Hey everyone, I wanted to share my experience with the Shelly 2.5 and MQTT integration. I’ve been using Shelly devices for a while now, and they’ve been a great addition to my smart home setup. However, I recently ran into an interesting issue that I thought might be worth discussing here.
So, here’s the setup: I have two Shelly 2.5 units controlling two ceiling lamps fitted with Hue bulbs. My goal was to configure the Shelly relays to stay on continuously, providing constant power to the lamps. Meanwhile, the physical switches would only send MQTT inputs for on/off commands, with all other controls handled through Home Assistant. This setup would allow me to toggle the Hue bulbs both physically and via automations or apps—a pretty standard smart home use case.
But here’s where things got tricky. After setting up the configuration, I noticed a few unusual behaviors:
- Temperature Spike: The Shelly’s temperature climbed by about 20°C once the relays were kept on, even without any load. While this didn’t trigger an overtemperature warning, it was still concerning.
- Unstable Reboots: The device began rebooting at irregular intervals, ranging from a few seconds to 20 minutes. This was especially frustrating because even accessing the Shelly’s web GUI would sometimes trigger a reboot.
- Persistent Issues: The problem worsened when voltage was present on the inputs (i.e., when the switches were on). At its worst, every interaction with the Shelly would result in a reboot, making it impossible to use without a manual reset.
I’ve used Shelly 1 Plus devices in similar configurations without any issues, so this behavior was unexpected. I’ve tried troubleshooting by isolating the problem and experimenting with different configurations, but nothing seems to resolve it permanently.
Now, I’m wondering if this is a hardware-specific issue with this particular Shelly 2.5 or if it’s a more systemic problem with the Shelly 2.5 model when used in this specific setup. Has anyone else encountered similar behavior? I’d be grateful for any insights or solutions!
On a positive note, I’ve been impressed with how MQTT integration simplifies smart home automation, and I’m excited to continue exploring its capabilities once this issue is resolved. If anyone has tips for stabilizing MQTT connections or optimizing Shelly device performance, I’d love to hear them!
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your thoughts!