Caseta Smart Dimmer Starter Kit w/ 1 OG Dimmer, Pico, Bracket & Hub

When I moved into a new home five years ago, I knew I wanted smart switches, but I had already had poor experiences with some of the more consumer-oriented smart switches from other brands. I wanted something more reliable, more robust, and something I could scale across the house without constantly troubleshooting it. It did not take long before I landed on Lutron Caséta, and five years later, I am very glad I did. I started by buying about 15 switches and replacing some of the primary switches in the house one by one myself. They are very easy to install. If you've done any light electrical work, you will have no issue. The only issue I did run into was squeezing them into three and four gang boxes as they are much larger than a normal light switch or dimmer. There were a few I just gave up on and let my electrician handle, as some of the wires needed to be cut shorter and whatnot. I added the Lutron bridge to my router and primarily controlled everything through Apple Home. Over time, that small setup turned into a whole-home lighting system. Nearly all of the switches in my house are now Lutron, and I have used nearly every version, including standard dimmers, ELV dimmers, lamp dimmers, 2 outdoor switches for holiday lights, and 15 or so Pico remotes. The reliability has been outstanding. My house is around 5,000 square feet including the basement, and I never have issues controlling lights from the app, from Apple Home, from Siri, or directly at the wall. In five years, I have only had to restart the Lutron bridge once. That is the kind of boring reliability you want from smart home gear. The biggest benefit is that it changes how you interact with lighting. You stop thinking about individual switches and start thinking in scenes. I can walk into a room, use my watch, phone, or Siri device, and instantly bring a whole group of lights to exactly the right setting. Movie time in the media room sets everything perfectly. Late night kitchen turns off most of the first floor but leaves a few recessed and under-cabinet lights on. Every night at 11:30, the system turns off lights throughout the house, so I do not have to wonder if the basement, garage, or random hallway lights were left on. It is convenience, but it is also peace of mind. Another big advantage is that you can use the bulbs you want. I have a mix of LED and incandescent bulbs, depending on the fixture. For example, I still prefer incandescent bulbs in some chandeliers and kitchen island fixtures because they look better there. With Lutron switches, I am not locked into smart bulbs everywhere, which keeps the system flexible and looking high-end. There are a few downsides. I do not love the design of the Caséta dimmers that do not have the middle preset button. The Pico remote layout is much better, and I wish all of the switches used that design. They can also be a little awkward to fumble with in the dark even with the LEDs, and guests are often confused by them at first. Today, Lutron does offer more traditional paddle-style options, and if I were starting from scratch, I would definitely look closely at those. The other limitation is the device count. I eventually hit the bridge limit because Pico remotes also count as devices, and some multi-location setups require multiple Picos. For example, a single chandelier setup with multiple control points can use up several device slots quickly. That is not ideal in a larger home. The ELV dimmers are also painfully expensive compared with the standard models, but in some low-voltage setups, they are the right tool for the job. I have also experimented with Philips Hue again recently, including retrofit recessed lights and slim cans around my pool house. Hue has come a long way, but for whole-home switch replacement, Lutron still feels like the more polished and permanent solution. It looks high-end, fits into normal wall plates, works with the bulbs and fixtures I already own, and has been rock solid for years. If you are just buying one smart switch, Caséta is excellent. If you have the budget and want to build out smart lighting across an entire home, this is the system I would recommend without hesitation. It has been one of the best smart home investments I have made, and it is one of the few systems in my house that I genuinely would not want to live without.

