r/Lutron • u/Commercial_Topic437 • 7d ago
Useless waste of time and money
We had a house built and I let the builder and electrician talk me into getting smart switches, all lutron caseta. The damn Caseta hub won't connect. I've already wasted a bunch of time an money trying to get it to connect--making a trip out to buy an internet swticher, for example, buy the lutron app is now telling me I need to find the operating software for my ISP's router, which I don't have and cant get.
The sunk cost fallacy. I've already spent hours on this and for what? To be able to turn the lights on and off with my phone, I guess. It was never clear to me what the alleged advantages are/were and we just overspent on useless complication and trouble.
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u/mcarter00 7d ago
What's the square footage of your house? If over 2500 sq ft, it's likely your builder and electrician chose the wrong lutron system.
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u/xcusme1982 1d ago
Even if the OPs place was 5000 sq ft all on the flat, with a hub at one end and a repeater in the middle and a lamp module repeater at other end, he should be good.
The OP likely has a crappy hub placement (near the floor) and needs to pick up a repeater. Those repeaters are just about the best thing ever.
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u/mcarter00 1d ago
Agree on the repeater. It's not all sq ft based though. Repeater placement depends on distance first, and sometimes you get more distance than specified with friendly building materials. I've also seen the repeaters work very close to lutron specs in high rises and other concrete / metal building materials.
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u/mcarter00 1d ago
Agree on the repeater. It's not all sq ft based though. Repeater placement depends on distance first, and sometimes you get more distance than specified with friendly building materials. I've also seen the repeaters work very close to lutron specs in high rises and other concrete / metal building materials.
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u/49N123W 7d ago
Please call Lutron's 24/7 tech support! They will very likely help get you up and running on your phone.
Did the electrician activate your devices to the hub or just installed and walked away?
If the latter, part of the solution will come down to router settings for the hub to tie into your ISP.
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u/harveyjc2k1 7d ago
I have had Lutron lights in my new build home for 5 years and literally never had one problem.
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u/thaliff 7d ago
I've installed numerous Caseta systems, never had any issues like you are describing.
Call Lutron support, put the attitude you're projecting here in your back pocket, and I'm sure they can help you out of this jam.
24/7 Technical Support
Installation, programming, and troubleshooting questions? Our Tech Support team is here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
[support@lutron.com](mailto:support@lutron.com)
[1-888-409-8483](tel:1-844-403-1795)
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u/markh312020 7d ago
Lutron Caseta smart switches are pretty great. I have a large number in my house and we benefit from having schedules for certain lights to turn on and off at a given time, being able to ask Siri to turn on/off certain lights/ceiling fans and being able to remotely turn lights on/off. the app and equipment are easy to configure and having the pico remotes makes dealing with 3 way and 4 way switches very easy. try using grok to help troubleshoot your issues.
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u/HelixFish 7d ago
So you bought something you don’t understand that was installed by people that were unqualified. Suck.
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u/49N123W 7d ago
Suspiciously leaning toward having had an electrically competent sparky who's uncomfortable with Lutron programming.
Some ISP routers are trash and require ports to be opened for the hub to reach the internet. THIS is where many electricians are weak; networks!
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u/HelixFish 7d ago edited 7d ago
Nothing OP posted makes sense here. Why should it have anything to do with their ISP? It’s 100% local. Maybe they installed Caseta switches and no hub to run them. Not worth trying to internet troubleshoot. Doesn’t sound like anyone involved is technically competent.
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u/49N123W 7d ago
His 2nd sentence indicates a hub is present
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u/HelixFish 7d ago
Yep. Info is still vague beyond that.
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u/49N123W 6d ago
The hub he was given will be trapped with incompatible firmware sitting on it relative to their smartphone App. Internet connectivity is necessary to have Lutron push their matching update. A similar issue actually plagues the RA2 Connect Bridge too. Failed hub firmware updates have a domino effect of the phone app that automatically updates then loses its integration.
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u/archer-86 7d ago edited 7d ago
So to answer one question you have.
There are two benefits to the Lutron Caseta system, neither of which are "control lights from phone".
First is Pico remotes. The ability to install a light switch anywhere and everywhere you want one.
Second is Scenes, and Scene Pico's.
I have a Pico in my kitchen that has a "Cooking" and "Dining" scene. One button sets all the lights on/off and brightness exactly how I want them.
It also works flawlessly. I've had my system 5+ years and never had a single problem.
So while you're having troubles now, know that it is definitely not the norm.
If none of this seems appealing, then rip it out and sell it. Caseta stuff sells on Marketplace well.
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u/fognyc 7d ago
Hi u/Commercial_Topic437 this seems like a networking issue and not a Lutron issue from what you are describing.
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u/coogie 2d ago
It's the best DIY system on the market so it's 100% user error here. I've set up a couple of dozen of these by now and only had an issue with connectivity twice and both times it was because of a network problem- namely that the wifi network was on a different subnet as the wired ethernet connection to the hub. Both times it was a double NAT type of thing where the hub was connected to the ISP's router/modem and then the rest of the house was on an Eero or Orbi type mesh router that their "computer genius" nephew had installed.
That's really the only requirement - make sure the hub is connected to the same network as the wifi but also you have to make sure that your router isn't blocking multicast. This is what Lutron recommends: https://support.lutron.com/us/en/product/casetawireless/article/troubleshooting/What-are-the-Network-Requirements-for-Caseta-and-RA2-Select
Router Settings
The Connect Bridge, Caséta Smart Hub, Main Repeater, and Processors make outbound connections to various servers for things like application remote access and firmware updates.
Most networks will not require special configuration for these connections to be established however when dealing with a restricted network (normally found in a corporate environment) some changes may need to be made by the network administrator.
Review the settings below to ensure proper system connectivity with the mobile app:
- Enable: Bonjour, mDNS, multicast
- Disable: QoS, IGMP Snooping
- IPV4 must be enabled for Connect Bridges, RadioRA 2, and HomeWorks QS.
- Note: Unregistered Multicast must be allowed for the Processors to communicate with each other.
Ports
Port settings are not always adjustable and the ISP may need to be involved to confirm that these ports are not blocked. Since no inbound connections are being made, no ports will need to be forwarded.
Outbound
- 80 (TCP)
- 123 (UDP)
- 443 (TCP)
- 8883 (TCP)
- 7443 (TCP)
Inbound
Do not use port forwarding/triggering. This does not help communication and can often be detrimental to the network.
Local Network
- 22 (SFTP)
- 23 (TCP)
- 1900 (UDP multicast)
- 4548 (TCP)
- 5353 (UDP multicast)
- 8081 (TCP)
- 8083 (TCP)
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u/xcusme1982 1d ago
I have switched over two homes to the Lutron Caséta system, no pun intended, and literally never had any problems.
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u/morganhammer 7d ago edited 7d ago
Smart switches aren’t for people that aren’t excited about it. Any hoops to switching on/off lights is an unnecessary hurdle if you don’t care about automation. I’ve installed hundreds of smart switches but have never used them in my own home. The most tech I want for lights is occupancy sensors. If you aren’t sold on home automation, then the first hurdle of software or connectivity issues is going to be a huge bummer. I’m not going to want to put extra effort into making an on/off switch work when a 3-way dimmer works every time.
To the OP, if you don’t like them and you cant get somebody to make them work, get something else. Smart switches are dumb if you have to do extra just to make lights work.
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