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

UPDATE 12/11/16: Ive since purchased the mini version for my Christmas tree and it works just as perfectly as its larger siblings. Setting it up and using it is exactly the same as with the larger versions, and the only difference is that this only blocks one power outlet instead of two. I imagine that eventually they will all be this small, as theres really no reason to buy the bigger one unless youre looking for the power monitoring. Anyway, it still works great, was even faster to set up than the originals since I already had Kasa ready to go, and is especially useful for Christmas tree lights instead of bending or hunching down to reach the power. Awesome value, excellent price for the convenience. I still very strongly recommend this product. **************** After finally getting my Hue lights set up and working with Alexa, the next step of my home automation process was to begin to integrate wi-fi smart plugs into the equation. I wanted smart switches for my televisions, fans, air conditioners, air purifiers, and wax burners. What I didnt want was to pay through the nose for it. Ive learned over the years that you generally do get what you pay for, but some of the pricing on these smart gadgets is ridiculous; the Hue ecosystem is insanely overpriced, and while I like it, youre essentially paying for the guarantee that you wont have to deal with the troubles that buying non-brand cheap Chinese electronics brings. Ive purchased other TP-LINK products before (wi-fi adapters), but I was hesitant to get these because all of the other, branded, smart plugs were much more expensive. I thought Id become a victim of the cheap Chinese electronics phenomenon. Im glad I listened to the reviews and chose to buy one, because it works perfectly and does exactly what I wanted. Its well-made and was pretty easy to set up. Id read that before there was direct Alexa integration it was kind of a pain to set these up but now, after theyve added the integration, I found it incredibly simple. Here are some abbreviated directions that Ive streamlined from TP-LINKs two or three setup pages; do it in this order for the easiest setup: 1) Download the TP-LINK Kasa app from your app store of choice. 2) Install and open the Kasa app 3) Create a Kasa cloud account (requires email verification), 4) Allow Kasa to discover your plug 5) Set your plug to remote control on to allow Alexa to control it 6) Name the plug (i.e. Bedroom TV) 7) Exit the Kasa app and enter your Alexa app 8) Swipe down to Learn More Skills and search for Kasa 9) Authorize Kasa in the Alexa app by entering your email and password 10) Go back to the main Alexa screen and discover new devices 11) Once Alexa has found it, assign your plug to whatever group you want it in (Bedroom group for Bedroom TV plug) 12) Enjoy The first one I set up was for my TV in the bedroom. Keep in mind, in order for one of these smart plugs to work with Alexa to turn your TV (or other device) off AND back on, it must have an auto restart after power failure function. If it doesnt youll only be able to turn it off, but have to use the remote to turn it on. I have various groups set up in Alexa in order to achieve various functions. Ive included the TV in the the turn everything off group so that I can turn it off at the same time as my 5 other Hue ambient lights. Ive also got it in the Bedroom group so that I can turn it on and off by itself. The way you do this will depend entirely on how you have your room/house setup. For me, Turn everything off applies only to the bedroom and leaves the rest of the house alone, because this is something I usually only use when Im laying in bed and ready to sleep, and Ive already turned the other stuff off before going to bed. You could use these switches instead of buying smart bulbs, but I find it more convenient to have all the lighting independent of the plug. The normal white light Philips hue smart bulbs, and the other brands, are already less expensive so youre not saving anything. I find this option attractive for controlling non-lighting electronics. Ive since ordered and connected these to my fans, air conditioners, wax burners, and electric fireplace. Anything you want to work completely with these MUST auto restart after power failure, because that is essentially all you are doing when you turn it on and off - removing and supplying a power source. For example, I had to buy a floor fan that had a manual mechanical switch because the one I had with a remote wouldnt function except to turn off. My air conditioner automatically restarts when power returns after the (simulated) power interruption that these plugs create, so I didnt need to replace it even though it is smart and has a remote and no switches. Its not something thats widely discussed, but important for people who are just getting into home automation to know. Until the technology improves to allow deeper integration, youre stuck completely controlling (mostly) dumb devices. All told, this is an excellent bargain for getting into home automation. It works very well, and the build quality is excellent. The only complaint I have is that it covers more than one socket on your outlet, but as I understand it, almost all of these do simply because it is necessary to house the wi-fi components. Expect to have to also buy additional power strips for areas where you plan to use these. They are less expensive than the brand name smart plugs and have excellent compatibility with Alexa. Ive already purchased 6 of them, and will continue to buy more as I expand my home system. Pro tip: you can use one of these to control the power to a power strip, enabling to you to simultaneously connect and control more than one device. Ive successfully done this with this Amazon Basics power strip (