I was once a newbie with Caseta - but no longer, so I hope this helps you. This kit is the first purchase you need for Lutron’s system. Once you have the hub, no more kits are needed for future switch purchases. One hub can manage up to 75 switches (and I think the Hub is included in that count). Some buyers complain about having to wire in Lutron's hub to your network with an ethernet cable. But you can't beat the speed and reliability of a wired network connection. Given that Lutron’s product works reliably and is 100% responsive all the time, this is a non-issue for me. Since I put in the first few Casetas, we truly love them and have started to replace switches all over the home. Which brings up another issue... if I had chosen a WiFi connected switches (and I did briefly for use in limited locations, more on that later) I could potentially be adding a much larger number of connected devices onto my network. If your WiFi isn't all that great to begin with - think entry level routers - this could potentially impact network performance and your connectivity with your switches. For me, that's just a no go. I really want my WiFi to work well for the things that need to be on it. The PROs of the Lutron Switches: Setting the switches up is straightforward and fast. The setup process works like expected each and every time. I cannot say the same about other non-Lutron WiFi products. Having problems setting them up or is a switch not acting right? Lutron’s support is the bees knees. They have helped me several times and each time they are great. The switches are incredibly responsive both in person and via the app. There are no delays in turning things off and on. The ceiling fan switch is especially a godsend for our old ceiling fan - no more standing on the bed to pull strings or getting up out of bed to adjust things. Lutron and Ring also teamed up and added some camera integrations where movement and/or doorbell pushes can activate lights. It works quite well, but the feature was a little buried in the Lutron app. Big bonus - the integration will also turn off lights after 15 minutes. About the app (and this is a biggie) Purchasing good hardware is one thing, having an app that you only get to experience after you purchase the hardware is downright crazy. But that's the world that smart switches seem to live in, so here's the scoop on Lutron - and the apps for a couple other systems I tried. Lutron's app is well designed and intuitive. You can quickly add new devices, program in schedules and scenes. The app also interfaces with my Lennox thermostat to display the current temp in the home (with the help of Apple's Home (home kit) app that's running on a dedicated iPad that never leaves the home). The Ring cam integration is good too. Having tried WeMo and Leviton's WiFi connected switches, my take on those apps is that they are incredibly clunky. This seems like a misstep, especially when you are going to spend most of your time interfacing with the app than the switch. Since I also use Apple's Home app with my family, every time a switch gets added into the Lutron hub, it seamlessly shows up in Apple Home. This is of course magically great. Since I didn't want to add another app into the mix for my wife and family, it's nice that there have been zero issues with cross platform integration, everything works seamlessly. The Lutron App also has a geofence capability that will turn on/off lights when you arrive and depart from the home. Haven't used that yet, but it's cool. Another side benefit, Lutron's app has an Apple watch app that you can control lights and fans with. The CONS: Edited - The Caseta hub for whatever reason didn’t have auto off timers built in. That said, the addition of their motion sensor product effectively solves this issue. If you have Ring cams, you can turn on the Caseta integration, and a motion or doorbell can turn on lights and after 15 minutes, turn them off again. This works beautifully. Other thoughts: Edited - I used IFTTT (If This Then This) before Ring and Lutron added their cam integration as a trigger to turn on/off lights. IFTTT works, but there was always a bit of a delay to turn on lights if you use it. Plus if you’re internet went down, it didn’t work. Before the Ring integration, I used a couple WeMo switches for my outdoor lighting as they had auto-off timers. But their setup and app was super clunky. Happy to be rid of them. As software support is now kinda important for app driven switches, making sure you get a switch from a company that's going to be around a while is more important than it used to be. It would be bad if your OS on your phone, requires your apps to get an update and your smart switch maker is MIA. Side note - For the two years I had WeMo switches, changes in Wifi forced me to individually reconnect all switches to it, and it was a horrible process to get them re-paired with WiFi. Lutron has never had this issue, being wired into the network. One switch I purchased from Amazon warehouse (open box) had issues with setup and Lutron’s support was fantastic. They sent a replacement switch so quickly and were really nice about it. Bottom line - stick with Lutron, it works really well.

