XMCosy+ Smart Wall Light Indoor Outdoor Sconce Installation and Review

XMCosy+ Smart Wall Light Indoor Outdoor Sconce Installation and Review

Buy it at Amazon: XMCosy+ Smart Wall Light Indoor Outdoor Sconce [Affiliate Link]

Takeaway: Straightforward installation, easy-to-use app controls, bright and versatile.

You’ll receive the light fixture, an instruction manual, and a pack of installation hardware. The light is a one-piece dual light fixture and measures 10-3/4”L x 3.5”W and extends 4.5”D from the wall. The light can be installed horizontally or vertically depending on your preference. Each of the light boxes can be rotated individually clockwise or counterclockwise for 350° of freedom, so you can point the light out, to either side, or back towards the wall if you prefer less direct wall accent lighting. You can even point the lights in opposite directions to provide illumination to either side, for example if placed in the middle of a hall or pathway. The body of the fixture is made of weather-resistant metal, while the translucent white LED diffusers are a durable plastic and will emit light from the ends and front faces of each light so it can be installed outdoors or indoors.

At the back of the light is an attached junction box with a plastic hanging bracket that measures 4” x 3.5”. It’ll be attached to your wall via 4 included screws. The wiring for the light goes inside and to open it, use the included Allen wrench to remove the set screws on both sides. The wiring for the light is simple. It has a black and white wire for hot and neutral wires respectively and a green ground wire attached to the metal housing. In the hardware pack you’ll receive three wire nuts, four wood screws and four plastic wall anchors for hollow walls. Just make sure to shut the power off at the breaker before working on any wiring.

I replaced an older light fixture that just had a very dated style and look to it. In addition, it wasn't a smart light and didn't really provide enough illumination for the hallway at night, as it only had one flourescent bulb in it. While the wiring in my home is older (ungrounded fabric sheathed BX) I was able to create a ground lead from its metal casing, though you should check to see if this may not be up to code where you live. If you have more modern wiring, you will likely have three wires, a hot, neutral, and ground which would be black, white, and green or bare copper respectively. The plastic wall anchors let you mount this onto a hollow wall, though it would be more secure to mount it directly into wood or a stud. The one tricky part of installation was holding up the fixture while connecting the power wires as they are short in length; it will be a bit easier if you have a second person holding the fixture up while you do this. When pushing the wires into the compartment, making sure tto avoid the protrusions on both sides of the box so that it can close fully. Then place light onto the box right-side-up; when oriented correctly, the rubber mode button should appear in the upper left hand corner. If you’ve installed this light outdoors, it’s recommended that you seal the box with some silicone caulk around the box for additional weather proofing.

If the fixture is on a switch, make sure it’s in the ‘on’ position and the light should start flashing, indicating that it’s in WiFi setup mode. You’ll need to download and install a mobile app on your smartphone to set it up and the QR code in the manual takes you to the XMCosy app. However, the light is also compatible with a number of other smarthome control apps like Tuya and SmartLife. The interfaces for all these app are nearly identical and in most cases, the app will detect the light for setup automatically. I nicknamed my light ‘Hall Light’ for easier voice commands. After setup you’ll be able to control the light remotely over the internet via the app. The settings you can change are Brightness from 1-100%, Temperature from warm to cool, and Color which you can pick from the presets or turn the color wheel for custom colors. Just note that the two lights will always have the same settings and can’t be adjusted individually.

In the scenes page, you can choose from a number of different pre-set effects and multi-color animations, for example, Colorful will cycle through the colors of the rainbow. You can also create and save your own custom scene. There’s a music mode which will change the light to the beat of music through your phone’s microphone, but the app needs to be open to this page and running in the background the whole time. In the last menu item you can set schedules and time triggered behaviorlike a sleep plan that will slowly fade the light out at a specific time on specific days over a period of 5 mins to 2 hours, or similarly a wake plan to trigger in the morning to fade in, again over 5 minutes to 2 hours, and also automatically shut off after a separate amount of time has elapsed after reaching full brightness. If you simply want to schedule on and off times, you can do that in the schedule menu, picking the time and days of the week for each programmed action. 'Turn on and dim' lets you choose a color and brightness for this action, while 'turn on and set scene' allows you to choose your custom presets or the multi-color animations. There’s also a countdown delayed shutoff timer that you can set from 1 minute to 24 hours.

Last but not least, you can change the power on behavior of the light, like activating do not disturb, which requires you to flip the switch to the light on twice to turn the light on, and choosing the light status after it is powered on. If you’ve enabled the Alexa skill for your control app, you can also use voice commands to control the light. There is also a physical mode button that lets you choose from 8 preset modes right on the light, whether you have a smartphone or not. There are 4 white modes from warm to cool, and four color changing modes. You won’t need WiFi or an internet connection to use the physical button, however, they are always the same 8 programs, and you can’t change them or choose any of the more advanced customizations or routines.

Overall, this wall light is exactly what I was looking for to replace and modernize our old hallway light fixture. It’s got lots of settings and colors that I can change easily in the app or by voice command, built in timers and schedules, and was super easy to install whether you’re using it indoor or outdoors. I really like that I can change the direction of the two lights and point them forward, at the wall or to the sides. I've positioned the upper light to shine light down the hallway while the lower one illuminates the top of the adjacent stairwell. The light is bright enough for our needs though can be dimmed as well, and I can still just flip the switch on the wall to turn it on and off, and it’ll remember the setting that I want when it’s turned back on.

Buy it at Amazon: XMCosy+ Smart Wall Light Indoor Outdoor Sconce [Affiliate Link]