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

The Insight Switch is another great WeMo product made by Belkin. Having several of the light switches and plug switches, I decided to try the Insight after the price dropped in line with the other two. Prior to the price reduction, the ability to meter the electricity the connected device(s) use(s) wasnt worth the extra $10. Setup of the Insight Switch was as easy. I had come to expect easy setup from setup other WeMo products. Device setup requires a working wifi (Wi-Fi: 2.4 GHz 802.11n), a mobile device with the WeMo app installed, and a 120V AC plug. Prior to purchase and setup, I would recommend checking that your wireless router is setup for 2.4 GHz 802.11n. If youve purchased your router in the last 2 years, my guess is that it probably supports 802.11n. After plugging the switch into the plug, the Insight switch will create its own wireless network. Joining the network and connecting the device to your own wifi is simple and easy. My favorite part of owning these devices is connecting them to IFTTT (if this, then that). Its a free automation service that allows you to connect a myriad of channels which allow you to operate your WeMo devices remotely (or automatically). I have connected this switch to my dehumidifier. When my Ecobee thermostat detects that the humidity in my home is above a certain threshold, it turns on the switch (and consequently the dehumidifier). When the humidity falls below a separate threshold, it turns the switch off. This lowers my electric bill by only running the dehumidifier when its necessary, and it keeps the humidity in my home at a comfortable level. The Insight (metering) functionality is a neat add-on. Im able to see just how much electricity the dehumidifier uses (all within the WeMo app). While I think that the usage information is nifty, I dont think it adds a lot of value (unless you lay awake at night wondering how much electricity your appliances are using). While I think WeMo is a pioneer of home automation and I would strongly recommend their products to anyone, I dont know of many situations where I would recommend this particular model over WeMos less expensive Switch.

WeMo has been my solution to Christmas lights this year. Let me start by saying I had a lot of trouble setting the WeMo Insight Switch up on my wireless network at home. In the app, setup wasnt particularly intuitive to me. It might have been that I was tired or overcomplicating it in my head, but the app seemed almost too simple. The confusion came from the fact that I had to launch the app, read through the steps of what to do, close the app, perform the steps, and relaunch the app. On Android, at least, there was no way to set up a WeMo Insight Switch without closing the app, and re-launching it--a bit clumsy in my opinion. In hindsight, I know now that all I really need to do is connect to a wifi network the WeMo puts out (youll know it when you see it, or you can look on the physical device for the SSID name). When you do that, you launch the app which then prompts you to set the WeMo up with an existing wireless network. Then it restarts and attempts to connect to the wifi network youve just configured. In my case, this was a terrible experience because I found out my router may be incompatible with the WeMo. After configuring the WeMo with my home network information, it attempted to restart but failed repeatedly. When I contacted Belkin support, they didnt ask me for any information about my router, and were quite dismissive of the problem. It happened to work at one point during our contact, and they rushed me off as if everything was solved. It promptly disconnected from my network and I decided to continue troubleshooting on my own. The only way I figured out that my router was an issue is because Ive had similar issues with my Nest Thermostat with this router--I set up a second router as an access point with a second network just for these other devices. When I switched my WeMo to this access point, it worked smoothly. Overall, it mostly does what youd expect it to do. You can turn the switch on and off remotely from your phone. After your devices app has seen the WeMo switch and its configuration, it will remember the configuration even if you change networks. This is good for if you leave home and are not on wifi, or if, like me, you have multiple wireless networks at home. One problem with this is that if Im not connected directly to the same wifi network the WeMo is connected to, there is sometimes a very, very long delay before the WeMo responds to my input. The Android app is fairly bad at this point. Its menus are not organized well, its pretty slow and unresponsive, and setting up rules is not laid out well. There is definitely a lot of room for Belkin to make improvements to the app. Overall, I would like to recommend this product, but given the poor tech support I received, I cant say I would expect them to solve this problem for me, and I definitely dont expect the average user to know how to troubleshoot something like this if they hadnt run into it before. When I found the same issue with Nest, for instance, I was able to find my router listed in a set of models that might not be compatible. At the time I installed the WeMo, no such document existed from Belkin. Admittedly, the core technological issue is the fault of my router, not Belkin. Id like to not hold that against Belkin, but the reality of the situation is that anyone could have my router (its a fairly popular Netgear model from a few years ago--WNDR3700/N600) and might run into similar problems, and Belkin support should not give up so quickly, be so dismissive, or be so unprepared in general for issues like this. For me, its a pretty decent product. But I dont think I would recommend this for the typical user (someone who doesnt have multiple routers lying around the house not in use and available for troubleshooting purposes).

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.

The good: Works exactly as advertised. I have my printer plugged into it and can start the printer with my Amazon echo by saying Alexa turn on printer without getting up from my desk. I had hoped to use it with my coffee maker but it turns out that the coffee machine must have the button pressed after power is applied. Not the Wemos fault. The manual for my Mr. Coffee says this is a safety feature The bad: A couple of setup issues: I had a 63 character complex password on my home network but the Insight could not handle that. I had to shorten it to 39 characters to get it to work. I also use MAC filtering. The label on the Insight had the incorrect MAC address. After temporarily disabling MAC filtering, connecting to my wifi and discovering the correct MAC address I was able to update the MAC address list and everything works fine. I have to say that the folks at Belkin were very responsive and I was able to fix these issues quickly. Might be a bit much for a non-technical person though. On balance I like the Insight now that it is working and am considering a Wemo light switch for my den. Recommended for those with enough technical knowledge to work through any glitches or at least access to someone who can help.