We were renovating our home office in our attic and as part of it had to update our electrical. I researched tons of smart home products, and decided against anything that required special bulbs (Hue) and anything that wasn't Homekit compatible. Why Homekit? Because the data isn't stored on the cloud, isn't sold, and must be encrypted per Apple standards. Using the Homekit app on our phone is a nice perk, but 99% of the time we use the Lutron app. The switches once installed and linked to the hub are incredibly easy to use as just normal dimmers with decent sized buttons so even grandma is happy. Setting preset dim levels is easy too, so most of the time it's a single touch on, single touch off - already better than 99% of non-smart dimmer switches out there. Pricey - yes - but you get what you pay for. We bought this starter set to get the hub, and then separate switches. My electrician used standard GFI wall plates, and the Lutrons require about the same installation space as a traditional dimmer switch - not overly deep, no special install. The hub is easy - we have it downstairs with our router and it feeds all of the switches in the house plus anything else we want (I'm considering the compatible shades for some of the rooms with a lot of sunlight). It's quite small - a single Ethernet cable to the back of our router, and a small plug into the outlet. I have a dumb email account I never use as our Lutron account - just as I do for our TV and 99% of other smart products (there are even sites that give you a 10 minute email account that is purged afterward - for free). The glitch - some of the "open box" orders I placed to Amazon were incomplete. Some had defective switches with corroded wires. Because this was part of a renovation, I didn't find these problems until after the 30 day return window, so I had to call Lutron's support, and they arranged replacements under the 5 year warranty. Also some switches worked, but despite system resets and Lutron's excellent technical support (call as a "pro"), they could not connect to the hub despite sitting next to other working switches. The app is very good. Setup via the app is easy. There's one kill switch at the top of the app screen that will turn off all Lutron-connected devices in that room at once - very handy when my kids leave lights on. Once the switch is connected to the app, it's automatically in Homekit. If you are using low-voltage lights (many spot lights are ELV), Lutron makes a special ELV dimmer that you have to use if the lights are in total < 10w. We don't use the remote since it is connected to only one switch and we have many - but I'm adding Lutron Casetas to other rooms that need a three-pole (two light switch) connection - so you use a standard Caseta and the Pico remote with a wall mount (comes with) and a magnetic cover (extra). Super-easy. I waited 4 months to post this review to see how the system would respond to wifi outages, power outages, lightning storms, etc. and it's been fine. When wifi is out, the switches work as normal dimmers. When it comes back on, nothing needs to be reset (which is more than I can say for other systems I've tried like Wemo). Lutron Casetas are expensive, reliable, relatively easy (watch the open boxes and ELV fixtures), and the LIVE tech support is very helpful. Each switch contains info and diagrams for installation and connecting to the hub. I wish they carried more Pro products because these are excellent.

I can't believe it's been almost 5 years since I installed this system in my home. I started with simple WiFi controllers from other brands for lamps in my living room and bedroom... I loved the convenience but often there were issues. I finally bit the bullet and tried caseta and I was pleasantly surprised by the reliability and quality. More impressive was I didn't have to use my voice or an app, but could also use a light switch to control my devices. Weeks later I was replacing every switch in my house and discovering so many possibilities. One switch to control every zone in my kitchen, installing more convenient switches to control lights outside or in different parts of the house. Dimmers and switches to control LED lights inside a hutch or under my cabinets. I haven't stopped installing these things since then. Over the years with countless power outages, construction/ remodeling in different rooms and not one hiccup. Literally not one. These things just work! I can't say that enough. I had light switches disconnected for 2 months during my kitchen remodel. I reconnected them and they just worked. No reinstalling them in the software. They instantly worked just like they did before. Other switches and bulbs all it took was getting unplugged or a blink from the power company and there went a half hour of my day to get them working again. These are the most versatile and dependable smart devices I have ever bought. Finally... 5 years later.... I have not replaced a single battery in the pico switches. Not one. Do not hesitate. This setup is worth every single penny. It costs more for a reason. No headaches and it does what it advertises. Oh one last thing... When the Internet goes down the switches and the app still work PERFECTLY. That's right. It can be controlled locally with no Internet. I can't say enough about these. Buy them now. You will be kicking yourself for not doing it sooner.

