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

When the WeMo Insight is working, it works great and is incredibly convenient. On the other hand, its flakey, a pain to setup, and hard to troubleshoot when something (frequently) goes wrong. Most recently, after about four months of working flawlessly, a power outage today somehow put the device into factory reset mode. After setting it back up again, now its being flakey about connecting to my network. <sigh> Pros: Very convenient to be able to turn things on from anywhere, even when not home or laying in bed. Scheduling feature is great and lets things just magically be ready for you when you want them. Cons: WiFi connectivity is horrible. There are spots in my house where my phone gets wifi just fine but this Insight switch cant connect. LED indicator lights arent terribly helpful when trying to debug all but the simplest of problems. Very touchy when it comes to two phones separately controlling it. Gets very confused if you turn it on with one phone but family member tries to turn it off later with another. Boot up time is slow, adding frustration when trying to troubleshoot problems. If Belkin would work out the kinks in this device, itd be awesome. Until then, I cant recommend it.

Be aware that the MAC address printed on the WeMo Insight Switch is one less than the MAC address the device uses to connect to your Wifi network. This caused me a few minutes of head scratching, wondering why the device couldnt join my network. If you have MAC address access list security enabled on your wifi network, to only permit configured/expected MAC addresses to join, and enter the MAC address printed on the back of the device... it will not be able to connect. I temporarily disabled MAC address filtering on my wifi network, and the device was then able to connect without issue. Once it had connected, I checked my wifi routers list of connected devices and discovered that the MAC address used by the unit was the printed MAC address, +1. e.g. Printed MAC Address: 94:10:3E:CF:3A:22 MAC address used by the device when connecting to my wifi network: 94:10:3E:CF:3A:23 So, if you add one to the MAC address and use this value for the access list on your wifi network, it will be able to join an access list secured network. This may be why some reviewers have had issues getting the device to work on their networks. I edited the Access List entry Id added originally for the WeMo Insight Switch, added one to the last octet, saved the updated entry, re-enabled MAC Address Access List Security, and it was able to join my network with no issues at all. The MAC address printed on the unit is only used by the device when its running its own wifi network for initial device/app configuration (you have to configure your iPhone/mobile device to connect to this temporary wifi network during setup, but once the WeMo Insight Switch is configured in the app to connect to your own home wifi network, the MAC address its uses is one higher than this. Confusing, but easily solved if youre aware of it. Once connected, its been working well. Id purchased the device because Im trying to pinpoint the main reason my monthly electricity bills are so much higher than the average for my home. Thought my garage fridge might be to blame. With the Insight Switch Im now able to exclude that (only draws an average of 75 Watts)... so the hunt continues. I think this will be very useful, and also gives me an additional smart switch for home automation once Ive located the energy hogs.

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 sworn off WeMo devices. Again this device does not connect with my WiFi network. There is no information available about the device in the WeMo app, so trouble shooting is pretty much impossible. I suspect that once again, my WeMo device has a version of firmware that does not fully support 802.11 WPA2 passwords. The problem with the WeMo firmware appears to be that although 63 character passwords are supported in WPA2, the WeMo does not support them. Who knows what length passwords they do support, as it is not included in the documentation, or in the iOS app. One can not even discover the level of the firmware in the device until the device is connected to the network. No indication on the outside of the box, so you can tell if youve got a device with buggy firmware. In the past Belkin support has offered to send me a replacement device, but they couldnt guarantee that if wouldnt arrive with the same buggy firmware. Also, any future firmware update could brick your device, but Belkin will only replace it if it is within the warranty period. Seems to me that if you update your firmware, that should start the warranty period over again. Belkins suggestion was that if I receive an update notification from the WeMo app, I should call Belkin support, and find out if it is going to brick my device before I apply the update. If this were the only device of its kind you would be stuck, but it isnt. There are other manufactures and devices that provide similar functionality. UPDATE: Belkin reached out to me, so I contacted them via email. A couple of days later I got a response by email asking me for various pieces of information, including the firmware version of the WeMo device. The problem is, that if you cant get the device connected to the WiFi, you cant get the firmware version. Consider this point for a second. The iOS or Android app will talk to the WeMo device, but it cant query the devices firmware version. Likewise, the app cant update the firmware in the WeMo device. So lets say you do eventually get the device to connect to a WiFi network. It is going to see that a firmware update is available. Great. There is no information on the firmware update. Like a version number or date. Also, if a firmware update causes you to lose connection to your WiFi network there is no way to back it out. There is no way to revert to a previous working firmware version. Doing a reset of the device will not restore it to the original firmware version, just the current firmware version. I realize that most of what Im suggesting, if implemented in the WeMo device would not work with the current hardware. But most of these features can be implemented in the WeMo app. The WeMo app could download a specific firmware version and then update the WeMo device with out having the WeMo device connected to the internet.

