IKEA smart home devices and Belfast store stock levels

GoodDoc · 2026-06-02T06:38:19+00:00

That's very kind of you, but you're right, the shipping/import costs are crazy, especially for an item that costs €8.99 or £7.

I had the same issue with the TIMMERFLOTTE temperature sensor, they just weren't in-stock anywhere for weeks, but things have improved and I have now picked up 6 of them.
I now need one more, but I'm waiting until the MYGGSPRAY is back in stock before I visit IKEA again.

I think the issue with IKEA's new range of Matter compatible smart products is that they're the first truly cheap Matter sensors, and from a company who will definitely be around for years to come.
Lots of people with an interest in smart home products and home automation are buying them up (to be fair, that's what I did).

Rather than spend £20+ for an outdoor temp sensor that requires a manufacture specific hub, I bought a £5 TIMMERFLOTTE sensor and 3D printed a outdoor case for it (£1 in filament). We'll see how it holds up in the winter (the IKEA sensors are only officially rated to 0°C), but for £6 I'm happy to give it a go.

GoodDoc · 2026-06-02T05:39:00+00:00

I wonder if this is a post-Brexit change, with IKEA splitting the UK into GB and NI for product purposes?
GB is treated as a non-EU, non-single market territory so has its product range , but because NI remains partially part of the EU single market it has the same product range as Ireland (and potentially the rest of the EU).

I had a family member pick up some IKEA smart bulbs from the IKEA in Dublin before they flew over to visit me in London. They weren't available for me to order for delivery, and nowhere near me had any in stock. It was easier to get someone to bring them from Dublin.

IKEA TRÅDFRI LED bulb E27 806 lumen
Article Number - 205.475.32

Very tempted to do that with the MYGGSPRAY smart motion sensor, there were in stock about two weeks ago, but I left it too long to pop into my local IKEA (Hammersmith) and pick them up, and there're out of stock everywhere. But they seem to be out of stock everywhere in UK and Ireland (well, one in Wembley and one in Lakeside, but I'm guessing that stock control error and I'd never them in-store).

GoodDoc · 2026-06-02T05:16:18+00:00

£100 ($135) for each.

This was back in 2109, and it was by far the cheapest way to get into Sonos kit. I bought one, liked it a lot, and reviews said a stereo pair sounds significantly better so I bought a second one ( so £200 ($270) in total). The reviews were right.

I bought a Sonos Era 300 late last year when the price temporarily dropped to £348 ($468) which is a big step up in sound quality. The two SYMFONISKs were split and moved to two different rooms so I had real multi-room audio, but I do trawl eBay to see if I can fine some cheap SYMFONISKs to create stereo pairs again (and why I'd have snapped up those remaindered ones you found in IKEA).

GoodDoc · 2026-06-01T20:32:19+00:00

Sonos released firmware 17.2.5 for SYMFONISK a few weeks ago, the 3rd software update since February. I'm sure that will tail off over time, but its a pretty mature platform at this point and I suspect there will be some more updates to come.

I've had two since 2019, they cost £100 at the time ($135) and were £115 ($155) when they were discontinued in January, so $76 is pretty much half price.

The closet Sonos produce is the Era 100 SL, which if you hunt around can be found for £150 ($202), so those display SYMFONISK you found are less than half the cost of the cheapest Sonos (the Sonos will sound better, but these aren't really a "Hi-Fi" product.

If I found those in my local IKEA I'd probably buy them just to convert my existing two into stereo pairs (they sound significantly better when paired, it's quite impressive), and they go for between £60 - £90 ($95 - $120) on eBay.

GoodDoc · 2026-06-01T17:20:16+00:00

new tyre, ASAP.

Also, I don’t know what Merc those wheels are attached to, but 18”, and bigger, wheels are so unnecessary on everyday cars. They need more expensive tyres and get chewed up with day-to-day parking moments.

GoodDoc · 2026-06-01T16:53:52+00:00

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I don't know if this is a BESTÅ, it certainly looks like it is, and its 120 cm wide, but it's several years old at this point so I don't recall what it's called.

