Gadgets

Review: AduroSmart Eria – Complete Zigbee collection

The Dutch company AduroSmart Eria deals in smart products worldwide and works via the Zigbee protocol. This article elaborate working and products AduroSmart.

In recent weeks we have started working with the smart products from AduroSmart Eria. This Dutch company now sells the smart products worldwide and works via the Zigbee protocol. What can you expect from AduroSmart? We’ll tell you in this review.

What is it?

AduroSmart Eria has a complete collection of smart home products. From smart lamps to security products and from sensors to smart switches. We started working with eight different products. (You can see the company profile here).

  • Starter set with the bridge and two E27 Tunable Color lamps (64.95 euros)
  • Dimmable smart plug (29.95 euros)
  • Smart Plug with energy monitoring (29.95 euros)
  • Wireless Smoke Detector (37.95 euros)
  • Wireless Dimming Switch (19.95)
  • Wireless Contact Sensor (19.95 euros)
  • Extended Color LED Strip of 3 meters (59.95 euros)
  • Smart Siren (39.95 euros)

Two things are paramount at AduroSmart. First of all, the quality of the products themselves and unique features in the field of smart home. In the list above you see the Dimmable Smart Plug that you will hardly find anywhere with other manufacturers. Second, compatibility. Thanks to the Zigbee protocol, these products must not only work with Philips Hue and IKEA Tradfri, but also with SmartThings, OSRAM and KlikAanKlikUit. In addition, voice assistants such as Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and IFTTT are supported. High time to find out.

AduroSmart Eria – Installation

Before installation we download the AduroSmart app which is available for iOS and Android. After registration we can get started. Via handy steps in the app you know exactly how to install the AduroSmart Eria Bridge. You will then enter the main menu where you can immediately create different rooms. With a few simple clicks you can immediately map the entire house and it is time to add the smart products. What is striking is that you always have to perform an extra action to add a product. It is not the case that a product is immediately in connection mode after insertion. For example, you first have to switch the smart lamps on and off three times, first press the contact sensor with a paperclip for a few seconds and first press the button for a few seconds with the smart plugs. It is not insurmountable, but it is something to take into account. We treat the tested products by category.

Smart lamps and LED strip

We’ll start right away with the two products we got most excited about. The smart lamps can compete with the best smart lamps available. We tested them simultaneously with the smart lamps from Lidl in our test block and have the lamp as an extra reference LSC Smart Connect taken along. The lamps from AduroSmart win in all areas. Beautiful bright white tones that are not too cold or too warm, but can be adjusted completely. If you set the lamps to color, the light output is noticeable. Where Lidl’s lamp emits hardly any light and the lamp of LSC Smart Connect also has some difficulty, the AduroSmart color lamp is still nice and bright with beautiful saturated colors. These smart lamps have all shades of white from cold to warm and 16 million colors.

In the photos above and below you see the lamp from AduroSmart in the middle with the Lidl smart lamp on the left and the LSC Smart Connect (Action) lamp on the right.

Nothing but good about the LED strip. The length is three meters and what we often see with other brands is that the light output on the side of the plug is more than adequate, but decreases quickly as you follow the length of the strip. The LED strip of LSC Smart Connect has a lot of problems with this in particular, so I just cut off the last meter. If you look with a trained eye, you will see that the end at the LED strip of AduroSmart is slightly less bright, but this is almost invisible to the naked eye. A big plus. The colors are also nice and bright and thanks to the handy plugs you can easily extend or shorten the whole.

You can easily operate the lamps with the remote control with a range of 25 meters. With this you can turn the light on and off and increase or decrease the brightness. The remote control can be hung on the supplied holder, whereby the remote control itself remains in place via a magnet. The remote control is made of good quality plastic and feels sturdy.

