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

Been looking at this product for a while, but read some reviews where people were having problems with it, so I held off. May of 2014, I decided to press ahead and make the purchase. Instructions have a mere 4 simple steps, so how hard could it be? 1) Plugged in the Switch; 2) Downloaded the app; 3) In Settings, I selected WiFi, then Connect to WeMo network; 4) Launched the WeMo App to complete the process. Sorry, no go. Backed out and re-tried the Launch several times, but I kept getting booted out. Re-started my phone and tried again - no go. Deleted the App and downloaded it a second time; Launched the App and was informed it needed a system upgrade, but I was finally in. To test the system, I plugged an incandescent light fixture into the WeMo Switch and was able to turn it on and off using my iPhone (pretty cool) from about 6 away. OK, not all that impressive. After downloading a second system upgrade that popped up, I then enabled Remote Access, walked to the far end of our property (about 300 ft.) and turned the same light on with my iPhone - at least the indicator light on the App said I did. Walked back into the house to see the light ON! This is as far as Ive progressed with the WeMo, so until I use it further, nothing more to add - other than JUST KEEP PLUGGING AWAY WHEN INSTALLING AND SETTING IT UP... YOULL GET THERE SOONER OR LATER!

The switch functions well manually or from the smartphone app. My problems started when I started to rely on the power consumption calculations. I suspected something was incorrect so I measured the power with two different power meters (scientific quality) to confirm the WeMo was wrong. For example at my machines idle (100 W) WeMo was reading 25 watts too high or 125 W. At full power my machine was reading 704 W and WeMo said 849 W. I also confirmed that my other two WeMo has very similar power calculation inaccuracies. So buyer be warned the the power calculations are consumer friendly but not accurate enough to be of any real value. This product was designed for the average Joe/Jane and not some one who needs accurate power consumption measurements. If you only want a switch that is operated by your smart phone then this is your product, otherwise keep looking.....

The following review deals with this switch, an Apple Airport Extreme (2013 model) a Nexus 7 tablet and/or a Motorola Moto X. One of the most attractive features of this and the associated WeMo devices (and the touted WeMo android app) is a theoretical set of rules that supposedly allow you to program the devices to work together. So for instance, you can get a WeMo camera which has motion sensing and you can theoretically program this light switch to turn on and off for a specified period of time when there is motion sensed by the camera sensor. On a less complicated level, you are theoretically able to set up a rule to turn the switch on at sunset for your specific geographic location. Each component works i.e. the motion sensing feature of the camera works and the turn the light on and off feature works with the switch but......the rules part does not work. Unfortunately, you go through a whole Wizard of Oz bunch of people who really seem to be honestly intent on resolving your issue with the product until you learn that your issue is actually the manufacturers issue. The advertised features simply do not work when it comes to the rules category. If you have a plethora of time and patience, you may eventually be connected to an apparently very well meaning or at least well meaning sounding person who will tell you that your case is being forwarded to the developers........Upon further research, you will find that this has been the case for some time and there is a third party Android app that you can buy which theoretically will make the devices and the rules work together. I have not tried that. As an expensive timer or an expensive remote that you can use your phone to control, it works. And it works well. If you have an android phone and use that as your alarm clock or your bedside clock, you can use the app to turn a light on and off remotely with ease and consistency. For the simple on at sunset rule, you can use IFTTT.com. That works most of the time. Maybe it works with the iPhone. Dont know but the app is supposed to communicate with some Belkin server somewhere to coordinate the rules and so there should be zero difference whether you use an android device or an IOS device to do that. There was an update to the WeMo Android App a couple of weeks ago and it made zero difference in the disfunction of the rules business. Android users (kitcat specifically)....Caveat Emptor

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 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.

Im confused by the negative reviews and I think because the reviews are regarding all the WeMo products listed-- I am writing in reference to the WeMo OUTLET-- there was NO WIRING-- I stuck it in my living room outlet, downloaded the WeMo app, set that up in about 5 minutes. Named the outlet. Went to my Echo: Alexa app, had her find it. Done. No more crawling under the tree to get the lights off and on- Alexa. turn on Christmas tree. does it. I currently am using 3 of them, all have worked great, the Echo hasnt lost synchronization with them and its been 4 weeks. I knocked it a star for having to use 2 apps to get the job done, but I also realize that was going to be inevitable. I would send one to my parents but their not tech savvy enough to want to deal with toggling between 2 apps to get the set up done. So, in a nutshell-- its doing exactly what I wanted, and took all of 8 minutes to get it going.

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.

I tried to use this on multiple objects in my room, and I ended up having it sit on my side dresser for awhile after being disappointed. Kind of thick, so if you have an outlet behind something against the wall, be prepared not to use it there or to have it sticking out a good amount. For some reason, some of things I tried to use this on was hard to plug into. Bad planning on my part and even stupidity, but for some reason didnt expect this to be 3 prongs. After having to do some cleaning and moving around, I was able to set this up to my main bedroom light. Setup was a little wonky at first, but it was pretty easy and painless in the long run. Thought I read somewhere that you could walk into room with this, and it would pick up your phone and turn the light on for you. Didnt see this option in setting unfortunately. Man am I satisfied though! There was some disappointed with the setup of things, expectations, and settings.. but overall I would recommend this. So far one of the cheapest routes for this type of thing for lights, and one of the few at this time that work with Amazon Echo. Love it with my Alexa!

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. :)

Update (Feb 2014): turns out WeMo is totally insecure, anyone on the internet could control your devices because of multiple vulnerabilities in the software. See [...] (scroll down halfway). Im now giving it one star since its not acceptable to have such low security, and since Belkin hasnt reacted to the problems (apparently they were notified in October 2013 but havent reacted). Original review: I would love to love this product because it promises to do exactly what I need it for: easy Wifi control (and automated control) of anything you can plug into a standard outlet. And, sometimes, it does exactly that. Setup is reasonably easy. But there are too many glitches for it to be practical. The app starts way too slowly (taking 10-30 seconds to show you your devices so you can turn on/off one of them). Timed events sometimes simply dont work. Wifi reception is weak (in a spot where my phone showed 3 bars of Wifi, the Wemo never connected). Its not possible to control from multiple phones. Operations fail randomly half the time (on a perfectly fine Wifi network where no other device has connectivity problems). Bottom line: I kept it for one application (turn on/off central heating when on vacation) because I rarely need to use it for that, so that spending a minute to get a working on/off button on my phone is ok). I intended it to control some lights, but its just not usable for that. Too bad companies like Belkin dont spend more on writing and testing software.