Wemo Insight WiFi Enabled Smart Plug, with Energy Monitoring, Works with Alexa (Discontinued by Manufacturer - Newer Version Available)

I am posting this comparison between the Wemo Insight and the Edimax Smart Plug under both products as I own both and thought it would be helpful to have a comparison (when I was looking for smart plugs I would have appreciated it). I have been a Belkin Wemo Insight owner from when the Insight Switch first came out several years ago as I have places that are hard to get to (specifically my landscape lights) that are controlled from a switch in the crawlspace (for the front) and a detached shed (for the back)—until the Wemos I had manual timers installed which required periodically crawling under the house to reset. I also historically used the Wemos to turn off TVs at certain times so my kids couldn’t watch them too late (yes the plugs are where the kids can’t get them easily without major gymnastics). Over the years I have had issues with the Wemo switches as they periodically lose contact and I have to reset them (I would say this happens on average every other month) or that they temporarily lose contact with my wifi and don’t show up on the Wemo app (this usually happens for the ones in the crawlspace and the detached shed, so I assume it is a wifi range issue). When the Wemos temporarily lose contact they usually fix themselves in several hours, but sometimes this causes the Wemos to not turn on/off in time. They other issue I have had with the Wemos is that they aren’t password protected and so my kids could put the Wemo app on their phone and turn the TVs back on (luckily they hadn’t figured that out yet). I have also experienced (periodically) where the Wemo schedule seems to “detach” and I have to delete the schedules and put them back in to get them to work again. On the positive side the Wemos do have a “sunset” and “sunrise” time feature that ties into our local sunrise/sunset which makes programming the landscape lights a breeze. I would add that I am an “advanced user” for wifi and I have 2 access points and a range extender in our house. Therefore when I saw the Edimax Smart Plugs I thought I would give them a try. I have been running 4 Edimax plugs for about a month now (in place of our 4 Wemos) and have observed the following in comparison to the Wemos: (1) they seem to get better reception and don’t drop like the Wemos do, (2) they are password protected which is very easy to set up from the app, (3) the Edimax’s firmware is updated by logging into the same wifi network that the Edimax plug is on and using Edimax’s firmware update tool. Originally it was hard for me to find this tool on Edimax’s website and I had to do a google search to be able to find it and download it (hopefully by the time you are reading this Edimax has fixed this). Once I found the firmware update software it was very easy to use. In comparison to the Edimax, the Wemo will tell you periodically if it needs its firmware updated. Although this is a good feature on the Wemo, I have found to be buggy over the years and sometimes the update wouldn’t take/work easily (requiring resets of the Wemo), (4) they take 2 different approaches to programming. The first level for the Edimax are the days and you have to program each day. The first level for the Wemo is the rule and then you can decide which days to apply it to. If you want to have the same rule run the same on each day, the Wemo is easier/better, but if you want to run different rules on different days the Edimax is easier/better. In summary the comparisons between the Wemo Insights and the Edimax Smart plugs are: - Ease of app use—a tie - Rule programming—a tie, but if the Edimax had a sunrise/sunset feature I would personally give it the advantage - Sunrise / sunset feature—only on the Wemo, advantage Wemo - Password protection—only on the Edimax, advantage Edimax - Stability (e.g. not having to reset the plugs periodically)—so far (1 month), advantage Edimax (as I have had 2 years of buggy Wemo experience) - Size (the Wemo Insight plugs are a bit smaller)—advantage Wemo - Wifi range / connectivity—so far, advantage Edimax - Firmware update—a tie; as the Wemo does it from within the app (e.g. notifies you that it needs to be updated automatically), but is buggy and unstable in my experience; the Edimax update software was hard to find and doesn’t automatically tell you if it needs to be updated - County of manufacture (Wemo: China; Edimax: Taiwan)—advantage Edimax as I have found stuff manufactured in Taiwan to be more predictable on quality - Time synch—advantage Wemo (it is automatic on the Wemo, and on the Edimax it asks you if it should synch with your phone time. This is a small feature difference in my opinion, but if you travel and open the Edimax app you have to make sure not to select synching with your phone time if you are in another time zone) In summary, the Wemo has been around for a while and still seems to not have been able to produce a stable (not buggy) platform. The Edimax plug has been around for a shorter time and seems to be more stable. I give the Wemo a 3 rating due to its buggy nature with the need for periodic reboots and re-install and lack of password protection (if it would be more stable and have password protection it would get a 5). I give the Edimax a 4 as it lacks a sunrise/sunset feature and is slightly less user friendly to update the firmware (if it had a sunrise/sunset feature I would be torn to give it a 5 and if it at least had a feature to tell you if its firmware needed to be updated I would definitely give it a 5).