IT TURNS ITSELF ON RANDOMLY. How could that *possibly* be acceptable in a product that controls electric power? I have it hooked up to a couple of track lights -- 200 watts in total. No rules or anything -- just wanted to be able to control the lights with my Amazon Echo, which can talk to the WeMo. I went away on a three-week vacation and the cable internet went down in my apartment shortly after I left. I came home to find the lights on -- turns out the WeMo had turned them on and left them burning the whole three weeks. (It had nothing to do with the Echo, which wasnt even plugged in at the time.) The WeMo conveniently tracks how long its on and how many KWH have been used, so I could see that $20 or more of electricity was down the drain. Initially I thought it might have something to do with losing internet connectivity -- not that that would have been acceptable in any way -- but since then Ive discovered that the WeMo randomly turns on *for no reason at all.* It was doing it every few days in recent weeks -- extremely annoying, and I should have just taken it and thrown it in the trash, but instead I looked up wemo turns on randomly, found lots of other people with the same problem, and tried some of the suggestions others had, e.g. resetting it, moving it further away and closer to the WiFi access point, et cetera, ad nauseam. I even tried disconnecting the network for a few days, but the WeMo still turned itself on, proving beyond a doubt that the problem was within the switch itself (i.e. with the network disconnected no one could be sending rogue commands to turn it on or off). For a while I thought Id solved the issue by moving the switch to a different outlet, so I made the mistake of leaving the WeMo plugged in. Unfortunately I got called away from home and havent been able to go home for a week. Im currently sitting here, 200 miles away, watching on my surveillance camera as the WeMo goes ABSOLUTELY BONKERS. It turns on randomly every few minutes if I do nothing. Sometimes it turns itself off. Sometimes I try turning it off remotely with the WeMo app and it turns on, then off, then on again, then off again, then on again in a rapid cycle. No matter what I do, it always ends up on most of the time. There seems to be NO WAY for me to fix this or disable it -- I am stuck watching helplessly as the lights go on no matter what I do. The neighbors must think Ive gone crazy, with my lights flashing randomly and burning all night long. Thank God its only the lights. I had some silly notion of hooking up a WeMo to my window air conditioner (would be nice to turn on the AC an hour before I get home on a sweltering day) but I cant imagine how screwed Id be now if I had done that. The WeMo is a thoroughly untrustworthy, even dangerous piece of junk (imagine the problems that could be caused by a switch that randomly turns itself on or off) and Belkin is irresponsible to continue selling it.

I bought my Insight switch used but it was practically brand new. Accurately charts your electricity usage from ONE port. Im guessing you could connect an extension cord to it but I just use it with my main lamp that illuminates my whole room. Im currently using a Cree LED bulb and its gauging my electricity bills for the bulb at $0.16 for a whole year. Not only that, I can turn on/off my lamp with my phone and by pressing the black button on the actual switch. The WeMo app is decent, a lot of people complain that there should be additional widgets. For example, there should just be an app button that looks like a lamp on my home screen, instead of me having to open up the WeMo app, connect to internet, wait for it to load and find devices, then I need to click the power icon next to the device. Its all very time consuming and should be remedied. Comparing this to the standard WeMo switch, I prefer the Insight, but its loads more expensive. If you dont need to track the electricity usage, just get the standard switch. Its a nice feature to have, but I rarely check it. I mainly bought this so I could turn off my lights when Im in bed, and turn on the lights before I walk in the door. Performs as advertised.

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.

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.

DO NOT BUY THIS - There are better products available. Do not get sucked in to the Wemo ecosystem like I did - there are better, more reliable and - most importantly - flexible systems out there. Belkins support for this product is near zilch. The iPhone app crashes constantly at startup - very frustrating when I just want to turn on my bedroom lights in the morning. IFTTT support is now completely gone - whenever I try I receive This is not a valid IFTT code or similar. 10% of the time Wemo works, 90% of the time Wemo crashes (the app). More times than not, the app launches, crashes, and after many many times of relaunching/manually quitting on the iPhone, it finally connects to all devices. (Let me be clear here - the app CRASHES A LOT. A LOT. Ive given up on the damn app and just go to the switch and manually turn it on) Point is - way, way more frustrating than simply turning on a light. If the Insight feature is what youre after, save yourself from this junk and just get http://www.amazon.com/P3-P4400-Electricity-Usage-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1418942439&sr=8-3&keywords=power+wattage+meter for $15 to measure your usage in spots. Instead, heres what you should look into - Ive had GREAT success with GEs Wink platform, mostly because its open to other Z-Wave (aka generalized/standard home automation protocol) products which makes it easy to add other random devices without worrying about the Belkin ecosystem. Luton, GE, etc products are all supported with this purchase. Dont buy in to Belkins home automation products. Theyre horribly buggy, completely unreliable and the lack of media/app updates makes me think Belkin is slowly backing off this entire thing. Home automation has been around for a while now and perfected by companies like Lutron, Z-Wave products, etc. Look to those first and take the time to research what you really want. The open protocol devices are far more future proof than Belkins very weak attempt in this market.

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.