Kasa Smart Plug Mini 15A, Smart Home Wi-Fi Outlet Works with Alexa, Google Home & IFTTT, No Hub Required, UL Certified, 2.4G WiFi Only, 4-Pack(EP10P4) , White

These have served multiple purposes. First, we are using one on a hot-water recirculation pump that was originally plugged directly into a wall outlet. We didnt want it to run all the time, just for a few minutes before taking a shower, so now we can control it from a smart phone inside the house rather than going out to the garage to plug in then unplug it. (I know that any smart plug could do this, but Ill say that the Kasa has been reliable in maintaining an internet connection and the Kasa app is really easy to use. I dont see a need for Alexa or another program since all of our smart pugs are Kasa brand so far.) Second, we enrolled on OhmConnect, which offers small rewards (one example of which was one of these smart plugs, which is how I learned about them before deciding to buy more) for using less energy during peak electricity generation hours. That saves my utility company from having to buy the most expensive power and I think it reduces use of less environmentally friendly options, like burning coal. Pretty much a win-win. We let OhmConnect control our Kasa outlets for brief periods of peak electricity use (usually one hour at a time, early evening), meaning that they can turn them off for those periods. This works great for our fridge and freezer, which are fine being off for such short periods. If we had other big energy drawing appliances that could be shut off during the hours chosen by OhmConnect, wed buy more. It is minimal hassle while contributing to the greater good. The worst that has happened has been to open the fridge during the shut-off period and find the light is off, but fridges lose very little of their coolness in as short a time as an hour. Probably more than you wanted to know, but hoping to offer some education about this program. (Im sure there is more than one like it offered and it has to be offered by your utility company. OhmConnect happens to be what our utility company partnered with.)

Update 1-2-2021: Well it seems I made an error in my original review. If you do change your wifi name or password you can re-connect the device without loosing all your settings. The key is to not select reset device when re-connecting it, which is what i did. Then it will go straight to the wifi setup section without loosing names or schedules. However this isnt mentioned anywhere in the manual (which is just a little card telling you to use the app). I had to get the information from users at the Kasa forum and it took a while to find. So Im uping my rating, but still docking 1 star for this to not be documented in the user guide or app. Original Review: I purchased a TP-Link power strip and it worked so well and was so easy to set up that I purchased another one and this single outlet plug. It to was super easy to set up and works great. So why the low score? Well, if you make any changes to your wifi such as changing the password, SSID name, or changing it to a hidden SSID every single device stops working and must be factory reset and then reinstalled. You end up loosing all the device names, groups, schedules, and scenes. I routinely change my wifi password once a month for security reasons and am now stuck with having to reconfigure 13 outlets every month. This is completely unacceptable. There is currently no way to go to the devices settings and update the password, or change the network name. If you dont regularly change anything this is fine, but for those of us who are security minded it absolutely stinks. Untill such time as they push out a firmware or app update to address this, I wont be getting any more of these. I had planned to get a couple of more power strips and single plugs, but unless this issue is fixed, forget it. Its to much of a hassle to have to redo these every month. I can only assume that the rest of TP-Links products do the same as they all use the same app. How they let this product and others out the door with such a huge flaw is beyond me.

Great scheduling features in the app, exactly what I needed. Highly recommended.

The setup for these took literally less than a minute and they havent needed to be re connected once since i got them. the user interface is smooth, intuitive, and easy to understand even for people who are less tech savvy. an added plus i didnt consider in the beginning is how they dont stick out a bunch. They do add about 2 inches to the plug so using these behind a dresser or most furniture is going to be difficult but i can live with it.

Dont have any overhead lights in my bedrooms so I have a couple of those standalone lamps, added this smart plug so I could be in bed and not have to walk across the room in complete darkness. Added plus is that I can set a schedule for the lights so my early 4am wakeups are just a little less painful when I have the lights turning on for me to help me wake up.

Reason for Kasa Smart Plugs I needed a solution for a traditional timer clock that failed. As I had already bought into the Kasa brand/ecosystem (Ive known and found TP-Link to be a good brand for many years) with a monitoring camera, I decided Id stick with Kasa and find a smart plug option. The main driver being the desire to avoid yet another phone app and have something smart. These cost only a tiny bit more than a traditional timer clock. Setup/Connection Is Simple - Use the App These small smart plugs are pretty easy to setup and the app completely walks you through the process. If you have a Guest home WiFi network and put these onto it you may have to juggle a bit. The device on which you run the app to setup will need to connect to the same network/SSID as you put the devices on. In my case that meant manually ensuring the phone I was using for setup connecting to my guest network temporarily, given its setup to connect by default to my may home network. Recommendation: Setup a guest network if you dont have one to keep the smart devices isolated from your computers and phones and more important stuff on your home network. That way if a smart device, camera or whatever gets hacked, they are not on your network where you have your computers and smart phones and anything else like NAS storage. Somewhat protected. Scheduling Events - Initially Confused but Powerful Options Once setup was complete I did confuse myself setting up a schedule in the app. I expected the schedule to include both an on and off time in a single scheduled event - thats not how it works. You create a schedule for individual on and off events. I did really like the option to use sunrise or sunset as an event time. Given I am using these for lamps having an on setting for say 20 mins before sunset, allows for energy efficiency as the smart plugs adjust for the sunset time each day this changes. In my case then, lamps come on when needed, based on the sunset time, and not at some fixed time. Overall Good value and easy to setup and use. I bought 2 more! This way I have 3 less things to change for DST and they turn on lamps when it gets dark based on the ever adjusting sunset time.

My previous switches were of the Toya/Smart Life app type and their automation is quite good. I switched to this brand because it had higher ratings, but I immediately regretted the decision. About the only thing good about this plug is that it was easy to set up. While I did have to create an account and jump through numerous check-the-box check-your-email hoops, once it was installed, I was able to quickly pair the plug to the app with no interaction with the plug itself. (With the Tuya app, you have to hold down the power button to put the plug into sync mode.) Sure, thats great. Its easy to set up. But thats where the happy ends. This plug is only able to turn on and off by schedule, work with a few 3rd party apps, turn off or on with a timer STARTED FROM THE APP ONLY, and... thats about it. With the Smart Life app, you can set the switch up to act as an auto-off timer. Click the button, and power will be applied for however long you specify, then auto-shutoff. To me, if being able to use a device with Google Home or Alex is the #1 reason, the #2 reason to have a smart plug is to turn something on for a while, walk away, and have it turn off automatically to save energy. And the Kasa plugs cannot do this. I honestly cant understand why this device is rated as highly as it is, except that its easy to set up. Beyond that... the app is very bad. If you can stand to hold down the power button on a Tuya plug for 5 seconds while pairing then its the far superior solution.

Once I got it setup, it works great. The problem was the setup process was frustrating. It kept asking me the same things over and over and over. At some point it decided to work and since then has been great. I wish I understood what caused the setup problems.

Me gusto lo puse en la lampara de Noche y fácil de usar e instalar

This worked exactly as I needed it to and replaced all the mechanical timers I had in my house. They were a little bit of a pain to install and pair but once installed they are incredibly easy to use and program. The app gives a lot if freedom in the programs you can use setting different start and end times.