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

It is a very nice product. It is easy to set up, nice app, BUT when the power goes off it stays off and does not reset. The items I want to monitor power on tend to be appliances like the heater, furnace and refrigerator. In the several months I have had it I on the furnace I have gotten home 3 times, and woke up once, to a very cold house. I deducted a star for every two times the house was cold. It has been in the single numbers and teens most of the winter so the house gets cold fast and takes hours to warm up. Power glitches seem rare but even very short ones, so short they do not reset our clocks, will reset this device. Also very short outages do not send a disconnected email. If it did you would see it and turn it back on.

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.

This is the 4th Wemo product I have purchased and I love these products. The only downside is the app to set the rules is a bit cumbersome. The devices set up easily with your wifi system and reconnect automatically after power outages or wifi interruptions. They have a good range pickup equal to that of my iPhone or better. They respond quickly to the app when using the power override from the app. Setting the rules takes a bit of thought on how to get what you want programmed but there are lots of options on what you want the device to do. You can also set multiple rules on one device allowing you to turn it on or off multiple times daily or different patterns on different days. The power tracking utility of the insight switch is awesome! You can even set a watt threshold where the outlet will not allow power out unless the demand is greater than the watts you set it at. This keeps your outlet from leaking power to devices not being used. I wish they were a little cheaper or you could get a good discount for purchasing several devices at once but after using Wemo for just over a year with flawless operation, its money well spent.

I purchased a selection of these WeMo products to try them out, including the Insight switch, normal switch, motion and wall switch. I also noticed that the last review was a year old, so let me update things a little. First, let me calibrate my point of view: Home automation is like cell phones before the iPhone - crappy industrial design, abysmal user interface/experience/configuration - zero integration of devices and software. Some have tried with home hubs but this is itself an arcane and user unfriendly concept. Into this environment, WeMo today brings a true breath of fresh air. The products are clean designs, work as expected, are packaged and presented clearly so anyone can get them to work. As close to zero configuration as possible. Help is right up front. The applications are only limited by our imaginations, and I look forward to hearing about creative applications. We all know that The Internet of things is the next big wave. The question is, who will lead this wave? I would submit that the model Apple has set - making products truly useful for ordinary people - is the key indicator of future success. In this, WeMo has made a great start and deserves to be recognized. But of course, we are only at the beginning. From my experience with WeMo so far, the things part is working pretty well. Bugs are to be expected. The real question is how fast they are noticed and corrected. The frequent firmware updates speak of a dynamic and energetic development effort. That is a good thing. Software and apps are the next frontier. Of course there is lots of hardware and software yet to be developed - I would like to be able to build an energy profile of my entire home and all the appliances, for example - oh and integrate with (or better yet, provide) my security system. As a consumer, what I need is a company who shares the vision and provides the hardware and software - including access by third party apps - to make it happen. WeMo? Quite possible.

I bought the WeMo Insight Switch on a whim when it was on sale, then a Motion Sensor + Switch bundle later, so these are the products Im writing about (the Amazon page appears to mix reviews for all WeMo products). PROS * Works entirely with WiFi; does not require a special hub like some home-automation systems do * Aesthetically pleasing hardware design * Easy to integreate with other WeMo products (e.g., make Motion Sensor control a Switch) * App can be configured for remote access to control of devices when you are away from your home network * Does not rely on Internet connection CONS * Somewhat high (~1.5W) power usage per WeMo device when idle, presumably to keep WiFi radio powered * No API (except via Android and iOS SDKs) * Sometimes difficult to integreate with other products I ended up returning the Switch+Motion combo, followed closely by the Insight Switch. My biggest reason for returning the Switch+Motion bundle is that I couldnt make the Motion product do much besides control the Switch. This is fine if your house is entirely WeMo, but I was hoping to integrate it with my Philips Hue bulbs and couldnt. (I could, actually, with some third-party help: plug in a Switch for nothing, just to be there, then tell Motion to turn on or off the Switch with motion or after a certain period of inactivity, then use IFTTT with a trigger that fires when the Switch is turned off and an action that turns off Hue. This could be simplified a bit if IFTTT had a trigger for lack of motion like the WeMo app does, but it doesnt, and the whole setup is still a bit convoluted.) For developers or others who may want to tinker, this product lacks an easily accessible API (Hue, by contrast, is exposed via HTTP and controllable via REST commands). They offer SDKs for Android and iOS, so it appears the only option for customization is writing your own app. There is also not a Web interface, so the app (theirs or a third-party one made with the SDK) is really the only way to control these. This wont matter much to most people, but I like to customize some things have depended on this with other products before. As previously stated, all WeMo products use WiFi to communicate, which is an advantage in that you do not need a special hub like you do with, for example, Hue (execpt Belkins recently announced light bulbs need a hub, too); you can just use your existing WiFi network. However, it has a couple disadvantages: first, all devices need to be within range of your WiFi signal to be controllable, which was never a problem for me but may be for other people. Second, WiFi is more power-hungry than other wireless technologies typically used for home automation (e.g., ZigBee or Z-Wave). I suspect well never have battery-powered WeMo devices for this reason. My Switch, Insight Switch, and Motion Detector each ate up about 1.5 W just sitting there idle, which is 3-5 times higher than similar ZigBee and Z-Wave devices Ive tried (and ZigBee and Z-Wave devices that take batteries usually use even less power in that case beacuse they dont extend the network theyre on, which is something they usually do and exposes another one of their advantages: a possibly greater range). My suggestions: * If you only want a couple WeMo devices, WeMo may work well. Id be hesitant to fill a house with them because they use significantly more power than comparable alternatives, but with only a couple its (a) probably not a big difference, and (b) probably cheaper in that all you need is the WeMo device and a WiFi network (and the Android or iOS app), so you wont have to buy or configure a special hub. * If you dont already have a lot of WeMo products but think you might want a lot, Id suggest another solution that may lend itself to less power consumption and better integration with other systems. Personally, Ive returned all my WeMo products and switched over to SmartThings, which offers compatiblity with many ZigBee and Z-Wave controllable switches and sensors. (It does require a hub, but I think the tradeoff is worth it. Unfortunately, SmartThings is also heavily relaint on the Internet at the moment, but they claim to be working on that.) SmartThings can integrate with WeMo, but I swapped my devices (switch and motion sensor, at least) anyway because I wanted the ZigBee advantages Ive mentioned. * If you only want the Insight Switch and you only want it to know the power consumption of your devices, consider a Kill-A-Watt instead (thats how I determined the surprising amount of power WeMo devices consume even when idle). My luck with the products Ive used hasnt been as bad as others, and everything seemed to work well when I tried. My biggest problem was the lack of customization options, but there are other minor issues as well as I mentioned that also fueled my desire to seek alternatives. Still, for the average user who only wants maybe one or a few WeMo devices, I think it may work well.

