Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Please Note: I am not an electrician. So, use my experiences at your own risk. Working with household AC can be extremely dangerous to you, your family, and your home. So, if any aspect of the install process causes you anxiety, I strongly urge you to hire a "real," meaning licensed, bonded, and insured, electrician to install it. It's really simple to just have Amazon arrange the installation for you. Now For My Review: I noticed immediately that this WiFi smart switch was packaged very professionally. It looks just as nice as a name brand switch which cost me almost twice as much. Inside the box, I found everything required to install the switch in a single gang switch box except the screwdriver and an AC circuit tester or multimeter. During the installation and testing of this switch, I wrote down the pros and cons I found and took some photos to share. Here they are: Pros: 1. This switch seems just as sturdy as any other switch in my house, WiFi or otherwise. I found the high-quality construction very reassuring during installation. There was no flex or give when tightening the screws. 2. I like that the switch uses screw terminals to attach the wiring rather than the push-in connections found in contractor grade electrical components. (After tightening, you can tug on the wire to make sure it is secure. If it moves, redo it. Take no chances with a wire possibly pulling loose later.) 3. This switch includes a matching white single gang glossy faceplate. The faceplate has a nice clean look with no visible screws. When you buy switches and outlets from local electrical supply stores, the faceplate is almost always a separate purchase. This faceplate is very attractive when combined with the sleek look of the switch, so definitely use it if you can. 4. The switch includes the mounting screws which will be hidden behind the faceplate when installed. Sadly, I had to use a different faceplate because there were three switches in my switch box. See the photos. 5. They include two wire nuts that are the appropriate gauge for twisting two wires together in standard electrical switches and outlets. These nuts are for connecting the ground and neutral wires from the electrical box to the two included extension wires. The ground wire you're looking for will be bare copper, or green insulated usually. The neutral is normally white. The extension wires (pigtails) are then connected to the switch. The line and load wires are connected directly to the switch. If you need to twist more than two wires together, you will need much larger wire nuts than those included. 6. One cool feature is the fact that the switch has an LED that shows when the switch is connected to WiFi. It makes it fairly easy to move your router around a bit to find a position where the signal is more reliable. If you see the LED fading in and out after the initial setup, your connection is probably poor. Mine turned out to be strong from the start. Pure luck, but I'll take it. 7. The switch works with an app called Smart Life which is simple to use and so far, appears to work as advertised. I've installed a number of other smart switch apps over the years, and this particular app was unusual because it worked perfectly on the first attempt. I installed it, gave it my WiFi info, and long-pressed the switch. The app detected the switch, and it just worked after that. When something just works, it's worth mentioning. 8. This switch is also controllable by voice using Amazon Alexa. You will need to add the Smart Life skill to your Alexa account *after* installing the app and adding the switch to the app first. It needs to be done in this order because Alexa gets the device information by telling the skill to request it from the app. 9. The switch itself seems to be a capacitive touch sensor. There is no mechanical switch to flip, wear out, or accidentally break off. You just touch the center of the flat glassy panel with your finger. It worked reliably for me and my wife and the smooth glassy surface of the switch earns bonus points for the "cool factor." 10. The center emblem on the switch and the WiFi indicator light up using LEDs which are a pleasant blue color. 11. The LEDs aren't so bright that your entire room gets lit up. I'm sure you've seen the ones I'm talking about on other devices. Low flying aircraft try to land on your lawn when they spot some of the blinding power LEDs I've seen installed on electronics. Cons (sort of): 1. This is a con of installing any switch or outlet really, not this one specifically. For this switch, the instructions were actually fairly easy to follow, but I should warn you that the idealized diagrams/images in the instructions won't match what you are likely to see when you open up the average wall switch, at least in the United States. Electricians in the U.S. leave a lot of excess wire in the electrical boxes to allow for future repairs or replacements. All of that extra wire is stuffed inside the box in a tangled mess. Even worse, the wires are pretty difficult to bend, especially when 5 or so are twisted together. So, it becomes a wrestling match to pull the wires out of the circuit box during installation. On top of that, the neutral wires are usually twisted together at the very back of the switch box, making them the most difficult wires to access. This switch requires a neutral wire to power the electronics and LEDs in the switch. So prepare to spend a lot of time wrangling wire bundles. There is no avoiding it. (Hint: Another good reason to hire an electrician.) See my photos for a peek at the nightmare inside the box. 2. This is me being picky, but I wish the screws which hold the wires in place were a bit more heavy duty. I feel like more substantial screws might yield a tighter grip on the wire. I'm not saying the existing screws don't work. They seem to work fine. I just think they would be a little easier to tighten if they were larger. I also wish they used Torx or Allen head screws. I am not a fan of Phillips or slotted head screws, because I always seem to damage them during tightening, especially when they are smallish screws. This time was no exception. I tried three different sizes of Phillips driver and still managed to destroy the top of the screws. Torx or Allen screws are just a personal preference and it is not the "normal" way it is done in electrical boxes, but I can dream, can't I? 3. The wire nuts that are included are fine for twisting two wires together, but if you have more than two wires, you need a bigger wire nut. I happened to have five neutral wires to twist together, so I had to reuse the one that was in the electrical box before the installation. Luckily it was pretty big. <<< Safety Tips For Installation >>> 1. Make sure the grip on your screwdriver is -not- metal. Only screwdrivers with rubber or plastic grips (non-conductive) should be used for wiring tasks. Seriously. Never use a screwdriver with a metal handle to work on electrical circuits. 2. Of course, you should always turn off the power at the breaker/fuse box before working on any household electrical wiring. You should also keep in mind that breakers and fuses can sometimes be mislabeled, so it's never safe to assume that the power is truly off unless you carefully test it before working on it. Which leads to my next tip. 3. I recommend using a multimeter (or AC circuit testing device) to verify that the power is off before working on any of the wiring in your walls. The amount of current flowing through household wiring is far more than enough to kill a person, so don't take any chances. 4. Never touch any conductive parts of a circuit with both hands at the same time. If there is somehow still electricity flowing through the circuit, touching metal and/or bare wires with both hands could cause current to flow up one arm, through your chest, and down the other arm. You can imagine what happens to your heart when a powerful electrical current flows through it. Seriously. Don't do it. 5. Read the included installation instructions at least twice. Study every detail of the wiring diagrams and photos. If, after studying the instructions, you have any amount of doubt about being able to do this wiring safely yourself, just hire an electrician. As I keep saying, it's not worth the risk. 6. Have a fire extinguisher nearby which is appropriate for electrical fires. I believe that would be a class C designation. All of mine are class ABC. 7. Don't work on this alone. Have another person in the house who can check on you to make sure you haven't been injured by electrical current. If you're unconscious, you can't dial 9-1-1. Overall, this switch turned out to be a high-quality product at a great price. Using these instead of a big name brand will let you convert your switches to WiFi for around half the price. From my own experience, these are more attractive than the name brand I tried. Plus, they have all of the same functionality, and actually turned out to be more dependable in my use. Try one to see if you get the same results. I can definitely recommend this switch. Be sure to click if this information was helpful. Thanks!