**UPDATE** Sorry, I didnt know this review had gotten this much attention, but I will clear a few of my points up. I have been using the smart home devices for over 2 years now. I started with the Wemo (now have 4 outlets 3 this size and 1 insight and 2 wall switches) 3 TP-Link outlets, and 10 Philips Hue bulbs. All controlled with My Echo and 2 Dots. For the first year or so the Wemo outlets were a pain every time the power went out. Through firmware updates this is no longer the case and they work just fine now. I also was not using IFTTT at the time so it not having IFTTT support wasnt an issue for me. I have since been using IFTTT which is why Ive personally gone back to using Wemos over these, but still use these on devices I dont use IFTTT triggers with. Ill also clear up the intergrated questions. Before February or March of 2016, when using these you had to say Alexa, tell KASA to turn on XXXX you still technically have to use a skill, just it only now needs to be enabled and linked and Alexa will recognize these devices individually when searching for devices like Wemo and other integrated devices. Sorry I didnt reply to questions/issues earlier, I didnt know anyone had replied to my review. Any questions my email is in my profile. **Original review** I have been using Wemo outlets and switches for over a year now and love the ability to have Alexa turn things on and off by voice. I decided to order a few more smart home devices when Amazon released the Dot since between my Echo, its remote, and now the Dot I have voice control throughout most of my apartment. It just so happened these were on sale as a deal of the day at the right time, so I ordered 2. You will see some reviews that state these only work with Echo using a skill, that changed in February or March and they are now fully integrated with Alexa. Over the past year Ive had issues with my Wemo outlets dropping connection, and anytime I lose power Id have to set them up again. This isnt the issue with these outlets. They were very easy to setup and link to Alexa, the app walks you easily through step by step in setting them up, renaming them for Alexa and getting them online if youd like remote access. After setting mine up I decided to move them to another room. With the Wemo outlets one I unplugged them Id have to set them up again, not with these. One I plugged them in at their new location they reconnected with no issue. I highly recommend these over the more expensive Wemo outlets. I saw another reviewer complain these cover both plugs on an outlet, this is true of all of the smart outlets currently on the market, if this is an issue for you I recommend doing what I did in a couple locations and get a cheap pack of 1 extension cords. Most of my outlets are hidden from view anyway so using the extension cords wasnt an issue for me. Now off to bed Alexa, turn off lights (yeah, its been over a year and I still giggle like a little schoolboy once in awhile over this)

<Update 6.20.2016> I love these units & cannot wait (though Im going to have to anyway) for the HS200 TP Link Smart Switch (In-wall light switch) to come to the market per their latest software update note under the Whats New. Ive had my first TP Link Smart Plug (see the original post below) for about 6 weeks now, my second for about 4 weeks & they are working flawlessly. As mentioned in my OP, I wanted a unit for my entertainment center & have since received & installed it. Drove my college student (whos home for the summer) nuts as the power was not on in the mornings. For the 4 weeks since having the second unit (I called it the TV power), she could not figure out how to get power to the TV. She finally unplugged the power strip from the smart plug & plugged it directly into the wall below the HS100. So I finally showed the family how to work them (mainly just so they wouldnt keep unplugging & plugging in the power chords). On another note, I finally received my Amazon Echo (just in time for Fathers day, wahoo!) and so I now have the Smart Plugs hooked up to the World Wide Web, the Internet super highway, the Internet of Things, etc., etc. I understand the frustrations some people have posted regarding the connection to the Echo & I believe I have figured out why. Amazons Alexa App is in need of some serious TLC. TP Links Kasa App is doing what its suppose to do. In my original post, I had a small issue with connectivity of the software to the units which still exists but not near as rough since the latest software update. Still, when youre not connected to your LAN (because youve been away or simply have the WiFi / Data off) & want to adjust something in the schedules or simply turn the lamp on, connecting wirelessly sometimes has a hiccup. Each unit has to ping constantly (every 1.5 to 2 seconds as it was explained to me) to your LAN to let the router know the unit is there. When you connect your phone to the LAN, you may just connect in between those pings in which