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

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.

Despite having some issues during setup, ultimately I love this product and what it can do for me, so going to stick with the definition of 5 stars as I love it. This review is for the WeMo Insight Switch, although I also have the light switch as well (which I may review later). I got the light switch first, and while its far more complicated an installation (you have to disconnect a light switch and work with wires to install the light switch), it went without a hitch. The insight is far simply in terms of hardware. You just plug it into an outlet, and then whatever device you want to control you plug into the insight. The issue I had was that after I plugged the insight into the outlet, and went through the steps to connect it to my WiFi network, it just never was able to connect. I tried in different locations, and several times. I had already been through this steps with the light switch, and it worked, so I finally decided that the insight was bad, and sent it back to Amazon for a replacement (bravo to Amazons A+ service, as always). Unfortunately, with the replacement, I had the same exact problem. I was just about to send it back and give up on the insight, but decided to give Belkin support a chance first. I went to their website, chose the Chat option, and was immediately chatting with a support person. Im going to include the entire chat at the end of this review, but in summary, they had me reset the device and it worked just fine after that. It also had me upgrade the firmware, and although the app said the FW upgrade failed, the support person told me, basically, that its a bug in the app, and just restart the app and it should work with the new firmware. And it did. The reason I wanted the insight, and the reason why I decided not to give up on it, is because I have an attic fan that is plugged into a non-switched outlet. I like to turn the fan on to push out the attics hot air (really helps with keeping the house cool and lowering the AC electricity costs). However, its such a pain to go into the attic and plug/unplug the fan. The insight was the perfect answer to this problem. Not only can I remotely control the switch now, but I can even schedule the fan to run when were not home (its a loud fan). So the utility of this device coupled with the fact that it does work makes it a must-have device for us. I highly recommend it! If you already have a device in your app, you may need to do as we did, and reset the device before it works properly. Or maybe there was just a batch that went out that needs the reset. In any case, the reset is simple and effective. For those interested in the nitty gritty details of Belkin support, heres the exact chat log from my contact with support: Pavithra v: Thank you for choosing Belkin chat support, Is this your first time contacting Belkin or do you have a case number with you? You: First time Pavithra v: How may I help you today ? You: I bought a WeMo Insight awhile back, and it couldnt see my WiFi network, so I sent it back for a replacement. You: The replacement is having the same problem, no matter what I try, it cant connect to my WiFi network. You: I have the WeMo light switch and that connects no problem. You: Im getting ready to send this 2nd one back, and thought Id connect support to see if theres something that can be done to fix the issue. Pavithra v: Could you please give me few minutes, so that I can check with my resources and let you know? You: ok Pavithra v: Thanks for your time , I appreciate your patience Pavithra v: So If I got you right,you are unable to connect the wemo to the WiFi network? You: yes Pavithra v: Not to worry ,I understand your concern. Ill do my best to assist you with the issue. Pavithra v: Before we can proceed further,we need to create a case for you in the system.Please confirm if the following information are correct: <private info snipped> You: yes Pavithra v: Thanks for verifying the information. Pavithra v: May I have your Telephone number, so that I can call you back in case if the chat gets disconnected ? You: <private info snipped> Pavithra v: Thanks for the information. Pavithra v: In order to check the entitlement status,could you please help me with the model number of the product? You: i entered that at the start of chat, but i can look it up again Pavithra v: Thank you. You: f7c029v2 Pavithra v: Thanks for the information. Pavithra v: Let me confirm the serial number is <private info snipped>. You: yes Pavithra v: Thanks for verifying the information. Pavithra v: Could you please let me know the date of purchase of the Belkin device? You: 7/16/15 through Amazon.com Pavithra v: Thanks for the information.I would like to inform you about the products warranty status. You would be provided with lifetime of complimentary support and one year of hardware warranty. Pavithra v: We need to reset and reconfigure the device.I will give you the steps.Please follow it. You: ok Pavithra v: Unplug your WeMo.Hold down the Restore button (labeled on top).While holding the Restore button down, plug the WeMo into a power outlet and continue to hold the button down for at least 15 seconds.Release the Restore button. It should take about 45 seconds for the WeMo to restore and reboot. It will blink blue and amber or green and amber when finished. You: ok, blinking green & amber Pavithra v: On your mobile device, download and install the latest wemo App from the Apple® App StoreSM by searching for Belkin or WeMo. You: already have it Pavithra v: Once installed, tap Settings > Wi-Fi. Make sure that the Wi-Fi is enabled. You: done Pavithra v: Locate and connect to the WeMo Insight that you want to install. The WeMo device is not secured. Thus, it will not ask for a password when you try to connect to it upon installation. You: done Pavithra v: Launch the wemo App on your mobile device. Make sure that the WeMo device is plugged in to a power outlet. You: done Pavithra v: When prompted, enter your router’s wireless network password in the given field. Then, tap Join. You: looks like resetting the device fixed whatever issue it was having Pavithra v: Is that working now? You: i didnt have to enter the WiFi password since i already had a WeMo device You: it seems to work, its now asking me to update the firmware You: should i update? Pavithra v: Yes. Pavithra v: Please let me know once you have done. You: it says it could take up to 10 minutes, ill let you know when its done Pavithra v: Sure.I will stay online. You: done You: now it says that the WeMo insight is not detected Pavithra v: Please let me know the color of the light on the device. You: it was a solid green, but now its off, no light You: it just came back on You: and now the WeMo app says FW upgrade fail! You: and now its off again Pavithra v: Ok.Please force shut down the app and restart your phone and check. You: seems to be working now, i can turn it on and off from the app now Pavithra v: That is great! Pavithra v: I appreciate your patience. You: thanks for your help Pavithra v: You contacted regarding unable to connect the wemo device to your WiFi network.We reset and reconfigure the device.Now the device is working. Pavithra v: Welcome.Is there anything else that I could help you with Belkin today? You: thats all for now. thanks Pavithra v: Welcome.

