Eve Energy 2 Pack - Smart Plug & Power Meter with Built-in Schedules, Switch a Connected lamp or Device on & Off, Voice Control, no Bridge, Bluetooth Low Energy, Apple HomeKit, Bluetooth, Thread

I started out with decent smart plugs out there that were around half the cost, but I am slowly replacing them all with these Eve plugs when I can afford to. They support Thread out of the box, will get a software update in December 2022 to make them some of the first devices compatible with the newly-released Matter standard, and are some of the most responsive devices in my Apple Home (HomeKit) setup. The Eve app provides a great detail view of your devices on the Thread network, and offers more color favorites one can save for Hue devices than Apple Home. The power meter is nice, especially on the plug we have an oil heater connected to. My only complaint would be the button to switch them on manually—which is the little light in the upper right corner—is a bit small. I would be nice to have a larger target to press, or at least a little more obvious its a manual switch when guests are trying to power it on.

It works well and communicates with other devices on a Thread network. My only complaint is the manual button to turn it on/off is the little status light on the face of the unit. It definitely was not intuitive that it was the manual button. And it is quite small and not easy to press.

This product is certainly nice. The thread connectivity is unmatched. The outlet works well for a while, then inexplicably stops responding. I tried resetting it, following all the possible solutions in the manual. I finally managed to add it back to the home, but still wouldn’t respond. After a few hours of trying to get it working again, the device failed to function properly. It had to be discarded. This isn’t the first time this happened. Clearly, the manufacturer either needs to look at the microcode for their firmware and/or the have a hardware defect. Waste of money.

TL/DR: Do they work? Most of the time. Are they easy to program? Sort of. Do I recommend? Yes, with the reservations listed below. The product is sleek and appears to be solidly made. I appreciate the green lighted button on the front that you can use bypass the app when (not if) you need to. The size and shape is also great; big enough to securely hold the plug, but not so big that it gets in the way of using the other outlet. If there was some way to make the plug with the holes on the side, it would be easier to use in tight places like behind furniture. To use it behind a side desk table, I had to cut a 6 x10 inch hole in the back of it. A side plug hole would be much more flexible (and would have saved me from hacking-up a piece of furniture). There are a couple of other things they could have done better. One is placement of the QR code. After plugging it into power, my phone’s camera couldn’t see the code, which was on the other side of the plug. It’s often dark behind furniture and the code is printed in a very light gray color, so it was hard for the phone’s camera to find it. Having the code printed on both sides of the plug would be great. Typing the code in myself wasn’t THAT big of a deal, but then it didn’t connect with my phone after several frustrating tries. So I decided to send them back. However, I tried once more the next day, and it worked. The manufacturer made beautiful, high quality Apple-like packaging, but they followed the habit of many companies nowadays of making the directions only 2-3 pages long with inadequate graphics, and in very faint print. There’s too little info in the booklet or on their website to help explain how to install and connect it, at least for “old people” like me. A few times, as others have noted, the product seems to lose connection with the app too. I don’t know exactly what the problem is, but, given enough time, it’s been able to fix itself (so far). I worry about setting up an automation to work the lights while away on vacation. What if the plug stops working and can’t fix itself? Then the automation wouldn’t work and I wouldn’t even be able to command it remotely. Would the light just stay on, or would it not come on at all? Another issue I have is having two different apps that control the switch - the Eve app and Apple’s HomeKit app. HomeKit has more functionality (potentially at least) because you can program a Siri Shortcut. I found the Eve app nicer though, because their on/off button is a simple toggle. You open the app and push the button once and the switch is either on or off. With the HomeKit app you have to open the app, tap the button for the switch, then move a slider switch up or down. Unless there’s some reason HomeKit has to do it that way, that’s just another step. I’ve exhausted efforts to find a way to make a Siri Shortcut to create a simple toggle switch. Of course, I realize that all I have to do is say: Hey Siri, turn on the Office Desk Lamp, and she does it right away. But, if I say Hey Siri, turn on the “desk light in the office” instead of “office desk lamp”, she says she can’t find it. She doesn’t seem to know that lamp and light CAN be interchangeable terms. She could at least ask for clarification - “did you mean desk LAMP?” Much of this may be construed as whining, but I feel like the product isn’t yet “ready for prime time”. Real consumer testing (not by the “boffins” who made the product) and opinion panels could help bring out products that ARE ready for prime time. Diatribe over.

