Woox Smart Plug Mini Outlet R4785 Works with Timer Amazon Alexa Google Assistant IFTTT, No Hub Required, CE RoHS Certified, 2.4GHz WiFi Enabled Voice Remote Control Socket White

Think of it as an internet-connected mains plug. Plug anything you like into it, and you can switch it on or off from anywhere in the world, using the app. Simple, but a really powerful concept. You could switch a light on or off to pretend you are at home, turn on a heater half an hour before you get back on a cold night, or schedule it to boil a kettle first thing in the morning.The plug is 13amp so should be suitable for any home appliance you care to connect.You can also link it to Amazon Alexa or Google Home, if you use one of those services. Then you can control it by voice as well.A small annoyance is that it requires a 2.4 GHz wifi connection. Most wifi access points still provide this, but 5 GHz is taking over so a bit of a shame.How does it work though? From the user perspective, it’s pretty simple. You install an app for Android or Apple iOS, register with Woox, plug in the device, run the app and enter your wifi password. This enables the device to connect to your wifi network.Who is Woox though? This matters, because when you set up the device it registers with a cloud service. Even though you have a firewall on your home network, the cloud service will still be able to communicate with the device because it makes an outbound connection, which most firewalls allow by default. This keeps a connection alive, so that when you are sitting in a hotel room and run your app, the app communicates with the cloud service, the cloud service communicates with your plug, and it turns on or off.This does mean that Woox now has access to your home network, so it is critical that you trust Woox to keep it secure. There have been cases (not with Woox as far as I know) of systems like this being easily cracked by third-parties, giving them access to your network as well.I verified this by looking at my firewall logs. The Wook smart plug makes a connection to a server on an EU region of Amazon Web Services every 3 seconds, regular as clockwork. The bandwidth consumed is very small so don’t worry about that.I couldn’t find out much about Woox except that it is a new company (summer 2018) and describes itself as having “Marketing center in Spain, R&D center in Shenzhen, China and its Logistics, Distribution and Service center in The Netherlands.”The reason it has brought the plug to market so quickly is that Woox has badged a product from Tuya Smart, a Chinese company which provides both the product and the cloud services.Personally I would prefer to have the service provided by a European company simply because the EU is better regulated. But I don’t mean to suggest that there is anything insecure about Tuya Smart. Just that you are trusting them with access to your home network and should be aware of that. Tuya Smart does say it is GDPR compliant which is some reassurance.Security is a big deal, and it annoys me that products like this make no mention of the issue but just ask you to accept the “magic” of a plug you can operate from anywhere

Connected to WiFi no problem. Google assistant connected no problem. App control no problem. The only thing wrong is that anything connected does not get powered on. The light switches on and off with commands and app control but nothing happens. I have a faulty plug! My curiosity led to further investigation. As a qualified electrician I know what to look for... The fault is shown in the pictures.. The contacts for the positive(live) are loose and separated too far apart to make contact with the male end of the plug when inserted. This is dangerous, the arcing effect could cause a fire. The solder joint to the live contact is also loose.I have emailed the makers and have had a reply. I returned the plug for them to investigate and refund /replacement is on the way. Edit.. 12/12/18 replacement works OK.

Bought 4 of these in the Black Friday sale, had them in my watch list for a few months before that.Set them up one at a time and they connected to my wifi in a few seconds. I have BT Broadband and only use the 2ghz channel. After setup using the Woox app I renamed each plug so I could easily find them again when I connected them to Alexa (this is something everyone should do, if the plug is in your kitchen then name it ‘Kitchen 1’).Asked Alexa to ‘search for new devices’ and in less than a minute I had the 4 new plugs show up in the Alexa app (with their room names). Less than 5 minutes later I had them all organised into groups and now have full control over my table lamps in both the conservatory and the living room.‘Alexa turn on my downstairs lights’, its as easy as that.So impressed I have ordered 2 more at full price.*edit*Just going to add to this review as I have read some of the more recent reviews left for this profuct and I honestly cant see how these people are having problems. All modern modems give you the option of running a 2ghz or 5ghz network, I simply turned my 5ghz network off as I seen online that it caused issues with the plugs connecting.I have 6 of these plugs in my home now and they work faultlessly. If the Woox representative on here wants to send me some of their new products to review I would love the opportunity as I am very impressed with their plugs.

I don't tend to write reviews, but had to get on and blast this product. As per the other negative reviews here, it just plain doesn't work.Connecting using "EZ Mode" (yeah...) doesn't work unless you are on a 2.4GHz WiFi network (you won't be, unless you've got a stone-age router or phone), and the alternative "AP Mode" just doesn't work at all. I tried for 30 mins then gave up, it's going back in the (now ripped, as the tab on the box is nearly as badly designed as the product) box for a refund. Please save your sanity and avoid this product.

Small, easy to install, works first and every time.Don’t believe the ‘IT experts’ who claim that despite their excellent technology skills they still weren’t able to set up and operate this device. If you were an IT expert and couldn’t get it working you might want to update your skills.It’s so simple to set up, literally anyone who can follow instructions should be able to do it. It’s not too big and bulky like other smart plugs I’ve got and has a very, very discreet indicator light.Tip: don’t worry reading the small instruction booklet. Just download the woox app and follow the steps.