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

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.

I agree with comment from Erick on November 1, 2013 The first time the switch install without any problems and works fine for a couple of weeks, but then I had to change th wifi setting at home. To reinstall the switch I had to reset it first, and after that it was impossible to connect it to the wifi, the switch signal only last for second and the disappears for minutes. It does not reset to factory settings. And to communicate with Belkin is impossible. I like it but it is not a reliable fixture. Belkin read the previous comment and contacted with me. Now I have a new switch, that is why Im changing the review and given then four stars, not five because they should advice that the switch could fail doing what I did.

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.

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 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 two of these babies. I use one for an appliance that uses a lot of electricity. Its really cool that I can now see how much its costing each day. The app works pretty well. I did have an issue at first and it would turn all the time after a minute. I had initially set that rule up to test the unit but forgot about it. It took me a little while to figure out what I had done and to turn that rule off. They call that user error :) One complaint that I have is that the button on the unit itself is too sensitive. I have inadvertently turned things off just by a slight accidental touch. I wish the button was recessed or something to prevent that from happening. This could potentially be a big problem if the unit is connected to something very important. A slight touch from a child or someone would turn it off unexpectedly. For that reason, I think I am going to make something to protect the switch. Minus only one star for that even though it could be a big deal to some people. I love the functionality of the unit too much to take any more off. Its also something that can be corrected with a little inginuity.

It took me an HOUR to get an insight connected. It should have taken 5 minutes. Belkin has taken a simple task of connecting a device to a home network and made it ridiculously cumbersome due to a very poorly designed app. Im quite experienced with setting up and connecting devices to a wifi network. Maybe the app is too dumbed down for me, but this should be a simple matter of selecting the device and pairing it with a wifi network. For those who have seen the movie Office Space, the scene were they take the malfunctioning printer out to a field and smash it into pieces is EXACTLY what I would like to do if the wemo app were an animate object. First, the app throws up a dialog about some settings, even though I saw that dialog a kajillion times, I dont remember what it said. The first time it came up, I dutifully clicked on the button that would (so I thought) give me useful information. Unfortunately this was not the case because Im on the latest version of Android, and apparently the instructions are written for a different version as I only had one of the items I was supposed to shut off (which was already disabled). Unfortunately, each time you are at the very beginning of insight installation, you get this dialog. It doesnt seem smart enough to detect if your settings are already correct, nor does it let you disable the dialog during the install steps. Once you get past the dialog, you select your device and then youre forced to go through a set of screens to connect your insight and app. On the last screen it says its connecting, but I never did get a message saying the app was connected to the app. If you X out of the screen, youre forced to start over at the device selection screen. The only way I could get the insight and app to connect was to do the following, once I got to the last screen where it said it was connecting, close the wemo app and re-open the app. Then when the wemo app opens, it tries to connect to the insight. It took me 20 minutes to realize I should try to close and re-open the app. Once I got the insight and wemo app connected, I was able to get the insight connected to my wifi network. And then the next problem arose. The app kept throwing errors about not being able to turn on remote access. No matter how many attempts, I could not get past this error. Also, the insight never did show up on the main screen, even after closing and re-opening the app. I did notice during the install that there were a couple of times where my phone reporting the insight connection as unstable. Next, I reset the insight and uninstalled and reinstalled the wemo app per the instructions on belkins web page. Once again started the pairing process. Once again, got the remote access error. Tried remote access again, then the device showed up in the app. A floor lamp was plugged into the insight. Turned the lamp on and off with the wemo app and it worked fine. But in the settings, it did not register that remote settings was on, even after using the app to turn the floor lamp on and off. Within the settings I selected the remote access and it then realized it was on I guess. FINALLY, my insight is connected and so far works. But Im afraid to connect the 2nd insight device. That the app might break the connection to the first device. After the insight is paired to the app and the wifi network, Echo pairs very easily to the insight device. This happens in the Echo app using a menu in the settings. Setting Echo up on the insight was the easiest part of the process. Another app quirk is that sometimes I would get the device and rules buttons on the bottom of the main screen, sometimes I wouldnt. Sometimes, Id have the icons at the top right of the main screen, sometimes I didnt. App performance seemed to be slow or go out to lunch occasionally and Id close the app and re-open it. Sometimes, clicking on something didnt seem to register with the app, sometimes it did. An alternative to the current app design would be to offer a guided install and the direct aka expert install for people experienced with installing smart devices on a network. The expert install would scan the area for a broadcasting device, allow the user to select the device, pair it with the app and wifi network, and wham bam be done with it. Device settings for renaming the device could be the last step or easily accessible through app settings. NEVER should the main app screen be hidden from the user. And if you X out of the guided install, you go back to the main screen, not the dumbed down getting started screen. This app feels like the specifications were VERY poorly written and test cases may have just been for the happiest of happy paths. It also feels like no integration testing was done for the various parts of the app. The only reason I bought a belkin product was for the Amazon Echo integration. This review is written after Amazon released the Echo SDK and hopefully more home automation products come along and I can dump the belkin products, or maybe belkin we re-write the app. I wanted to give the device a 1 star rating, but the extra star is because so far (after 15 minutes anyway) the insight continues to work. See how well this goes in the long term since some people have reported having problems with their devices. Updated one day later - Tried to install the 2nd insight device. Tried 5 times, roughly 40 minutes then I gave up. Im past the return window, otherwise itd be getting boxed up and sent back to Amazon. Each time the install went like this - my phone detects the insight and connects to it. I open the app and the app connects to the new insight device. Very quickly the app brings up the settings for the new device; the screen where I can change the name. I hit Done, and the app goes back to the main screen in which the devices are listed. The new device does not show up. I reset the device (apparently this is the only way to get it to show up as a device my phone can connect to again), and go back through the same process. Never does the new device show up as a connected device. Shutting down the app and re-opening did not help either. Also, each time I received the error about remote access not be able to be enabled. And each time, remote access was listed as enabled in the settings. After each reset, the light sequence went like this - green, green and orange (this is when my phone would detect the insight and connect to it), green while the app is connecting to it, no lights (which does match my already connected insight, so this must be OK), then orange. I believe orange is poor or no connection. Removing a star in my rating Updated 3 days after setting up the first device - Now the first device is flashing the orange color and does not show up in as being detectable in the wemo app and echo cant find it either. I absolutely refuse to reset the device and go back through the poorly executed installation process. The insight is less than 10 feet away from the router. Im completely done with this product, if I could give 0 stars I would