Disclosure: I bought this a few years ago from writing of this review. Amazing product! This has been an essential part of my smart home. In the box, they provided screws, wire nuts, instructions, the switch, pico remote, pico remote bracket, and the hub. The instructions were easy to understand for those who may be nervous about electrical, really went into detail about what to do. I used this device as a replacement for a 3-way switch. The installation was fairly simple for that setup. The dimmer switch has two black wires and a green wire, one black wire gets wired to the incoming power and the other wire is connected to the two traveler wires, and ground to ground. On the other side, all three wires are connected together with a wire nut. Screw in the device and the bracket to the wall, the pico remote slides onto the bracket easily. These switches were both part of a two gang box (light and fan), and the faceplate for it fit perfectly over it. The overall look is nice, the dimmer switch has a set up small green lights for the dimmer level... not to noticeable with the light on. One thing I noticed off the bat was that the pico remote has an additional button on it for setting the brightness to 50%, the dimmer switch does not have that button. Setup was simple too. Connected the hub to power and ethernet, downloaded the app, created an account, and it looked for the hub instantly. Found the hub and then started looking for devices. The hub found the dimmer and the pico remote quickly and I had them added to my account. I assigned the room they were in and that was it for setup. I went a step further and linked Lutron to my google home account for voice control. Eventually, I moved to Home Assistant with this Lutron (will connect with Lutron integration or Homekit). As stated before, I bought these a few years back. To this day, they are still functioning the same as when I first installed them. I haven't noticed any issues with them since buying. I'd say these are very durable for a home. I did purchase a few more to put around the house and setup more automations with them. Very happy with Lutron!

Installation was easy and it functions the way I wanted. On Star off because for as expensive as this kit is, it doesn’t come with wall plates for the switches. I’m switching from a traditional toggle style switch to these that are the footprint of a paddle style, and now I need to also buy a wall plate for it.

Lutron hit this one out of the park! Caseta Wireless Dimmer makes it easy to control the lights in my home theater using either my Android Phone or my Logitech Harmony Elite Remote device. The instructions for connecting to your phone are well written, clear and concise and quick to implement. This kit works great for either single-pole (one switch) or 3-pole (2 switches) installations. If you are comfortable working with120-volt wiring, i.e. replacing single pole or 3-pole switches, then this Dimmer Kit is a simple and easy DIY project. Lutron instructions made it easy to sort out the traveler and hot wires. If you are NOT comfortable working with 120-volt electrical wiring, then consider hiring someone to install the system. As to the quality, IMO, Lutron 's reputation is very good. The product is top-of-the-line yet very reasonably priced.. the lighting indicators are crisp and clear, but not intrusive! The process for connecting the Caseta Wireless dimmers to your Harmony Elite Remote is a little more involved. Start by downloading the relevant documentation from both Logitech/Harmony and Lutron/Caseta Wireless. The information is easy to follow once you gather all the information. Several notes: 1) You must install the MyLutron Caseta hub/bridge, set up and sync your dimmers first. 2) You must install the Harmony Hub set up and sync your Devices and your Activities. 3) You must download both the MyLutron app and the Logitech MyHarmony app to your phone, create accounts for both. 4) Log-in to My Harmony hub from your phone first to add the Lutron Caseta as a home automation device. It will require you to connect to Lutron with your relevant log-in info. 5) MyLutron - Log into the hub/bridge and select the appropriate Logitech Harmony device integration. 6) Harmony Hub - I preferred to log in to my harmony hub from my laptop computer with my sync cable connected to my Harmony Elite. Set the Caseta dimmers as devices in your Harmony Hub. Then set up the Activities to include the relevant Caseta lighting components. 7) Change the device configuration to assign the Harmony Elite Remote buttons to the relevant lighting configuration. Once the Harmony remote buttons are assigned, sync the Harmony hub with your Harmony remote. Final Note: There is a 2 to 3-second delay from the remote to the relevant lighting activity.

This Lutron product may cost more than some of the competitor's items but the quality is tops. In addition, as with other Lutron products, the installation and set up is easy. The functionality of the product is tops.

Bought 1 unit so that my driveway lights can come on at dusk and off at dawn. Extremely easy to install since it's one of the few units that does not require a neutral a the box. Very easy to pair with the app. Love the fact that after it's programmed, it does not require Wifi to function. Plan on buying at least another 4. A bit expensive, but it is a Lutron.

Me encanto, muy fácil de instalar

家中にこのスイッチが設置してる。 何年も使ってるけどホームアクセサリーの中で最も信頼性が高いアイテムです。

Buen producto

I bought this to replace an older lighting control product. Integrates with my Google Home and works better than the old product.