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 Then again, my phone device is a few years outdated, so that may be cause.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...

The Insight Switch itself, once you get it up and running works great on its own (more about this later). Getting it set-up is another story. When I received the three Insight Switches they, naturally, needed firmware updates. The issue was two of the three switches crashed during their firmware updates. I had to end up dealing with Belkin email support and having to perform MULTIPLE hard resets. The major issue with these switches is the WeMo technology itself. Unlike Z-Wave or Zigbee standards, Ive discovered the only phone applications that work with these switches operate WeMo switches only. Z-Wave and Zigbee standards offer interoperability with other Z-Wave and Zigbee devices (i.e., can control your lights and switches with one app). Ive searched high and low for apps that control both WeMo and Zigbee devices and they simply dont exist. Long story short, be prepared to have at least TWO apps to control your home.

In spite of great difficulty in getting it to work, I rate this product 5 stars because it DOES work and it solves a problem. I got it because the Amazon Echo now offers voice control over switches like this one which show up as devices connected to your homes wifi. With the device I hoped to be able to turn a light in our living room on or off, making it easier for an elderly person to control it. First problem: I need the WeMo app. Not available on the Belkin web site. I suppose more experienced users would have gone to Google Play for the android app first, but it didnt occur to me for a while. Second problem: The app on my Android phone said it was installed but it couldnt find the Belkin WeMo Insight Switch. Lots of plugging and unplugging, uninstalling and reinstalling, and finally it found the switch. The light that it controlled could be turned on and off by the manual button on the Insight Switch and by the app on my phone. Third problem: Alexa, the Amazon Echo device, could not find the device when I said, Alexa, discover my devices, as Amazons instructions specified. Again I tried unplugging, replugging, deleting the app, reinstalling the app, and finally, just when I was prepared to return the device, the Amazon Echo said it had found the device. Im not sure exactly what combination of bumbling finally worked, so I hope I wont have to do it again. The Belkin web site was not particularly helpful for this problem, and I couldnt find anything on Amazon that was helpful. But now it works. We can turn a light in our living room on or off by voice. I feel as if I have won a great victory.

To give you an idea of my technical expertise... I was a young Network Admin during the dark ages of Novell 3.11. For those of you confused this would be around 1994 - 1999 give or take a year or two... If you could configure Novell you could configure the Space Shuttle... and I could. Fast forward 20 years, I have a home-based Internet company - I personally built 10 gaming computers not for gaming but for business... I do things like port forward into my home network to view my security cameras and connect to an internal web-server... In other words, I know what Im doing... Now about this Belkin WeMo INSIGHT SWITCH... When I plugged it in the first thing IT DID was lock down my router without me touching ANY thing! - I was more than offended when all my PCs were instantly kicked off the web... all I could think about was losing my Router configuration, because I havent backed up the Router config file in a long time .. After rebooting everything, I resigned myself to give this setup 30 minutes of my time, because I really didnt feel like returning and reordering something else... 1hour and 30 minutes later of trouble shooting, which included multiple reboots of my router to get my PCs back online (yes you read that correctly) Android was still searching for this device... For the record my router has been rock solid for 3 years under my command... Note: no direct PC config allowed - must be done on your phone - extremely lame - but not before holding my entire network hostage yet again... the thought of throwing this thing as far back to China as possible seems tempting and worth losing the $99 refund value/hassle... Ive always had a professional hatred for all things Belkin - the company slogan should be were the Jacks of all things- and the master of NOTHING... (I think they make bicycle helmets too) but this last experience has made my love personal... In addition they expect you to connect this device that sits 2 feet away through a third party, third world web server a million cable wires miles away. Oh and the WeMo App couldnt blow worse chunks either - what I saw of it - I really didnt get that far into the configuration I do not think this plastic paper weight shipped to me broken - I think it is working exactly the way Belkin designed it to... the only thing wrong with it is the logo on the side that reads B e l k i n P.S. - Ah yes – my window to return this plastic headache ended yesterday… I guess thats part of the Belkin business strategy... If I could throw it, or launch it back to China now I would...

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.

There are some things that are excellent about this product -- once the setup is complete -- its really easy to hookup numerous iphones/ipads/itouches to register the wemo app (allowing you to control the outlet). The cons include not receiving notifications that the outlet is on/off, unless you separately set the usage/watts on EACH itouch/iphone/ipad product. Im pretty sure that this is only due to the fact that I have an extremely low-power consuming miniature toy pump that Im using on this outlet. Initial setting is somewhere around 8 (?) watts or something. I received zero notification that the pump was on/off. Once I adjusted the watts? to below 2, it started notifying me that the outlet was being used. I do believe that theres an automatic watt/power detection during the setup process -- but since the device wanted to update the firmware ? while I was initially setting this up -- I did not want to bother myself doing the automatic power detection setup step. Now, the good news is that notwithstanding all of this -- its always, without failed, allowed me to turn the device on/off. OH! And even if your main cable is down (no internet, no cable, no TV), as long as the router is physically working, it seems like the Wemo device works. I read somewhere that it creates is own wifi network (or something) so maybe our cable companys wifi system doesnt even have to be on -- not sure -- but at least it works even if the cable/internet/wifi is down.

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.

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 purchased one of these on a price dip, thinking it was time to give this technology a try. Its a rather clever device, providing integration of home automation controls and energy monitoring, with capable notifications, actionable rules and remote management. However, execution does have a few flaws. The limitations become more apparent in a more complex scenarios: no support for hidden wireless networks, inability of software to deal with multiple access points, or recognize home and remote wireless networks if they share the same network name. This device would likely perform much better in a country home with just one wireless access point and little interference, but in a dense urban environment, where 2.4GHz wireless spectrum is heavily congested (with up to 4 wireless stations visible on every Wi-Fi channel), the device seems to have connectivity issues. To provide adequate signal coverage, I already had a couple of access points on dynamically selected channels - but after installing this WeMo Switch, I had to add another one just 4 fee away from it, otherwise it would drop off the network every couple of hours. Even with an access point so close, I still end up having to pull it out and reconnect every couple of days, as it still drops the wireless connection. The vendor specifically states that multiple access points could cause a smartphone application not to find the device - that is definitely the case, as on many occasions I could not see the device while on Wi-Fi, but by shutting off Wi-Fi on my smartphone, I could manage it as if I were remote. The vendor should definitely invest additional effort into application (to remove constraints related to access point / Wi-Fi network name and visibility), as well as explore other connectivity options for urban dwellers, either by supporting 5GHz network band or by integrating PowerLine support.

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.