I bought the WEMO Insight about a month ago, installed it (it took a few minutes for the device to be recognized by my router) , and made a few power measurements with it. This was fun and informative. The list of features is impressive, since you can use it as a timer, a rule-based controller, a device to alert you when something happens to the power system, for power measurements, and more. What is problematic with the device is its frequent lock ups and inability to be recognized by my wireless router (one of the latest Netgear products) when further away than 20 feet (on the same floor of the building), while my laptops work flawlessly off the Wifi network in the whole house. A few weeks ago I came home to see the devices powered by the WEMO switched off with no warning on my WEMO app. What if it had been my refrigerator or some other vital appliance? This, and the too frequent software updates that take minutes to complete make the WEMO almost useless, because I bet if you really need it, say in a remote location you want to control and/or monitor, it will freeze up and will need some sort of hardware reset. It is unfortunate that green energy enthusiasts who want to do something intelligent and useful with a device like this get frustrated by a device that needs endless troubleshooting and coaching just to work as expected. Nobody would buy a refrigerator that shuts down every two weeks and needs some procedure to get going again, but apparently in the high-tech world we are expected to spend our free time tinkering with all sorts of half baked pseudo solutions. In conclusion, I think the WEMO Insight is a nice idea that suffers from bad execution.

I ordered this to have at the office and turn on and off a desktop fountain during the summer and my space heater during the winter. My office has an unsecured guest network so I thought that I would be able to set it up but try as I might it would NOT connect to WIFI. On closer examination of the product materials it does stay it will not work on corporate networks due to port firewalls. Since I couldnt use it for my main intended purpose I took it home and thought I would take advantage of its energy measuring capabilities and perhaps use it as a vampire slayer. I plugged the power strip for my TV, cable DVR, and x-box one into the deceive. On my home network it connected easily. It told me that when all my devices were off or in standby mode they used 41 watts, which based on my utility rates is $31.88 a year if plugged in 24/7. So if you use this product as a vampire slayer and turn the power off half the time it will take 3.7 years to recoup the investment. The reports on energy usage are cool, but the savings just are not there to justify the device at this price point. If you are looking for a timer for a light or something in a location with strong WIFI signal this product will deliver. However similar products like the

The good: Works exactly as advertised. I have my printer plugged into it and can start the printer with my Amazon echo by saying Alexa turn on printer without getting up from my desk. I had hoped to use it with my coffee maker but it turns out that the coffee machine must have the button pressed after power is applied. Not the Wemos fault. The manual for my Mr. Coffee says this is a safety feature The bad: A couple of setup issues: I had a 63 character complex password on my home network but the Insight could not handle that. I had to shorten it to 39 characters to get it to work. I also use MAC filtering. The label on the Insight had the incorrect MAC address. After temporarily disabling MAC filtering, connecting to my wifi and discovering the correct MAC address I was able to update the MAC address list and everything works fine. I have to say that the folks at Belkin were very responsive and I was able to fix these issues quickly. Might be a bit much for a non-technical person though. On balance I like the Insight now that it is working and am considering a Wemo light switch for my den. Recommended for those with enough technical knowledge to work through any glitches or at least access to someone who can help.