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.

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.

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.

I purchased the Amazon Echo ( Alexa ) and these WeMo WIFI switches x 2 I just wanted to see how this home automation is coming along. I will say that getting these switches up and running for the first time user can be a bit daunting..... The app you download to your phone or tablet from Google play store for Android is a bit frustrating and needs some more fine tuning I am sure Belkin is aware of this and will have updates in the future. Also my WiFi was fighting to make a connection with the switch and until you find the WeMo switch in your WIFI settings and make the connection the app stays on the HOW TO page. Anyway a bit of a learning curve however once the connection is made its smooth sailing. Once the switches were up and running on my network all I had to do next was ask Alexa to search for new devices and she found them. I then reopened the WeMo app and gave my switches names Like for example ( Table Light ) Then you just simply tell or ask Alexa turn on table light and wallah!! the table light comes on. And the same thing in reveres Alexa turn off table light and again Wallah off goes the light. I really love the automation and they do work very well I will be purchasing more when I feel I have the need for more Automation. So you have two ways to control these switched outlets Number One app on your Phone or Tablet Android or IOS or my favorite Voice control with Alexa (Amazon Echo) I only gave this a 4 Star just because of the not so streamlined configuration. But once you get the hang off making the connection its not so bad.. Belkin WeMo Insight Switch, Control Your Electronics and Monitor Energy Usage From Anywhere with the Home Automation App for Smartphones and Tablets, Wi-Fi Enabled, Compatible with Amazon Echo]]

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.

This is the 4th Wemo product I have purchased and I love these products. The only downside is the app to set the rules is a bit cumbersome. The devices set up easily with your wifi system and reconnect automatically after power outages or wifi interruptions. They have a good range pickup equal to that of my iPhone or better. They respond quickly to the app when using the power override from the app. Setting the rules takes a bit of thought on how to get what you want programmed but there are lots of options on what you want the device to do. You can also set multiple rules on one device allowing you to turn it on or off multiple times daily or different patterns on different days. The power tracking utility of the insight switch is awesome! You can even set a watt threshold where the outlet will not allow power out unless the demand is greater than the watts you set it at. This keeps your outlet from leaking power to devices not being used. I wish they were a little cheaper or you could get a good discount for purchasing several devices at once but after using Wemo for just over a year with flawless operation, its money well spent.

In spite of great difficulty in getting it to work, I rate this product 5 stars because it DOES work and it solves a problem. I got it because the Amazon Echo now offers voice control over switches like this one which show up as devices connected to your homes wifi. With the device I hoped to be able to turn a light in our living room on or off, making it easier for an elderly person to control it. First problem: I need the WeMo app. Not available on the Belkin web site. I suppose more experienced users would have gone to Google Play for the android app first, but it didnt occur to me for a while. Second problem: The app on my Android phone said it was installed but it couldnt find the Belkin WeMo Insight Switch. Lots of plugging and unplugging, uninstalling and reinstalling, and finally it found the switch. The light that it controlled could be turned on and off by the manual button on the Insight Switch and by the app on my phone. Third problem: Alexa, the Amazon Echo device, could not find the device when I said, Alexa, discover my devices, as Amazons instructions specified. Again I tried unplugging, replugging, deleting the app, reinstalling the app, and finally, just when I was prepared to return the device, the Amazon Echo said it had found the device. Im not sure exactly what combination of bumbling finally worked, so I hope I wont have to do it again. The Belkin web site was not particularly helpful for this problem, and I couldnt find anything on Amazon that was helpful. But now it works. We can turn a light in our living room on or off by voice. I feel as if I have won a great victory.

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!