We unpack everything on Ikea's range of smart home devices
Ikea is now a major player in the smart home. That’s right, the Swedish furniture giant isn’t just here to help you furnish your college house with chairs. It launched its Trådfri smart lights a few years back and has since followed up with a heck of a lot more connected smart home gadgets.
There’s smart plug, a motion sensor, a smart button,the first fruits of its partnership with Sonos – the Symfonisk speakers – and there are even smart blinds on sale as well.
Ikea says its customers bought 5 million smart bulbs and accessories in the last financial year, so it’s clear the furniture behemoth is going to keep adding to the line-up.
Sure, you might know your Dagstorp from your Knutstorp, but do you know the ins and outs of Trådfri? We’re here to help you put together your Trådfri knowledge like a Bygstad flat-pack. We’ll explain how it all works, what it works with, what you need to get set up, etc etc.
Right now, Trådfri encompasses a range of lights, blinds, Zigbee repeaters and plugs. There’s also a remote control, which acts as a pairing button – we’ll get to that. First of all, here’s how it works.
Ikea Trådfri: Smart home ecosystem
Like Philips Hue and SmartThings, Ikea Trådfri encompasses a whole smart home ecosystem. Everything can be controlled using a smartphone app and digital assistants, but there’s also a remote control should you prefer to go slightly more old school. Or, there are devices like the Trådfri wireless dimmer, which gives you another tactile way to control those lights
In terms of voice assistants, Ikea’s Trådfri supports Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple’s HomeKit, the last one meaning you can also use Siri to control your lights and plugs. This voice support is much-needed, as the Ikea app itself is lacking on automations or even the ability to control your kit remotely.
However, an important caveat is that you do need a hub – the Trådfri Gateway – to make everything work, which can be bought separately or in a starter kit.
However, because Trådfri is Zigbee, you can also connect the devices directly to Zigbee enabled Echo smart speakers, or a Samsung SmartThings Hub instead. You can actually connect them directly to the Philips Hue app too, although that method is a little… fiddly.
You might be wondering why you should consider Ikea when Philips, Lifx and the rest of the gang seem to have this market covered. Quite simply, price. The Ikea range is super cheap, with bulbs starting at £6, and unless you’re picking up a starter kit, don’t expect to pay anything more than £36.
So let’s get into the kit.
How to set up Ikea Trådfri
Ikea Trådfri can play nice with wider ecosystems such as Alexa and Google Assistant, but each has its own setup requirements.
Below you’ll find guides to each of them, as well as a guide to using your Trådfri lights with a motion sensor, whether it’s Ikea’s own or another brand
- How to connect your Ikea Trådfri smart bulbs to Apple HomeKit
- How to set up your Trådfri lights with a motion sensor
- How to connect your Ikea lights to Google Home
- How to get Ikea Trådfri set up with Alexa
- How to get Ikea Trådfri lights working with Philips Hue
Ikea Trådfri: The bulbs, plugs, blinds and more
This a selection of the ever-expanding Trådfri range. As we said, you can expect this lineup to grow throughout 2021.
Ikea Trådfri Gateway kit
£50, ikea.com
This is the jumping-off point. The starter kit is the most expensive thing in the range, but it’ll get you up and running with a hub, two bulbs and a remote control.
That hub is essential (unless you’re connecting via an Echo, Hue or SmartThings) so this is a good place to start if you don’t have any Trådfri kit in your house.
You can also buy the Gateway on its own for £22
Ikea Trådfri smart lights
Starts at £6, ikea.com
We’re grouping the individual smart light bulbs together as the difference between them is mostly a matter of lumens and fittings. And Ikea’s range of smart lights is ever growing
However one important thing to know is that only one offers a range of colors, and comes with the option of a bundled dimmer. Otherwise, when you’re browsing different bulbs, pay attention to how much variation you’ll get in the white tones
The newest entry to the line-up is the smart filament light bulb (the methodically named Trådfri LED bulb E26 250 lumen), which boasts a warm 2200 Kelvin glow and the LED has a life-cycle of approximately 25,000 hours.
If you already have Ikea under counter lights you can now make these smart using the new Trådfri drivers, which come in 10W and 20W variants.
Ikea Trådfri wireless motion sensor
£12, ikea.com
The Ikea Trådfri motion sensor is solely for use with its lights, letting you activate select bulbs when movement is detected.
The sensor can be placed up to 30 feet away from the light (with no walls blocking it) and can detect motion up to 15 feet away.
Although we have had (minor) success getting a Trådfri motion sensor working outside of a Gateway, with a SmartThings Hub, it’s best to keep it in house
However, you don’t actually need a Gateway to connect a sensor to a Trådfri bulb, they can simply pair for basic automations.
Ikea Trådfri wireless dimmer
£6, ikea.com
Not ready to go all-in on the app or an assistant? Ikea’s wireless dimmer can connect to 10 different bulbs at one time, and it comes with a two-year battery life (after which you can just swap the battery out).
It also uses a magnet that makes it easy to mount to the wall bracket.
Ikea Trådfri remote control
£6, ikea.com
For a more complex manual control, it’s worth considering the slightly more expensive – but still cheap – remote control.
This device not only controls smart lights but also smart blinds as well.
Ikea Trådfri smart plug
Starts at £9.99, ikea.com
Like other smart plugs, Ikea’s power switch can turn any of your other “dumb” devices into connected ones, letting you control the outlet remotely.
And you can tie it into your routines on your smart home platform of choice. Comes with a smart plug remote for an extra £8.
Ikea Trådfri Zigbee signal repeater
£8, ikea.com
Simply a plug that you can use to charge your smartphone using the USB slot, Ikea’s signal repeater’s main reason for being is to enhance the signal between your Trådfri bulbs but the good news is that it’s also a pretty useful Zigbee repeater for non-Ikea tech that’s connected to your smart home hub.
Read our guide to Zigbee if you’re not entirely sure what that means.
Ikea Fyrtur and Kadrilj smart blinds
From £90, ikea.com
Ikea’s motorized smart blind pair are essentially battery-powered blinds that interact with the Ikea Home smart app and the Trådfri gateway; that also means they can sync up with Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple HomeKit.
Both Kadrilj and Fytur look fairly similar to your regular blinds – not a shock, obviously – with the differentiator coming in the form of a small compartment for the battery. Fyrtur are also block-out blinds; so are more suited for bedrooms. Both ranges come in an array of different sizes.
You can pick them up in store in the US, they are available to order online and in store in Europe.
Aside from the smarts, you can operate the blinds with the included remote control and one remote can also operate multiple blinds.
Ikea Trådfri shortcut button
£6
Only available in Europe at the moment, Ikea’s shortcut button – like any smart home button worth its salt – lets your program pre-set controls for your connected devices, giving you another option for controlling your tech, aside from the app and your voice.
HomeKit compatibility is said to be incoming in an upcoming Gateway update, so we’re hopeful this also means that a US launch is on the horizon, as well.
Ikea Sonos Symfonisk speakers
From £99, ikea.com
Not technically part of the Trådfri line-up, but definitely part of Ikea’s big smart home push – the Symfonisk speakers, made in partnership with Sonos are noe the cheapest entry point to the Sonos multiroom speaker family
There’s two models on sale – the Bookshelf and the Table Lamp. Both speakers are Wi-Fi-connected and will work with Sonos multi-room. Neither have smart assistants built in, but you’ll be able to control the Symfonisk speakers using Alexa and Google Assistant, through the Sonos One, Beam or other Alexa-enabled speakers.
There is also a dedicated remote control on offer for these Ikea branded Sonos speakers, as well.
