How do you fix uneven dimming on IKEA KAJPLATS bulbs?

Users who measured the IKEA KAJPLATS white-spectrum bulb (E26, 1100 lm) with a lux meter found the slider is far from even: at 50% the bulb puts out roughly a tenth of its maximum light, at 80% under half, and then it leaps from about 430 to 1100 lux between 80% and 100%. In practice the slider feels dead through the middle and then blasts at the top. IKEA may improve the curve in a future firmware update, but you don't have to wait for that to get an evenly-behaving room.

The fix is to stop fighting the slider and make Rhythm the source of truth for the room. Rhythm runs your lights on a daily brightness curve between a floor and a ceiling you choose — so you can keep the curve inside the range where the bulb responds smoothly, instead of riding the jumpy top end by hand.

What this solves

• A brightness slider where nothing seems to happen until the very top
• A harsh jump in light level between "almost full" and "full"
• Evening dimming that steps down visibly instead of easing down
• Manually nudging the slider all day because no single setting feels right

Before you start

• LightHub powered and on the same local network as your phone
• The KAJPLATS bulb already visible in Rhythm (through Matter pairing or an imported hub — however your IKEA lights reach Rhythm today)
• Bulb firmware updated in the IKEA Home smart app if you have IKEA's hub — firmware updates are the one job the vendor app keeps

Do it in Rhythm

1. Open Rhythm and confirm the room and the bulb are visible.
2. Open the room's profile.
3. Set the brightness range first. Because this bulb crams most of its output into the top fifth of the scale, give the daily curve headroom: let midday sit at or near the top of the range, and set the floor low for evenings.
4. Set the warmth range second: neutral for the day, warmer for the evening (the white-spectrum KAJPLATS supports this).
5. Preview the room at morning, midday, evening, and bedtime. Watch specifically for the evening step-down: if you can see a sudden drop as the curve leaves the bulb's steep top end, lower the daytime ceiling slightly until the transition looks smooth.
6. Save and let the curve run for a full day before fine-tuning.

Avoid double automation

• Turn off any schedules or light-level automations in the IKEA Home smart app for this room — a vendor schedule firing on top of Rhythm's curve recreates the jumpiness you're trying to remove.
• Remove Apple Home, Google Home, or Alexa routines that set brightness on the same bulbs.
• Keep exactly one thing in charge of the room's light level: Rhythm.

When this is actually a device problem

If the bulb flickers at low levels, drops offline, won't pair, or a wall switch keeps cutting its power, that's a device problem — no curve will fix it. Check for firmware updates in the IKEA app first, and make sure the wall switch stays on so the bulb keeps power.

Good Rhythm settings to start with

• Morning: low-to-medium brightness, warm-to-neutral
• Midday: the top of your chosen range, neutral-to-cool
• Evening: low brightness, warm
• Sleep: very dim and warm

Adjust by room and comfort — the point is that transitions happen gradually on a curve, not in one visible jump.

Let the room run

Once the room is stable, let Rhythm run the daily curve and keep the IKEA app for firmware updates. If IKEA later ships a firmware fix for the dimming curve, your Rhythm setup only gets smoother.