WiFi Smart Plug Outlet Compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Home and IFTTT, SLITINTO Wireless Mini Smart Socket with Energy Monitoring, Timer, Remote Control from Anywhere - 2 Pack (Upgrade Version)

Recieved these smart plugs, connected to WIFI and Alexa within minutes and thought all would be good....and they were for a while but then everytime I would try and activate them either through my Echo or Alexa App I would get an unresponsive message back and the only way to get them working again was to unplug them and plug them in again....they would work for a while and then lose the WIFI again so are pretty pointless at doing what they're supposed to do.It's worth mentioning that I have other smart plugs (Tekin and others) that continue to work absolutely fine so it's not my WIFI, Dot or anything else - these one's are just rubbish so pay a little extra and get ones that work!!!

The smart socket field seems to have exploded in the past year or two, but prior to that there wasn’t so much choice. I’d acquired some Sonoff kit, partly because it’s cheap and partly because the circuit diagrams are available and they can be flashed with custom firmware. That did mean that I had eWelink on my phone, and an unwillingness to load the phone up with a different app for each smart socket prevented much exploration.The Slitinto smart socket has a couple of attractions over the equivalent Sonoff: it can tell you how much power is being used, and it’s small. The Sonoffs are much larger than a plug and can be awkward to use in a tight space, so time to check out to competition.The Slitinto smart socket is very compact - it is hard to see how they managed to pack everything into the form factor. No problems at all with adjacent plugs or adapters, shelves or floor above or below, or switch covering/pressing. The power button being on the side isn’t even an issue when using the right side of a double socket.Build quality seems good with no sharp edges, or joints not quite lined up. The switch doesn’t move much but has good feedback, and a thoughtful touch is the printing of a QR code on the base that your phone can use to download the Smart Life app.The Smart Life app is much of a muchness compared to similar apps. Whereas on eWelink/Sonoff you can set several timers and pick which one to trigger now, on Smart Life/Slitinto you can only set one timer, and you have to set it explicitly every time. Mitigating that is the ability to set up named sequences, so you can have a ‘turn off in 30 mins’ sequence which turns on the device, waits 1800sec (yes, timing is in seconds) and then turns off the device. This is probably a better way to do timers, but there’s not a lot between the two methods, and that’s basically how every feature compares.Add in the Alexa and IFTTT compatibility and the differences are even smaller. There isn’t a lot to say here other than it just works - you give Alexa the Smart Life account details and there are your smart things correctly named, etc.The Smart Life app is still needed to access a big feature of this smart socket: the real-time display of power being used. As well as the real-time display there is a graph of power use over time, but it is very low resolution, each value covering a day. However, this feature is worth just plugging the socket into something without using the smarts to turn it on and off. The attached screenshots show a flavour of these pages - the item plugged in is a plant light which doesn’t suck up a lot of power...No product is completely perfect, however, and this one is no different.The manual says that the LED indicator is red when the device is on, blue when off (and, presumably, online). In fact, the LED is only ever blue and is on when the device is on, off otherwise. As is normal for these, it flashes when setting up the connection, but otherwise doesn’t do anything other than show on/off status.The Sonoff, by contrast, uses blue or green to show online state, and red to show socket condition. I find this very useful to see if a socket is unavailable, and even if it has power applied (sometimes someone turns the socket switch off or the smart socket ‘nudges’ the switch) - with this Slitinto single-colour LED the only way you’ll find out that it’s unpowered or not online is when you can’t control it.One area of potential concern is heating. After running off the screencaps I noticed that the smart socket was warm to the touch (passing only 5W). I ran some further test which produced the two infrared photos. One shows the socket idling with no load and the other after about 10 mins with a 770W load. The case temperature hasn’t changed at all, which indicates that the warmth comes from the internal smarts and isn’t load dependent. Phew.The Slitinto smart socket is a very nice and well thought out with few downsides, and the Smart Life app is a slick companion app with which to control it. I think this is going to be my go-to smart socket in future.

These plugs look nice and feel good in the hand. They installed without much hassle. They work well with Alexa, which is very important to me.What you can't see in Alexa (as far as I can see) is the current / power consumption. Which is a big shame, you can only see the power details in the Smart Life app.The power button is subtle which is useful for the bedroom (dark room) usage.The reason I sent them back is that they are only rated at 10amps, which will be fine for most uses, but you will have to think twice with high current loads, for example, an iron, heater or kettle. You would have to check they don't overload the plug. I am lazy, I want to just be able to plug this in and not have to do some maths to make sure it's safe!These plugs won't sit next to each other in an extension strip, a bit annoying.If you just need to turn on a fan, a light or a laptop then this would be ideal. I would think twice if you have heavier loads in mind.

Please be aware that you will need to connect them via IFTTT to Samsung SmartThings hub. There is a slight delay as expected, but it works well. Annoying this is it only works with 2.4GHz network, but you can manage just make sure that your wifi is at 2.4 GHz during setup or else you will get annoyed with the setting up of these devices. I have been using these for about a week and they are really handy as they can be controlled from anywhere in your home. What I like about this product is that it is well made and discreet and fit into the normal UK twin socket. To set these up, first download the “Smart Life” app, register then plug in and hold down the blue button until it blinks rapidly, then follow instructions. Downloading is easy and controlling the smart plug via the app is easy the reason I brought this was so that I can it using my alexa app too, which I can do – so brilliant. The Smart Life app is still needed to access a big feature of this smart socket: the real-time display of power being used. As well as the real-time display there is a graph of power use over time, but it is very low resolution, each value covering a day. However, this feature is worth just plugging the socket into something without using the smarts to turn it on and off. The attached screenshots show a flavour of these pages - the item plugged in is a plant light which doesn’t suck up a lot of power. They were really easy to install, to name and then communicate via voice commands. There is an app as well, which is simple to set up. The app is called Smartlife and after download, all you have to do is plug in the smart plug, depress the button till the blue light flashes quickly, chose and add the device, set up a password and connect. It takes no time to set up. I found the remote feature really helpful whilst on holiday, I was able to turn on a lamp and the television remotely. Giving the impression that the house was occupied. It is excellent as well for other devices to turn on via voice. A brilliant product and I intend to buy more. The smart plug is no bigger than an ordinary plug and can be used as a timer as well or to monitor energy consumption, a great little all rounder. If you are considering buying these smart plugs, I highly recommend them, you won't be disappointed. The packaging from amazon wasn’t as expected, the outer box was almost puffed from sides and the box in which the plugs were kept was already open. I was worried they might be broken since they weren’t properly secured in the box. You will receive two white plugs with a small user manual. Overall I would recommend them if you don’t want to spend to much money and as a new user.