Wemo Insight Smart Plug with Energy Monitoring, WiFi Enabled, Control Your Devices and Manage Energy Costs From Anywhere, Works with Alexa and the Google Assistant

I own many Wemo products because when I first purchased, I was able to install quickly and everything seemed to work great. A short time thereafter the devices start “acting up“ (ie. falling off line, needing to be re-booted, failing in firmware updates and needing to be factory reset and restarted, etc.)Now, for some reason, the devices do not play well with any other services, IFTTT in specific. (which is the most commonly used “if this than that” control program).So if you want a big brick plug-in that you need to supply almost constant maintenance to but then not be able to use it any any other capacity, sure they are fine. But there are a lot of other offerings in the smart plug category, and most all of those seem to be playing better in the sandbox with real world needs for such devices.

UPDATE (7/26/2017): Belkin sent over 2 replacements after several tweets/calls. Now the replacements have also started losing their wifi connection on a daily basis. It seems impossible for Belkin to make a useful product.UPDATE (3/16/2017): Belkin finally reached out (after reading my review here I suppose). Still can't get their act together. I was promised a follow-up call within 24-48 hours after the support team member said they would replace my two units. 115 hours later and counting and not a peep from Belkin. Still garbage support...ORIGINAL REVIEW:I have two of these switches. They worked fine for about 5 months. But neither has been working properly for the past month or so.They drop the wireless connection all the time. I have reset both multiple times and they cannot always be found in the wireless menu when you try to connect to redo the setup process.The Wemo app is useless and doesn't routinely recognize the switches. The app also routinely shows switches as on when I know they are off or vice versa. If you try to refresh the status of the switches in the app, then it simply says that the switches cannot be detected. Voice control through Alexa is also similarly shoddy, although I expect this is Belkin's fault (not Amazon's).I'm reduced to turning it on and off manually, which defeats the whole purpose of buying the product. So now, I have about $70 worth of paperweights proudly bearing the name Belkin. Don't waste your money here.Belkin support is similarly atrocious. Slow to respond and just keep asking me to reset the switch. A garbage product doesn't suddenly get better just because you reset it...

I bought one of these on sale so I could reboot something remotely if it died while I was away, but I started by trying it out on a lamp to see how it worked. I liked the way it controlled the lamp so much that I bought two more, one for another lamp and one for my original remote reboot application. They're super simple to install and connect to your WiFi network and feature-rich. You can toggle them on-demand with the app, or use the app to set up a schedule. The best part is that you don't have to invest in a hub to connect these. Essentially the app becomes your hub. They also control any device that plugs into an outlet, from LED lamps to air conditioners.I guess one of the differences between this and the older WeMo switch is the power monitoring capability of this model. Very useful to check the power consumption of your devices and see real time status. However, you'll need to calibrate the switch to the power use of the device you're controlling. Originally my LED bulbs did not consume enough power to show as on in the app, which appears to set the threshold at 8W. WeMo makes calibration easy by providing a button in the app that lets the switch detect on and off state power usage and set its own threshold, which for the LEDs turned out to be 2W. I seriously love these things. The only thing that could make them better is to include a dimmer function at some point.

