CES 2021: Lutron Debuts New Outdoor Smart Plug for Caséta Lighting System

[MacRumors]

Lutron, known for its range of Caséta smart home lighting products, today announced the upcoming launch of the Caséta Outdoor Smart Plug.

The Caséta Outdoor Smart Plug has an IP-65 water and dust resistance rating that allow it to be protected even in the rain. Lutron says that it is built to last and will survive severe weather "season after season."

The Smart Plug can be used for holiday lights, string lighting, some motors and pumps, and other outdoor lighting options. It is HomeKit compatible and can be controlled in the Home app or through the Lutron app for scheduling purposes. There's a built-in smart timer that keeps it on the right time year-round, even through Daylight Savings.

The Caséta Outdoor Smart Plug can be used with a Lutron Smart Bridge for increased reliability and responsiveness, plus the plug can be paired with other Caséta lighting products.

Lutron will start selling the Caséta Outdoor Smart Plug in late March at Amazon, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Lowe's, and it will be priced at $79.95.

Article Link: CES 2021: Lutron Debuts New Outdoor Smart Plug for Caseta Lighting System

 

[notabadname]

This has been done for years. A little late to the party. I have use out door smart-plugs for years on water features, seasonal lighting, and more. My favorite is Aoycocr Smart Outlet with 2 Sockets

 

[TonyC28]

It seems Home Depot isn’t selling the iHome ISP100 at their reduced price anymore so this price is pretty much in line now. Caseta has been rock-solid for me so this plug is surely a good choice.

 

[hybrid_x]

Caséta is rock-solid and reliable from what I've heard. It'll be interesting to see this market evolve as more Thread-enabled devices come to market. It would be great to use devices like this without a hub/bridge/gateway.

 

[countryside]

Nice to see more people getting into the outdoor space, especially Lutron. My whole house uses Lutron switches.

I use this outdoors, it actually has two AC ports:
meross Smart Outdoor Plug, Waterproof WiFi Outdoor Outlet, Compatible with Apple HomeKit

 

[pubb]

Seems like the holiday season would have been the time to launch this, but hey.

 

[Kabeyun]

Just want to point out that as part of the Caséta system, this plug won’t work with Lutron’s RA2 Select or Radio RA systems. Those two are interchangeable but Caséta devices won’t work with RA hubs. This is too bad, because afaik the RA systems don’t have outdoor rated devices.

 

[macwhiztech]

This is a no-brainer for HomeKit enthusiasts. The Caséta devices just work, first time, every time. Hue devices often fail to respond, iHome devices go out to lunch and need a reboot every few months (and iHome's leaving the market), but Caséta just plain works. I have never had to troubleshoot a Caséta device.

 

[Rychiar]

Figures they release one now that I just had an electrician put in 2 iDevices in wall outlets into outdoor power receptacles outside my house. Of course I was really hoping Lutron would make one of those

 

[jib2]

I am very interested in this. In my home, Lutron Caseta devices always work, without problems. I did buy a Belkin/Wemo outdoor outlet this winter, but like the other Wemo outlets that I own, it disconnects, requiring resetting, at fairly frequent intervals.

 

[mikeyteh]

As with all Caseta products, this thing is about 4 times more than the market price for similar devices. There are a wide assortment of smart outdoor plugs out there already that don't require a Caseta bridge, have two plugs for two separate devices, and run you about $20.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

I have installed Caseta dimmers throughout my home. I just hate it that it's somewhat overpriced.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

I am very interested in this. In my home, Lutron Caseta devices always work, without problems. I did buy a Belkin/Wemo outdoor outlet this winter, but like the other Wemo outlets that I own, it disconnects, requiring resetting, at fairly frequent intervals.

Caseta uses it's own Wireless network to connect to their devices. As long as it's all within range, there shouldn't be any issues.

 

[TeamMojo]

Seems like the holiday season would have been the time to launch this, but hey.

Yep, just in time for my Christmas lights...