Smart Plugs

The dimmable Smart Plug is an interesting smart plug, although perhaps not for everyone. This smart plug appears as a lamp in the app. The intention is that you can connect a ‘dumb lamp’ to this, which you can then switch on or off and dim or make brighter. Of course, the dumb lamp must also be able to dim. We tested it with an old-fashioned reading lamp with a (dumb) LED light. And that actually works surprisingly well. Thanks to this smart plug you can control and dim the dumb lamp remotely. You have a slider available for this. Please note that it never works as smoothly as your normal smart lamps. The steps are much smaller and the dimming really takes place in large steps of 20 percent brightness. Perhaps this works differently with other types of ‘dumb’ lamps.

The smart plug with energy monitoring is a different story. After adding it in the app and switching on the power, the smart plug burned out immediately, resulting in a considerable burning smell. Apparently a Monday morning model, because there was immediately no life in it.

Siren, contact sensor and smoke detector

With the contact sensor and siren you can secure the house. You can easily link these together in the app. The contact sensor consists of two parts that are magnetically linked together. This way you place one part on a door or window and the other part on the frame. If you let go of the magnets, you will not only receive a warning via the app, but the siren in the house will also go off. At least, that should be the intention. The contact sensor was the second product that turned out to be defective. After inserting the battery, you have to press a button with a paperclip to make the light flash. Thus, the ignition sensor went into connection mode. However, nothing at all happened. And without a contact sensor, the siren is also difficult to try out.

Fortunately, the smoke detector turned out to be working properly. You also have to enable this with a paperclip to activate the connection mode, but this worked well. The smoke detector also has a built-in siren that is loud enough to wake you up if you have a fire in the house at night. It is a nice little device that you can easily attach to the ceiling, without it being very noticeable. You don’t have to use the bridge for this either. The smart smoke detector can also serve as a standalone product. By connecting to the bridge you have a little more options and you can read the history and receive notifications. The smoke detector has to work on one battery for three years, but you can easily replace it afterwards.

Two of the eight products were found not to work. For now, let’s just stick to a very unfortunate set of circumstances, because the quality of the other products is beyond question. We therefore consciously choose not to make a value judgment about this. AduroSmart immediately sent replacement products. As soon as these have been tested, we will adjust the review. The products that do work well are of good quality. We can really tell that we are not dealing with yet another Tuya clone of well-known retail chains, but that these products and the app are built with care, knowledge and love. AduroSmart is really in a higher segment in that respect. The build quality is excellent, the packaging is luxurious and the app is also of a very high quality.

AduroSmart app

The AduroSmart app is one of the better apps we’ve seen lately. It is clear and very user-friendly. You immediately know where to find which function and you can create rooms or add devices in a few clicks. The app works with large tiles for your rooms and within that room you will find the designated devices. The emphasis on compatibility with other brands can be found directly in the app. As soon as you want to add a product, you will be asked which manufacturer. At the top you will find AduroSmart Eria itself and all kinds of other brands below. Adding another brand is a piece of cake thanks to the Zigbee protocol that other manufacturers also use. Even smart IKEA blinds can be added to the AduroSmart bridge. The reverse is also true. You can also easily add the AduroSmart smart lamp in, for example, Philips Hue, making it a cheaper alternative to the more expensive lamps from other brands.

If you don’t want all of that and just use one system, it’s good to know that the AduroSmart app has all the functions you could wish for. In terms of automations, you have many options for making rules or creating scenes. IFTTT is also supported, giving you even more options. And for those who like to give voice commands, there is also support for Google Home and Amazon Alexa. Unfortunately, HomeKit is not supported.

AduroSmart Eria – Conclusion

It is nice to be able to work with a segment higher among the cheap smarthome collections of the last few months. We can immediately notice that there is a difference in quality. And that while the smart products of AduroSmart are still very affordable. The app is very user-friendly and well-organized, the build quality of the products is excellent and the compatibility with various other brands is a big plus.

Whether really every product from every manufacturer is compatible, we should leave that open. The list of supporting products is so large that you can easily spend a few months here. With this series of products, AduroSmart has created an excellent smarthome collection that offers all the functions you can expect for most users.