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

Firstly , AMAZON is smart not to allow reviewers to assign no stars to reviews because if I could I would do so for this POS in a heartbeat . Secondly , the hardware is solid and robust and based on the specifications can handle the 15A a/c that my refridgerator will draw while the compressor is running . Finally , the software . Dear lord the software . Without a doubt the absolute worst piece of programming issued to consumers EVER produced . No user friendliness whatsover even after so called firmware updates to set up an off/on schedule almost made me throw the thing in the garbage. Every single reviewer who has given this piece of junk less than 2 stars is right on the money , so after an hour of my life wasted and $57 gone to the thieves at Belkin I eventually ended up plugging in ol faithful Intermatic DT620 Heavy Duty Indoor Digital Plug-In Timer ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004TGO6RY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) into the Insight since it already had my on/off schedule and just set to Insight to email me when a power failure occurs so I can turn it back on remotely . Finally , the next moron at Belkin who tells me to use IFTTT to control my on/off times is gonna read some words via email thatll make their heads spin .NEWS FLASH : the average consumer wants to buy a product , set it up and then forget about it . Telling me to write recipes is ridiculous .Granted I know how to do it but the WeMo app SHOULD HAVE THAT INCORPORATED IN IT JACKASSES!!. For the love of ...sigh ..

Easy setup, schedule is great, works as advertised with iOS. Setup: It was four steps. I dont think the first two should even count. 1: Plug it in. 2: Down and install app on your device 3: On your phone, select the wifi created by Wemo 4: Launch the app and follow instructions. The only issues I could imagine would be caused by poor wifi, or failing to select the wifi created by WeMo for setup. I kept my phone close to it for setup since I figured it wouldnt make a powerful wifi. Then I moved them where I needed including one outside in my shed. Now I use two of them to run my landscape lights and a lamp. I love that the schedule includes a sunrise/sunset that takes into account your location. It can also be set to turn on/off some period of time before or after sunrise/sunset. Ive used them for a few weeks and havent needed to touch them since the setup.

I purchased a WeMo switch on its own some time ago and six months ago Costco had a deal on a Belkin Netcam HD+ with WeMo switch. Ive actually went the route of plugging the Netcams into the WeMo switch so I could time when the cameras were functional during the day. (ie: out of the house then house cameras turn on. Garage camera shuts off for a minute daily to reset) In addition to this I did install a WeMo light switch to control some porch lights. Belkin definitely has issues with their firmware updates. At times the device will seem like its completely blown away. When this has happened Ive just left it sit out of frustration and have come back to it an hour later, it was fine at that point. Other times Ive had to reset at which point sometimes it signs back onto my network and wants to do the firmware update again like nothing happened and other times (though less and less frequently now) Ive had to completely reconfigure the switch. I have not messed with motion detection on the cameras ... But Im thinking about doing that soon for the garage. Motion in the garage == lights on in garage :) IFTTT integration can be a little iffy .... Ill explain below The additional Wemo switch I have I wasnt sure what to do with so I plugged it into our washer/dryer combo to see when it turns off and send a notification. That seems to work well .... If youre having the notification done through the WeMo app. If you link that through IFTTT youll get that notification about an hour later. Since our washing machine drains into a washing tub there are times where that will overflow. I plan to get a moisture sensor at some point set to cut off power to the washing machine wemo switch if it detects an overflow. Looks like Belkin isnt planning on offering one that I can see so it would need to be something else tied to IFTTT. Something like that I would trust the IFTTT integration to handle even with a 10-60 second delay. The switch that controls porch lights controls an outlet and works perfectly for that. Theres also a light fixture that I stuck a Philips Hue bulb in. I set it up so when the switch is tapped it would tell IFTTT to turn the bulb on to a specific brightness and color and when the switch is tapped off it would turn that light off. That works well with about a 10-20 second delay which I find reasonable considering the trip the command has to take. All in all Im mostly happy and will be adding more WeMo devices to our home for various purposes.

I had an old X10 system Id been using for years and it finally gave up the ghost. The appeal of the Wemo system being wireless and with a phone/tablet app was what drew me. The units -- two of them -- arrived today. The setup is easy enough, if a bit cryptic. The instructions are in the app and are basic, basic, basic. Setting up a timer to turn the lights on and off took a bit of figuring out since the screen on the app is not what I call intuitive. Luckily its simple enough to finally puzzle out. I dont require much. I just want the living room lights, which are in an inconvenient location, to turn on and off without being fussed with. This system seems to work to do that. I just hope at $55 per unit they last a while. If they dont, you can be sure Ill be online voicing my displeasure. Nov. 16, 2014 -- The units have been working without fail for a month. My old ones were remote controlled so its a bit of a hassle to find my phone or a tablet when I want to turn them on or off outside of the timer but not that bad. Im considering more units.

