Eufy Out of doors Pathway Lights E10 evaluation: Stroll this fashion

Anker’s Eufy division has been going all out growing new and revolutionary out of doors lighting merchandise, with its newest providing being the Eufy Out of doors Pathway Lights E10 reviewed right here.

As with Eufy’s different panorama lighting merchandise, together with the Eufy Out of doors Spotlights E10 we reviewed in December 2024, these path lights join on to your 2.4GHz Wi-Fi community (after an preliminary connection by way of Bluetooth; 5GHz Wi-Fi networks usually are not supported). You may also use a Bluetooth-only reference to these lights, however a Wi-Fi connection is required to unlock their full function set. I’ll go into extra element about what you are able to do with the lights later.

Specs

These tall and enticing bollard-style lights function aluminum enclosures with a matte black end and RGBWW LEDs inside, which means every gentle has discrete crimson, inexperienced, blue, and heat white diods to ship saturated colours and tunable white shade temperatures. Every bollard’s gentle radiates from a 3.5-inch-high band of frosted plastic encircling the enclosure and a second shorter lens of the identical type atop the cylinder, so gentle shines up in addition to out.

The lights aren’t tremendous vibrant, nonetheless, delivering simply 350 lumens every; don’t count on a big pool of sunshine to light up a path (the Eufy Out of doors Spotlights E10 are brighter, producing 500 lumens every, however 4 of these would set you again $200 versus $170 for this equipment).

Along with a rainbow of colours, you’ll be able to tune these pathlights’ white shade temperature from a really heat 1500 Kelvin to a particularly cool 9000K (pure daylight is roughly between 4000- and 6500K, relying on circumstances and the time of day). The lights are individually addressable, so you’ll be able to select a definite shade for every gentle. You may also assign animation routines that can cycle the colours via the chain. That’s along with the various preset lighting results that I’ll focus on in additional element later.

Every Eufy Out of doors Pathway Gentle is about 15 inches tall, they usually include 6-inch stakes for set up in mushy soil. Not like the far more costly Philips Hue Calla bollard gentle I reviewed a number of years in the past ($130 for one, not together with the facility provide or the required Hue bridge), Eufy doesn’t present any means for putting in the lights on hardscape, similar to a deck or a concrete patio.

Whereas Eufy offers the person bollards a weatherization ranking of IP65, which means the lights are impervious to mud ingress and that they’ll stand up to a blast from a strain washer at an inexpensive distance, the facility provide they rely upon is an abnormal wall wart with a a lot weaker weatherization ranking of simply IP44.

Michael Brown/Foundry

In keeping with TechHive’s IP code information, which means the facility provide is simply protected towards particulate matter bigger than 1 millimeter, however that it could actually stand up to water sprayed from any route. On condition that, you’ll wish to guarantee the facility provide is a minimum of plugged into an outlet with a bubble cowl to guard it from rain. The lights have an working temperature vary of -4 levels Fahrenheit to 104F.

Set up and setup

Eufy makes use of barrel-type DIN connectors which are properly shielded from water to make every cable connection. The cable itself carries solely 27 volts of electrical energy, so it may be buried immediately in a 6-inch trench, as per the Nationwide Electrical Code (particularly, NEC 3000.5(A)). For this momentary set up, I took the simple method out and simply coated it with mulch. (Professional gardening tip: mulch additionally occurs to be the most effective weed deterrent for the cash, offered you place it down thick sufficient to stop daylight from reaching any weed seeds in your soil).

The system’s most cable run is about 50 toes, with every bollard spaced 9.8 toes aside. You’ll be able to put the lights nearer collectively for those who’d like, however they are often not more than 9.8 toes aside. There’s an 11-inch first phase, main from the facility provide to a 13.4-foot cable that has a small puck-style on/off swap within the center. The subsequent phase is 4.9 toes lengthy and goes from that cable to the primary gentle in your run. The remaining three lights are then spaced 9.8 toes aside, as I’ve already talked about.

Michael Brown/Foundry

As does Philips, Eufy makes use of T-connectors to attach the primary three lights to the run of energy cable (there’s a single-ended connector on the finish of the run). Not like Philips, nonetheless, Eufy’s system can’t be prolonged past 4 lights—its energy provide can’t deal with the extra load, and the cable terminates in a single connector (not a T).

