VOCOlinc Homekit Smart Plug Works with Alexa, Apple Home, Google Assistant, WiFi Smart Plug That Work with Alexa, Electrical Timer Outlet Support Siri, No Hub Required, 15A, 2.4GHz, 110～120V, 4 Pack

I was hesitant to jump into the smart home game, because I knew it was an expensive road, full of maintenance and glitches, or so I thought. At $30 for two smart outlets, I found it very affordable and I decided to give it a try. WOW! Using Homekit, the setup was a breeze! Plug it in, open Homekit app, scan the QR code and there you go! Done! No HUB needed, these work right out of the box using only your phone and wifi. Setup takes 30 seconds. I was expecting a delay when turning lights on and off, but it is instant! Its fast enough you can click it on and off, over and over really fast, like a regular light switch to annoy your friends or family ;) Ive been using these plugs for the last month or so, and they are setup to automation and turn on 1 hour before sunrise, then turn off when we leave the house! Then, they turn on right before sunset and when I jump in bed I just say Goodnight! and they turn off with the siri voice shortcuts! I loved them so much that I bought two more, plus their smart Wi-Fi color changing light bulb. They all work together flawlessly and I can highly recommend these if you are starting out with a smart home.

Just set up three of these to control holiday lights around the house. I didnt even bother downloading the proprietary app -- just scanned the barcode on each one in Apples Home app and plugged them in. Theyve been rock solid ever since, and nicely integrated into the other stuff I have in the Home app setup.

These work very dependably once you get them setup, but it took 3 to 5 tries to get them to connect to my WiFi. I bought the 4 pack and three of them about had me pulling my hair out, the last one paired up and worked on the first try. I did a reset on them before setting them up, so that wasnt the problem and there was no real indication of what the actual problem was, they just wouldnt setup until you were ready to throw them away, then suddenly they would work...as if they knew (they are SMART plugs, dont ya know!) that you were about to give up. :) Anyway, once they were setup, they work like a charm! Very dependably you can either use the Apple Home app to switch them on and off, use a motion sensor to switch them on and off and use Siri to turn them on and off. No issues at all once they are setup.

Works great, after the involved setup. VOCOlinc App controls it nicely. Apple Home Kit links up quickly, works great. Alexa App, another story. Fought for hours to get it to link up. Finally got it, worked for about a month.(unlinked itself) In order to re-link Alexa. I had to reset Plug. Go through involved setup (even tho Apple Home and Vocolinc were still working) Few hours later got it all linked up and working. This time Alexa App only stayed linked up for about a week. Repeated setup, and now cant get Alexa app to link up, tried for several days. I give up. More than likely, this is a great product. Maybe the Alexa App is making this look bad? Maybe on purpose? Would I have this problem if I had purchased the Amazon Brand Plug-in?

So… I’m weird and cannot decide if I want to use Apple HomeKit or Amazon Alexa. Because I can’t decide, I end up using both. Vocolink has been so easy to automatically set up with both.

The best compliment that you can give for this specific type of device is that it is transparent - and they are. They’re very easy to set up and add to HomeKit and once they’re set up, they just work! Not only are they rock solid, but they’re quick too. Whether I’m controlling it via the Vocolinc app, the Apple Home app or via Siri - they respond very quickly. To be honest, I was wary at first because of the price difference between these smart plugs and other, comparable ones. But with Amazon’s return policies I figured I didn’t have anything to lose but time. I was so happy when these turned out to be actually better/faster/more reliable than the other ones I’ve tried. To be fair, I’ve only tried the iHome and Eve smart plugs (aside from these). But both were a lot more expensive and neither worked reliably for me - and they were both slow in my experience. I have 6 of these smart outlets now. They are extremely handy to have around. I have 3 of them permanently installed on various devices and 3 that act as ‘floaters’. They’re great for holiday decorations. I used them for my Christmas tree, outdoor Christmas lights, glowy-jack-o-lantern-dealies, etc. They’re also really great for troubleshooting other ‘misbehaving’ devices. I had a HomeKit video camera that was having serious issues and I plugged it in to one of these smart plugs so I wouldn’t have to wrestle with climbing on a step-stool every time I needed to reset the camera (which was A LOT!). I should also mention how impressed I am with Vocolinc support. I’ve had to contact them for a different Vocolinc product and they have been shockingly attentive and helpful. These days good customer support is a crap shoot - so I am really pleased that they’re one of the very good ones. It’s actually one of the primary reasons I keep buying their stuff. So, if it wasn’t already obvious - highly recommended!

I am returning this product and requesting a refund for whatever reason the device has become unresponsive, requiring a reboot, (unplugging it from the wall and plugging it back in). I can forgive one instance I’m not going to forgive two. Switching back to the Meross brand which hasn’t let me down yet.

Update: After I wrote my review they got in touch more seriously and replaced my 3 plugs. They’re all asking for the same firmware update and I’m going to just ignore it, they work fine. Original Review: I bought these because I was so happy with the last set of VOCOlinc smart outlets I bought. They worked well until I got a notification about a firmware update. First one starts, boom blinking red light and dead. Second one starts, blinking red light and dead. Save the third one before it starts. Now I’ve been emailing support daily and they have me sending them videos and pictures and are never really taking responsibility and replacing the devices they broke. I won’t be buying VOCOlinc again.

As one of the reviews that I’ve read stated, I was about pulling my hair out getting these to connect. I don’t think it should take that long and requires so many attempts.

I have 4 of these switches. They work great until your power goes out, and then youre going to have problems. While they usually keep working with Apple HomeKit even after a power outage, their connection to Alexa is usually lost completely. Sometimes I get lucky and can simply unplug them and plug them back in after the router gets back up and going, but this doesnt usually work. If it doesnt, the only solution is to remove them from the Alexa app, reset the plugs, and add them back to the home as a new device. Then you have to add them back to all the scenes, automations, etc. for them to work like they used to. When you do this reset, it also means you also have to add them back to the Apple home app.