case the software on the phone may come back & say There are no connected devices. It does offer a pre-configured devices ribbon which you can select to initiate the units connectivity through the smart phone (see the uploaded pics). After selecting the ribbon, you have to select the little plus button on the right of each device until you have the no unsaved devices screen, then your units are active for you (5 stars now that I understand the software & realize that most of the frustrations are not the fault of TP Link). After I finally created an account with TP Link (all you need is an email address & a password, no personal information is required) I went back into the Kasa App & set the first unit to remote. In the Alexa App, I had to select the Skills in the menu & do a search for Kasa (there are over 123 PAGES of skills & no file management system in the Alexa App). After getting Kasa as a skill & initiating it, I then had to go to the Smart Home in the menu & select the Kasa skill to find the HS100 Smart Plug. This is where the frustrations started for me. The skill was not there. I know I had found it & selected the skill & initiated it but it was not listed. So I went back to the list & did another search for the Kasa (its on like page 71 & each time you go into the list, it starts on page 1). After the third time & about an hour plus, I discovered a search box where I could type the name Kasa & search & it would find about half a dozen skills to choose from, duh! What an idiot. Lucky we have the skills name otherwise its a page by page search until you find what your looking for. Anyway, I digress. The skill was not showing up in the Alexas Smart Home directory. I was about to put the phone down & walk away before something got seriously injured when I realized I had a couple updates to finish on my phone. One of these updates was a 34 megabyte update. Ive read that if you have a decent size (dont ask me what decent size means, I figured 20 meg or better) update, you should reboot your system after updating. So after my update I rebooted my phone & figured ok, Im cooled down a bit, Ill try the Alexa App one more time. Opening the App, I went straight to the Smart Home directory & whadyaknow, the Kasa skill was there. Finally, a step forward. Opening the skill, I can now (finally) have the Kasa skill find the HS100 Smart Plug. Picking the find devices gave me an immediate you have no internet connection message. Then I walked away! This is a long story but I promise it has a happy ending (well, sort of). A few hours of thinking about it I came back to try again. I figured perhaps because the HS100s connect via 2.4 GHz & the Echo connects to the more active 5 GHz, the two are not communicating. So I purposely connected my phone to the 2.4 GHz, opened the Kasa app & verified I could connect to each of my Smart Plugs. Then while leaving the Kasa app open, I went back into the Amazon Alexa app, into the Smart Home directory, & picked the find devices once again. The you have no internet connection message immediately popped up. So I figured the only way I could find the skill to begin with was to reboot the phone so I rebooted once again. I forgot to connect to the 2.4 GHz & open the Kasa app to verify my units were accessible, I just went straight to the Alexa app and after picking the find devices button it came back with a message, searching for devices. This can take up to 20 seconds. Wahoo! It worked, I found my HS100 named the Lamp. Now there are three ways of turning the Lamp on. I can say Alexa, turn on the lamp and Alexa says, ok and the lamp comes on. I can push the power button on the front of the unit and the lamp comes on. And I can wait for the scheduled time and the lamp comes on. These units are AWESOME!!! Of course I had set only the Lamp to remote in the Kasa app so I had to go back to the Kasa app & change the TV power to remote so I could find it in the Alexa app. I had to go through rebooting the phone a couple more times to get my second unit connected with the Echo but I am now connected & my college kid is happy to say Alexa, turn on the TV power so she can watch a movie instead of getting a summer job, ggrrr! ____Original Post____ This is a true product review & I paid full price for the TP Link Smart Plug (HS100, no Energy Monitoring) unit. So with that said, let me tell you my current thoughts on this product after playing with it a mere four days. I dont yet have an echo (its on order) but am preparing for its arrival. So in the mean time I figured Id try this on my local LAN before submitting my so called Smart house to the wiles of the internet. The unit itself is easy enough to work with. You can use it as a single outlet power switch & simply push the button to turn it on and off, much like a six outlet power strip with a switch, but this would be a single outlet. But I want a timer control switch that will automatically turn on at a certain time & off at a certain time & I want to (in the future) have that timer & simply override it with a phrase, Alexa, turn on the lamp. So I needed to connect it to the LAN for starters. After following the instructions for downloading the software (Kasa for Mobile) from Google play I began my assault. My phone automatically connects to my 5 GHz WiFi so I had to manually change it to the 2.4 GHz as this frequency is the only one this Smart plug will work with