The Wemo Insight Switch works great once you get them connected. It's smaller size compared to other plugs makes it superior and the connectivity with IFTTT, NEST, and ALEXA are really nice. Pros and Cons below. I have two of these that I use for digital window AC units.Note that if you're using these with digital AC units (basically any AC unit made in the past 8-10 years to present) you must turn on the AC and unplug it from your outlet then plug it into a Wemo switch. From there you have to turn on/off the AC unit with Wemo app or the physical power button on the Wemo switch. Not the AC unit itself. If you do the switch won't be able to turn on the AC unit. You can adjust the temp fan speed, etc fro the AC unit just don't turn it off from the AC unit's front panel or it's remote. The same applies to other less complicated devices like lamps and fans. Turn them on, then unplug them from your outlet. Then plug time into the Wemo switches and only control them from the Wemo switches.Note: My previous review for these was only 1 star. I've since updated it after a week using the devices because I was finally able to get them set-up. Pros and cons below.Pros1. Size. The small size of the Wemo Insight makes preferable to other switches which are generally 30-50% larger than the Wemo forcing you to likely sacrifice a plug on your wall plates to use them. Not so with the Wemo. No matter how your wall plate plugs are oriented you can pretty much put these anywhere and know you'll likely still be able to keep your device plugged into the same wall plate outlet.2. Connectivity. The Wemo Insight Switch connects with IFTTT, NEST, and ALEXA. This allows for some fairly robust automation that sets it apart from other smart plugs. I was only able to test IFTTT connectivity though. I don't have NEST or Alexa/Amazon Echo. I must say it's really awesome. In IFTTT I created a recipe that turns on my switches based on the outside temp. When that temp is reached the switches turn activating my window AC units. IFTTT can also alert you via a notification on your phone every time they come on. I've used this everyday this week for one switch (timers for the other) and it worked every time. The timers work well too. This is great for me because if I get busy at work I know I don't have to worry about coming home to a hot house.3. The Wemo Insight also has a micro USB port. They don't have any functionality right now but hopefully they'll the ability to update firmware or the ability to set these up from a computer via that port. Some competing plugs like the Edimax Smart Plug don't have this.4. The Wemo app displays power management and consumption settings in the app for each switch. This is really robust if you care to check to see how much power the devices you have plugged into the Wemo Insight switches are using. It also tells you how long they've been on too.Cons1. Set-up on Android 6.0.1 seems impossible. I simply could not get these set-up on my phone (Nexus 6p not-rooted running Android 6.0.1). I tired multiple times following instructions for the switch. Set-up involves connecting to the wireless network being broadcast by the Wemo Insight Switch. Then you open the Wemo app which does the rest of the work. I made several attempts on my Nexus 6p and they just wouldn't set up. The Wemo app told me to turn off WiFi scanning (which on android 6.0 is in the Location menu) so I did that then exited the app. Then I tried to connected to the network being broadcast by the Wemo Insight Switch. After that I went back to the Wemo app and nothing. It just kept telling me the same basic set-up steps I already went through. To be sure there was nothing wrong with my first switch I tried the second and only got the same results multiple times. After an hour of trying I gave up and tried my luck with my tablet which runs Android 5.0. Set-up on that was easy and quick. Literally only a couple of minutes per switch. Once I set them up with my tablet they showed up in the Wemo app for my phone. I believe there is either a bug or lack of set-up support for Android 6.0.1 devices. I almost returned these before trying set-up on my tablet. You should also be able to set these up on a computer using the micro USB port on the switches. That would have solved my problem as well.2. The app has an odd display quirk. Sometimes when I open the Wemo app on my phone it shows my switches as on even though they are off. So I have to press the power button in the app for both switches to make sure they show off. I'm thinking this is some kind of display bug they can fix with an update to the android version of the app.3. Belkin seems to employ "Amazon Customers" to help reviewers solve problems with their Wemo devices. They often reply to reviews with advice on overcoming issues. In my case they didn't help and only made me angry with baseless know-it-all comments. If you notice comments in reviews from someone named "Amazon Customer" ignore them and report them to Amazon if possible. They do little to actually help and the fact they their Amazon name says "Amazon Customer" and they have no reviews generally means they are paid to help or dispute actual reviewers.4. The lastest version of the Wemo Insight Switch doesn't show up on Belkin's support page. The model number for the device on Amazon is F7C071. Searching that on Belkin's site yields no results. Maybe this is an oversight or maybe this version of the device is so new that it hasn't made it's way to their support page. Either way it needs correction ASAP since you can currently buy the device.5. Set-up instructions for the Wemo Insight Switch only reference Android 5.0. If set-up on these switches is possible on some android 6.0.1 devices the instructions should reflect that. I know is more difficult developing apps for multiple versions of android. But it seems to me Belkin needs to pay more attention to android and not devote the bulk of it to iOS. It probably explains the less than seller reviews people have left for other Wemo devices. I imagine others ran into the same set-up issues I did running android 6.0.1.

I have used WEMOs since they came on the market, in fact I now have 31 of them controlling various things around our home using Amazon Echos. This comes under the heading of you get what you pay for. I’ve tried other similar devices but they don’t stay connected where the WEMOs do and they work natively with the Echo. No hub needed or special skill, (although there is one). Also they still function within my home network even without the internet as long as my router remains active which it does because it’s isolated. One caution, the older larger WEMOs (and these Insights) work much better than the minis do for range. The Insight WEMO is used to track power use of things like A/C units, things you can shut off during high power rate periods. I have no complaints about these at all.

Pretty easy to setup but Wemo changed their security and I can't get it to work with Google assistant anymore, only their APP. Need to contact their support again. I don't like forums.

Although this device has IFTTT, and has Watt monitoring capability, the ability to tap into the Watt information for IFTTT is very limited. (nonexistent)I would have expected to be able to make an IFTTT based on specific wattage numbers.Moreover, I tried to use the standby function in IFTTT, and there's only "Enters Standby" there's no way to have an IFTTT for "in standby for x minutes".Wemo had such a great opportunity to make an amazing IFTTT connected device and shared nearly no information with IFTTT. Swing and a miss.If you're expecting to use that smart-meter information in IFTTT, move on. This isn't the device for you.

Overall, the function of the units is good and the fact they quickly setup is great. The ability to turn them on/off, schedule rules and monitor power usage (and export too) is great.The only issues I have are:1. Every so often, one of the units will not not it is online and so, must be unplugged and plugged in again. That said, not a significant issue overall.2. The units cannot be remotely controlled when traversing a wired hub on the same network; what I mean is, both Insight Smart Plugs are connecting either the WiFi signal from AP1; but when I am in another part of the house, using AP2, the signal from the Smart Plugs doesn't appear to traverse the wired hub (though both access points are on the same hub). So, just be aware that you may have similar issues.But overall, a good product. I do wish though, that Apple's HomeKit was natively supported and didn't require the purchase of the Wemo Bridge to enable the Insight units for HomeKit usage. Other Wemo devices don't need the Bridge. Come on Belkin, fix this.

Este producto tiene problemas a nivel de firmware. Primero fué un problema actualizar uno de ellos (vienen en pares). Después, la función de colección de información de consumo simplemente dejó de mostrar datos. De acuerdo con el sitio de soporte de Belkin/Wemo, saben de los problemas pero no tienen fecha de resolución. Probaré un día màs para ver si con un reinicio vuelven a funcionar antes de regresarlos