I bought this from Amazon Warehouse Deals - packaging damaged, otherwise like new. It arrived on time. I downloaded and installed the WeMo app on iPhone 6. Then I plugged the WeMo Insight Switch into 120VAC, and the WiFi light blinked green for 30 seconds, then blinked yellow. I never saw the device listed under the Settings:WiFi tab for iPhone 6 or iPad Mini Retina 2. The WeMo app never saw it either. Using Net Analyzer on the iPhone 6, it never appeared on my network. I tried entering the WeMo ID in Settings:WiFi to find the device manually, but that didnt work either. After waiting on hold for 27 minutes, a Belkin service tech answered and told me to reset the device by holding in the small button on top for 5 seconds with the device unplugged, then for another five seconds with the device newly plugged in. This caused the device ID to appear in the Settings:WiFi menu on the iPhone 6 (and iPad Mini Retina 2). After acquisition, I was able to get the WeMo app to recognize the device. It now works properly. Some caveats - If the device doesnt appear in your WiFi, use the reset button/procedure outlined above. Have your WiFi network password available - the WeMo app will need it to connect to the device. It will be easier to do your first network connection with the device plugged in near your router. There is NO WeMo app available for iPad. Youll need to control WeMo devices with your iPhone or Android phone. ********** UPDATE 4/24/2015 After a power outage, the insight and switches gave us a bonus - they now come on at midnight every night, in addition to following their previously programmed rules. Ill try the reset procedure again and see if it cures the problem.

I chose this product because it was able to utilize my current wi-fi network and did not require the purchase of an additional gateway box (and potentially a monthly subscription) in order to communicate with the automation devices. The product advertises that The Belkin WeMo Insight Switch allows you to put your home appliances and electronic devices on a schedule and keep an eye on their costs and usage--at home or away. This was compelling because I wondered how much power my refrigerator and chest freezer (both appliances that are responsible for being large consumers of power in the typical residential home) were using. Since I travel frequently, I thought it would also be interesting to be able to also see how much power is used when I dont open and close the door of the refrigerator for an entire week vs. when I am home. Unfortunately the product fails on all counts as follows: 1. The Insight switch does not maintain its on state when the power fails. Sure, it reconnects to the network once the power turns back on but the insight switch automatically goes back to the off state. This is not a great thing in Florida during the summer where daily thunderstorms will make the power glitch at least a few times a week. Now imagine not being home and having the WeMo Insight Switch attached to your refrigerator, there is a thunderstorm, the power glitches and the WeMo Insight Switch reconnects to the network in the off state. Yeah....you guessed it....you get to come home to a refrigerator/freezer full of spoiled food. That alone is a show stopper for anyone. 2. The app is fairly easy to use but the set-up process for the Insight Switch does not occur reliably. There are delays between what you do using the app and the amount of time it takes the physical device to receive the information necessary to become part of the network. I found it frustrating typing in a 50 character network password 4 times before the Insight Switch was finally joined to the network. Another issue is that the app did not keep track of power consumption over time even though it was suppose to do that. 3. I still did not want to give up so I thought the switch would be useful in place of a daily timer on a lamp in my living room. The lamp goes on in the evening until bed time and then goes back on in the morning since I get up early and shuts off after the sun rises. I always disliked having to adjust the timer for annual time changes as well as for sunset and sunrise so I thought the WeMo Insight Switch would save the day and do all that for me automatically. Well...thwarted again by the folks at Belkin...using the app to make this rule reveals that you can only have 1 on and 1 off per day -- really!!! Didnt anyone at Belkin go to their local Lowes or Home Depot and buy a mechanical lamp timer. If they had they would see that you can set multiple on/off cycles each day. This was the straw that broke the camels back. I ended up returning both of my WeMo Insight Switches wondering how Belkin could believe that this product is anything but a gadget for someone who likes to have geeky technology in their home to impress their friends at parties. This is not a consumer product meant to be used by the typical consumer. On the plus side, the idea is great. The amount of convenience that could be realized by the typical consumer is very compelling. I cant tell you how many times I have wondered if I have locked the front door, put the garage door down and turned off lights. The problem is the folks at Belkin must not have ever tried to use this product in their own home before they tried to sell it to us. I dont recommend using this product.

Update! After doing some research on the web and reading through lots of forums, I found a fix that worked for me using an Airport Extreme: 1. Updated settings in AirPort Utility to WPA/WPA2 personal, rather than WPA2 personal. Waited for Airport Express to restart. 2. Verified that iPhone connected to airport network. 3. Opened WEMO app and connected to WEMO network. 4. Selected AirPort network. This time WEMO connected fine, and was able to work. 5. Followed the WEMO instructions, and it works. Still annoyed that WEMO couldnt tell me the fix, but hey Ill take it Absolute Crap! Worked well until we had to change the router, now it will not connect no matter what we do. The app will not recognize it, and I cant return it for a refund. Before you buy this, think.....do you want to waste money on technology that sucks???