 

[Take Flight]

This is a no-brainer for HomeKit enthusiasts. The Caséta devices just work, first time, every time. Hue devices often fail to respond, iHome devices go out to lunch and need a reboot every few months (and iHome's leaving the market), but Caséta just plain works. I have never had to troubleshoot a Caséta device.

Best thing about Caseta is being able to tie everything together with their actual wall switches/pico remotes so normal people in the house can still control everything without apps and other nonsense.

 

[d-klumpp]

I've been largely happy with my dual-socket iDevices outdoor outlet that costs less and requires no bridge. Unfortunately, although the iDevices unit has two outlets, I was foolish to assume they could be controlled independently. They cannot.

But while I'm at it, I don't hear mention of Sylvania smart products here or other forums (e.g., Cnet). I've had very good success with Sylvania indoor outlets and bulbs and have several working daily throughout the house. The lack of mentions may be due to limited distribution, as I only see them at Menard's.

 

[Kabeyun]

This is a no-brainer for HomeKit enthusiasts. The Caséta devices just work, first time, every time. Hue devices often fail to respond, iHome devices go out to lunch and need a reboot every few months (and iHome's leaving the market), but Caséta just plain works. I have never had to troubleshoot a Caséta device.

Agree. In general it’s better to install a hub-and-spoke system where devices are controlled from a proprietary transmitter (Lutron Connect Bridges use their “Clear Connect Wireless” protocol). The other paradigm (Hue, Leviton, etc.) has each device being its own WiFi device, and that’s a recipe for headaches. We have a Lutron RA2 Select smart home with about 40 devices, mostly switches but also sensors and a couple of shades. Not only has it all been rock solid since day 1, but updates and program changes are a breeze and HomeKit integration is completely transparent.

Edit: it was correctly pointed out that Hue is not WiFi based.

 

[Derek Knight]

Caséta is rock-solid and reliable from what I've heard. It'll be interesting to see this market evolve as more Thread-enabled devices come to market. It would be great to use devices like this without a hub/bridge/gateway.

Yes, it's very reliable. 85% of my house is now on Caseta switches. We use it every single day with Siri and Alexa. My favorite is being in bed and telling Alexa it's bedtime. The house instantly eases into a restful state. I will probably buy one of these outdoor units.

 

[gadgetfreak98]

I've been largely happy with my dual-socket iDevices outdoor outlet that costs less and requires no bridge. Unfortunately, although the iDevices unit has two outlets, I was foolish to assume they could be controlled independently. They cannot.

But while I'm at it, I don't hear mention of Sylvania smart products here or other forums (e.g., Cnet). I've had very good success with Sylvania indoor outlets and bulbs and have several working daily throughout the house. The lack of mentions may be due to limited distribution, as I only see them at Menard's.

I had an iDevices HomeKit outdoor switch fail after a couple of years. When looking to replace it, I found the meross smart outdoor plug for less money, and with independent outlet control. Right now it's under $30, which is pretty cheap. On the downside, their app makes you log in to connect to your device. But fortunately, you can just directly scan the thing into the Home app and skip that. Just won't get firmware updates, but if it's working fine (which it is), no real loss there.

I'm a big Lutron Caseta user, but this one just doesn't solve or make anything better for more.

Oh, and by the way, I suddenly had all my Lutron Aurora switches suddenly flake out on me last week. Still can't get one to connect, despite factory resets...

 

[MacAddict1978]

This has been done for years. A little late to the party. I have use out door smart-plugs for years on water features, seasonal lighting, and more. My favorite is Aoycocr Smart Outlet with 2 Sockets

Not only late to the party, the person that priced this is as high as the price. Home depot had similar products for $40 at Christmas.

 

[name99]

This has been done for years. A little late to the party. I have use out door smart-plugs for years on water features, seasonal lighting, and more. My favorite is Aoycocr Smart Outlet with 2 Sockets

For HOMEKIT?
The only other option I know of is the Meross Outdoor plug, which which I have had very bad experiences and would not recommend.

