Lutron, known for its range of Caséta smart home lighting products, today announced the upcoming launch of the Caséta Outdoor Smart Plug.
The Caséta Outdoor Smart Plug has an IP-65 water and dust resistance rating that allow it to be protected even in the rain. Lutron says that it is built to last and will survive severe weather "season after season."
The Smart Plug can be used for holiday lights, string lighting, some motors and pumps, and other outdoor lighting options. It is HomeKit compatible and can be controlled in the Home app or through the Lutron app for scheduling purposes. There's a built-in smart timer that keeps it on the right time year-round, even through Daylight Savings.
The Caséta Outdoor Smart Plug can be used with a Lutron Smart Bridge for increased reliability and responsiveness, plus the plug can be paired with other Caséta lighting products.
Lutron will start selling the Caséta Outdoor Smart Plug in late March at Amazon, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Lowe's, and it will be priced at $79.95.
Top Rated Comments
Edit: it was correctly pointed out that Hue is not WiFi based.
This is actually one advantage Hue has over Lutron's ClearConnect protocol, which is not mesh: arbitrarily large range. Lutron lets you add up to two "extenders," but that is a fairly new feature. For more range, you'll need a "full" RA2 system where you can add more RA2 Main Repeaters or Auxiliary Repeaters. That being said, ClearConnect does have lots of advantages: not being mesh means you never have to worry about some routing oddities that occasionally plague Zigbee (but usually not with simple networks like Hue/ZLL); they use a low-frequency less-crowded bandwidth; and their products have a well-deserved solid reputation (though I'd say Hue does too).
What you mentioned, however, is one reason I wouldn't fill my house with devices like LIFX or Shelly--or even lots of HomeKit-compatible plugs I see here from time to time. Nothing against Wi-Fi itself (I do have several Wi-Fi "smart" devices), just probably not the best protocol for large numbers of these things.