Kasa Smart HS100 WiFi Smart Plug, Classic 1-Pack, White

As with nearly every Amazon purchase Ive made, this arrived timely. I was able to install the Kasa app on my Samsung Galaxy S5 without any trouble, but activating the plug wasnt frustration-free. Following the instructions on my Samsung, I was able to complete all but the last installation step. After three unsuccessful attempts to connect the plug, I contacted customer service. The recording assured me I was number one in line for a representative but I still waited a few moments for someone to speak with me. I clearly explained my difficulty (unable to connect to Wi-Fi) and the steps Id taken. The rep asked me to reset the plug, and then I was met with silence. After six minutes, I disconnected and called back (hallelujah! I was number one in line again!), and repeated what had happened on my first call. The rep dug through some instruction sheets, had me repeat the same steps for the fourth time, then said that my best option was to return the plug for a replacement. I persisted on my own and found a tip: link the smart plug while its in an outlet near your Wi-Fi router, then move it to your desired location. I did that, and voila! installation complete. Next step: go into the Alexa app, select Smart Home and then your device links and enable the plug. No problems there, either. Absolutely yes, it works with the Echo device. So why four stars and not five? First, customer service was not helpful. I easily found the tip that resulted in success, it seems that customer service could have done the same instead of suggesting I exchange the plug. And second, regardless of the March 10 comment from Kasa (see Earthlings review), the smart plug DOES block the second outlet. As much as Id enjoy having the majority of my electrical devices on a smart plug, I dont like the idea of blocking two outlets with one device.

During the month of December I purchased three of these items. Two were hardware version 2.0. One of them was hardware version 1.0. Supposedly, according to TP-Link, the only difference between the two versions is the newer logo. I beg to differ. Both items that are hardware version 2.0 work perfectly with no issues. The one that is hardware version 1.0 works terribly. Its hard to connect to my network. It falls off my network all the time. And its nearly impossible to get it back on my network when it falls off. The plug is literally 10 feet away from my wireless router. The other two that work properly are farther away from the router. If I had purchased only one item and it was hardware version 1.0, I would have concluded these plugs suck in performance. If I had received only one plug that was hardware version 2.0 I would be offering nothing but praise. But, because I received two hardware version 2.0 plugs and one hardware version 1.0 plug, it was easy to conclude there was a tremendous difference between the two hardware versions. You can determine the hardware version in the app used to control the devices. If you have a hardware version 1.0 plug and are having problems with it, I highly encourage you to return it and get the hardware version 2.0. I can only hope the replacement in transit to me right now will be hardware version 2.0. If not its going right back to Amazon.

Here is my honest review of TP-Link Smart Plug: Pros: - Very Quick to respond from both the Kasa app, and Alexa. Have not tested with Google home - Has support for three pronged plugs, not just the two. - Very easy and quick to setup in the Kasa app! - The Kasa app has support to control the device anywhere in the world! Just need any kind of Internet connection or Cellular Service. - Sleek Design. Does not stick out like a sore thumb. Blends pretty well with most atmospheres. - Adds smart home control to any device with a plug! Whether it be a lamp, charger, light, or even a music player. - Very lightweight. Not too important, but thought I would add it just in case. Cons: - Very bulky. Will take up the entire outlet and the one above/below/adjacent to it. It is also very thick. If you are putting it behind a desk or a dresser, you would need to pull it away from the wall quite a bit. Not a compact device. - Makes a noticeable click noise when turned on and off. Not that big of a deal for me, but may bug some people. - The status LED on the device is not that big, so it is very hard to tell what color it is. Most of the time it just looks yellow. Overall Thoughts: I love this product. I have used this product for 10 months and still love it. There are very few cons, and the ones I listed dont bother me too much. They are just mainly me being picky. I think that this product could be used for a HUGE variety of products. It has so many uses. You can attach pretty much anything to it. I personally use it for a Himalayan Salt Lamp, and it works great. Do I recommend this product? Absolutely. Would I buy this product again? Yep! Should you buy this product? If the cons I listed do not bother you, then 100%! Go get this product!

