I provide honest ratings and reviews on tech, toys, and consumer home goods that I've purchased and used. Reviews are based on hands-on testing and personal observations. All opinions and comments are my own.
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Takeaway: Easy to setup and control remotely, various useful scheduling options. You'll receive the WiFi outlet and instruction manual. The outlet has a plastic housing and measures 2" square and 1" thick. It has a three prong grounded plug and a single power button on the left hand side with an embedded status LED. To set up the socket on your home WiFi network and control it, you'll need to download and install the Smart Life app to a mobile device.
Just plug the device into any outlet (it shouldn't block the other outlet in a dual socket panel). Adding the device via Smart Life to the WiFi network was quick and easy in under a minute. In the app you can turn the outlet on and off by tapping the socket icon. You can add weekly schedules for the outlet with specific on/off times on different or multiple days of the week. There is also a 'countdown timer' mode that will flip the status of the light from off to on or vice versa and a 'cycle' and 'random' mode as well.
To use the outlet with Alexa enable the Smart Life skill in your Alexa app. Then run discovery mode to add the outlet to your list of devices. For Alexa commands, I've only been able to control on and off for the outlet and not set timers via voice control.
The outlet works as expected and the various timers/schedules are easy to setup. It's great to be able to control devices like lights, air conditioners, fans, and even the slow cooker remotely from anywhere I have an internet connection. I can also shut off appliances that I may have forgotten to like a space heater.
Takeaway: Easy set up, effortless wireless control, reliable The WiFi outlet comes with a brief instruction manual that shows you how to setup the app for wireless control of the unit and make is work with Amazon's Alexa assistant. The smart plug has a plastic housing with a 2" in diameter. It will stick out 1" from the wall when plugged in. Also, if you plug it into the top outlet of a two outlet panel, the lower portion of the plug might block part of the bottom socket, so I recommend, instead, plugging this unit in the bottom of a dual socket panel. The unit has a single power button on the side for manual on/off and the button has an LED behind it to indicate the different modes. When plugged in for the first time, it will start flashing rapidly, which means it's ready to be added to your home WiFi network. Using the Tuya Smart app, you can add the device and give it your home network's WiFi password. Once connected to the network, you can use the app to switch on and off the outlet and whatever is plugged into it. The app also has the capability to set a coutdown timer trigger or a set daily or weekly schedule for on and off times. Amazon's Alexa can find and control the socket as well using the Tuya Smart skill for powering on and off the outlet. However, the voice commands don't work for setting scedules and delayed triggers.
Setting up the unit only takes a few minutes and it works great for its intended purpose both for remote control via the app from anywhere you have an internet connection and via the voice commands. Just remmeber that the socket has a few load restrictions and can handle devices up to 10A and 1100 Watts.
