Slitinto WiFi Smart Plug Socket Compatible with Alexa, Google Home, Mini Smart Outlet with Energy Monitoring, Remote Control and Timer Function, No Hub Required, 16A (4 Pack)

I bought 8 of the plugs and they all paired first time. (The pairing process is via Bluetooth, and all it does is talk to your phone handset to enable the Smart Plug to know which WiFi network to connect to and the password for it, which you have to type in. Once the Smart Plug has that it's all set and it contacts the cloud server of Slitinto via the Internet and sends its status. It does that ad infinitum forever more. The app on the phone then gets the info from the cloud server to display to you, and the app controls it via the cloud server too. )I did find one of the 8 Smart Plugs I bought was faulty - it always reported an energy usage of 100W or more, even when no appliance was plugged into it! A factory reset did not solve this sadly. I tried it in a few sockets too, just in case. This one I will need to return and get a replacement for.Finally I had one other issue with three of them - they were really stiff to plug an appliance into it. I guess the holes were a bit too tight or the safety shutters weren't opening smoothly. And one of the three was really stiff, but I managed to get a plug into it with a bit of wriggling and pushing. I thought once it is in it's fine as I won't be unplugging my dishwasher for a while. It functions fine electrically, so all good.Finally, the statistics usage is great, but I wish it showed a daily usage graph with hourly intervals so that I can see when appliances turn on. Of course the plug is always on, but when the fridge is running I see the power it is drawing is higher, so I know it's on. It would be nice if the main dashboard display shower the current power usage of the Smart Plug for each plug, rather than just saying it's on. All my plugs are always on, so that's not useful info for me really. Here's hoping for an app upgrade in the near future.

Although the Amazon Echo devices are great fun and very useful, the ability to switch devices on and off with your voice has to be the most fascinating.These arrive in two small boxes with two units in each and a user manual. The units are quite small with a 13A UK socket on the front, a UK 3-pin plug on the back and a button on the side. The button acts as a manual override and turn the power on and off. A long press of the button turns on the installation mode and indicated by a small indicator.Setting up is quite involved but pretty much straight forward. You have to have a mobile device and download the 'Smart Life' app. Following the prompts you can register the device so that the device can be turned on and off via the app. It took me about five minutes to get to this stage. If mobile control is all you need then you are done.If you want to control the device via Amazon Echo's Alexa then you need a further stage to link the two accounts. Yet again this is pretty straight forward and explained well in the manual. Once completed you will have full voice control.The devices use your Wi-Fi signals, so you can place the devices anywhere there is Wi-Fi coverage in your home or office. They seem to respond well even in very weak areas.Overall, these units work well and I'm very pleased with them.

I have bought a total of 16 of these sockets. They regularly come up as a “lightening deal” so look out for that.One batch of four had to be returned as the power monitoring on one socket read all zeros.There is also a difference between the graphics shown in the app. Some sockets have a blue background when they are on and some just a weak green switch symbol. I much prefer the blue, but consistency would be good so the app looks nice. There should be a firmware update to get them all the same.My WiFi is set to 2.4GHz and I had no issues connecting to my TalkTalk router. Once one socket had been given the password connecting the others asked if the same account should be used and after an affirmative answer they went ahead and connected. Having also set up the first socket with Alexa each new socket was immediately recognised with a verbal confirmation from the Echo during the connection process.I have had seven of these sockets in use over Christmas looking after the fairy lights and another turning on a heater to stop the pipes freezing in the garage. This uses the weather forecast feature on the IFTTT app to trigger “on” at 2 degrees and “off” at 3.5 degrees. Not as ideal as a dedicated WiFi thermometer (which I’ve been unable to find), but better than nothing.Throughout the festive period the sockets have worked perfectly. I tested them with the “Timer” (schedule) feature and the “Countdown” feature which turns the socket on, if it is off and off, if it is on, after a set period of time.I also tested the “out of area/into area” feature on IFTTT. Turning the Christmas lights off whenever I got half a mile from the house seemed a bit mean, but the grumpy comments confirmed that the function worked.As mentioned in other reviews the sockets do clash with the switches on some 13A sockets. It is more an untidy look rather than a threat to our very survival as some reviewers imply, but it is a shame that the designer, who made a great job of getting the aesthetics, of what is really just a white plastic cuboid, attractive couldn’t go the extra mile and ensured it fit flush in a switched socket.The sockets are rated at 16A so they should be capable of handling the maximum current of 13A drawn by a fused UK plug. It should be noted that lesser WiFi sockets on Amazon are rated at 10A. There is no replaceable fuse in the WiFi socket so the circuitry within it could be connected directly to a 30A ring main. It’s important that the holes in the socket are shuttered and they are.I will update this review if I have any problems in the future, but so far so good.UPDATE.I have been using these WiFi plugs around my house and garage for several years now and in general I have been very satisfied with their performance. Their ability to measure power consumption is very useful. Not least it proves whether they are on or off following remote commands from the app or Alexa and they can be used to discover exactly how much energy, for example, your dishwasher or freezer is consuming - both uses where the ability to remotely turn off the connected device is definitely not needed!On the down side I have received some sockets that were permanently turned on despite them connecting to my network and the relay clicking in response to commands from WiFi, or the side switch. I assume this is due to the relay contacts being welded together, but opening the socket up, as can be seen in another review, is not something for the fainthearted. One was also received which did not connect to my network, nearly twenty others have so this was returned as faulty. I have also noticed that the historical data for some of my sockets does not go back as far as it should; data is lost, so if you are using them for long term monitoring I would suggest you take written notes or regular screenshots of the “electric” display pages.