Weve been using this with the Amazon Echo for our living room lights for about a month now. We also have a Wink Hub for lights in the bedrooms. Prior to that we had a Belkin Wemo Starter Kit. We have very basic needs and currently dont do anything sophisticated (e.g., IFTTT). Sometimes we joke that we should have gotten The Clapper instead. The TP-LINK HS100 was relatively inexpensive and was compatible with the Echo. Id also purchased some TP-LINK networking products in the past and had good experiences with the brand. I found the Smart Plug very easy to set up -- it took only one try (about 10 minutes). Once I found the instructions to get it connected to the Echo that was easy too. I had assumed it was going to connect to the Echo in the same way as the Wink Hub, but I was wrong. See Amazons product Q&A or Google for instructions as its not obvious how to do it. I think I spent many hours trying to set up the Wemo on my wi-fi and connected to the light bulbs. It alternated between working and not-working over several weeks and finally completely died. Setting up the TP-LINK was wonderfully smooth in comparison. And we have had no problems with it at all. I found that the Wink Hub didnt have enough range to get to the living room so I needed a plug that wasnt dependent on the Wink. I could have opted for the Wemo Switch which is more integrated with Amazon Echo but is more expensive than the TP-LINK. I also swore I wouldnt get another Wemo product after all the time I wasted with the first one. Initially I was very annoyed by having to say Alexa ask Kasa to turn on lights especially since were used to Alexa turn off lights with the Wink Hub. But weve gotten used to it. We probably turn the lights in the living room on and off only once or twice a day.

The TP LINK HS100 is an excellent choice for a WiFi smart plug. Set up is easy with the KASA app and once you establish an account for remote control, adding additional plugs is a fast and simple. I especially like the icon selections avaliable to assign to the plugs along with unique names. The app works on both cellphones and tablets. Your phone/tablet and the smart plug must be configured with both on the same 2.4Ghz network, but once completed, the phone/tablet can be switched to an 11a or 11n network. This only works with remote control access or you are confined to local access under 11g only network. I recommend setting up multiple plugs on the same phone or tablet first, discovery and connection is quick and easy on the second device. I deducted a star for the bulkiness of the plug. I also have installed several units of the Power X WiFi Remote Smart Plug by Raynic Electronics, they are not as bulky and have a slimmer profile. You can control local or remote access with the TP LINK HS100, the Power X once configured is remote by default. When on remote you are server dependent and I have experienced server connection issues with both and had to manually control the on/off function of the plug. I recommend the TP LINK HS100 WiFi Remote Smart Plug as a starting point to creating a smart home, with or without the Amazon Echo and Alexa.

Installation was a bit of a nightmare at first. Even though the app loaded just fine on my phone, and even though my phone (a HTC Volt 2) was on the this should work list, the app kept freezing whenever it tried to name the plug. I must have done it over and over 500 times, until I was ready to drop the entire thing into an active volcano. If youre having trouble with setup, forget the helpdesk and try using another phone or tablet. (Once the plug is synced and working, the app on my phone controls it just fine. Setup just has a few bugs in it). I finally used a tablet that has Google play on it to download the Kasa app and install the plug instead of my phone. So setup is kinda hit or miss depending on how the app works with your phone, but once its working, the plug is fantastic! Its way better than Wemo in that it never loses connectivity or needs to be reset. I actually have five of them now that I use with Alexa, and they are all 100% responsive. (Be sure to name the plug something easy for Alexa to understand if you go that route. She sometimes cant tell the difference between Bed and Bath if I mumble or have the TV on, but that isnt the plugs fault). So yes, I highly recommend this smart plug once it is up and running.

At first, I had a lot of trouble getting it to work. Please note: these things do NOT work with custom firmware routers (DD-WRT, OpenWRT, etc.) I had DD-WRT on my router, and I just couldnt get it to work no matter what. It couldnt connect to the router, and I have no clue why. So I flashed my router back to stock firmware, et voila. It worked just as expected. You download the Kasa app, plug in the plug, and go through the on-screen instructions to set it up! Its very simple. It then gives you the ability to turn on and off things you plug into it remotely (I used mine for a space heater). You can also setup a schedule for it to turn on. For me, I have my heater turn on at 630am so its not cold when its time to get out of bed. This is also good for automated lights and other things. PACKAGING: the packaging it comes in is very good, and very nice looking. The instructions are semi-ambiguous, but they can be. The app walks you step by step through setup. This plug is not compatible with 5GHz WiFi networks...so you need to have a 2.4GHz WiFi network in order to use this. Honestly this part is my own mistake, but I only bought the Smart Plug, and not the model with energy monitoring...DO NOT make this mistake. Its literally 4 cents more to get the one with energy monitoring, and it would be well worth it just for some cool extra information about your plug and monitoring it. Currently, you can only see how long its been on...not that useful for much. Anyways, amazing product, very nice and convenient, and glad I purchased. Giving it 4 stars because the headache I had with DD-WRT and because a model without a feature is the same price* as the model with a feature...very unfortunate as I dont want to wait to send this back and forth.