currently. Reasons are listed on the website (tp-link.us) Now there are two buttons on this unit; a small button on the very top with a light grey gear icon on it is for its configuration (visibility) when connecting to your phone via the local LAN and the other button in the front just above the outlet is a two tone LED light/power button. This is the button you push to simply turn the power strip on/off. This button flashes orange/green when you first plug it in which tells you its ready to begin the connection phase. The app found the plug pretty quickly & began asking me the questions needed to control this plug like what to call it (important to name it something unique to the situation). I called it the lamp. What, Its the only lamp in my family room & I dont intend on connecting any other lamps in the house to the Echo so ... Alexa, turn on the lamp will work very nicely. I can go back & change the name of the plug if I need to. The app then asked for the password to my LAN so my phone can connect to the plug. This is where I screwed everything up cause I couldnt remember what the password was. After resetting the plug a couple times (I now know the reset button works) I got the unit setup & the lamp was on. The software, while easy enough to understand is a bit too simplistic in its presentation which leads to a little frustration in finding what you are searching for. Lemme esplain. I wanted the plug as a timer so I needed to get a schedule setup. You need to tap on the lamp on the left side of the apps screen as the right side is the power switch for controlling the plug via phone. Then you have to pic the three little dots to open a menu so you can pic the schedule selection button. I suppose this is necessary cause if you have several plugs, you will need to determine which one you are working with and there are a few options in menu as well. So I set the schedule for an early morning on & mid morning off, Monday thru Friday. Then created a second schedule for Sunset on & late evening off, Monday thru Sunday. Now mind you this is connected to the local LAN which means if you want a current Sunset time, you have to have your phone connected to the unit to get it as the current Sunset changes daily & the unit needs a connection to the Internet to get that time. Duh! No wonder the lamp was coming on early, the Sunset time was current when I programmed it but is now later than when the lamp comes on as my phone is not connected to the LAN to feed the unit the current Sunset time. :-P A bit of a frustration is when you have a cloudy or stormy afternoon & it gets dark well before sunset. So I wanted to override the current setting & turn the lamp on. Well low & behold when I opened the app, it said there were no current devices configured, would you like to configure one now? Then a little popup display said You have had a previous unit configured which you can access after setting up a new device. After several minutes of getting out of the app, going back in, getting out, disconnecting the phone from the LAN, reconnecting, disconnecting, rebooting the phone, reconnecting, I was ready to unplug the unit & plug the lamp into the wall socket. I thought, All I want to do is turn on the lamp. How lazy am I that I cant reach up and turn the knob, I have to have a Smart Plug. BUT, I wanted the Smart Plug for the timer function. So I was going to Add Device for the fourth time. After picking the Smart Plug icon & giving it a name (the lamp, how original) the app found my previous device & the schedule I was able to turn on the lamp (losing 1 star for this). Havent had an issue with it since but its been a mere four days. On another note, I want to comment on others posts regarding this unit. There is a question/post about why it will not turn on a TV. Unless you have one of those old tube style TVs with a manual toggle switch that you can keep in the ON position, this will not turn on a TV. This Smart Plug is designed to simply deliver power to the TV. As I mentioned earlier, in its most basic form this unit is a one outlet power strip, that is all. The specifications of this unit are for a 100-120 Volt AC outlet with a 15amp load maximum. I have not overloaded this unit to see what would happen but my current wiring for my entertainment system (TV, DVD Player, Wii, etc) are all on one six outlet power strip on a 15amp breaker & they have not tripped the breaker yet. With that said, there is a lot of residual power being leaked by these devices while in a dormant state. I plan to order another TP-Link Smart Plug and schedule a time for these devices to receive power so they can be used. They will be off during the night & when Im away from the home, powered when I am home so I can use them. Another post or two or four mentions this unit is large & covers both wall outlets. While technically this is true, this is also technically not true. This unit has a lip on the back side where the prongs plug into the wall. A standard two prong plug can fit nicely under this unit & both seat perfectly (see the pics I loaded) while anything larger will not. You just have to plug the two prong plug into the bottom outlet first, then plug this unit into the top outlet. In the pics, I have my iClever 6 port charging station plugged into the bottom outlet (need constant power to a charging station) & the lamp via the Smart Plug in the top outlet.