Managed to a few more Wemo switches while they were on sale - I already have a few around my apartment and are so easy to control via the WEMO app or IFTTT app for extra features. One is plugged into my air conditioner and will automatically turn on when I am a few minutes from home thanks to the location detector on the iPhone (Download the free IF by IFTTT app) there is also great Android support too. You can also add timers through the IF app so you can have your lamp turn on at a certain time each day or just remotely turn it on/off through the Wemo app. The Insight switch gives extra features through the Wemo app including the power usage and estimated average cost - it works outside the home so you can check easily if you accidentally left a device switched on and just with a tap can turn it off. These switches are also fully compatible with Amazon Echo to switch on and off devices - I can now turn on my bedroom lamp before entering the room.

one thing I really like... is something that simply works without a lot of fiddling. This thing worked right out of the box like a champ with zero effort on my part. I was concerned because the instructions consisted of plug it in and activate the app. And sure enough, that was all it took. Ok, this is the follow up. First, I was speaking about the plug in the wall switch but they both worked great. Easy to set up on my all my hand held devices. For my IPAD I had to buy a 3rd party app but it worked fine for $1.99. Alexa and the Echo found the devices in the advertised 20 seconds and it just worked perfectly. I only have two problems. 1. The light switches are pretty large, They just barely fit into the metal wall (gang) box. With the wire nuts there was absolutely no room to spare and I do not like to cram the wiring as that can put tension on connections. (but I had to) 2. I need an outside switch. I can keep it dry but these switches are only usable (according to the directions) about freezing. So no out door porch or other outside (like the garage) stuff light switches. Other wise, easy and quick to install. Up and running in no time. Pretty neat.

The product works great for an air conditioner -- once you get it working. Thats the hard part. For me, the trickiest piece was realizing that the device will work reliably only on a DEDICATED 2.4 GHz WiFi band. If you have your router set up to use the same SSID over both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, it may not work. I had to go into my router settings and create a dedicated 2.4 GHz band (I named it SSID - 2.4 GHz, and named my separate 5 GHz band SSID - 5 GHz). I then connected the Insight to that band. Once my phone was on the same band, I could set up the device correctly. After initial setup, I could switch my phone to the 5 GHz band (or any other internet connection) and control the switch. All in all, its a great product and very convenient if you have a device you want to control remotely. But getting it set up does take some work. EDIT: See the helpful comment from PC Tech below on avoiding damage to an air conditioner. In short, dont turn the AC on and off in quick succession.

Bought this to use for my space heater in my apartment with my Amazon Echo. it works flawlessly. The wemo app is a little clunky but thats expected with Belkin. I give this four stars because there is no way to show your usage as a trend chart. It only shows your daily usage and monthly est. cost. Wish it had more features. Update (12/04/15) There is a setting inside the wemo app which allows you to have wemo email you daily weekly or monthly with a .csv file (Exel document) showing you all of your usage details (up to the last 30 days). Still leaving it at four stars since it will not show trends on the app, even though i can find the trends myself i shouldnt have to build it into the app).

The setup on this thing was a COMPLETE pain in the... To initialize the device it has to connect to your wifi. For whatever reason it didnt like my arris surfboard or my industrial grade aerohive wireless access point. Maybe my internal network isnt handing out dhcp addresses fast enough, who knows. After hours of messing with removing encryption from my wireless ssid and reboot the cable modem, wifi and factory resetting this WeMo I was able to connect it to my iPhone hotspot (of all things). Once I did that and updated the firmware this thing worked like a champ. Anyway its a nice idea but I think the app and the device needs a lot more development into it. I just wanted to be able to adjust the landscape lights on my house without having to use an old-school timer.