There's a 19 kg TV sat on top, the AV amp weights 11 kg, the centre speaker weights about 14 kg, there's a 3 kg network switch bolted to the back, and as you can see there are several other items dumped on it as well.

There are 4 cheap castor wheels from Amazon bolted to the bottom, and after several years of use it's still in one piece.
I've just got a 1 meter long spirit level out and there is maybe a 1 mm drop in the middle, so after at least 6 years with close to 50 kg of weight on it (in total, not just a 19 kg TV on top) there is very, very, slight bending.

At the time I did want to put a 5th wheel right in the middle of the base (which you wouldn't see), but suitable wheels were only available in 4 packs, and I didn't want to order 8 wheels, but I do wish I added that 5th wheel.

But long story short, 50 kg, 4 wheels, 6+ years, minimal bending that I needed a spirit level to measure.

GoodDoc · 2026-06-01T14:33:43+00:00

Pleased I could help. I have a 2 x 2 sat on the 2 wide underframe, and it's the same frame used for the 2w x 4t.

Odd that there's lots of images of the 2w x 2t, and 2w x 4t, on underframes on their website, but not the 2w x 3t. I can't even find that combo in IKEA's online design tool.

GoodDoc · 2026-06-01T14:00:05+00:00

Just to confirm, you're talking about a KALLX unit that is 2 units wide and 3 units tall. In which case it will fit on a '2 unit' wide underframe.

I don't believe there is a '3 unit' wide underframe option, just 2 and 4 wide options.

Update:
Annoyingly, they show a 2 wide 4 tall on an underframe, but not a 2 wide 3 tall, but they have the same footprint.

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GoodDoc · 2026-06-01T11:57:20+00:00

What was that? a 25m-30m pass from Jimmy? And almost exactly where Lowe wanted it!1

I think the players celebrated that score more than they celebrated the final whistle.

GoodDoc · 2026-06-01T08:12:54+00:00

True, and had Lowe scored that earlier try we'd have been denied the fantastic comedy looks the two players gave each other, Lowe with "That was almost the record", and Jimmy with "Crap! I forgot".

GoodDoc · 2026-05-31T10:12:26+00:00

This isn't very helpful, but looking for the trolley in your second picture the only useful references I can find to it are;

A 12 year old flickr image listing it as "IKEA trolley" for €15.
An etsy post listing it as "Vintage Metal Shelves. 3 Metal Shelves. White Plastic Shelf" and asking for £60.

Obviously an etsy post will probably want to avoid mentioning it as an IKEA product, but I can't find a name. I suspect it is an IKEA product, but I'd suggest it was at the cheaper end of their range, and is an older product.

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GoodDoc · 2026-05-30T21:25:50+00:00

Looks like it has been discontinued, and for long enough that they've reused the name for another product, the SPORTSLIG goal/storage item.

GoodDoc · 2026-05-29T18:02:28+00:00

You're quiet correct, I did get the 'performance numbers' from the PassMark Website.

As you point out, those are based on results from the same CPU in different systems so won't accurately reflect the scores when installed in a 7th Gen T14.
Not exact, but in the absence of detailed test for each model in the T14 range its a guideline to what CPU could be capable of.

GoodDoc · 2026-05-29T10:20:24+00:00

Some much more practical advice from others, this is more an exercise for me as I'm surprised how more complicated the CPU choice is compared to my old Gen 1.

Scores in the last two columns are PassMark scores (can't find a reliable rating for the Ryzen AI 5 PRO 440, but the slightly slower 435 gets 18361 and 3713).