Ive tried a variety of smart plugs that are supposedly Apple Home / Homekit compatible from Wemo, Meross, and others, and they all are unreliable except this one from Eve. Even worse most require you to install some horrible sketchy likely spyware Chinese mobile app just to set them up and sometimes as the only way to use them. This plug from Eve is the ONLY one Ive found that ALWAYS works and no app is required to set it up with Apple Home. Further, the new version acts as a Thread mesh network repeater. So sprinkling these around your house helps your battery powered Thread devices communicate more reliably. These can save you serious money. For example I have a power hungry dehumidifier that always runs the inefficient fan/blower even when its not dehumidifying. Left plugged in all the time it was using about 6 Kwh per day or nearly $30/month to run. By using the Eve Energy I set up a simple Apple Homekit schedule to run it only twice per day for a few hours. Now it uses only 1 Kwh per day or six times less power at around $5/month. So just one of these Eve devices is saving me $25/month easily paying for itself many times over. Like a Kill-A-Watt or similar energy meter, you can use these smart plugs to monitor power consumption of devices over time. It could be anything from your TV to your window fan but even better if its something you want to automate or control remotely. One note is the Eve energy monitoring feature requires some time to work correctly. You cant plug something in and get a near instant reading of how much energy its using. Its designed to only be an accurate average over time. I think these are rated for 15 amps but I wouldnt use them, or any smart plug, for very high power devices like room heaters, kitchen appliances, etc. Some of the no-name Chinese smart plugs have been known to catch fire when used with high power devices.

These plugs function very well, but emit a high pitched noise that has kept me from being able to use them in any spot in my house that I might spend more than a few seconds at a time. I think I can make use of the 2 I bought but I definitely won’t be buying more.

The Eve Energy plugs are generally very nice and easy to install, if you are in range of a hub. The thread networking range to the Apple TV 4K is ~ 20 feet so you have to daisy chain thread devices across the house to reach distant locations. This can lead to numerous thread devices that are unused. The Eve Energy plug can monitor the voltage and power of the socket but the voltage measurement is well hidden. There is no notification possible with a desired power threshold. Low-cost, stubbed thread extenders would be nice. Also, it is too easy to shut an Eve Energy plug off. There should be a setting preventing that action. They will not fit recessed floor sockets and will not fit well behind furniture or appliances.

So much better than the Wemo I was using. These work even after a power flicker or a phone update. You can pretty much set these and forget about them, they just work.

Decided to go with these to replace my Wemo smart plugs that I had for a while. The Wemo were ok when they worked, but eventually they would stop working and you had to unplug them and plug them in again to get them to work again. These are a bit smaller in size than my Wemo plugs and they are much more stable. I haven’t had any problems with them failing to work. The main reason I went Eve is that they have better privacy policy and plus they have the ability to calculate how much electricity is being used on the outlet. That is one of the main reason why I went with Eve. Another reason is that they support the new standard Matter. That way they are more future proof. One thing I wish it had was the ability to automatically turn off after a certain period of time after being turned on. That is what my older Wemo plugs had. That is a nice feature so you can have it turn off after 1 hour of being turned on. That way if someone forgets to turn off a lamp, it will automatically shut off after 1 hour or whatever time you set it for. Another thing that would be nice if they added support for Amazon Alexa. Maybe when Matter support gets flushed out more you might be able to use it with Amazon Alexa also. Another nice feature is that you can control the LED light when it’s turned on. You can have the light on when it’s turn on or you can disable it so it will not stay lit up when it’s on. This is nice if you have in your bedroom and you don’t want a bright LED on at night. I also noticed that even though it says you need to have a Home Hub like a newer Apple TV or Apple HomePod mini, I was still able to access those switch while away from my home. I was able to turn on my lights with my old original AppleTV 4K when away from my home and it worked fine. Overall a nice reliable smart plug that works with HomeKit.

These are the only HomeKit smart plugs that are always connected to HomeKit, and they boast support for thread and energy monitoring. As far as I know, these are the only plugs with these three features: HomeKit, Energy Monitoring & Thread support! I’ve tried and returned brands from Kasa, SwitchBot and 2 generic brands as all of them constantly were “not responding” and were missing thread support. Eve plugs are easily 2X the price of any other HomeKit smart plug, but turns out they are worth it. I now have a price watcher looking for sales!