This is the buggiest piece of tech I have encountered since CD-Rs were first introduced. I am an electrical engineer who specializes in embedded software and really, there is no excuse for how poorly the software operates - wether it be in the device, or the app required to use the device. I would love to get a look inside the software for this, as I can only imagine how awful it must be. When the solution to every problem is to reset the Wemo, forcibly stop the application on your phone, uninstall said application from your phone, and reinstall, YOUR CODE HAS A PROBLEM. Its like reasoning with a petulant child. EVERYTHING seems to derail it. Change the name of your wemo from the app? FAIL. Add a second rule to the device? FAIL. Connect the device to IFTTT? FAIL. Seemingly connect the device FROM the IFTTT website? FAIL I fought with this thing to enable remote access. It looked like it wasnt going to work. After repeated messages that it was not working, hours later I open the app and remote access is enabled. I vacillated between giving this review from one to three stars. It does have a great form factor. And in its most fundamental terms, it works. I can actually remotely turn on and off the thing. And the rule I created to turn it on works (after much fighting with the device). The subsequent rule to turn the thing off? Not so much. And there is no easy way to change the network settings. And the settings I can change, any attempt to change them often results in an eternal spinning wheel. The worst part is, I dont feel I can rely on this device. The one I have I wanted to use as part of my irrigation system. But, as of writing this, it only operates as a remote control.

This is a horrible product. Clearly it has not been tested for everyday use. Save yourself lots of trouble in setting it up, using it or burning up your living space and DO NOT BUY IT. The device itself is well packaged and is a good sized plug point. To use it, you put the device on a plug point, see it turn on and show green on WIFI. Then you change the wifi on your phone to the Belkin Insight Wifi and download the app. The app acts as a relay and it asks for your home wifi password. All this was okay. However within a few minutes I got really annoyed using it. After you provide your wifi connection settings, the device is activated. But the response is not instantaneous. Once I press the switch it takes ~1-5s to act on the device making it a horrible experience. After a few times hitting it on and off thinking it wasnt working, my lamp then suddenly started switching on and off as late responses! Annoying! The insight plug also gives misleading information about usage. For a single lamp it estimated after ~5mins that Id be spending $150/month for it. The usage in Watts was also incorrect for the lamp. Third, I put the plug between my stereo, lamp and PS3 and it it simply started switching green and yellow on wifi. Then after a few attempts the device started getting quite hot and would reboot continuously. I think the plug cannot be used for large voltage or units drawing high current. Now the icing on the cake: all the time the device was rebooting or trying to connect to wifi (or burning up internally!), it does not allow activity on the plug or manually controlling the relay inside it, rendering the entire plug point unusable. This is really bad design and execution. Finally, the plug itself occupies a good amount of space on a twin plug wall unit and hence if you put it on the top plug, the bottom one cannot be used. This is annoying because often the top switch can be controlled by wall switches and I would like to use it on the top plug, but it makes the bottom unusable. The app on iphone and android takes a while to update (and annoys you if you do not update firmware) and after updating gets stuck multiple times on various pages. It has minimal functionality and often takes a long time to connect to the plug when opened. The only good thing in this whole ordeal is that the shipping was pretty quick (1business day) by Amazon and returning it was equally convenient.

I bought two of these to solve a problem I was having where I needed to turn one item off when another stopped pulling as much current though it would keep pulling some. I hooked one to each item and set up some skills in IFTTT to control them. When switch A goes into on mode, so does switch B. The problem arises when trying to turn them off. For some reason IFTTT doesnt let you turn off switch B when switch A goes into standby mode. I emailed customer support and was basically given the runaround. To get around this I set up a Twitter account and had IFTTT tweet something with a certain hashtag when switch A goes into standby and then set up another skill to turn off switch B if a new tweet comes through with that hashtag. It works, though there is a bit of a delay. If either WeMos built in actions were a little more advanced or IFTTT could handle turning off one switch when another goes into standby, Id give this 5 stars. If you just want to control something with your phone, IFTTT, or something like Alexa, this product works great.

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.

I own the Wemo switch and light switch. Both devices work. They are easy to set up and you can do it yourself without any professional help (especially the plug in switch). There are many cons, however. First - the android app is garbage and the iOS app isnt much better. Creating a schedule on one app doesnt sync it with the other app. The apps themselves are slow to load and refresh themselves. You are better off making schedules using IFTTT, but it shouldnt be that way. Also, occasionally the switches will just glitch out for an unkown reason. For example, I wanted to turn mine on from outside the apartment one day and it couldnt locate the switch. No idea why. This has happened a couple times. Overall though, for now this is the best solution to easily getting some automation in your house.

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???