TLDR: Good value, customizable light unit, easy to install, but the Bluetooth control and phone app are a little buggy. You need to buy an extra bridge for control by an Assistant via Wi-Fi. FULL REVIEW: . I was planning on adding a light above our stove and this Bluetooth-controlled, 6-inch, Halo Home HLB6099BLE40AWH Smart Can-less LED Recessed Light showed up in my Vine listing. I ordered it. As an Amazon Vine reviewer, I am offered new-to-market products, if I want them, at no cost to me, in exchange for an honest, objective, and comprehensive review. . We have a suspended ceiling in our old 100-year-old home and one main central light in the kitchen. So, when cooking at the stove, there is a shadow cast by the light being behind us. I knew I could run a length of Romex cable from the main light over to the stove to power a light. . While there are a number of these types of can-less LED lights available, I was interested in the Bluetooth control. There will be times when we might need to dim the brightness or turn it off independently without turning off the main kitchen light. You can use the Halo Home app on your phone, but to use Alexa or another assistant, you need to buy a “Halo Home Smart Internet Access bridge”. As supplied, this light only works via BT on your phone. More on that later! . The thinness of the LED light itself is impressive. Very easy to install in tight spaces without the need for a bulky can. The overall construction is good quality. . INSTALLATION: . The installation was very easy. There is an included cardboard template to mark the hole that needs to be cut in the ceiling panel. After using a plumb line to locate the light’s center over the stove and towards its front, to avoid a shadow from the cabinet above, I marked the circle and having removed the panel, I used my hand-held router to cut a clean hole. A drywall saw on a ceiling panel would make a very rough hole! . I knocked out the round cut-out for a Romex cable clamp in the control box, inserted my clamp and cable and tightened the clamp. Inside the box, easily accessed via a simple snap-closed, hinged lid, the light’s wires had push-in connectors on their ends. That made connecting the Romex wires really quick and easy. I thought I’d need wire nuts! . I then fed the Romex over to the central light above the suspended ceiling, screwed the Halo control box to the original ceiling above the panel’s hole location and simply let the BT module and LED cable hang down. The white cabling for the LED light was plenty long enough to extend below the panel, after putting that back in place, and the connector in that cable was just above the ceiling panel for easy access through the hole. After connecting the other end of the Romex cable to the central light junction box and checking everything was working OK, I inserted the Halo light into the ceiling panel – Job done! . BLUETOOTH CONTROL & APP: . The App requires you to create an account (and then you get a confirmation email to allow access to the app). Then you are required to allow multiple permissions, such as location, storage, etc. It’s annoying that you have to allow the access but unfortunately, it is how Android is set up. The app was a little confusing, but eventually I was able to get to ADD DEVICES. After searching for a few seconds, the HALO light flashed once and appeared in the app as “MICROEDGE (HLB)”. Hitting the right-pointing arrow, takes you to the control screen. The controls are very comprehensive. Color temperature (presets and custom), brightness, ON/OFF, schedules, etc. I set our color and brightness to that shown in the photo. . I found that with the lights turned off, (no power to the HALO light), the BT connection was lost on the phone. The light color and temperature remain as per the last setting. With the HALO light on, opening the app allows it to search and, sometimes (See later), find the Halo light. You are now able to control it. This, for me at least, isn’t very practical to, for example, independently turn the HALO light on/off regularly, while leaving the kitchen light on. You obviously need your phone, with BT and Location on. You need to wait for the app to find the Halo light. Then you need to get to the control page. A widget on the phone’s home screen would be more useful. . Later that evening, I had switched on the kitchen lights several times and the Halo light was working great, with the color and brightness as I’d set. Then one time, while in the kitchen, the Halo light suddenly went to full brightness! It seemed to have gone back to its default settings. The app was still open on my phone. I tried to adjust the controls and nothing happened. It seemed like the Halo light was not “seen” by the app. I decided to try and add the device again. It was found and a new MICROEDGE (HLB) appeared in the device list. The controls now worked again! I reset the Halo light’s parameters yet again. I then tried to delete the original MICROEDGE (HLB) device from the list. The app said “REMOVING” and just hung there and never deleted the device! Presumably it needs to find the device to delete it and that was the initial problem. At that point, I just uninstalled the app and won’t use it again. I have the HALO light set as I want it and it seems to be holding those settings without the need for the app. The brightness I set is fine to leave the light on all the time when the central kitchen light is on. . My wife tried to set up her phone with the app, but it could never find the Halo light. She got a network message (see photo) and after pressing ‘OK’, the app stayed in the search-message-search loop. The next day, I wanted to adjust the brightness. I reinstalled the app, logged in, allowed all the permissions, then got stuck in the same search-message-search loop. I closed the app, turned off my phone’s Bluetooth, restarted the app, which then asked to enable Bluetooth. This time the app found the Halo light. Also, the other Halo light that I couldn’t remove last time was finally gone. CONCLUSION: 4 STARS . The Halo Home HLB6099BLE40AWH Smart Can-less LED Recessed Light is a well-designed, well-built, easy to install, and discrete light, ideal for home remodeling projects. At $39, it seems good value given the additional Bluetooth capability. It has achieved my goal of a light above the stove! The Bluetooth control allows for on-the-fly, post-installation, customization without having to physically set color on the control box upfront or install a separate dimmer unit. However, the app functionality seems a little clunky for regular use and, based on my experience, is perhaps better suited for the initial set-up and just the occasional adjustment to brightness and/or color temperature for special occasions, but not for use multiple times per day. I can recommend this light, as long as you are aware of the limitations with the app.
