Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I recently started the process of smart-ifying our house and after hearing positive things from others, decided to go with a Wink Hub and one of these Wink Relays. First, the positives: In short I like the interface, and it looks nice on the wall. It does what it's supposed to do, and it does it well. I'm looking forward to what future software updates will bring. The things I don't like about this product are design-related. Full disclosure...I don't pretend to be a professional electrician/contractor/whatever. However, I have a LOT of experience and a very high comfort level with electrical. In my time I have troubleshot, installed, replaced numerous light switches, outlets, and various other electrical components, including installing new electrical boxes to connect and branch off of existing wiring. In short, I know what I'm doing. That being said, the installation-design of this thing is clumsy. I don't mean this in a disrespectful way to anyone who is attempting to do this on their own, but it is clearly built in a way that caters to the "lowest common denominator" of installers, and because of that, it's not as solid as it should be. They should really offer a "basic" and a "pro" way of installing it. The way this device works is in addition to being able to control anything else in your house that's already "smart-capable," it replaces the existing physical switch(es) where you're installing it, thereby turning those devices into smart-capable devices. (Note however that the one or two loads that are hardwired to the relay CANNOT be dimmed, or speed-selected [e.g. a ceiling fan]...on or off, that's it.) The Relay is able to control one or two hardwired devices, and you can install it in a 1-gang or 2-gang application. Since it can control two hard-wired loads, Wink recommends installing this in a 2-gang scenario, in order to get the most bang for your buck by making two devices "smart" instead of just one. However, due to the design of the Relay, installing this on top of a 2-gang box makes it feel really flimsy. Even though they give you these "blanks" to snap onto the two sets of terminals on the back of the Relay that you *won't* be utilizing, the blanks aren't tall enough to sit on top of your sheet-rock. They're basically just as tall as the electrical box itself. And, if you know contractors, you know they're lazy, and rarely does an electrical box *exactly* meet the edge of the sheet-rock after it's installed, and rarely is there no "give / wiggle" to an electrical box. Any give in the electrical box and you're going to feel it when you push on this thing in a 2-gang installation, because half of the electrical box is now essentially a big hole with no hardware in it. It does not inspire confidence. I ended up doctoring things up a bit (see my pictures), to make this thing less flimsy on the wall. I bought a decor switch-blank to put on the other side of the electrical box, so there's something to give this thing a bit of resistance when you push on the side where there's now a big gaping hole behind the Relay. Additionally, I added some stick-on velcro to both the Relay-blank and the switch-blank, for added stability and padding. Now, this thing feels like it's attached solidly to the wall. Note that you may have to tweak the spacing a bit, again depending on how aligned your box is to the sheet-rock. In between both the receptacle and the blank I installed, I used some spacers to align them correctly. The other thing that is kind of bothersome is the fact that this thing doesn't cover/protect the electrical box behind it very well, and it doesn't sit completely flush to the wall (this is by design). Even with the Relay installed in the center-most position (and yes, I did try all three positioning options to see if one worked better than the others), if you get up close to it and (in my case) look at the right side of it, you can actually see into the electrical box, because the "terminal blanks" that Wink provides don't really span a large enough area on the back of this thing. Again, see my picture for example. And no, it's not related to how my electrical box is installed. It's cut out correctly, without a lot of excess space between the box and the sheet-rock or anything like that. This is just how it is. If this is how it's going to be mounted, Wink should really provide some kind of trim piece to go around the outside of the unit, making it so there isn't space between the back and the electrical box cutout. I may end up just making some sort of trim piece myself at some point... Cool idea for a product, just not entirely well executed. It does seem to work well once you work out the install bugs. UPDATE 1/13/17: The Relay is a bust. I had two of them and after a month of use, returned them both. One of them died for no reason (gave some weird error message about "encryption" and then wouldn't boot up again). They're slow, clunky to navigate, and they don't look good on the wall due to reasons listed above. I'm keeping the Wink Hub 2 because I like that, as well as their iPhone app...but the Relay is just a dud. Maybe they'll get it right next time. In the meantime I'm ordering some Amazon Dot Echos and will accomplish what I was using the Relays for, instead using voice control. If I decide I really want a standalone "Relay-type" device, I'll simply buy some cheap Android tablets, mount them somewhere and install the Wink app on them as it would be an all-around better experience.