Wifi Lights - Wireless Lighting Starter Kit product reviews

I won these lights from the KIWIreviews Christmas competition and I was excited about it as my youngest son needs a night light or he fights going to sleep as he says the dark has monsters who want to hurt him and I was liking the sound of the colours so I can change it once in a while.

First I was sent the Screw bulbs and I have the bayonet settings so had to contact the supplier to get these swapped over, they offered me two options either I drive over 40 minutes out of my way to get it changed over or send it back to them at my own expense. I thought it might be nice to take a drive, the kids were excited to get the lights working.

I got them back home and had to change over some of the bulbs immediately so I could test it that night, it was the middle of the day so a bit too bright to see if the lights delivered all that they promised. I am very happy to say it was easy to use the control and get the lights working, colour changing and dimmer were in demand from day one. Have to keep the control out of the reach of the kids or I'm likely to check on them and find they have the disco setting in operation so they can watch the lights flash and change colour.

I had no problems getting the app to download onto my phone and thought well I'm excited to be able to control the lights over the net so I can turn lights on from the car when we have gone out at night. First I found that the instructions weren't in very much detail and nothing I did would get it to work. I did try contacting the suppliers and tried to explain the problem but nothing they have suggested will get it to work either. I have asked for more detailed instructions, step by step would be perfect but so far have heard nothing more from them and it has been four days.

Overall I would recommend these lights as they are pretty cool, just some of the colours are a bit too bright to be used as a night light (blue and yellow mainly) and I love the dimmer option. Pity the app will not work but it is probably a work in progress.

When I saw these were coming to KIWIreviews I was very excited to see how they would do and so even more excited when I got a set of my very own, especially seeing as how it would generally be out of my price range.

The first thing that we had to get used to was the feel of the light bulbs, they feel thicker and heavier than most light bulbs and also have a metal looking part to them which makes it feel a bit strange to hold on to. You need to have a screw socket to be able to use these but the good thing is that you can get a converter should you only have bayonet fittings (our house has a mixture of both so no worries there). You also get a remote (for which you need to supply your own batteries, 2xAAA) and a Wi-Fi bridge device.

The remote took a bit of figuring out to get it to work, the instructions state to push a certain button within three seconds to link and though I did that several times it wouldn't link, I ended up having to hit the button the instant I turned the light on at the wall to get it to link the first time, the second time didn't need to be as instant which was good. I did have problems with the remote a couple of times when I was trying to turn Zone 2 on and it was also affecting Zone 1, which isn't meant to happen, and took a bit of fiddling around to get it to work properly again. You can also go into different modes, aka Strobe, Disco etc. which are fun but I find that the buttons to speed it up and slow it doesn't seem to do much without hitting it a few times.

We currently have one WiFi light in our bedroom and one in the living room. What I really liked was that I can be in my bedroom and turn on and off the light in the living room, all the way at the other end of the house and vice versa. The only times this caused problems was when one of us was in one room doing something and the other in the other room doing something and the lights suddenly got turned off on us or it was expected we put on some BeeGee's and start disco dancing.

You can download an app for your phone or tablet but despite trying on both my phone and my tablet I couldn't download the app at all. On my phone I can't even search for it and have to find it via link in an email and the tablet I was able to search for it, however on both devices I am told that it is incompatible with my device and so I can't download it at all to trial it, which is a shame because at least with the phone or my tablet I can put on a password and the kids can't get in to it as at the moment my two year old LOVES to play with the remote and turn the lights to different colours at bed time.

These are lovely and bright when at full blast, just as bright any other light bulb which means it doesn't feel out of place with the other light in the living room. The dimming option is perfect for watching a movie too, some light so you don't trip over things and for the bedroom when you want some light but don't want to wake the sleeping child. The different colours are a lot of fun, my two year old loves to go to sleep with a colour and it has proven to be a good "night light" for her. Setting it on disco is lots of fun and I like seeing the effect it has on soft toys and my daughters blanket (making the objects seem to change colour too).

Apart from the app not working for me, and so not being able to trial it, I really do like these lights. I'll try and remember to come back and write a comment when one finally bites the dust.

NOTE: These bulbs are available in Bayonet and Edison (screw) fittings - an adaptor can be purchased from your nearest electrical retailer or wholesaler, or you can specify the fitting type you prefer when you order your Wifi Lights

I am many, many years past the glory days of my youth, when these would have been an amazing aid to my social standings, but alas, I was just born earlier than I should have been. Frankly, these bulbs are simply amazing.

Sure, they don't have all the extra bells and whistles that one could desire in such a device, but they are pretty darned close. Each remote comes with a master on/off switch and four 'group' on/off switches, allowing you to control every bulb at once, or up to four clusters of as many bulbs as you need. This means you can have four rooms, each able to have it's own colour theme, all from the one remote... or smartphone!

One of the neatest aspects is that you can download a small app and turn your smartphone(s) into controllers for the wifi lights with the use of a small wifi bridge unit - that you power by plugging it into any available USB port using the cable supplied in the starter kit . This means that your lighting controls are as close as your phone. Once I got this working - which unfortunately proved a little bit fiddly thanks to my choice of security settings on my wifi network - I was able to adjust the lighting in two different areas of the house from outside in the garage. This allowed me to signal my wife or my son when I needed assistance with anything, without the need to yell out or send a TXT - just activate their 'zone' and run my thumb around the control wheel to create a colourful "call to arms" for their help.

As someone who does "product photography" quite often, I can see a definite place for these lights in studios as well. Though pitched for the home-use market, these bulbs would be equally, if not more, useful in a photography studio, theatre foyer, indoor arena... anywhere that you could possibly imagine using lighting as a cue for attention or a need for delicate colour-correction to ambient lighting.

Overall, though they do, at first, seem to be very expensive, the very low power usage will add up to significant long-term savings more than paying off the purchase price. Add to that the extremely long lifespan of these bulbs means you will also save on replacement costs. If you run the numbers, it's really a no-brainer that these lights are actually a real bargain! Plus they add a whole lot of fun to the mix too... and where's the down-side to that?!