If 50 toes isn’t sufficient to run the size of your walkway, you’ll want to purchase one other 4-light equipment and energy provide. However that alone gained’t remedy your distance problem, since you shouldn’t depend on even an outdoor-rated extension wire for everlasting lighting—and also you actually shouldn’t bury such a high-voltage (120V) wire within the floor.

These are a few of the causes I just like the Philips Hue method a lot. You should purchase bigger or smaller energy provides, relying on what number of lights you propose to deploy, and Philips Hue cables and connectors are far more versatile on the subject of total size, the space between lights, and branching.

Utilizing the Eufy Out of doors Pathway Lights E10

Michael Brown/Foundry

You’ll wish to plug in all of the lights and add them to both the Eufy app or the Eufy Life app earlier than you place them completely, simply in case you encounter any defects that might immediate you to return the equipment. This may also give you a chance to put in any firmware updates that is perhaps out there.

The Eufy app is used primarily for Eufy safety cameras, sensible locks, video doorbells, and its safety system, however you should use it to arrange and later management a minimum of some of the options of the Eufy Out of doors Pathway Lights. You’ll want to make use of the Eufy Life app, nonetheless, to entry all the options of Eufy’s sensible lighting merchandise.

Michael Brown/Foundry

You should utilize both app to customise the colour or the white shade temperature of the lights or to select from dozens of lighting scenes primarily based on holidays, seasons, feelings, occasions, and even flags or the climate.

An AI function, in the meantime, will generate customized lighting scenes primarily based on as much as 100-character phrases you sort into the app. A number of the phrases the app suggests are: “In the present day is my birthday;” “My spouse loves me;” and “Ocean waves at sundown.” You should utilize your cellphone’s digital camera to seize textual content for this objective, however you’ll be able to’t use its mic to document phrases. This novel AI function is mildly entertaining, but it surely doesn’t actually add all that a lot worth to the bundle.

Linking Eufy’s pathlights to a Eufy safety digital camera

A very powerful function you’ll wish to allow within the Eufy Life app—assuming you additionally personal one of many many Eufy safety cameras that options Eufy’s WonderLink know-how—is to configure a kind of cameras to set off Eufy sensible lights.

This functionality isn’t distinctive to Eufy sensible dwelling merchandise; Ring safety cameras, for instance, can set off Ring sensible lights, and Philips Hue safety cameras can do the identical with Philips Hue lights. However in all three instances, the cameras can solely set off lights made by the identical producer. There are workarounds—you’ll be able to arrange a routine in IFTTT or within the Alexa app, for instance—however workarounds are by no means as simple as utilizing a local app. Maybe when safety cameras turn into a class within the Matter commonplace, that limitation will fall away.

Michael Brown/Foundry

In any occasion, you’ll click on on the LuminoLink button on the backside right-hand facet of the Eufy Life app. This can open an IFTTT-like configuration display screen that permits you to select gadgets to function triggers and gadgets that can carry out actions when your outlined circumstances are met.

Throughout the Eufy Life app, I configured a Eufy S330 safety digital camera to set off the Eufy Out of doors Pathway Lights to activate a “Welcome” scene at 100% brightness when the digital camera detects an individual in its area of view between sundown and dawn. You’ll be able to select from dozens of such lighting scenes or create your individual.

This evaluation is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the greatest sensible lighting.

You may also arrange a set off that units the pathlights to flashing crimson if the digital camera detects an individual, however whereas the digital camera and the Eufy Homebase 3 NAS field that works with it could actually discern between buddies, household, neighbors, and strangers, you’ll be able to’t limit the sunshine’s triggered habits to when a stranger is detected.

Do you have to purchase Eufy Out of doors Pathway Lights E10?

The Eufy Out of doors Pathway Lights E10 is without doubt one of the higher sensible lighting options on the market. The lights are rugged and properly shielded from the weather, they usually produce excellent high quality gentle in colours and white shade temperatures. And its means to hyperlink to Eufy cameras is an excellent function, though it might be much more helpful if it may set off a lighting habits when the digital camera detects a stranger.

However an influence provide that’s restricted to supporting 4 lights and 50 toes of wire is simply sufficient for a comparatively brief path. The utmost distance between every bollard is one other downside. If cash isn’t any object, Philips Hue panorama lighting is a far superior various.

That mentioned, I don’t know anybody for whom cash isn’t any barrier to outfitting their dwelling out with the very best sensible merchandise available on the market, and a single Philips Hue Calla gentle and energy provide prices greater than a 4-pack of those Eufy lights.