TP-Hyperlink Tapo S210 Good Mild Change Overview vs Aqara Good Wall Change H1 – No Impartial Good Mild Switches

This yr, TP-Hyperlink Tapo expanded its product vary to incorporate a brand new H100 Good Dwelling Hub and a more moderen, extra highly effective H200 good hub.

As a part of this launch, Tapo launched a variety of sensors, together with the Tapo T110 contact sensor, T310 temperature and humidity sensor, and the T100 movement sensor.

Additionally they launched a number of switches, together with the Tapo S200D wi-fi dimmer swap and two wired gentle switches, the S220 2-Gang 1-Method and the S210 single gang swap I’m reviewing at present.

I’m an enormous fan of good gentle switches as they provide you an reasonably priced option to make all of your lights good with out having to switch each bulb with a sensible one. That is notably helpful for rooms the place you employ a number of GU10 downlights, the place it could break the bank to switch all of them.

If you need an reasonably priced option to improve to good lights, then TP-Hyperlink Tapo might be probably the most cost-efficient resolution on the market.

I paid simply £15.99 for this Tapo S210 good gentle swap; you then must pair it with a Tapo hub. The  Tapo H100 is simply £14.99. Due to this fact, the hub + gentle swap is cheaper than the superb Aqara Good Wall Change H1 by itself.

All through this evaluation, I’ll evaluate the Tapo S210 to the Aqara H1 as a result of that is what I take advantage of in my dwelling. They don’t seem to be interoperable merchandise as they each require their very own hub, and the 2 ecosystems do not work together with one another (except you employ third-party options).

Options

• Distant Management – Immediately flip the sunshine on/off wherever you’re by the Tapo app.
• Voice Management– Handle your swap with voice instructions by way of Amazon Alexa or the Google Assistant.
• Schedule – Preset a schedule to robotically handle gadgets.
• Away Mode – Robotically flip the sunshine on and off at totally different instances to offer the looks that somebody is dwelling.
• Software-Free Battery Substitute – Simply exchange batteries after set up, no want of different instruments.
• No Impartial Wire Required – Tremendous simple wiring. No impartial wire is required.

Specification

• Dimensions( H X W X D ): 87.1 × 86 × 41 mm
• Hub Required: Sure
• Standby Energy Consumption: 65uA
• Score: 250 V~ 50/60 Hz 4 A
• Max Load: 600 W LED / 600W CFL / 1000W INC / 1000W FTL / 50 W Fan
• Wi-fi: 868 MHz

TP-Hyperlink Tapo S210 Wants a Battery

As I impulsively purchased this swap, I hadn’t learn the spec correctly and did not realise that this swap requires two AAA batteries (that are included within the packaging).

The Aqara Good Wall Change H1 would not want a battery.

I’m no electrician, so I would not take my phrase on something right here

I imagine the H1 no neutrals want a minimal load of 5W to stop the swap from changing into unresponsive. Mainly, it must get its energy from someplace.

If the swap is linked to a number of lights, you will not have a problem, however a single low-watt gentle might trigger an issue. In some circumstances, the lights can blink when switched off.

In conditions the place the lights do not devour sufficient energy, then you possibly can overcome the issue with a capacitor in parallel with the fixture.

The TP-Hyperlink Tapo S210 avoids this concern through the use of batteries within the swap itself. What is not clear is how lengthy these batteries will final, I might think about they need to final fairly a very long time and changing them is straightforward sufficient, however it’s nonetheless not preferrred that you must put batteries in your gentle swap.

In case you have dwelling wiring with impartial wires, then a sensible gentle swap that accepts the impartial wire should not have these issues (I do not assume).

Design – TP-Hyperlink Tapo S210 vs Aqara Good Wall Change H1

After I opened the Tapo S210, I instantly observed why it was extra reasonably priced. The general look and construct high quality isn’t as good because the Aqara H1 swap. The rocker swap has a shiny plastic, and the plastic itself appears a feels a bit low cost.

The swap has a useful little toggle on its base which lets you take away the faceplate, which you will want to do for set up.

Eradicating the faceplate exposes the place the batteries are situated, so changing them ought to take just a few seconds once they run out.

Like all good switches, that is a lot deeper than your conventional dumb swap. That is unavoidable because of it requiring further electronics vs utilizing the swap to finish the connection.

Most older UK houses can have commonplace depth again bins, which is not going to be appropriate with this. I nearly received it to suit my bathroom gentle, however not fairly. The simplest and most cost-efficient resolution to this downside is to make use of a spacer you can purchase from Amazon. They don’t seem to be probably the most engaging resolution, however neither is that this swap.