I am fully satisfied with my Kasa HS100 smart plug. My first smart plugs were Belkin Wemo. I changed to these Kasa plugs because they reconnect to my WiFi *reliably* after a power outage. My Wemo plugs requires usually a unplug/plug cycle with the latest firmware before they connect - very annoying! I have an iPhone so I use the free IOS Kasa app from the iTunes store. Once installed on my phone setup is very easy and the app walks me through the process. I had my switch up and running in just a few minutes. You will need to create a Kasa account and being a bit paranoid I was sure to use a strong password. Happily the IOS app and Alexa skill remember the password so a long/complicated password is no hardship for the typing impaired like me! Getting it voice enabled with Alexa just required enabling the Kasa skill from the smart home settings in the Alexa app, connecting to me Kasa account and discovering devices again just a few minutes. Like my Wemo plugs the HS100 can be connected to IFTTT for more advanced control and can also be scheduled for convenience. I like having these options available, but in my use I pretty much and must telling Alexa to turn on or off the reading light plugged into this switch. Sometimes I turn it on/off from the app or just check if I think I may have left the light on when Ive left home. In conclusion Kasa is very much like the Wemo plugs I started with in terms of function and features. What makes Kasa much better for me is how well it handles recovering after a power outage. When I got mine I wasnt expecting to like it so much. It has exceeded my original expectations and thats a 5 star performance to me. Ive not had a single problem with mine.

TP-LINK Wi-Fi Smart Plug HS100 Review A couple of weeks ago, I purchased a Smart Plug (HS100) to confirm that the product works with Alexa (Amazon Echo) and provides easy, reliable, secure remote control of plugged-in devices. Pros and cons are below. If you use consumer Wi-Fi (IP) webcams (Foscam, etc.), then you may be familiar with this products technology and potential concerns about security and privacy. A webcam contains a microprocessor which can be programmed (with network data, operational settings and user options) and controls a camera which may be monitored using an app. A Smart Plug contains a microprocessor which can be programmed and controls a power switch which may be monitored using an app. Both local (LAN) and remote (Internet WAN) control are possible in each case. After confirming that the Plug indeed works as advertised, I was more curious about how and where operational data (supplied via the app) is stored and secured. That is, Im not sure if all operational data is stored on-board the Plug in non-volatile memory in case of extended power outages and to secure such data locally. If remote control is used, whats stored in TP-LINKs Cloud server? [A Vine Voice review on 1-23-2016 indicated that the plug has internal storage for its own status and the schedule. ... a copy of the schedule is stored in the plug itself and does not rely on having a persistent internet connection to function. ... plug does rely on the power to keep time so that it can act on scheduled events.] If the Plug is like a Wi-Fi webcam, then operational data is stored on-board, as can be verified using a local web browser connection to the cameras built-in web server. A Smart Plug, however, does not provide browser access, whether it runs a web server or not [there is a http port]. Remotely using a manufacturers app, whether for a camera or Plug, introduces Cloud-based data storage and collection. And because Wi-Fi webcams and Smart Plugs are computers, they can crash or glitch and need to be reset. Thats why reliability is a key factor. Time will tell. The Plug has a 2 year warranty. So, setup was relatively easy, and I discovered (as other reviewers have noted) that the best (but not perfect) instructions are in the Support section of TP-LINKs website, rather than in the included Quick Start Guide. * * * [...] How to connect my TP-LINK Smart Plug to my home network via Kasa? How to make my TP-LINK Smart Plug work with Amazon Echo? * * * 1. Install the Kasa app on your iPhone. 2. Open Kasa. If you want to use the Smart Plug with Alexa (Remote Control), setup a TP-LINK (Cloud / P2P registry server) account; and, after receiving an email activation message, login; otherwise, you may Skip setting up an account for just local control. 3. With your iPhone on a local 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi connection, open Kasa and then: (a) plug Smart Plug into an AC outlet; (b) Add Device > SMART PLUG and follow the instructions; (c) which say to go to your iPhones Wi-Fi settings and connect to the Smart Plugs Wi-Fi network and then return to Kasa; (d) customize your Plug -- with a unique name, etc.; and (e) connect the Plug to your local Wi-Fi (with or without Remote Control, but Alexa requires Remote Control enabled). To use a Smart Plug with Alexa: A. On your iPhone in the Alexa app settings (via hamburger icon), tap on Smart Home and then the TP-LINK Kasa item and login with your TP-LINK (Cloud) account name and password. B. Scroll down Smart Home and near the bottom tap Discover devices (search your Wi-Fi LAN) to add your named Smart Plug, which will then be listed. C. With Alexa, say Turn on / off (name of plug). Pros • Good package and product design (both hardware and app). • Works with Alexa without a hub. • Setup relatively easy. • WiFi connectivity provides 2-way communication for control and real-time status (unlike one-way powerline modules). • Remote access without router configuration (port forwarding) [probably using companys (or subcontractors) Cloud / P2P server like most Wi-Fi cameras]. • 15A load max. • Can unplug from AC without losing settings in order to relocate unit. • Moderate price. • TP-LINK supportive with comments on Amazon reviews. • 2 year warranty. Minor Cons • No support for 5 GHz Wi-Fi (okay as long as most routers are dual band). • Plug socket on front rather than the side or bottom (like on X-10 modules) of unit -- cord protrudes even farther from wall. • Status LED always on -- no way to turn off (like on Sonos speakers). • With Alexa, limited to only commands to turn on / off. Cons • Size (see photos) -- bulkier than standard X-10 appliance module (longer and thicker); even thicker than X-10 Pro appliance module and around the same length. • Covers both outlets if plugged into bottom outlet; covers upper edge of bottom outlet if plugged into top outlet, making bottom outlet unusable. Concerns • UL certification Some reviewers were worried about UL certification (which is not marked on the product or box). The manufacturer stated that certification was obtained. I searched ULs Online Certifications Directory (database) and found a listing: XACN.E481494 Miscellaneous Controls Operating Control, Smart Plug, Model(s) HS100, HS110 Last Updated on 2016-03-29. • Heat buildup when connected to some (high wattage) appliances Some reviewers were worried about the Plug getting too warm. I have only connected LED lamps (~10 W) to the Plug so far; so, I cannot as yet comment on possible thermal issues. The manufacturer stated that the Plug will remain well within a safe temperature range. • Security and use of encryption, e.g., protection of data stored in Plugs memory and TP-LINKs Cloud. The manufacturer stated: In order to control your Smart Plug remotely, a TP-LINK Cloud Account is required. Your Cloud Account is safe and secured, and remote access to your Smart Plug is controlled solely by you through the Kasa App. Cloud accounts and Cloud servers are an industry standard for Smart Plugs and Smart Home devices. The Smart Plug does not hand over or transmit any password information to us; It receives Wi-Fi profile information from your phone during setup, in order to connect the Smart Plug to your router. • Privacy (privacy trade-offs) The weighty Terms of Use and Privacy Policy pose questions about data collection and sharing of personal data, anonymized or not -- for marketing & promotion, including partners and other 3rd parties. Device submissions ... device names, groups, schedules, locations, ...usage information ... Software limitations • No offset possible on sunrise and sunset timer, but can use Away mode for randomness. Questions 1. Security: Is Wi-Fi password saved only in Plugs memory or also in TP-LINKs Cloud? Encrypted? 2. Security: Are timers, schedule, Away settings stored in Plugs memory or the Cloud? Encrypted? 3. Plugs do NOT communicate with each other, correct? Only with the TP-LINK Cloud? 4. When the unit is unplugged from AC outlet, are all settings (defined using the Kasa app) truly non-volatile? Does the on-board clock re-synchronize via Wi-Fi on the LAN anyway when plugged into AC again? UPDATE 6-13-2016 Purchased another 2 Smart Plugs on June 3. New packaging has UL certification mark, as well as new graphics and description: old Wi-Fi SMART PLUG vs. new Smart Wi-Fi Plug; old FC and RoHS marks vs. new UL and RoHS marks; model and part number unchanged. UPDATE 12-18-2017 All 3 Smart Plugs (HS100) are still working okay 24/7. Reliable. Some glitches with the Kasa app showing a blank on time when actually one is scheduled, but rarely needing to power cycle the unit (these glitches are rare but more common for the Smart Bulbs). The issue with unit bulk -- covering the second outlet, for example -- is not a problem with a newer model but that new model is too expensive to justify as yet. The Smart Plugs work with Alexa. Theres been an occasional (rare) problem using Alexa due to TP-Link service outages or Amazon Echo glitches.

