Leviton Decora Smart or Lutron Caseta

[gsmornot]

Lutron has a solid offering of switches with very good reliability. I have already bought a Lutron hub to be ready for switches once I figured out what I wanted and where. In the mean time CES 2017 brought the announcement for Leviton Decora smart. Now I'm wanting more information about Leviton since the switches look almost identical to what I have throughout my house. My hold up with Lutron is the look of the switch. Its not that they look bad, they just don't match my current decor as well as Leviton.

My question here is what you guys think about the two options. Leviton will likely be Bluetooth. I do have a centrally located AppleTV 4. I should be within range. Would you guys wait it out until April and see what they do or based on experience with Bluetooth not bother to wait.

Basically this is a discussion to cover the differences in the two as more is learned.

 

[chuyn]

Just wanted to chime in that Lutron's "clear connect" has been absolutely flawless. Before using a hub, the pico remote to dimmer connection never failed. With the hub, the connection is quick enough that sliding the dimming slider in the app will have the lights adjusting realtime.

Out of curiosity though, why did you buy just the hub on its own beforehand? In Canada, there's a large savings to buy it bundled with a dimmer. A hub on its own is $100. A dimmer/pico remote package is $70. The dimmer/pico/hub starter pack is only $120.

Leviton's switches are supposed to be hubless, so I would assume Bluetooth. In my house, Bluetooth isn't always reliable for me.

 

[gsmornot]

Just wanted to chime in that Lutron's "clear connect" has been absolutely flawless. Before using a hub, the pico remote to dimmer connection never failed. With the hub, the connection is quick enough that sliding the dimming slider in the app will have the lights adjusting realtime.

Out of curiosity though, why did you buy just the hub on its own beforehand? In Canada, there's a large savings to buy it bundled with a dimmer. A hub on its own is $100. A dimmer/pico remote package is $70. The dimmer/pico/hub starter pack is only $120.

Leviton's switches are supposed to be hubless, so I would assume Bluetooth. In my house, Bluetooth isn't always reliable for me.

Why get the hub already? Two reasons: I found a seller on eBay selling for $39 and all of my switches and outlets are light almond. The kits only come in white. It would have been handy to have white in the house but the builder did not chose to take that route. Thanks for the reply.

I should add too. The main thing holding me up is the fact that over and over people say the Lutron connection has been fantastic. I just wish they made the switches in the paddle style to match my house. Ultimately I may ignore that difference if it turns out the Leviton is hard to communicate with in my house. Also, I don't want to wait until April to find out. Last thing, it does not look like Leviton will have a remote like the Pico so....

 

[chuyn]

I agree on the look. I've used Lutron and Insteon and prefer the look of the Insteon paddles but the quality of the Lutron. The thing I didn't like about the Insteon paddle was it just didn't feel solid. It was a bit wobbly and the clicking for on/off felt a bit flimsy. Lutron's feels much better for quality. But it's very flat, it's not easy to quickly feel which button is which.

Looks like Leviton is using the same style as Insteon but with a separate little bar for dimming. I have an old leviton dimmer that uses the same bar and I like how it feels. I hope the paddle feels good (my old dimmer is just an on/off button, not a rocker like what the new Leviton HomeKit dimmers look like).

The pico remote was a lot handier than I expected. It makes it really easy to add a three-way switch (or more) where you didn't have one before using the wall mount kits. They look just like another Lutron dimmer on the wall. Another bonus is if you do have an existing three-way, the $70 dimmer/pico combo is very inexpensive for replacing that three-way. The dimmer replaces one switch, the pico takes the place of the other. I can't find info on how Leviton would do it, but most others like Insteon would require two separate $60-70 dimmers.

 

[gsmornot]

I agree on the look. I've used Lutron and Insteon and prefer the look of the Insteon paddles but the quality of the Lutron. The thing I didn't like about the Insteon paddle was it just didn't feel solid. It was a bit wobbly and the clicking for on/off felt a bit flimsy. Lutron's feels much better for quality. But it's very flat, it's not easy to quickly feel which button is which.

Looks like Leviton is using the same style as Insteon but with a separate little bar for dimming. I have an old leviton dimmer that uses the same bar and I like how it feels. I hope the paddle feels good (my old dimmer is just an on/off button, not a rocker like what the new Leviton HomeKit dimmers look like).

The pico remote was a lot handier than I expected. It makes it really easy to add a three-way switch (or more) where you didn't have one before using the wall mount kits. They look just like another Lutron dimmer on the wall. Another bonus is if you do have an existing three-way, the $70 dimmer/pico combo is very inexpensive for replacing that three-way. The dimmer replaces one switch, the pico takes the place of the other. I can't find info on how Leviton would do it, but most others like Insteon would require two separate $60-70 dimmers.

The announcement said all of the switches would retail for less than $50. To do 3-way, I think there will be a non-wireless companion switch that I assume will be like a basic switch. I don't know yet. Good points though.

I feel like I might do a few Lutron now in places where you don't see the switch that much and later see what the Leviton looks like in person. It might be a good fit for a bedroom or other obvious area.

 

[chuyn]

The announcement said all of the switches would retail for less than $50. To do 3-way, I think there will be a non-wireless companion switch that I assume will be like a basic switch. I don't know yet. Good points though.

I feel like I might do a few Lutron now in places where you don't see the switch that much and later see what the Leviton looks like in person. It might be a good fit for a bedroom or other obvious area.

Oh yeah, I was listing Canadian prices. Lutron's dimmer-only is $55 USD but $65 in Canada

 

[ActionableMango]

I agree on the look. I've used Lutron and Insteon and prefer the look of the Insteon paddles but the quality of the Lutron. The thing I didn't like about the Insteon paddle was it just didn't feel solid. It was a bit wobbly and the clicking for on/off felt a bit flimsy. Lutron's feels much better for quality.

Interesting. I love my Lutron switches, but IMO the buttons are extremely wobbly.

I've never seen the Insteons.

 

[gsmornot]

Interesting. I love my Lutron switches, but IMO the buttons are extremely wobbly.

I've never seen the Insteons.

Ultimately I would like Leviton looks with Lutron reliability and Insteon selection. I looked for an Insteon hub and it's hard to find and the reviews are terrible. The HomeKit version anyhow. I've ordered one Lutron switch. No question it will serve its purpose but it will be in a spot that is not seen often for some garage lights. I'm going to expand slow until I see what happens in the next two months with Leviton.