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

These WeMo switches could use some work but overall, they do their job (most of the time). I purchased three of these switches for lamps around my apartment. Setting them up was difficult on Android yet easy on iOS. The same holds true for the WeMo app - the Android app is very buggy and doesnt work half the time while the iOS app works all the time with little to no bugs. I currently have them controlled by the WeMo app and my Amazon Echo. These two were made for each other. I can say: Alexa, turn on home and it will turn on all of my lamps. I can also say: Alexa, turn on desk and it will turn on my desk lamp. Very simple and easy to use once connected. In order to connect the Echo with the WeMo switches, just go into the Echo app and find the Connected Home setting. In conclusion, if you want to control a device remotely or from another device such as the Amazon Echo or a mobile app on your phone, this is the product for you! Pros: - Turn on devices via mobile app or button on unit - Will work with the Amazon Echo with little configuration needed - Can track how long the switch has been on for and how much power the device is using Cons: - Android application is buggy (Id recommend using the iOS app if possible) - Their WiFi range seems to be quite short. I have B/G/N/AC coverage for the majority of my apartment and even in good areas, the WeMos may lose their connection at times.

I used this switch in conjunction with a transformer to get my 220v window/wall air conditioner in my apartment to work with the switch, and to automate it and get my setup as close as I could to a NEST Smart Thermostat, which unfortunately, only works with central air/heating/cooling. The transformer I got allowed me to plug in my air conditioner to this device and run the A/C at full power without frying anything, and this switch is awesome in terms of features and automation. Ill get to that in a bit. The setup is pretty intuitive and easy. You just plug it in to the power outlet, connect your smartphone to the WiFi network it creates, set up your device, then connect through the app to your home WiFi network, which will connect the device directly to the home WiFi network. I had a little trouble here with the device not being recognized by the app sometimes and I realized that this was because it was right on the fringe of where my WiFi reaches, even though my smartphone has 2-3 bars of WiFi in that same spot. It was because the WeMo Insight was plugged into a power strip and the device was basically positioned upside-down because of how the power strip was situated. I fixed this by just twisting and bringing the power strip up by like a foot so that the Insight was in the orientation it would be if it were plugged directly into a wall, and since Ive done that, no disconnection problems. The automation is sweet. First, just through the WeMo app, I set up a timer to automatically turn on the A/C at midday and turn off in the middle of the night because I like it to be cold when I go to sleep but sometimes it gets so cold if I leave the A/C on that I wake up and have to turn it off. No more. Then I installed the IFTTT (IF This, Then That) app to use in conjunction with the WeMo app that lets me set up custom recipes for automation that have like an infinite number of options and variables. So far, I have it set to turn on the A/C if its off and I come into a 1/4 mile range of my apartment, turn off the A/C if I leave that area, and turn on the A/C if its off and the outside temperature exceeds a certain range that I set, that the app uses Weather Channel to check. In all, this is a super awesome device for my air conditioner once I got my high-powered 5000w transformer and I intend to get WeMo light switches for all the LED lights I just installed in my apartment to bring down my power bill.

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.

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.

It works good, just a couple things I dont like. 1) Setup was easy, I had the switch working in about two minutes with iPhone. 2) Does not give feedback. In other words, if iPhone A turns on the switch, no indication is shown on iPhone B. The same is true if the switch is manually operated. ( Feedback is given on another iPhone IF you tap on a circular arrow, then it will update the status. However, the status is not pushed to you as it is with SmartThings. ) 3) No instructions provided if you want to control your switches with more than one iPhone. Digging through the Internet, I found the simple answer. After installing the WeMo app on the second iPhone, simply put that iPhone on the same HOME network that you used when you originally set up WeMo with the first iPhone. Following the installation instructions that you did originally doesnt work. The second iPhone will not find the WeMo WiFi. Had they included this bit of information with their instructions it would have saved me about an hour of online digging. Their competitors, TP-LINK, has you create an account. By utilizing an account system it is not necessary to bring each iPhone onto the same home network for set up purposes. You simply download the app, enter your login credentials, and youre done. This could be a distinct advantage if you are 1000 miles away from home and find that you have to buy a new iPhone. ( Overall, I like the WeMo better than TP-LINK. ) Normally, when I set up home control systems I prefer to use SmartThings for controlling purposes, utilizing Z-Wave switches. Because Z-Wave uses an entirely different frequency, this can avoid interference, and, clogging up Wi-Fi networks. Another advantage of Z-Wave is that each device acts as a repeater, so if you have several Z-Wave devices, they can be located far from the hub. If your needs are simple, WeMo is a good choice.

Purchased and returned. Both the app and the device are buggy. Generally speaking its fine if you dont need to rely on rules. Turn on the device from the app...it works. Use Amazon echo integration to turn it on/off... its great. When it came to rules it completely failed. If you setup anything more advanced than once on a day on once off it seems to falter. It would miss rules completely, turn on a device a minute or two before it was scheduled to turn off. The simple fact is you cant rely that it will turn on when you want it to. Support has no interest in actually communicating what the issue is or work-around. They will just tell you to reset the device and try again. Ive had it in states where it was executing rules that the app said it didnt have. Until they solve their firmware issues it comes to a situation where each time you edit/change the rules (including disable/enable) you will need to test that the rules function and possibly reset the device and add the rules all over again and then test again. Every time you use it for away mode... That is just poor product and not reliable. I tested on the firmware that shipped and on the latest downloadable. After two weeks of frustration I returned. I will not pursue seeing how it matures down the road because. It says something about the company and their willingness to fix issues. Its in both firmware version I tried and appears to be a problem that has been around for some time from the research I did. Its good concept held back by poor execution and the company does not value a solid product as much as market timing.

