meal becomes a lot easier. You can connect your crockpot, microwave, or oven to the smart plug to set timers and schedules for when they should turn off. As such, you don’t have to actively remember the dish when you’re going about your day doing other things.
10. Perfect Temperature: Connect your air conditioners, room heaters, or fans to the smart plugs to set schedules and ensure you always have the perfect temperature.

As you can see, there’s a lot to unpack with the Ikea Trådfri range of smart lights and plugs. For some, these smart lights and plugs will be the most affordable means of expanding their smart home. For others, it will be riddled with inconveniences.

Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs are certainly minimalist in terms of features and functionality. They can do the bare minimum of remotely turning your lights and plugs on/off, dimming the lights, and changing the colors/shades.

The range of colors is limited to a maximum of 20 while other smart lights offer thousands of colors and shades. Furthermore, even the remote control capacity is limited because you need to be connected to the same WiFi network as the Ikea Trådfri gateway. As such, you can turn the lights on or off using your IKEA app if you’re at work — you can only do so if you’re connected to Alexa, HomeKit, Google Home, etc.

While Ikea Trådfri offers minimal features and functions, their setup is actually quite unnecessarily complicated. To successfully connect the Ikea Trådfri lights and plugs, you need the Ikea Trådfri gateway (or any other Zigbee-based hub), a steering device, and the smartphone app. That’s a lot of complexity when you can also find smart plugs and lights for which you don’t need anything more than a single smartphone app.

The biggest advantage of these lights and plugs is that they’re compatible with Alexa, Google Home, and Apple HomeKit. As such, those platforms can increase their range of features by allowing you to create intelligent and creative automation coupled with voice navigation.

On the one hand, the minimal features are justified because of the low price range. However, you also have to consider the cost of the steering device and the Ikea Trådfri gateway — so the overall cost actually becomes pretty expensive if you’re planning on just getting one or two smart bulbs and plugs.

If you’re creating an entire ecosystem of Ikea Trådfri devices with a wide range of bulbs and plugs, then you can go for this because a large number of devices will offset the cost of the Ikea Trådfri gateway and steering device.

Alternatively, if you already have a smart hub like SmartThings Hub or Philips Hue hub, you can get Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs because you won’t need an additional gateway since Ikea Trådfri is compatible with all of the Zigbee-based smart hubs. In that case, expanding your range of smart lights and plugs with Ikea Trådfri will be far more reasonable than getting other Philips Hue devices.

That pretty much sums up what Ikea Trådfri is all about. I hope this article has helped you decide if you want to invest in them!

Yes, Ikea Trådfri smart lighting does work with Apple HomeKit.

Ikea Trådfri is compatible with Philips Hue. As such, you can connect all your Ikea Trådfri devices, including the motion sensor, to the Philips Hue bridge. The following is a broad overview of the steps necessary to connect your Ikea Trådfri devices to the Hue bridge:

• Update all of your Ikea Trådfri bulbs.

• Bring the Ikea Trådfri devices close to the Hue to connect them.

• In the Hue app, tap ‘Add Light’ to integrate them.

The following steps will help you add Ikea Trådfri to the SmartThings hub:

• If you have an Ikea Trådfri gateway, disconnect it from your Ikea Trådfri devices.

• In your SmartThings app, navigate to ‘+’ > ‘Device’ > ‘IKEA’ > ‘Lighting’ > ‘Start’.

• Choose your SmartThings hub.

• Add the Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs to connect them.

You can pair your Ikea Trådfri remote to the Ikea Trådfri gateway and devices in the following methods:

• After connecting the Ikea Trådfri gateway, tap the remote to the gateway and hold down the pairing button.
• Bring the Ikea Trådfri remote close to all of Ikea Trådfri bulbs and tap the pairing button for a few seconds until they appear in your smartphone app.

If you want to reset the Ikea Trådfri gateway completely, including removing all the connected devices, follow these steps:

• In your Ikea Trådfri app, navigate to ‘Devices’ to select the individual devices and remove them. After selecting a device, tap ‘Remove’ > ‘Proceed’ > ‘Remove’. Do this for all the connected devices to remove them from the Ikea Trådfri gateway.
• Factory reset the Ikea Trådfri bulbs and plugs by holding down the power button six times repeatedly until the bulbs start blinking.
• Hold down the Reset button in the Ikea Trådfri gateway.

You can only connect the Ikea Trådfri bulbs to the gateway if you’ve also got a steering device paired to the gateway. You need to purchase an Ikea Trådfri remote, wireless dimmer, or motion sensor and pair them to your gateway first to successfully add the Ikea Trådfri bulbs.

No, you can’t control the Ikea Trådfri bulbs or plugs with the steering device alone. You also need an Ikea Trådfri gateway connected to the IKEA Home Smart app.

I have several Ikea Trådfri bulbs connected to my Ikea Trådfri remote and motion sensor but they’ve gone out of sync. How do I sync them again?

To sync all of your Ikea Trådfri bulbs again, you need to turn all of the connected bulbs off and then turn them back on. If that doesn’t work, factory reset the bulbs by deleting them from the IKEA Home Smart app and holding down the power button six times. However, if you factory reset the devices, you’ll have to start the installation all over again.