Ikea ‘s quest to democratise the smart home continues with the release of three new low-cost Zigbee sensors. There’s the door and window sensor Parasoll, the motion sensor Vallhorn, and the water leakage sensor Badring. When they go on sale internationally in the first half of next year, they’ll all be less than $10.
Ikea introduces Parasoll
Parasoll is a standard window and door sensor that may be discretely put to activate an automation when an open / shut event is recognised. It can also be coupled with an Ikea light bulb right out of the box, eliminating the need to purchase and setup an Ikea Home smart hub. It costs €9.99 in Europe, but the precise price in the United States has yet to be determined for it or any of Ikea’s three new sensors.
Introducing Vallhorn
When motion is detected, the Vallhorn motion sensor may be used both indoors and outdoors (with IP44 splash protection against rain) to trigger lights or other automations. It runs on three AAA batteries and may be linked to operate up to ten Ikea smart lights immediately out of the box. It costs only €7.99 and can detect more of the space than Ikea’s existing $14.99 / €12.99 motion sensor, which is smaller but only works indoors and requires a coin cell battery replacement more regularly.
The Badring
The Badring water sensor has a built-in siren (60dBA at 1m) that may notify you if it detects a leak. For houses with an Ikea Dirigera hub ($69.99), it can also generate a mobile notice in the Ikea Home smart app. Sensors like this can save households a lot of money before a water leak causes significant damage. It will be €9.99.
The Parasoll and Badring sensors, among the three, are incompatible with earlier Trdfri Home smart gateways from Ikea. All, of course, support the newer Dirigera hub, which completely integrates the sensors into Ikea’s expanding portfolio of smart home items and the Home smart app. The hub also enables Ikea’s gadgets to communicate with Google, Amazon, and Apple’s smart home ecosystems while at home or away.
Despite the fact that Matter support was just “a couple of months away” a year ago, the corporation still does not support it. Ikea intends to activate Matter in the future by turning on the Thread radio within the Dirigera hub, which will connect Ikea’s existing Zigbee-based products to the next-generation smart home standard. Ikea digital product area manager Jonas Söderqvist told The Verge that the business has “decided to delay this functionality” and would issue an update “when it’s time.”
Easy home, happy home
The prolonged delay is logical considering that Ikea’s goods already interface effectively with other platforms, and the business is intent on keeping things as easy as possible for anyone who dabbles in smart home technology on a whim while shopping for a new bookshelf. And, given the challenges of getting things operating on Matter networks during this transition phase, Ikea’s wait is more well fair.
Vallhorn will be offered in a limited number of countries, including the United States, beginning in January 2024. The Parasoll will be available in the United States in the same month, but not until April. Badring is set to be on sale in several nations in April, but not in the United States until July. It’s perplexing, but these staggered releases are an unintended consequence of Ikea’s franchise store structure.