These things are awesome! I tend to not review as much anymore because...well...it is a time suck and priorities have doing other things. But in this case I feel compelled as I noticed the most helpful critical reviews had scared off a few would be purchases in describing issues when using high wattage. In my home I generally have lamp lighting and these things allow me to will lights on with must my voice (Echo Required) or the Kasa app manually or via the schedule. I also have gone a little overboard with Echos and Dots that allow me to speak just about anywhere and turn up the heat or have lights on and off. I am in the tech business, so this is the kind of thing that happens... But I just want to let people know that I have had no issues at all with these things...well...occasionally Alexa needs to be told twice to turn something on or off...but that is very much the exception. And my experience is with over 17 of these units...I did take advantage of the holiday pricing to ramp up...lol. With regard to wireless connectivity...I use this with my drive lights where the outlet is some 50 ft or so from the access point with no issues I had to purchase oversized outlet covers for the drive lights and the xmas lights I installed...but it is totally cool to have them all come on at the same moment via different outlets.. Their form factor could use some improvement, as you have to have a fairly small plug to use on the other outlet...as larger ones will not fit...about the only bone I have to pick. And what is great about these vs. wireless switches is they are mobile and my investment goes with me if I have to move. Cheers.

I got this as part of the Black Friday promo for purchasing an Echo Dot. Like the other TP-Link products I have purchased, the set-up is pretty easy from the TP-Link Kasa app. I think some people might get stuck when they attempt to connect to their own wi-fi network. For what ever reason, I notice that the TP-Link products always list my neighbors network first instead of mine. I solved that by clicking the option below the listed network to find my own. As for the product I have had no problems connecting or loss of signal. My plug is on the second floor of my home about twenty feet in distance from the wi-fi router. Not bad considering all the flooring and walls. My only complaint is that the smart plug covers the entire outlet. Not a problem for the room I am using as it only had one lamp running to that wall outlet. All the same, I cannot plug anything else into that wall outlet. My suggestion is that you might want to use this smart plug for a single appliance like a fan or Christmas lights. If you want to have smart features for a lamp, I would suggest purchasing a smart light bulb (see my review for the TP-Link Smart Wi-Fi Light Switch HS200) which is likely to have more features and allow you to keep full access to your wall outlet.

I agree with all of the positive reviews on here, so I am writing for a more specific purpose. First, I am currently using 4 of these plugs to control Christmas lights as a group via Kasa and Alexa. It works every time. Alexa, turn on Christmas. More importantly, I am able to use this plug to power on/off an amp, which powers external speakers. Here is the setup: Echo Dot, wired bookshelf speakers, speaker wire, 3.5mm cable, small lepai amp and this plug. I already had all of these items except the plug. I will admit that there are cheaper alternatives to my setup for bluetooth speakers or the dots internal speaker that may work better for most people who just want a little background music in the kitchen rather than wired speakers. When the 3.5mm cable is connected to the Dot, the Dots internal speaker does not work. You can use external speakers, but they must be powered by another source. So, I was stuck turning on and off and amp by hand. This defeats the purpose of voice command until I bought this plug. Now I always leave the amps on/off switch to ON and connect the amps power supply to this plug. I keep the amps volume relatively low to avoid speaker popping when the amp receives power. I control the remaining volume with my voice with Alexa once I turn the amp on. Now, from anywhere on the first floor, I can say Alexa, turn on speaker and the plug will switch the amp on and the speakers are 10 times better than Alexas internal speaker. Alexa, volume 10! A few extra notes: *Even if the speakers are off, I can still use Alexa, but I will not hear her response because the speakers are off and the Dot is still connected to the 3.5mm cable. Hence, the Dots internal speaker is inactive. Its easy to turn the speakers on if I really need to hear Alexa, but my light commands still work very well without the need to always have the external speakers on. *I named the plug Speaker in the Kasa app *The plug normally covers both openings in the outlet. The outlet pictured has a little more space in between because there is a reset button in between the two openings. Fair warning if you are thinking about buying smart devices for the first time: Yes, they are awesome. They are awesome, most are very expensive and adding to your set up is addictive. I cant wait to see what other work-arounds people come up with....

