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

I use this to control a tower fan in my bedroom. I use the iPhone app to set a timer (to turn it on around bedtime and to turn if off in the AM just before my alarm clock goes off). I used to use an old school timer (the one with a dial where you had to pull out plastic notches whenever you wanted the outlet to turn on and off) but if we had a power outage, it would lose track of time. This one solves that problem. Also, you can manually turn on and off using the app or touching the power button on top, so you arent beholden to the scheduler. It was fairly easy to set up, easy to update the firmware when needed. Lastly, it tracks usage (watts), which is interesting to look at. The iphone app is a bit slow to load on my 4S and if you leave the app to go do something else and come back to it, it has to open from scratch, but all in all Im real happy with how it works. Then again, my phone device is a few years outdated, so that may be cause. If they could get the cost down, Id buy more of them for my home, but in the meantime this is really the only device I need on a timer so...

I bought this because I have an Amazon Echo. Upon further research, this was the one that worked best for me because I liked that it had more recipes that worked in conjunction with Echo on IFTTT than other current brands. Heres what I noticed: Its not too suited to control a light/lamp. You know why? If youre walking around in the middle of the night and your Wemo Insight Switch is located somewhere near your feet where your light is plugged into, youre going to have to feel around for the Wemos switch. Even with Echo, its inconvenient because if you dont want to wake everyone up by calling to Echo, youre going to have to feel for that Wemo switch in the dark or take your phone literally EVERYWHERE with you so you can turn on the light with your phone. Now, what if your wifi goes down? If your Wemo Insight Switch is somewhere quite out of reach, youre going to have to really reach for it - so if youre in the dark... lol. My recommendation is to use this on other things that you may want to control power with. Its feature is that it keeps track of how much time you use on it and how much wattage is used. Im not very creative, so I dont know what that leaves for you to use this Wemo Insight Switch with. lol. However, if you dont know how to install a Wemo Light Switch on your wall or if your house is fitted with 3-way light switches instead of single-poles, this (and others like this) is really the only alternative for you. Dont get me wrong though. There is nothing wrong with the Wemo Insight Switch. In fact, its amazing! I love how convenient it is. Once I find other things (besides my light) I can use this with, Ill be able to track the power wattage used, set when to automatically turn it on or off (like when Im on vacation and need to set it for the cats or just to make it look like Im home), or just move it around and use it with different appliances simply by plugging and unplugging it. If youre using this with Echo, theres an additional feature now (accessible from Echos app) - you can set it to turn your appliances/light on or off when it detects you leaving and arriving home! It does this with your phones location services. Pretty neat, huh? Loving my semi-automated home more and more. :)

I purchased a WeMo switch on its own some time ago and six months ago Costco had a deal on a Belkin Netcam HD+ with WeMo switch. Ive actually went the route of plugging the Netcams into the WeMo switch so I could time when the cameras were functional during the day. (ie: out of the house then house cameras turn on. Garage camera shuts off for a minute daily to reset) In addition to this I did install a WeMo light switch to control some porch lights. Belkin definitely has issues with their firmware updates. At times the device will seem like its completely blown away. When this has happened Ive just left it sit out of frustration and have come back to it an hour later, it was fine at that point. Other times Ive had to reset at which point sometimes it signs back onto my network and wants to do the firmware update again like nothing happened and other times (though less and less frequently now) Ive had to completely reconfigure the switch. I have not messed with motion detection on the cameras ... But Im thinking about doing that soon for the garage. Motion in the garage == lights on in garage :) IFTTT integration can be a little iffy .... Ill explain below The additional Wemo switch I have I wasnt sure what to do with so I plugged it into our washer/dryer combo to see when it turns off and send a notification. That seems to work well .... If youre having the notification done through the WeMo app. If you link that through IFTTT youll get that notification about an hour later. Since our washing machine drains into a washing tub there are times where that will overflow. I plan to get a moisture sensor at some point set to cut off power to the washing machine wemo switch if it detects an overflow. Looks like Belkin isnt planning on offering one that I can see so it would need to be something else tied to IFTTT. Something like that I would trust the IFTTT integration to handle even with a 10-60 second delay. The switch that controls porch lights controls an outlet and works perfectly for that. Theres also a light fixture that I stuck a Philips Hue bulb in. I set it up so when the switch is tapped it would tell IFTTT to turn the bulb on to a specific brightness and color and when the switch is tapped off it would turn that light off. That works well with about a 10-20 second delay which I find reasonable considering the trip the command has to take. All in all Im mostly happy and will be adding more WeMo devices to our home for various purposes.

I use it with my Echo and it works 95% of the time. When it doesnt work it could be the Wemo or the Echo, probably alternating based on behavior. It generally only fails when I activate it out of the blue. Multiple tries followed by many successful uses are the norm. The app had issues but they eventually worked out. At one point the WeMo thought it was several years ago. That made timers not work. Eventually, an update may have fixed that. My kids still dont know how I turn the lights off and on. They think the Echo does it by itself. They like to turn it off and on. I am planning on getting several WeMo products based on how it has been working lately.

It took me 3 hours total to set it up. The initial setup was somewhat easy. Connecting to IFTTT was painful and took several complete factory resets. BTW, how to perform a factory reset is impossible to find on their web site which kept giving me page not found errors. I had to guess many different combinations and after a while one worked. They have many cute videos that obviously cost much more than a simple owners manual, but they dont actually tell you the simple workings of the device. The app is nice to use, but had to be deleted and re-downloaded to make the setup work. Maybe they could hire some good programmers instead of a huge marketing department. I actually like the device, but I think I could make a bundle explaining to people how to use one.

