Fibaro Swipe Review
Fibaro Swipe …
Is it any good?
Well actually yes. Put simply, i no longer have to get my phone out of my pocket, or take the laptop off my wife or even reach for the light switch to activate scenes. Fibaro Swipe sits neatly on my coffee table ready to recieve gestures, which is easier than all the other options. So thats box 1 ticked.
How many devices can it control?
That depends how you set it up. But in theory over 100 with simple opposite state commands or more than most people could remember the gesture combination for. So thats box 2 ticked. Honestly, it can be used better than this. For instance, i use it simply for helpfull functions that i would normly use every day in the living room, so heating boost, light level control, appliance control and scene control. Only a hand full of gestures to remember, nice, simple, easy.
Would i buy another one?
Yep…. After living with fibaro swipe for 2 weeks i can honestly say that i would. With the way my particular house is set up i will almost certinaly buy another 2. In my opinion Swipe is best suited to open plan type houses but can still provide a neat solution to control a non open plan style house.
Any Problems?
Not as such, as long as you keep it continually connected to a main power source. Which is pretty easy. Unfortunatley, when relying on the battery fibaro swipe goes into sleep mode. Waking it up can be quite irritating, and if you stop it from going into sleep mode the batteries will only last 3 days and are not rechargeable. With carefull planning this should never be a problem. Remember, swipe can read your gestures through solid surfaces such as kitchen worktops and drywall, (i have not yet tried granite) where it is easy to get permanant power. By wall mounting or placing on a side counter or table we can also access permanant power.
In summary then, its more convenient than other points of control, you can simply control all the devices and scenes that you would need to from one point and as long as you put some thought into the placement of it you will not have a single issue.
I give it a 9 out of 10
For more information go to fibarouk