I had an old X10 system Id been using for years and it finally gave up the ghost. The appeal of the Wemo system being wireless and with a phone/tablet app was what drew me. The units -- two of them -- arrived today. The setup is easy enough, if a bit cryptic. The instructions are in the app and are basic, basic, basic. Setting up a timer to turn the lights on and off took a bit of figuring out since the screen on the app is not what I call intuitive. Luckily its simple enough to finally puzzle out. I dont require much. I just want the living room lights, which are in an inconvenient location, to turn on and off without being fussed with. This system seems to work to do that. I just hope at $55 per unit they last a while. If they dont, you can be sure Ill be online voicing my displeasure. Nov. 16, 2014 -- The units have been working without fail for a month. My old ones were remote controlled so its a bit of a hassle to find my phone or a tablet when I want to turn them on or off outside of the timer but not that bad. Im considering more units.

IT TURNS ITSELF ON RANDOMLY. How could that *possibly* be acceptable in a product that controls electric power? I have it hooked up to a couple of track lights -- 200 watts in total. No rules or anything -- just wanted to be able to control the lights with my Amazon Echo, which can talk to the WeMo. I went away on a three-week vacation and the cable internet went down in my apartment shortly after I left. I came home to find the lights on -- turns out the WeMo had turned them on and left them burning the whole three weeks. (It had nothing to do with the Echo, which wasnt even plugged in at the time.) The WeMo conveniently tracks how long its on and how many KWH have been used, so I could see that $20 or more of electricity was down the drain. Initially I thought it might have something to do with losing internet connectivity -- not that that would have been acceptable in any way -- but since then Ive discovered that the WeMo randomly turns on *for no reason at all.* It was doing it every few days in recent weeks -- extremely annoying, and I should have just taken it and thrown it in the trash, but instead I looked up wemo turns on randomly, found lots of other people with the same problem, and tried some of the suggestions others had, e.g. resetting it, moving it further away and closer to the WiFi access point, et cetera, ad nauseam. I even tried disconnecting the network for a few days, but the WeMo still turned itself on, proving beyond a doubt that the problem was within the switch itself (i.e. with the network disconnected no one could be sending rogue commands to turn it on or off). For a while I thought Id solved the issue by moving the switch to a different outlet, so I made the mistake of leaving the WeMo plugged in. Unfortunately I got called away from home and havent been able to go home for a week. Im currently sitting here, 200 miles away, watching on my surveillance camera as the WeMo goes ABSOLUTELY BONKERS. It turns on randomly every few minutes if I do nothing. Sometimes it turns itself off. Sometimes I try turning it off remotely with the WeMo app and it turns on, then off, then on again, then off again, then on again in a rapid cycle. No matter what I do, it always ends up on most of the time. There seems to be NO WAY for me to fix this or disable it -- I am stuck watching helplessly as the lights go on no matter what I do. The neighbors must think Ive gone crazy, with my lights flashing randomly and burning all night long. Thank God its only the lights. I had some silly notion of hooking up a WeMo to my window air conditioner (would be nice to turn on the AC an hour before I get home on a sweltering day) but I cant imagine how screwed Id be now if I had done that. The WeMo is a thoroughly untrustworthy, even dangerous piece of junk (imagine the problems that could be caused by a switch that randomly turns itself on or off) and Belkin is irresponsible to continue selling it.

I purchased 3 in Nov 2015, installed them in Jan 2016 and loved them! But then in March one of my three died...nothing out of ordinary use, bedroom lamp, low wattage, no electrical spikes, just died one day. I tried it in other outlets, over several days but I guess it is just dead. That is 33% defect rate and I manufacture products for a living so I just think this is not acceptable. I downloaded the pdf (3 pages) on filing a claim and to be honest I am going to file the claim, and I will update my review and let you now how it goes. Personally, I rarely file a claim, I just stop buying from the manufacturer but since I have two other wemos I am just pissed off enough to go through the process and pain of filing a claim. Follow up #1: I called 1-866-515-2054, after two minutes of punching in #s got a live person and Rachael listened to my 2 min summery, put me on hold for 4 minutes to talk to technicican who approved my exchange, and then she emailed me RA # and talked me through the process while I filled it out on line. Finished the call after 14 minutes. They require that I pay for shipping (to return the product), but they will ship me out a free replacement. So all in all not too painful, but it still will cost me both time and shipping back to them to get a replacment I DID NOT BREAK, they had defective parts that did not last the expected life cycle of the product. I am hoping they will at least include a 50% off coupon as compensation for my frustration, time and shipping costs...