Works smoothly with Alexa. After you install the TP-LINK software / app, Alexa is able to link with the cloud based TP-Link app and discovers the devices registered with TP-Link. Alexa will discover the device name(s) given at the TP-Link site. If you want to change the device name, because some may sound similar and Alexa has trouble to understand correctly, youll have to visit TP-Link to change the name and have Alexa possibly re-discover. I have a few of them smart plugs to switch certain lights on / off that dont have a dedicated light switch. If I remember correctly, the plug is rated at 1800 Watt and can switch heavier loads than light bulbs. There are other switches / plugs on the market that may be a little less expensive, but I didnt want to mess around with there link apps for security reasons. TP-LINK is in the business for network devices some time and I trust (hopefully) they made the app reasonably secure against hacker. I believe it is best to keep any of your skills to a minimum (in particular the free with adds), so I just use TP-Link products since they can be controlled by one app / skill. Each device acquires a seat in your router (with DHCP enabled IP-Addressing) also using the embedded MAC (Media Access Control Number) to keep it reasonably safe from intruders. Most routers can assign 255 IPs hence 255 devices. I havent tried, but one could probably run the devices on MAC. As of the time of this review, all is working as intended! Alexa can hear my commands over a distance of a little more than 10 feet, although I have to admit, she is a little shielded from my voice. (Placement for strong router signal) Since I am somewhat lazy, I purchased a second Echo-Dot with a little bluetooth speaker for my Bedroom. This way I tell Alexa to switch off my bedroom light and play some music for a given time. I also, have some difficult to reach light switches e.g. behind doors and replaced them with TP-LINK WiFi light switches.

This is my second Wi-Fi plug (the other one is an Insignia) and found that this one was even easier and faster to set up. I got my husband a coffee/espresso/cappuccino machine for Christmas and decided to hook up that bad boy to this plug. The machine needs a couple minutes to switch on and heat up and now we can do it from the comfort of our own bed. Plus, we sometimes forget to turn it off and could turn it off via the app from the car. It took less than 10 minutes to set up with both Google Home and Alexa. We live in a small enough home, so one assistant would be able hear us from a nearby room but fix this problem by using both. Now, we can simply say Hey Google, turn on the coffee machine or Alexa, turn on the coffee machine depending on where we are in the house. One thing I wasnt too fond of is that its quite bulky, so make sure to plug in the top outlet so that you dont lose one. Since ours isnt covered by furniture and plugged in above our kitchen counter, its pretty much guaranteed to be seen by everyone due to its size. What I like: Set up was a breeze with both Google Home and Alexa. What I dont like: Its big and bulky.

After being a little hesitant about trying home automation things in my house, I decided to buy the amazon echo. It was over from there. I added a few of these smart plugs to the house and they work perfectly. Setup was a breeze. It took less than 5 minutes to be connected to my router and on the home network. It will require you to create a account with TP-Link but these days everything does. The app is simple to use and is designed to work instantaneously when you hit the on and off button. Tons of custom settings if you want to get into timers and other security features. You can keep adding more smart plugs to the same account without any trouble. I wish these smart plugs would shrink in size a little but all in due time. I am glad to see TP-Link is starting to come down in price. Honestly that was the only thing holding me back from more of these guys. Price needs to drop to make a viable option for everything to have a smart plug. After setup and plugged it in and named it and setup it on the app, of course I decided to use it with the Amazon Echo. Discovery on the Alexa app went perfect. It discovered all the smart plugs and that was it. After that using the Echo to control the plugs was as easy as say Alexa turn on family room lights. Works flawlessly, perfectly every time. I wish everything could work perfectly together like these two products. Highly recommended for not on controlling smart plugs with a app but if you have a Echo a must to have.....

I bought three of these when they went on sale a while back. It took a while to figure out the correct way to get them set up. I wasnt aware you still had to go online and set up the app on the Kasa web site before you could us it through the internet or Alexa. You can do this with a smart phone or Ipad, it didnt work with a PC. Once I found that out, it went smooth from then on. I first used my Ipad to locate and set them up, no problems here, I could turn them on from anywhere in the house or outside, I havent tried them from another location yet, but it says they will work away from home. Whats keeping me from giving five stars is that its so hit or miss with Alexa. I have two Echos, one in my house and another in my moms house and they both have the same issues. The first issue with Alexa is range. I cant put these farther than 7 feet from the Echo. I can get about 10 feet away in my moms house. Weird thing is that I tell it to turn on a light and it says OK and nothing happens if its over 7 feet away. I tried it with all three units. Keep in mind that it works fine through the internet app and my Ipad. Sometimes, Alexa cant seem to locate one or more of these devices and I have to reset them and set them up again. Also, if you plan on using Alexa, sometimes, you have to say your words a certain way to make her happy. I can say turn on the living room light and Alexa sometimes responds I cannot locate a device called Living Room Light. Then I say turn the living room light on, and Alexa says OK and it happens if Im in range. If you just plan to use your smart phone or Ipad to control these, you should have no problem, they seem to work fine every time.