TP-Hyperlink Tapo App Set Up

As a result of this gentle swap is battery-powered, you possibly can pair it as much as the hub earlier than your set up it. You do not have to, nevertheless it appears a bit simpler this fashion.

Add the swap by the app and observe the directions, which embrace taking the faceplate off, you maintain down the sync button and pairing it up.

Set up – TP-Hyperlink Tapo S210 vs Aqara Good Wall Change H1

Becoming gentle switches is way simpler than you would possibly count on, and usually, it’s fairly protected to do, so long as you turn the lights off on the circuit breaker.

I’m horrible at DIY, so that you’d assume that messing round with my dwelling electrics is a horrible concept, however I have not electrocuted myself but.

Mainly, if unsure, all the time swap the electrics off on the circuit breaker.

With this, you simply must put the recent dwell into the Lin gap and the switched dwell within the Lout1. Once you screw them in place, be sure they’re locked in place.

You may then repair the becoming again onto the again field.

Good Actions / Automation – TP-Hyperlink Tapo S210 vs Aqara Good Wall Change H1

With the sunshine swap put in and the facility again on, now you can use the sunshine swap as regular. It’s a rocker swap, so that you press it down, and it pops again into place.

You may then swap it on/off by way of the app in addition to arrange schedules to show it on/off.

The principle promoting level for me is to make use of it with the Tapo T100 good movement sensor.

With the T100 fitted in my bathroom, I can go to the sensor within the app and discover good actions. I opted for:

Flip lights on while you come and go, then flip off after 2 minutes

Then you possibly can choose the system you need to activate. This may be bulbs, gentle strips, good plugs or the sunshine swap. You can even flip a number of plugs on.

Various good management choices could be enabled by Google Dwelling Assistant, Amazon Alexa or IFTTT.

Compared to my Aqara gentle switches and movement sensors, it isn’t pretty much as good. For instance, the movement sensor automation offers me choices to set off it based mostly on movement and brightness ranges, permitting me to solely set off the swap if the room is darkish sufficient. The sunshine swap additionally has higher controls, you possibly can fully disable the swap from triggering the lights and as an alternative, assign the swap to set off an automation.

Worth and Various Choices

The TP-Hyperlink Tapo S210 has an RRP of £20 however is broadly accessible for round £16.

The two-gang S220 has an RRP of £30 and is on the market for round £20.

You’ll then want a Tapo H100 Good Hub, which has an RRP of £20 and is on the market for £15.

I would additionally strongly advocate the Tapo T100 good sensor, which is £18 RRP and accessible for £14.

That is a particularly aggressive value level for all of the Tapo good dwelling gadgets.

Compared, for no impartial good switches, you will have:

• Aqara Good Wall Change H1
• MoesGo ZigBee Mild Change (optionally available impartial): £24
• Candeo Wifi Rotary Dimmer (no hub wanted/Tuya): £38

For Aqara, you’d additionally want a hub. The most affordable good hub they’ve on Amazon is the E1 at £30, or the M2, which I take advantage of, is £55. This implies it could value £66 for Aqara vs £31 Tapo should you purchased a single swap and hub.

Aqara additionally works with the Homey Bridge and SmartThings. Aqara additionally works nicely with Dwelling Assistant, whereas it appears just like the Tapo solely has restricted integration with Dwelling Assistant with no gentle swap performance that I can discover, but.

General

Contemplating the worth, it’s laborious to criticise the TP-Hyperlink Tapo S210 good gentle swap, however I’ll level out a few of its quirks:

• Sure, I would like the looks and construct high quality to be higher, however competing choices will not be precisely probably the most engaging.
• I would favor no batteries, however it could appear that for a lot of no-neutral installations, you’d have to suit a capacitor, I would sooner take care of batteries than putting in a capacitor.
• The TP-Hyperlink Tapo app is nowhere close to pretty much as good as Philips Hue
• Third-party integrations is inferior to different ecosystems (together with Kasa).

With that out of the best way, the S210 is lower than half the worth of the Aqara Good Wall Change H1, which buys it a number of leeway. The good hub can be considerably cheaper.

Establishing the automation could also be extra time shopper than the likes of Philips Hue and there are fewer choices vs many different manufacturers. However, as soon as it’s achieved, it really works precisely how I would like. For primary schedules and movement detection, I actually cannot fault it, it really works completely.

It barely prices greater than a traditional dumb gentle swap from a good model like Schneider, which makes it unbelievable worth for cash.

General, I feel that is an impressive reasonably priced good gentle swap.

Final replace on 2023-08-04 / Affiliate hyperlinks / Photos from Amazon Product Promoting API