Legrand is a kind of corporations you’ve by no means heard of, however that owns a passel of acquainted manufacturers, together with Nuvo (high-end multi-room audio), Da-lite (video projector screens), and Sanus (show mounts). The French conglomerate is finest identified for making sensible dwelling and residential theater merchandise for high-end homebuilders and customized installers, however it’s been making strikes within the DIY house these days, buying Netatmo (security cameras, weather trackers, etc.) in 2018, and now introducing a bevy of sensible switches and sensible plugs (six in complete) beneath its personal title.
Figuring out which of the six merchandise—4 in-wall switches and two sensible plugs—you would possibly want might be daunting, so right here’s the lowdown.
For in-wall switches, two are dimmers and two are customary on/off items. While all 4 work over Wi-Fi, you’ll want the mannequin HKRL50WH dimmer ($63) or the model HKRL10WH switch ($46) if you wish to incorporate them into an Apple HomePackage-based sensible dwelling. The model HKRL60WH dimmer ($60) and model HKRL20WH switch ($40) are similar in look to the aforementioned merchandise, and also you’ll want certainly one of them as a companion change in the event you’re putting in them in a three-way configuration. Got it?
The face of Legrand’s HomePackage-compatible sensible dimmer is nothing if not busy.
The two sensible plugs particularly differ solely of their assist for dimming. The Plug-In Tru-Universal Dimmer reviewed right here ($46) has two management buttons on its face, whereas the model HKRP10 Plug-In Switch ($40) has only a lone energy button.
Legrand Smart Tru-Universal Dimmer
The in-wall dimmer change has an uncommon {hardware} design for a sensible change. Wires have to be threaded right into a terminal slot, after which secured with terminal screws. This is a useful design if house is tight contained in the junction field, because it eliminates the necessity for further pigtails and wire nuts—athough each are included in the event you want them. (You’ll in all probability want to make use of no less than one for the white/impartial wire, and one for the hardwired floor pigtail.)
The design of the change itself is a bit busy, with an on/off paddle, a separate dimmer paddle, and a hardwired kill change, all in a row. LEDs alongside the dimmer paddle offer you an thought of the place the general brightness setting is, and a single LED on the high of the gadget illuminates when the sunshine is turned off. (It can perform type of like a nightlight, however there’s no strategy to disable it.) Strangely, the change cowl is available in two items. There’s a black middleman chassis that have to be connected to the change itself through screws, after which a white cowl plate snaps on high of that.
From a {hardware} perspective, a lot of the change’s features are intuitive: Double-tap up or down to achieve most brightness or flip the change off, and maintain the dimmer paddle both strategy to fine-tune issues.
Christopher Null / IDGThe backstabs on Legrand’s HKRL50WH sensible dimmer scale back—however don’t eradicate—the necessity for pigtails.
With the {hardware} put in, your subsequent process is to show to the Legrand app so as to add it to your community. Note that there are no less than three completely different Legrand apps within the Apple Store. The one you need known as “Legrand Home.” As anticipated, it’s an ordinary management app that works with all HomePackage gadgets, so any beforehand linked HomePackage gadgets will present up within the app instantly after set up.
Christopher Null / IDGFailed firmware updates left me watching this error message.
It’s right here the place I bumped into my largest drawback with the gadget. While I had no hassle scanning the HomePackage code and connecting the change to Wi-Fi, the Legrand app subsequent prompt that I wanted a firmware replace.
When I tapped the replace button, the change froze, unable to finish the replace and disconnecting from the community solely. I attempted resetting the change a number of occasions, and even waited in a single day for the replace to finish, however it froze each time. Legrand tech assist was baffled and ultimately changed the change—with one whose firmware had already been up to date.
The Legrand Home app isn’t probably the most streamlined, and a few curious shade palette decisions can go away you with mild beige textual content on a darkish beige background in sure components of the app. It’s each laborious to learn and unappealing to take a look at. The app can be a bit tough to make use of past merely turning the change on or setting the dimmer stage. To automate the change, you will need to first create a scene for it, after which assign that scene to an automation. This is a multi-step course of that novices gained’t discover intuitive. That stated, scheduling and key options reminiscent of geofencing labored high quality in my testing. As properly, the change helps Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri for voice management.
The $58 price ticket positions this gadget close to the highest finish of the market. Though a number of gadgets (just like the iDevices dimmer) are much more costly, many name-brand choices hover across the $50 vary or decrease. Legrand sadly presents nothing of actual worth that elevates its product above the remainder of the sphere to advantage the additional outlay—even when they do promise to replace the firmware for you.
Legrand Smart Plug-In Tru-Universal Dimmer
LegrandLegrand’s plus-sized HomePackage-compatible sensible plug has dimmer buttons to the proper of the outlet.
The design of the Legrand Plug-In dimmer is shocking primarily as a consequence of its total dimension. It’s wider than a receptacle plate and, extra importantly, additionally fairly tall. The top is significantly better than the standard sensible plug, and it positively blocks the higher socket in the event you use it within the decrease socket on a two-outlet receptacle. The total look isn’t all that aesthetically pleasing, its sole three-prong outlet offset to the left and two chunky buttons showing to the proper. A big HomePackage sticker is positioned on the highest of the gadget, which is handy, but in addition slightly unappealing.
The excellent news is that there’s no {hardware} set up problem with a plug-in dimmer—however simply as with Legrand’s in-wall dimmer, I had the identical concern with a failed firmware replace with this plug-in model. Again, Legrand despatched a substitute with already up-to-date firmware so I may proceed testing.
LegrandLegrand’s sensible plug is sufficiently big to dam the decrease outlet in a duplex.
Functionally, this product works about the identical approach because the in-wall dimmer. Using the plug-in dimmer through the app was similar to that of the in-wall product, and I had the very same expertise with this product’s software program. The {hardware} is nevertheless extra restricted. There are solely two buttons to work with, they usually’re naturally much less intuitive than the wall change.
Holding down both button brightens or dims by means of solely 5 ranges, brightening or dimming by 20 % of complete energy for every second you maintain the button. (In distinction, you may set the brightness by one-percent increments within the app.) Double-tap the highest button to rapidly tune the dimmer to 100-percent brightness.
As with the in-wall change, a small LED on the face of the dimmer is illuminated each time the change is powered off; once more, serving as a tiny nightlight of kinds.
Most plug-in sensible switches don’t embody a dimmer choice, and those who do might be dear. And like Lutron’s plug-in dimmer, they are usually homely. At $35, the Smart Plug-In Tru-Universal Dimmer is a greater deal than Legrand’s in-wall change; however in the event you don’t completely want a hardwired dimmer on board, your sense of aesthetics would possibly ship you to a different sort of add-on plug altogether.