iHome iSP6 Smart Plug

We have a low voltage outdoor lighting system, but the transformer has a standard wall plug rather than being hard-wired. I've always wanted the lights to come on at sunset and turn off at midnight. Aube used to make an in-wall wall switch that knew when sunset was (you tell it your latitude and set the time), but it was only available as a hard-wired switch. I made an improvised "switch box" with a plug and socket to allow this gizmo to control our lights, but it wasn't very pretty and I doubt UL would have approved.Since my introduction to HomeKit, I've come to discover that linking together sensors and actuators from different manufacturers is not only possible, but pretty darned easy. There are a bunch of HomeKit equipped smart sockets like this one, so my primary driver for this purchase was price.When it arrived, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to install. There is a HomeKit ID label right on the bottom of the switch (some other HomeKit devices attach the label to the manual, which means you must never lose it or you have a paperweight). The setup process is just to plug it in, hold down the reset button and go through the pairing process with the app. Having done that, you can turn the outlet on and off either with the vendor's app or with HomeKit. And in HomeKit, you can easily set two rules to turn the switch on at Sunset and off at midnight - far, far easier to do than setting up those Aube switches ever was.An added plus is that this switch is WiFi equipped/controlled, meaning that it doesn't require any other device (like a bridge) to connect to HomeKit, and (unlike Bluetooth) the range should be quite good.

**2020 Update**We have 11 of this version and two iHome Outdoor Smart Plugs. Every once in a while we have to reset a plug, but that is par for the course with any technology. Otherwise, I have absolutely no complaints. I set them up in the iHome app and generally control them with HomeKit on my phone. We're heading into our 4th holiday season using these and still highly recommend. Actually, it's time to stock up on a few more!**2018 Original Post**I bought three of these when I moved into my new home a year ago because of weird lighting situations, and completely fell in love. Christmas was what really pushed these over the edge for me! It was so nice to turn the lights on from my phone! Now I am gradually adding them to other rooms throughout the house, as I can talk my husband into the $25-ish price tag for each outlet. These report to work with both Alexa and HomeKit, though I only have experience with HomeKit. You do have to use the native iHome app to initially set up schedules, but otherwise I only ever use HomeKit. Never have any trouble with it. Set up took about five minutes for the first one and a minute or two for the rest. Very easy to connect to your wireless network. I plan on buying more in the future and at least one outdoor version. The only small con I have experienced is whenever we have power outages, I have to reset at least one of the smart plugs. But I have to reset digital clocks at power outages too. It seems to be expected.

Update: 1/12/2018: I can no longer recommend this product. After a few weeks of working well, all of a sudden, a message appear on my phone saying that the firmware on the plugs has been updated. Now, the plugs have a noticable lag in response (imagine flipping on a light switch and the light not coming on for up to 30-seconds and sometimes not coming on at all) and the plugs no longer work with multiple devices (you have control to turn on the lights but no one else in the family can). In the past, you could share your configuration with multiple phones so everyone in the household can control the lights. Sharing is no longer working after the update. The plugs only work can only be paired with one device so therefore only one person can control the lights. There's no setting to allow automatic firmware updates - it just happened overnight without my permission and now things no longer work. I've manually reset and reinstalled the plugs - to no avail. After calling 800-288-2792 for support the rep said that this is a known issue with iOS devices and that there is currently no fix available.Previous Review:This review is for the Smart Plug being used with 2 iPhone 8's running iOS 11. For some reason, people are writing reviews here for the iHome Sensor, not the Smart Plug, so I just wanted to clarify. These plugs and the free app together work very very well. I have 5 installed and another 2 coming and am very impressed with the ease of set up, functionality and interface. Yes - it will only join a 2.4 mhz wifi, not a 5 mhz network. Not a deal breaker for me. Setting up each plug took less than 5 minutes and I've had no issues with the plugs losing connection to the network. If your plug is dropping its wifi connection, it probably needs a stronger signal. The iHome Control app is easy to use and I actually prefer it to the Home app by Apple. You set up each plug using the iHome app, then integration with Homekit is as simple as scanning a unique code in the instruction booklet with your phone (like a QR code). You need to have iCloud Keychain set up on your phone and you need to create an account in the iHome app. Both of which are painless. I haven't gotten spam or anything - yet. Once you've set up and named each device, you can share your configuration to other users and their phones or iPads. One unexpected outcome is that once you've connected your devices to the Smart Plug, you no longer have the ability to turn on those items manually. Since the Smart Plug toggles power to your device, if the Smart Plug is set to OFF and you want to manually turn on your device, you 1st need to reach for your phone to switch the Smart Plug to ON. It's kind of weird that if I'm standing right in front of my lamp, I still can't turn it on unless I have my phone to activate the Smart Plug. Not a flaw with this product, just an inevitable outcome of using a Smart Plug. Also, this type of plug works better with devices that have discreet Power ON/OFF switches like a lamp or light. It doesn't work well with devices (like many electronics) that alter their state when turned off. For example, when I turn off my humidifier and then turn it back on, the electronic control panel of the humidifier requires the user to actually press the Start button again. So just because power is turned on via the Smart Plug, the humidifier still won't turn on without the user actually being present. I paid $27 for each, which feels steep. I can imagine prices coming down in the future. But design and execution so far are excellent.