I bought this since I liked the idea of automating my home using the existing Wi-Fi network without the need to set up some expensive hub or system. We did not start out on the right foot, however. The electronic outlets in my apartment are placed two in a row, i.e. horizontally instead of vertically - the Smart Plug is so bulky that I can only use one Smart Plug per plate, and I can only squeeze in a smaller plug for the second outlet. Not great at all, particularly since I am already using outlet taps to maximize the number of electric equipment I can use for each outlet. I ended up using these Smart Plugs on extension cords to get around the issue. Another problem I then have is that the Smart Plugs cannot connect to hidden networks. I have one known (password protected) network, and a second hidden network. The hidden network is intended for my equipment, whereas the known network is for friends and visitors. I have to use the known network for the Smart Plugs, and put my phone onto the known network as well for this to work. I can live with it, but not cool. Having said that, once I got past these issues (and I actually started a return before I decided to try it one more time), the Smart Plugs are great. I like the fact that I can switch on a number of lights at once that I would otherwise have to switch on individually. I also like the fact that I can set this to a schedule especially when I am traveling. Already I am thinking that I can link this up to the fan, more lights in other rooms of the apartment and perhaps even my humidifier. Theres a lot of potential in this and overall, Im glad I got these! I got these when they went on sale for around $19.99 each (they are currently $29.99 each), and Ill get more when theres a sale again!