Lightwave Link Plus 4+

Good but could do more

My mums house has a lot of LightwaveRF Connect gear, and although she has had some issue on the whole it works well. I have a lot of HomeKit stuff, so took the leap and got the Link Plus and a double socket as a test. So far so good, i set up automation in the home app, and it all worked perfectly. The new Lightwave Link app is better (in my opinion) than the old (ReactNative?) app, for a start it’s a native experience. Energy consumption is a nice bonus too.
Things to improve though... you can’t see your other HomeKit devices in the LightwaveRF Link app like you can with Eve, FibaroHome etc, so when adding a new Lightwave device to a room - naming it etc, it doesn’t happen in the home app, you have to do it there too.
This app really needs Siri Shortcut support too, while you can use Siri to control your lightwaveRF device, it’s not really spoken English, Siri shortcuts will solve this.
Also if there is no migration from a Gen 1 Link to the new Link Plus, then I won’t be upgrading my mums house anytime soon, that is a big issue that needs solving.

Excellent technical support

Having already purchased a wide range of Gen 1 and 2 devices I decided to migrate across to the link plus hub. The rational for migrating was so that I could upgrade my boiler controls using the Gen 2 hardware. After struggling initially with some range related issues I contacted customer support. A bloke called Richard diagnosed the problem and now all is well. I can connect perfectly to all my Gen 1 & 2 devices. Linking was easy, however, as yet their is no migration tool to automate the process from a Gen 1 hub, this took me a couple of hours because I had to set up about 20 devices and their corresponding moods. Other than that the process was easy. Tech support has come a long way since the early days of hub 1, well done! If you’re arriving at Lightwave for the first time, there will obviously be no such problems since set up will be from scratch.

Reliable, quick and easy to use.

After moving house I decided to take the opportunity to start from scratch so invested in the double sockets, various dimmer switches, TRVs and central heating control. The latest App is a vast improvement and as a beta tester I know more features are on the way.

Pairing of all the devices worked first time and so far I’ve had no missed switches, the new version of the App allows you to change the of the colour LED and dim the on/off LED.

My only disappointment is if you loose internet you can’t use the App, however everything else works fine. I would give it five stars however for now (April 2018) there is no geo fencing, devices like PIRs or wall switches.

They seem to be adding new features all the time so worth taking a look. The HomeKit integration is faultless and Alexa is great as well, but I’ve only used it for a week.

Like others have said the dimmers can be very fussy on the LED bulbs you use, but if you go for main stream dimmer-able bulbs and a minimum of 25 watts you should be fine. The loss of power does not seem to loose any of the devices settings.

Overall I’m very happy with the App and Gen2 devices, although the TRVs are noisy, I’d have no problems recommending this to anyone and with future updates I’m sure it will only get better.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for the feedback David, it would be great to discuss your suggestions and improving our service for you. Please contact us at helpdesk@lightwaverf.com