UPDATE: 02/23/2015 After having it continually being unreliable and numerous phone calls, I must say DO NOT BUY. I have had electrical heaters turning on and off by themselves, lost connectivity, and inability to control the devices remotely. I am currently looking for alternatives. DO NOT BUY. UPDATE: 04/23/2014 After being tenacious and working with Belkin, I am happy to report that the Wemos have worked flawlessly for a month. I installed at least 1 additional firmware update and 1 iOS Wemo update. I also assigned a static IP address to each of the wemos. My understanding is that there were cloud issues at Belkin which are believed to have caused the majority of my frustrations. Either way, I have increased my rating since they are functioning now, but cant go as far to endorse them since the issues should not have been experienced in the first place. ORIGINAL: 03/03/2014 I bought these hoping for a solution for controlling electric heaters in a modular home about 2 hours away from my home network. After you install them in the app, you have to enable remote access. I did all of this and was able to turn the devices on and off. This worked for about 2 weeks. Eventually, I received an unable to detect devices remotely. At this point, there is nothing you can do. I was using them to keep water pipes thawed so I would not have to winterize and relying on Belkin turned out to be a big mistake. Because the Belkin WeMo devices malfunctioned, I could not turn on the electric heaters, which caused me to end up with frozen pipes. I made it back up the modular home. Reset them again and everything worked, Headed back home and in about 2 weeks, they went back off the network and I was unable to access them. IN SHORT, DO NOT BUY THESE BELKIN DEVICES. YOU WILL BE DISAPPOINTED AND THEY WILL NOT WORK RELIABLY OR AS ADVERTISED. I have an open case with Belkin but I am getting ready to pack them back up and ship them back to Amazon as soon as I can make back up there. These devices are false-advertising at best and Amazon should refuse to sell them.

I bought the WEMO Insight about a month ago, installed it (it took a few minutes for the device to be recognized by my router) , and made a few power measurements with it. This was fun and informative. The list of features is impressive, since you can use it as a timer, a rule-based controller, a device to alert you when something happens to the power system, for power measurements, and more. What is problematic with the device is its frequent lock ups and inability to be recognized by my wireless router (one of the latest Netgear products) when further away than 20 feet (on the same floor of the building), while my laptops work flawlessly off the Wifi network in the whole house. A few weeks ago I came home to see the devices powered by the WEMO switched off with no warning on my WEMO app. What if it had been my refrigerator or some other vital appliance? This, and the too frequent software updates that take minutes to complete make the WEMO almost useless, because I bet if you really need it, say in a remote location you want to control and/or monitor, it will freeze up and will need some sort of hardware reset. It is unfortunate that green energy enthusiasts who want to do something intelligent and useful with a device like this get frustrated by a device that needs endless troubleshooting and coaching just to work as expected. Nobody would buy a refrigerator that shuts down every two weeks and needs some procedure to get going again, but apparently in the high-tech world we are expected to spend our free time tinkering with all sorts of half baked pseudo solutions. In conclusion, I think the WEMO Insight is a nice idea that suffers from bad execution.

Theres a lot to like about the updated Belkin WeMo Insight Switch. It is compact, and the process of installing, handshaking, and setting preferences is designed to be streamlined. Unfortunately, however, as of the early-February app and firmware updates, Belkin is still leaving a lot of functionality and dependability issues on the table. Thus, the brief version of my recommendation is to start with one or two units for which you have specific uses. Watch for and download any future updates that address stability and functionality, and when the product is performing to your standards, buy any additional units that youd like. And note that after you put your initial units through their paces, you may well be satisfied as-is. Following is the longer version of my experience with the WeMo Insight outlet switch. I will add to it over time, and if you have questions, please add them to the comments and I will respond as quickly as possible. I have posted a few images showing app messages on the product page. SETUP. Belkin focused on making setup smooth and intuitive, and your switched outlet comes with a quick-start card that takes you through the process. These instructions are mirrored in the app, once you download and launch it. I suggest that when you start, you plug your new Insight into an electrical outlet thats as near as conveniently possible to your router, because youll probably be provided with the option of downloading a firmware update (say yes). Ive provided two customer images of what my phone displayed during the update process. SIZE, PORTABILITY. The Insight is a grounded, pass-through plug. If you put it in the top outlet of a vertical two-outlet receptacle, you will still have clear access to the outlet beneath it. Once I got my Insight up and running, I moved it to other outlets that are neither near nor line-of-sight, and they did communicate acceptably with my wireless network. MONITORING. Part of the reason I addressed the units portability is that I have used it to spot-check electricity consumption of everything from a chest freezer to a recumbent bike. I also checked its accuracy and calibration by testing it with a number of lamps. The WeMo was correct about every device for which I had wattage information, even when I swapped bulb strengths in the same device. CONVENIENCE. One of this units best attributes is its convenience. I appreciate not walking into a dark house, especially during rainy season. I like the ability to modify the programming on the fly, as well as to set a weekly schedule. However, I think Belkin needs to up its game with this aspect of the WeMo family, and I address that in the Concerns section below. CONCERNS. - Consistent first-attempt error where the app doesnt find the WeMo Insight unit. My solution thus far has been to refresh the screen, but this ongoing problem should have been addressed in the firmware update earlier this month. - Programming gives you one choice per day. Contrast this with the old-fashioned physical switches, which let you set two to four on/off cycles per 24-hour period. - Security/privacy issues surrounding having the unit logged on to my password-protected wireless network. One workaround I will be testing is to log on to my guest network and whether the restrictions weve set up in our guest permissions hamper the unit from working when I communicate with it remotely.