Belkin WeMo Light Switch, Wi-Fi Enabled, Compatible with Amazon Echo

I have 3 of these WeMo Light Switches and the household is really happy with them. I would connect more switches in our home if the price gets cheaper. It's been the most used home automation gadget in our home.INSTALLATIONFind the circuit breaker in your home and turn off the electricity to the light switch you are replacing - you WILL want to do this. I know you want to save yourself a couple minutes, but trust me, it's worth the couple minutes to avoid a life-threatening situation.Keep in mind that there are four wires coming out of this light switch and you MUST to connect 3 of them to make sure it's installed safely. There are two live wires (black), neutral (white), and ground (green). Only the ground wire is optional, you need to connect the other three to your light switch wiring - if your home doesn't have the neutral wiring (typically white or grey wire) in the light switch box, then you cannot install the WeMo Light Switch.We live in condo built in 2007 and our current light switches only have the live wires connected. I had to dig deep in the back of the light switch box to find the white/neutral wire - and we did not have a ground wire (typically green or copper). After taking off the old light switch, I used the wire nut to connect the 2 live wires which was connected to the old light switch - order doesn't matter, just connect one and then the other to each black wire on the WeMo Light Switch. Then I connected the neutral wire to the white wire on the WeMo. Then I capped the green wire by itself with the last wire nut.I shoved everything into the light switch box carefully to make sure nothing came loose. Every WeMo switch I installed was a big tight, since it is a little bulky. But moving the wiring around a bit, all of them fit snugly. After that, put on the faceplate, cross your fingers, and turn back on the electricity from the circuit breaker.I wanted to connected another one to a 3-pole switch (the one where you can control a single set of lights from two different light switch), but the site and direction said that I shouldn't. I think it'll be fine if I did, but I can see that the app and other connections (e.g. IFTTT) won't know if the lights are actually on or off.SETUPSetup was straightforward once you knew what to do. You first need to download the WeMo app from the App Store. Then you change the WiFi network on your phone/tablet to the new "WeMo..." network that now appears. On some Android devices, you need to selected "Stay Connected" when it prompts you that the wireless network doesn't have an internet connection. Once connected, launch the WeMo app and it should automatically detect that you're trying to set it up. From there, it's just naming the switch and choose your wireless network (only 2.4GHz networks will be detected, as the switch doesn't have 5GHz support). Keep note, that without fail, when I chose the option to "Remember Network Settings" the setup would fail and I would have to reset the switch and start all over -- not sure what the setting does, but I think it's best to leave it unchecked.USAGEThe app is now super responsive, but that wasn't always the case. I've had the WeMo Light Switch for about 3 years now and in the beginning, there was a second or tow lag. But after the numerous firmware updates over the years, the light switch is very responsive to the app commands...I mean, you can rapid fire on/off if you wanted to.I would be careful about installing this around things in your house that would cause wireless interference with the 2.4GHz network - namely, for me, the garage door opener. I have a Liftmaster and I installed the WeMo Light Switch in the garage. And after installation, the range of my garage door opener took a hit. It wasn't enough to make it unusable, but still a slight nuisance.Oh, and connect this to IFTTT.com. I have found so many cool recipes to use with this.

I bought 4 of these light switches about a month after they were released. I had been adding motion detector lights, dusk-to-dawn lights, etc., to both improve energy efficiency and safety in my house. My purchase was designed to move further toward both of these issues, along with a new Kwikset lock and some security cameras.Installation was relatively simple, even for someone who is not an electrician. As long as you have the proper wires and follow instructions, as other reviewers have mentioned, installation should not be too difficult (check before ordering though). Connecting to the WiFi was also not difficult for me. I have a Linksys router in the basement with a Linksys range extender upstairs and WeMo did not have any problems connecting when I followed instructions. The initial firmware update took quite a long time and the initial iPhone app version that I downloaded was *very* slow to detect the switches each time I loaded the app, but they seem to have fixed the latter issue.Once it was all setup, I LOVED it. I used IFTTT to automatically make sure lights were turned off at night and on in the morning, among other things. I really like the look of them and changed out many of my fan switches and other switches to the decorator-style to make it look even nicer. Really, really like the look of them, although I could see it not fitting as well in certain instances (I am definitely not an interior decorator). I do wish that these would work with 3-way lights (where you have two light switches that control the same light) or as dimmers, but unfortunately they don't.Here's the problem: two days ago, the power to the router went out for about 30 seconds, then turned back on. The internet and WiFi loaded fine and all of my devices worked fine - except two of the 4 light switches could no longer connect to WiFi! They would both just blink orange non-stop. I tried all of their support instructions on their website, which was minimal, and included resetting and restarting the device. Of course, now one of the switches started blinking green and I could no longer even turn the lights on manually. So I caved and called their support number (difficult to find, but calling the corporate headquarters 800-number routed me to support).Here is where it got really frustrating because, among other things, the person on the line spoke very poor English. It took about 35 minutes to get through the initial questions around model number, what lights were blinking, when I purchased the product, etc. In between each question, she would tell me to "hold on a second" and mute her line, before often (at least 10 times, no exaggeration) returning and asking me a question I had already answered. Multiple times, she forgot to mute her line and I heard her joking with her friends. But, OK, I only hold Belkin partially accountable for that. After over an hour, and having me try everything I already tried, she finally said she would send me a new one. For now, I have two switches that cannot connect to WiFi and one that cannot even turn the lights on.It is simply not worth all of this hassle just to be able to remotely turn some lights on and off. To make it worse: they only provide (poor) customer service for free for 90 days! After that, you have to pay to talk to someone. Luckily (unluckily?), mine broke after 60 days so I could get someone on the phone.I really wanted to like the product, and I would have if there was some quality control or better customer support, but unfortunately for me it didn't work out.