The Belkin Insight is just sloppy. It feels and acts cheap, and I’m sure that isn’t what Belkin is going for in terms of home automation. 1. Daylight Savings isn’t exactly a new concept. There is no excuse for the WeMo failing to account for it. 2. The WeMo insight last on for measurement doesn’t really make sense. It reads “last on for” as the time my espresso machine’s heating element cycled. Last on for should come from the rules/how long the WeMo is switched on. 3. Support requests require device serial numbers and model numbers, which should be reported in the app. Why do I need to unplug the device to get these numbers? 4. Setup requires multiple attempts before it “sticks.” Pretty much every review I’ve read after purchasing my WeMo complains about this. iPhone app shows all kinds of random graphical glitches. 5. Editing rules doesn’t always seem to register either, sometimes requiring multiple edit attempts. Home automation is a relatively new concept. In order to see wide adoption, it needs to work well. This probably isnt the platform thats going to make it work.

I didnt even try the device, for which I had such high hopes. Belkin appears to have no regard whatsoever to privacy and security. The Android app to control this-- without which the devices are useless-- demands access to ones contact list and-- get this-- your ROUTERS PASSCODE! With this information, Belkin or whoever gets hold of this information (by hacking Belkin? Hacking your phone?), can then access your LAN behind its firewall, and/or SPAM everyone in your contact list. It also demands your Device & app history, so they know ALL your apps, your identiy, your location, access to your phone, your photos, your media files, your camer(!?!?!?), and more. Seriously? Belkin employees could surreptitiously access your phone and eavesdrop on your private conversations or watch you as you do private things, as well as send this info to everyone in your contact list. While I dont doubt that this is not their intentions, there is NO JUSTIFIABLE REASON for such privacy invasion, because a rogue employee could wreak havoc with ones life if appropriate information was disseminated. I know that younger people seem to not understand the consequences of privacy loss or identity theft, so they readily accept such access demands from the apps they enjoy, but I certainly will not, and I recommend everyone else reading this takes a similar stand. iOS devices allow individual blocking of an apps permissions, but Android does not-- its an all/nothing deal. Until enough Android users complain, Android systems will lack this individual feature control. And, while Belkin may give reasons like we need your access list IN CASE you want to share settings with friends, or other sanitized reasons, there is NO VALID REASON to demand access to your personal data like that. So, I am sadly sending these back. It could have been a great product but I will never know, because I refuse unnecessary invasions of my privacy. I have similarly uninstalled any app that makes unreasonable demands. Many want access to ones contact list, so they can sell the data to telemarketers or spam your friends themselves. I will not participate in this. FIGHT BACK! There are other apps/products that allow remote control via the Internet, that do NOT ask for ANY special permissions. Shame on Belkin!

Purchased and returned. Both the app and the device are buggy. Generally speaking its fine if you dont need to rely on rules. Turn on the device from the app...it works. Use Amazon echo integration to turn it on/off... its great. When it came to rules it completely failed. If you setup anything more advanced than once on a day on once off it seems to falter. It would miss rules completely, turn on a device a minute or two before it was scheduled to turn off. The simple fact is you cant rely that it will turn on when you want it to. Support has no interest in actually communicating what the issue is or work-around. They will just tell you to reset the device and try again. Ive had it in states where it was executing rules that the app said it didnt have. Until they solve their firmware issues it comes to a situation where each time you edit/change the rules (including disable/enable) you will need to test that the rules function and possibly reset the device and add the rules all over again and then test again. Every time you use it for away mode... That is just poor product and not reliable. I tested on the firmware that shipped and on the latest downloadable. After two weeks of frustration I returned. I will not pursue seeing how it matures down the road because. It says something about the company and their willingness to fix issues. Its in both firmware version I tried and appears to be a problem that has been around for some time from the research I did. Its good concept held back by poor execution and the company does not value a solid product as much as market timing.