Ive tried many (over 10) different remote controls outlets, and this WeMo outlet is clearly the best. Its realiable, does not require a separate hub (other than your wifi AP), has great support from 3rd parties (I.e. IFTTT), and the power usage tracking feature is worth the cost alone. The programming capabilities (rules) are somewhat basic, but by using a combination of other WeMo products and 3rd party apps you can do nearly everything. For example, I tend to forget things on. Asimple rule can be set that automatically turns off the controlled device after a set number of hours every time you turn it on. For the more advances applications, by pairing with the WeMo Maker, you can activate this unit by virtually any electrical signal or sensor (when I enter the room and the existing brightness is less than a set value, turn on the light for 30 minutes). The integration with IFTTT allow you the ability to control the outlet based on many external conditions, such as turning on the outlet if the outside temperature drops below freezing. The power usage feature tracks power usage when the load is turned on (threshold is adjustable) and displays both power consumed and approximate monthly cost. Data is exportable via email. Provides a quick look into how many hours the outlet was on, how much power was used since the last time it was turned on, and daily totals. Note these units are not sealed, and therefore shouldnt be used outside unless protected. As with all wifi devices, the are multiple factors that make it less than 100% reliable, and therefore shouldnt be used in critical applications.

I put my christmas lights on the switch and loved knowing they would turn on and off without having to contort my body and squeeze behind the tree hoping I didnt break anything to get to the outlet twice a night. I set up a program on the app to turn them on at dark and off at midnight. Since then, Ive put a lamp on a wemo switch and have it said to away mode- the lamp randomly turns on and off from dark until midnight for random amounts of time. Im not home a lot and this does a great job making it look like someone is at my house. Only reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is they do go offline from time to time.

I like that the Insight switch lets me see the energy consumption of the device attached, and that I can control it with weather events through IFTTT. I use this one to turn off our whole-house fresh air ventilator when the outside humidity gets too high, the temperature gets too low, or the pollen count reaches a certain point. But there is a flaw in the entire WeMo operational model if you want to use it for any kind of large scale use. You must have a smartphone or tablet to control any of the WeMo devices. More importantly, for any given phone (or table), you can only control the devices at one location. Why does this matter? Because if you plan to use WeMo devices to control functions at your vacation home as well as your regular home, youll need two phones - one for each house. Im not sure of the technical model, but it seems that the phone apps can only connect to one location at a time. So you can see all the devices at the Vacation home if you just installed a bunch there and set them up with your phone. But if you come home and install a device in your home, it will forget all the devices at your vacation home - and the only way to get them back is to go to your vacation home and set them up again. At which point it will forget all the devices you set up at your regular home. In fact, at least for us, it even dropped all the programming for the vacation home devices and they were no longer controllable from IFTTT. The only solution is to have two phones, or a phone and a tablet - one for each location. I had hoped to use WeMo to control our 3 vacation rental houses. But Im not about to set aside 3 separate tables for each, as well as a phone for my own home. Sigh. So close.....

UPDATE 2/17/2016 I am now up to 5 of the Insight Switches and 3 of the Light Switches. They continue to work great, no problems with dropping from the network, no problems after power outages, etc. We use the Insight Switches to turn off power to heaters and heating pads/blankets overnight to ensure they have no power for the sake of safety. We use the Light Switches for our outdoor lights to turn them on at sunset and off at 11pm. We also use an Insight Switch to turn on our bedroom lamps a few minutes before we turn-in during the week. Thus far we have had zero issues. ORIGINAL REVIEW I purchased two of the Belkin WeMo Insight Switches several months ago and am quite pleased. I have worked in the technology and information security sectors for 17 years now. I have installed, configured, and played with more networks and gadgets then I care to admit. Being a techie that works on tech all day long, I dont really have much tolerance for fighting technology in my personal life. All of my gadgets at home were completely chosen because they are simple, easy to use, and maintenance free. That being said, one of the things I evaluate a product for is how user-friendly that product is for the average user. I found the Belkin setup process is be very straight forward and easy. Simply plugin, join your phone to the new Belkin network, start the WeMo App, find the new WeMo device in the list, join it to your wireless network, and that is it. The WeMo app even moves your phone back to your wireless network for you. The app detects new firmware immediately and I found the update process incredibly easy. Each switch can be given a unique name and you can even assign your own image as well, for quick reference. Right now, I am putting my Insight Switches to good use for the holidays. One controls our Christmas tree lights and the other is controlling holiday lights on a separate display. I configured both using the rules engine in the WeMo app, which I found pretty easy. Rules are set to turn on the lights at a particular time in the morning and turn them off at a particular time at night. If I had any gripe at all, it would be that I wish there was some level of authentication between the WeMo app and the WeMo switches. Since these devices are only accessible on your network, there is no real fear that a hacker is going to gain access to your switches. However, anyone that is on your wireless network and has the WeMo app can control the devices. So I will have to keep an eye on our mischievous teenagers when they come home from college for the holidays. ;-)

These arent the most reliable or stable things in the world but they get the job done. The cool thing about wemo switches is being able to set up all sorts of cool rules and have them interoperate with other online services and stuff. I use a wemo insight to give me a push notification when my electric bike is done charging which is super useful. I use a wemo insight and IFTTT to turn on and off my dehumidifier according to the humidity measured by my netatmo internet connected weather station, then it tracks usage and sends me monthly reports and even send me an alert if the daily cost of dehumidification rises over a certain level. These things are great but you have to think about creative ways to use them to really get the full value out of them. I would recommend always spending the extra money to get the insight because its not that much more expensive but its way more useful to set up interesting behaviors.