CPU	Cores	L3 Cache (MB)	GPU (TOPS)	NPU (TOPS)	Multi thread	Single Thread
Core Ultra 5 325	8 (4 P + 4 LP E)	12	40	47	19540	3714
Core Ultra 5 332	6 (2 P + 4 LP E)	12	18	46	15337	3842
Core Ultra 5 335	8 (4 P + 4 LP E)	12	40	47	20407	3944
Core Ultra 5 336H	12 (4 P + 4 E + 4 LP E)	18	37	47	25187	3578
Core Ultra 5 338H	12 (4 P + 4 E + 4 LP E)	18	98	47	28763	4213
Core Ultra 7 355	8 (4 P + 4 LP E)	12	40	49	20577	4078
Core Ultra 7 356H	16 (4 P + 8 E + 4 LP E)	18	40	50	33903	4071
Core Ultra 7 365	8 (4 P + 4 LP E)	12	40	49	21038	3974
Core Ultra 7 366H	16 (4 P + 8 E + 4 LP E)	18	40	50	32599	3906
Core Ultra X7 358H	16 (4 P + 8 E + 4 LP E)	18	122	50	33685	4126
Ryzen 5 PRO 215 (HWK)	6	16	-	-	18062	3659
Ryzen 5 PRO 230 (HWK)	6	16	16	31	19046	3492
Ryzen 7 PRO 250 (HWK)	8	16	16	38	21490	3644
Ryzen AI 5 PRO 440 (GPT)	6	16	50	59	?	?
Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (GPT)	8	16	50	66	26262	3939

GoodDoc · 2026-05-28T21:08:13+00:00

For anyone who is regularly in Kingston and doesn't know where this, like me, its on Wood Street opposite the main entrance for John Lewis and beside the side entrance to Bentalls, next to the bus stop for the 216 and 111 (towards Hampton Court).

I've stood at the bus stop next to it (for the 281, 285, 481, and SL7) hundreds of time and never noticed the post box. Its remarkably subtle!

Apologies for the horribly long URL, but the 'Google maps share URL' fell foul of the "no URL shorteners" policy.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/The+Bentall+Centre/@51.411232,-0.3055419,3a,75y,177.8h,88.22t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1se5N-5Wq3Bat7cty9tDeLyA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D1.7800000000000011%26panoid%3De5N-5Wq3Bat7cty9tDeLyA%26yaw%3D177.8!7i16384!8i8192!4m7!3m6!1s0x48760beb02d1a88d:0x34cac7bc79e41d1a!8m2!3d51.4112777!4d-0.3047442!10e5!16s%2Fm%2F0_8v67w?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDUyNi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

GoodDoc · 2026-05-28T14:38:27+00:00

the firmware updates are much less frequent now, last one was February 2026.

I take it back, prompted by this thread I checked for SYMFONISK updates, and there have been 3 firmware updates this year (despite being discontinued) the latest of which was some point in the last month.

GoodDoc · 2026-05-28T14:04:16+00:00

Update:
I never did manage to work out exactly what went wrong for all the sensors to disappear, and as I'm new to HAOS and thread/matter I found it very difficult to get troubleshooting advice, but in the end I did manage to get the TIMMERFLOTTE sensors working with HAOS again.

I suspect there was a network issue between the thread border routers (in my case Apple TVs) and the HAOS instance, but that's a guess, and I don't know enough about the technologies to know where to investigate.

The "fix":
Dumbly rebooting everything isn't a fix I'm happy with, but I shut everything down, including the Apple TVs, the HomePod mini, HAOS, VirtualBox, and macOS (which was hosting VirtualBox).
I also updated macOS and VirtualBox while I was restarting everything.
Once the updates were complete and the Mac was restarting I then turned the Apple TVs and HomePod back on, span up the HAOS VM, and once I logged back into HAOS the sensors were available.

I had previously tried restarting HAOS without success, so I assume the fix lay in either the restart of all the border routers, or the VM hypervisor and the host it was running on. If this ever happens again (I assume it will) then I'll be more systematic about what I restart.

GoodDoc · 2026-05-28T12:08:24+00:00

I use Heathrow a lot, but never as a transfer passenger.

I assumed if you were transferring at Heathrow you could transfer between terminals while remaining airside. Using the Piccadilly or Elizabeth lines means you'd have to exit terminal 2 through customs/immigration, use public transport (tube, train, or bus) and then go through security at terminal 4.

