WiOn 50049 Outdoor Wi-Fi Wireless Plug-In Switch; Smartphone And Tablet Automation For Up To 12 Devices 2 Grounded Outlets Weather Resistant Energy Saving Wifi Controlled Switch

Bought two of these in Nov 2016 for outdoor lighting and fountain control (one for each). Getting ready to order another to control additional lighting were adding. As I recall, the setup was a little tricky. Had to read the instructions carefully to connect it with wifi, then with Alexa. But its pretty amazing to just tell Alexa to turn on the patio lights, or turn on the fountain and voila! Its on. Guests love it. Smartphone app works perfectly too. Highly recommend

This would have been a 5 star review, except for one major issue: software. I have 4 of these outlets and they have worked dependably and consistently for several years. However, the WiOn app hasn’t been updated in quite some time, and it no longer works with my iPhone running iOS16. So… I’m unable to set up and program the outlets anymore, rendering them useless. I’ve contacted customer service three times (both email and voicemail; couldn’t talk with an human) and have received no response. I can’t recommend this item until the software issue is resolved. UPDATE: WiOn has updated their software to work with the new iOS update. All is fine, and I reiterate the complement I made: it works reliably and consistently. Highly recommend WiOn outlets.

These work great; have purchased 3 of them, the first one about 2 years ago, and its still going strong. To be fair, though, I do live in Southern California, so the unit hasnt lived through much rain and moisture, but has stood up well to extreme heat. I have one unit set up with weekend sunrise/sunset timers for our patio string lights; I used another with time on/time off settings for our holiday lights. Gifted the third unit to our neighbors who, every night and morning, were pushing and pulling their holiday lights cord into and out of an outlet; just couldnt bear to see them do it anymore. Only negative is the apps interface, which could use some serious updating and streamlining; its straight outta 2010. However, with the various timer options, its pretty much set-it-and-forget-it, so the app shouldnt be needed after the initial set up. And initial set-up itself was fairly painless; just followed the simple instructions.

Great purchase. For the price of not much more than a typical outdoor-rated timer, I was able to get this WiOn. Ive been using it extensively for the past month to control my outdoor Christmas lights. It took less than 10 minutes to figure it out and get everything working with my lights on a timer. Remote access through the app is super simple and works with no discernible lag via Wi-Fi or cellular connection (I am running the Android version of the app). The only negative is that I dont think this can be controlled by other popular app-based controllers (WeMo, etc.), but I could be wrong. Also, I have not yet tried using this with my Amazon Echo devices to test Alexa support, but I know that it is supported.

Great idea. Works great when finally working. The Good: I can control various outdoor lights with the 4 devices I purchased. with the wion app and alexa. Worked through the snow we received in NY this weekend. Now that they are set up I really like controlling and scheduling outdoor lighting from anywhere. The Bad: Set up was a nightmare. Part of it was because I have a big property and had to assign different wifi networks to different wion devices and always check which had the strongest signal. The biggest problem was the instructions and the app. Sometimes the app didnt find any wifi. Or the app went out of set up. Then my android phone asked me if I wanted to stay connected to the wion device. Because this step wasnt in the app, I ignored it and never connected. I spent fruitless time resetting the wion to factory setting to try to connect.. Finally I instructed my phone to stay connected to the wion device and then connected promptly to wifi. The device plugs into a receptacle with a very rigid 90 degree plug, which made it impossible to put 2 wion devices directly into one receptacle. Dont plan on using 2 wion on one receptacle. The cord is very short and stiff, so it is hard to position with the plugs down to avoid water entry into the plugs. There are 2 outlets on the device. 3 would be more sensible. Im using 5Watt LED lights so power draw isnt an issue. In addition, the rim around the outlets is close so big outdoor plugs are a tight fit. In brief, poor industrial design and installation instructions, but a great concept and it seems to work well.

Works easily with the app but pairing with Alexa is way too hard and required back and forth email with their customer service. Long story short, don’t use long names for the switch. I named mine “Holiday Lights” but the Alexa couldn’t find the device on the network. Turns out you need to use just one word for the name. I renamed the switch “holiday” and Alexa worked first try...after trying to figure out the issue with their customer service. Not the greatest app or Alexa integration here.

I ordered two, not knowing what to expect based on prior reviews and hoping they would work at the distance I needed. They worked perfectly! I like the app, though selecting one to program when you have multiple is not intuitive, but once you figure it out, easy enough. The app allows for multiple times to turn on. I used them for outdoor Christmas lights. This was a great choice!

Stopped working after a year.

Worked great for a while, then we had to unplug and re-plug several times a week to get it to connect with Alexa. This week NONE of the 3 we have worked with Alexa and would not connect no matter what we tried. Checked the WiOn app and saw several people had the same problem starting THIS week. No longer compatible with Alexa. I ordered 3 OTHER brand plugs that I have had success with. LOOK ELSEWHERE!! If you are OK with just using the WiOn app it works fine. We bought specifically on the promise to work with Alexa. *UPDATE: Returned these plugs and purchased the Kasa plugs. SO easy to I install and work like a charm with Alexa! Also, BOTH plugs on each unit can be controlled separately. ( Not so with the WiOn plugs.)

In short, I am very happy with this purchase and would buy it again. The reason I took off 1 star is that although the outlet works just fine and is reasonably priced, the whole idea of a smart outlet is to be able to be controlled via an app. Since most people will buy this first, then download or even look at the app after receiving it, I thought this might be helpful for people to be aware of the one shortcoming I found. My use case was very simple, though probably fairly common for most people looking for an outdoor smart outlet, controlling Xmas lights. I simply wanted them to go on at sunset, and go off at a predetermined time, like 1am. At least with the Android version of the app for this, it isnt possible. You can do on at sunset, off at sunrise (which seems excessive to have Xmas lights on at 4 am), or you can turn on at a certain time and off at a certain time, but cannot combine the 2. Other than that small issue, everything works fine. It pairs fairly easily, and works like it is supposed to.