After a few false starts (firmware updates and resets) I got the switch finally running, When it works, it works well. I have been trying it out around the house with various devices to monitor energy usage. Some times on re-plugging it in it will not see my WiFi network and must be reset from scratch, frustrating. The unit also will NOT work with IFTTT or show up in the WeMo application (iOS) outside my home network. Period. So I cant control it remotely, while my light switches work just fine. I have tried contacting Belkin support several times, to be blunt. Its just a waste of time and an exercise in frustration. They seem to only be available by email (I tried calling only to end up in voice menu/hold/voice mail hell) and respond with useless canned scripts that dont even address the questions Ive asked. If youre a technical person and dont mind diagnosing your own issues, get one or two of these devices and decide if they are for you. If you are not technical, stick with a more traditional time type switch, Belkin support is absolutely useless. *** 01/20/14 Update *** I left my response comment to Belkin here, and did reply to the ticket email again. I have yet to receive any response from them. So much for their being eager to help. I have dropped my review down to one star because of this. Again, if youre the tinkering type and dont mind spending the money, these devices are neat, but if you require any assistance from Belkin for their use Id save my money. They do NOT stand by their products.

Ok, so after working with one of these I got another. I originally used the first one as simply an outlet to use the remote on and off functionality. Before a longer trip, I got another to use on/off timing functionality for some lamps in the house. Initially, after setting them up and updating the firmware, we tested them for several nights. The first night, one malfunctioned by mysteriously switching on and off every couple of seconds. We never figured that one out. Eventually, we got away from that by pulling it out and starting over. More documentation would be helpful, particularly about the away mode. The switches cycle on and off randomly in away mode, surprising us. After reading several support articles, we figured this out. The support articles are the best documentation, but youve really got to search things out. Something more than a simple quick start guide would be appreciated out of the box. Its also a concern that there is no UL listing for this product. This begs the question, how safe are they to be away from? The notification feature often actuated for no reason too. It will take some time to convince me this is a robust product.

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.

This is a great alternative to a remotely managed PSU for my home computer. I leave my computer running 24/7 as I remotely access it during the day. Sometimes my desktop will become frozen or blue screen and cannot be rebooted remotely, only by physically depressing the power button. This device will allow me to remotely reboot my computer with ease. Also, I can really see how much my 24/7 computer is costing for electricity per month. One issue that was finally resolved with the newest firmware, is that the device will have intermittent wireless connectivity issues. At first I thought it was my wireless router, until that was replaced and a support ticket was opened with the company. The most recent firmware appears to have resolved the issue!

I like that the Insight switch lets me see the energy consumption of the device attached, and that I can control it with weather events through IFTTT. I use this one to turn off our whole-house fresh air ventilator when the outside humidity gets too high, the temperature gets too low, or the pollen count reaches a certain point. But there is a flaw in the entire WeMo operational model if you want to use it for any kind of large scale use. You must have a smartphone or tablet to control any of the WeMo devices. More importantly, for any given phone (or table), you can only control the devices at one location. Why does this matter? Because if you plan to use WeMo devices to control functions at your vacation home as well as your regular home, youll need two phones - one for each house. Im not sure of the technical model, but it seems that the phone apps can only connect to one location at a time. So you can see all the devices at the Vacation home if you just installed a bunch there and set them up with your phone. But if you come home and install a device in your home, it will forget all the devices at your vacation home - and the only way to get them back is to go to your vacation home and set them up again. At which point it will forget all the devices you set up at your regular home. In fact, at least for us, it even dropped all the programming for the vacation home devices and they were no longer controllable from IFTTT. The only solution is to have two phones, or a phone and a tablet - one for each location. I had hoped to use WeMo to control our 3 vacation rental houses. But Im not about to set aside 3 separate tables for each, as well as a phone for my own home. Sigh. So close.....

It took me 3 hours total to set it up. The initial setup was somewhat easy. Connecting to IFTTT was painful and took several complete factory resets. BTW, how to perform a factory reset is impossible to find on their web site which kept giving me page not found errors. I had to guess many different combinations and after a while one worked. They have many cute videos that obviously cost much more than a simple owners manual, but they dont actually tell you the simple workings of the device. The app is nice to use, but had to be deleted and re-downloaded to make the setup work. Maybe they could hire some good programmers instead of a huge marketing department. I actually like the device, but I think I could make a bundle explaining to people how to use one.