03 Dec Logitech Harmony Hub Review

Would you like to control everything in your home using only your phone?  If yes, you need a smart home hub. Basically what a SHH does is turn your smartphone into a universal remote control for your whole house (or at least most of it).  There a several good options to choose from like Samsung SmartThings and Apple Homekit, but in this review I will focus on the Logitech’s Harmony Hub, which has made a bit of a comeback since its earlier poor quality release.

Most of the smart home hubs today do a pretty good job connecting to smart appliances. But when it comes to lights, thermostats, door locks or any other devices controlled by infrared, these smart home hubs fall short. This is where the Logitech hub does a better job than Samsung or Apple because it comes with an infrared (IR) mini blaster in the package. What’s more, according to Logitech, the Harmony Hub is compatible with 270,000 home entertainment and smart home devices from various brands and manufacturers. Not sure how they figured that out, but I guess I will — take their word for it.

What’s in the package?

The Logitech Harmony Home Hub comes with the hub itself, along with a power adapter, USB cable, and IR mini blaster. Just to be clear, it doesn’t come with an actual remote control like in the photo; you can get the remote here. But it does turns your phone into a super powerful one. The IR Mini Blaster is particularly useful for connecting to hard-to-reach IR-based devices. It even reaches devices behind doors or inside cabinets.

Setting it Up

Setting up the Logitech Harmony Home Hub is simple enough, but you might hit a few snags, especially if you are using Apple Devices as some iOS devices get into trouble when connecting to the app.

Harmony Hub can control up to 8 devices simultaneously. But what I have discovered is when setting it up, it automatically detects only some devices and not all of them. The rest need to be added manually and it gets pretty tedious if you have multiple appliances in different corners of the house.

How to Add Devices to the Hub?

To add devices, you will need to input the unique model number for each. This number is usually on the back of each appliance. This is easy enough for handheld and lightweight appliances, but it is slightly more complicated for heavier and wall-mounted ones. While this can be annoying, each number is there for security reasons so that only you inside the house can connect the items and not someone else. In that sense, it is pretty similar to your WIFI router password.

The Harmony App

You can control the Harmony Hub using the Harmony app installed on your phone or other mobile device. It is available for both Android and iOS. But for iPhone 4, iPod touch 5, and older versions of these devices, you will have to connect them using available software.

As long as your smart device’s WiFi and Bluetooth are active during the wizard setup, everything should go smoothly. However, it might not be as easy when you use Apple devices. If you are planning to use an iOS device (such as an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad) as a controller, you might want to watch out for this. If you want a smart home hub that integrates seamlessly with your Apple devices, you might want to check Apple Homekit instead.

But for Android devices’, the connection to the Harmony Hub seems to go smoothly and without major hiccups. After the app installation and setup is done, it automatically locates the Harmony Hub, which then finds the available smart home devices in your home connected to WiFi.

Using the app is fairly convenient and quick. If you are using it to control the TV or home theater system, changing channels, controlling volume, rewinding or fast forwarding is easily done with taps and swipes.

One Touch Actions

One pretty cool feature with the Harmony app is setting up one touch actions. These are different commands to different devices and appliances in your home grouped into one command on the app. When you give the command, all of the actions happen simultaneously.

Let me give you an example. Imagine that you set up a “Movie Time” command on the app. You tap it. Then all at once, the TV turns on and launches Netflix, the lights dim or the window blinds come down, and the speakers power up. All this, without having to do anything separately. Let me tell you, once you have this set up, you will NOT go back.

Integration with IFTTT

Just to show how cool that feature is, you can add Harmony Hub to “If this then that” (IFTTT), an online service that syncs your smart home experience. With the help of IFTTT applets (name for a very small app), you can add special functions to your devices that are triggered by certain events or actions.

For example, you can set the applet where you say to Google Assistant, “Okay, Google. Good night”, and it will automatically dim or turn off the lights as well as stop all Harmony activity.

Or you could set up your location as a trigger. When your phone detects that you have left home, your appliances will turn off and all Harmony activity will stop. Once your phone detects that you have returned, however, everything turns back on. Pretty smart, huh?

What’s more, just in case you don’t find the function you are looking for in the applets on the IFTTT site, you can always create your own to fit your exact needs.

Integration With Alexa

If you’re not in the mood to create your own applets, Alexa still has your back. If you have Alexa-supported Amazon gadgets such as Echo Dot or Amazon Echo, you can make your whole house voice-activated.

Imagine that. No remote controls. No switches. You can literally talk to your house!

• “Alexa, turn on the TV”
• “Alexa, turn up the volume”
• “Dim the lights”

Now THAT is a smart house!

Still, Harmony Hub isn’t quite perfect with its Alexa integration as of now. Though Alexa’s response time and accuracy may be excellent at first, it may worsen over time. It’s a bummer, I know, but regular updates should smooth out the kinks.

Hub-App Internet Connection

There’s another cool thing about the Harmony Hub. You can control your home devices and appliances even when not at home! With the Harmony Hub and App both connected to the Internet, you can access and control it wherever you are.

Suppose you are going on a vacation somewhere halfway around the world for a few weeks. Then you realize that, for some reason, you have left the lights on in the living room. You can simply take out your phone, login to the Harmony App, and turn it off. Simple as that. You can even tell Google Assistant to do it for you.

Recommendation

Logitech’s Harmony Hub is highly recommended for anyone who wants to turn their dumb home smart. It is very user-friendly and easy to set up. Here is a list of the main pros and cons for this product:

PROS

• It has a powerful IR blaster that can reach devices inside cabinets or behind doors
• It is compatible with 270,000 gadgets and smart appliances
• You can program one touch actions that performs multiple grouped functions with a single command
• Commands and functions can be integrated with IFTTT and Alexa
• You can access and control the hub anywhere as long as you are logged into the app and connected to the internet

CONS

• Connecting iOS devices to the hub encounters a lot of errors
• Adding devices manually to the app can be tedious, especially with heavy and/or wall-mounted appliances
• Alexa integration has some of bugs (although they can be “patched up” using IFTTT)

Logitech Harmony Alternatives

If you are looking for alternatives, you might want to check out Insteon Hub, Wink Hub 2, Iris Smart Hub, and Nexia Bridge. Although, they might not have the exact same features as the Harmony Hub, like the ability to connect to infrared-based smart devices, they may be more affordable.

Furthermore, I believe the inconsistencies with iOS devices is something that should not be taken lightly. If you want a smart home hub that runs smoothly with iOS devices, you might want to get an Apple Homekit instead. It connects with iOS and Apple TV better and you can control your home using Siri.

But as for the rest of you smart home fanatics out there, Harmony Hub is an excellent choice!