The model you talk about, for example, does not support Homekit. Nor is it outdoor rated. So unclear exactly how you think it is a comparable product.

 

[name99]

This is a no-brainer for HomeKit enthusiasts. The Caséta devices just work, first time, every time. Hue devices often fail to respond, iHome devices go out to lunch and need a reboot every few months (and iHome's leaving the market), but Caséta just plain works. I have never had to troubleshoot a Caséta device.

Are there any downsides? I am very much in the market for Homekit stuff that just works, but I want it to be real homekit stuff. I don;t mind using their app for the occasional firmware update, but I want to use the full range of HomeKit automation, not their app and its limited automation functionality.

Last time I looked (some years ago) I thought most of the Lutron/Serena stuff could only be purchased by going through one of their reps and the whole "we'll come in and totally take over your house" crap, not as one at a time install by owner purchases.

 

[name99]

Agree. In general it’s better to install a hub-and-spoke system where devices are controlled from a proprietary transmitter (Lutron Connect Bridges use their “Clear Connect Wireless” protocol). The other paradigm (Hue, Leviton, etc.) has each device being its own WiFi device, and that’s a recipe for headaches. We have a Lutron RA2 Select smart home with about 40 devices, mostly switches but also sensors and a couple of shades. Not only has it all been rock solid since day 1, but updates and program changes are a breeze and HomeKit integration is completely transparent.

What you describe is certainly not true for Hue or Ikea or any Zigbee based system. Hue and Ikea have their own problems, but they're not based on WiFi (or on calling home over the internet).

 

[name99]

I am very interested in this. In my home, Lutron Caseta devices always work, without problems. I did buy a Belkin/Wemo outdoor outlet this winter, but like the other Wemo outlets that I own, it disconnects, requiring resetting, at fairly frequent intervals.

Yeah, wemo plugs are absolute garbage.
Wyze plugs are still garbage, but much less so (once a month reboot rather than once every three days).

Hue plugs and Eve plugs are both very reliable. (But not outdoors rated, and probably without outdoor range.)

 

[RMo]

The other paradigm (Hue, Leviton, etc.) has each device being its own WiFi device,

I don't know what Leviton does, but this is absolutely not true for Hue. Hue uses Zigbee (Zigbee Light Link initially, Zigbee 3.0 compatible now), and the Hue Bridge has only an Ethernet connection, so there is no Wi-Fi necessarily involved at all (and in a Light Link network, the bulbs and accessories will mostly keep functioning on their own without a Bridge, which isn't really a "hub" in that sense). Zigbee is designed to be a mesh network, so mains-powered devices acts as "repeaters" (routers in Zigbee terms) for all devices to find a path they need to other devices on the network, often the Bridge to a bulb or accessory. The latest generation also supports Bluetooth, but that's really for people who just want to use the app to control a few bulbs; you'll need the Bridge (and Zigbee) for the full feature set, which is what I'm talking about here--though it should be noted that this other option is still BT and not Wi-Fi.

This is actually one advantage Hue has over Lutron's ClearConnect protocol, which is not mesh: arbitrarily large range. Lutron lets you add up to two "extenders," but that is a fairly new feature. For more range, you'll need a "full" RA2 system where you can add more RA2 Main Repeaters or Auxiliary Repeaters. That being said, ClearConnect does have lots of advantages: not being mesh means you never have to worry about some routing oddities that occasionally plague Zigbee (but usually not with simple networks like Hue/ZLL); they use a low-frequency less-crowded bandwidth; and their products have a well-deserved solid reputation (though I'd say Hue does too).

What you mentioned, however, is one reason I wouldn't fill my house with devices like LIFX or Shelly--or even lots of HomeKit-compatible plugs I see here from time to time. Nothing against Wi-Fi itself (I do have several Wi-Fi "smart" devices), just probably not the best protocol for large numbers of these things.