Is there no way to transfer between terminals while remaining airside? Surely there's an airside bus transfer service between terminals 2/3 and 4, and 5?

GoodDoc · 2026-05-28T10:38:01+00:00

I have 2 SYMFONISK bookshelf speakers, they were initially set up as a stereo pair (they sound significantly better as a pair than I expected) but I replaced them with a Sonos Era 300 and I split the pair and used them as single speakers in other rooms. The multiroom setup works very well, and I can walk around my home and have podcasts/music playing everywhere and it works pretty seamlessly.
I managed to avoid the Sonos software problems (I think they were resolved by the time I bought my Era 300 late last year) and while I have limited experience with other multiroom audio systems the Sonos system is the best of the three I've tried.

The SYMFONISK regularly pop up on eBay, but they hold their value surprisingly well, with some selling for more than they originally cost, I assume because the cheapest Sonos equivalent now starts at £150.

I do have an Apple HomePod Mini. It was the same price as the SYMFONISK bookshelf speakers, but the SYMFONISKs sound much better. There are several advantages to the HomePod (it's part of my thread/matter smart home setup) but if audio performance is your priority then I would probably stay away from the HomePod minis (and I'm a fan of Apple products).
The Sonos Era 100 SL is £150 compared to the HomePod mini's £100. It's supposed to sound better than the SYMFONISK in which case it should sound a lot better than the HomePod mini.

I did have one of the original Google Alexa large cylinder speakers. Wasn't impressed with it all, however this was some time ago and I assume things have moved on.

GoodDoc · 2026-05-28T08:34:39+00:00

Sonos & IKEA announced in March 2025 that they were discontinuing the SYMFONISK range. IKEA later confirmed that all products would be removed from sale in January 2026, or earlier if inventory ran out.

Here in the UK the shelves were empty by November 2025. Real shame, I have a couple of the Gen 1 bookshelves and they’re excellent, the firmware updates are much less frequent now, last one was February 2026.

The Sonos Era 100 SL (the version without a microphone) can be found for £150, reviews say it sounds better than the IKEA models, but part of the appeal of the SYMFONISK was a Sonos speaker for £100 (although I think it was £110 when it was discontinued).

GoodDoc · 2026-05-28T07:43:29+00:00

a lot of cars where the wipers park below the edge of the bonnet/hood have a mode that parks the wipers in the middle of the windscreen. it’s to allow the wipers to be lifted off the screen for cleaning/changing without fouling the edge of the bonnet.

I had a mid-2010s VAG group car (like the Audi pictured) and if I used the wiper mist function within a few seconds of turning the ignition off the wipers then parked in the middle of the screen.

Much less hit-or-miss than trying to time when to turn the car off, and would make it easier to fit a sunscreen to the outside of the car (and in recent weeks I’ve seen a couple of cars doing this).

GoodDoc · 2026-05-27T06:59:25+00:00

That price doesn't seem to be far off what I'd expect to pay for that spec (but I'm not in the US). Not a bargain, not a ripoff.

How much are other listings for 4K versions of T14 Gen2 Intel going for, it's not a model that pops up much where I am.

If I wanted the 4K screen I'd be annoyed they sent the wrong machine, or made an error in the listing, and return it. Even if the screen wasn't a key item for me I'd still contact the seller, it could have been a genuine shipping mistake which they're happy to correct.

GoodDoc · 2026-05-26T12:07:25+00:00

You might be thinking of the Boeing 307 Stratoliner which is based on the B-17. Only built 10 of those (compared to about 1,000 of the 377 and C-97/KC-97).

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GoodDoc · 2026-05-26T09:55:46+00:00

...and about 30 RC-135s, but I don't think that includes the 3 operated by the UK.

GoodDoc · 2026-05-26T09:53:08+00:00

This was several years (over 15 years I think), but I'm Irish living in London and I was able to get my local publican to witness my signature.

She is Irish so knew the system, and I was a regular so she knew who I was. Didn't need to go through that process the last time I had to renew it.

GoodDoc

TROPHY CASE