Wemo Smart Light Switch

When I purchased my home my outside lights were on a timer that would turn the lights on at night and off in the morning.  All was working great for a while until somehow the timer lost its settings and was either on or off all the time.  This was an older Intermatic timer that are infamously hard to program.  I  found a manual online and was able to get it programmed again but then about 6 months later it lost its settings again.  Frustrating.

So I decided to look at some of the new smart light switches.  These switched can be controlled remotely from your phone and programmed to turn on and off at sunrise and sunset.  There seems to be a lot of them out there but I kept landing back on the WEMO light switches.  They are relatively inexpensive and are reviewed pretty well.  Installation was easy if you are familiar with basic electrical work.   I am no expert but I can switch out a light when necessary.  Setup was pretty straightforward as well.  I couple things to keep in mind before purchasing.

1. Make sure the outlet has a neutral wire, this switch will not work without one
2. Make sure the switch is not 3-way, controlled by two switches.  This will not work either.
3. Make sure you get good wireless reception where you will be installing the switch.  It will not work without a good signal.

Once you get the switch installed.  You need to download the app and it will guide you through the setup process.  It created its own temporary network that you need to connect to then you add and name your switch.  You can control the switch manually, from the app or set up rules to have the switch turn on and off at a certain time.  I used the sunrise/sunset settings which adjusts the on/off times throughout the year.  So far so good.  The app can be a little flaky as it has shown the light as on when it was really off a few times.  The app does have a refresh button that usually resolves the issue.  I have cut power to the house a few times and the switch had no problem reconnecting to the network.

This isn't a smart product that is going to save me any money but it is a nice set it and forget it product that replaced a switch that was giving me a headache.  I have a few more outside lights that are not on timers that I will probably upgrade at some point.  Great product that I highly recommend.    

Update: After 5 years my Wemo switch died.  Well the switch still works as in I can still turn on/off the light with it but it seems to have lost its wifi connectivity.  Which is the while point of the switch, if I can't run automations and schedules it is just a dumb switch.  It is showing as unresponsive in Alexa and even the Wemo app can't see it.  I tried factory resetting it and adding it back in but it was a no go.   I called their support line and after about an hour of trouble shooting the support rep also concluded that it was dead.  It was obviously out of warranty but I was at least expecting them to offer me a discount on a new switch.  But no.  So it now seems that there are other manufacturers offering similar switches for half the cost so I will post a new update when I get my new switch.  So at this point I would not recommend the Wemo switch.  I think a premium product such as this should last more than 5 years.