Pros: • Setup was relatively easy. Only took me about 10 minutes.
• Minimal packaging. One part, quick start guide, and support booklet.
• Three prong plug – good and safe for grounding.
• App is easy to use and provides basic on/off, scheduling, and usage monitoring.

Cons: • Must use a phone app. See other thoughts.
• Must use TP-Link’s app, which ties you to their ecosystem. Plus, it’s on their specific “Kasa” app ecosystem, which is not the same as the other TP-Link system (I have a webcam registered there…unity, please)
• Plug sticks out about 1.5-2 inches, making it hard to put in a tight space.
• Must be plugged into a top outlet.
• App issue: On an iPhone 4s, scheduling screen cuts off the lower portion of the screen to select day of the week.
• App issue: Cannot reset stats gathered, without deleting the device and adding it back OR unplugging the device and plugging it back in.
• App issue: statistics are way off. See other thoughts.

Other Thoughts: • The fact that you must use a phone (iOS, Android or Echo) is frankly, stupid. This ties the device to my phone and to an ecosystem. Why no web app?
• If you have multiple SSIDs on your network, ensure your phone is connected to the network that you want your Smart Plug to connect to. I made this mistake and it caused a little bit of grief.
• I have the unit plugged into another metering unit, which has proven accurate and reliable. The apps data collection is simply wrong: Today’s total runtime: 6.75 hrs. Past 7 days total runtime: 5.0 hrs.? Also Watts usage is off.
• The unit itself does use power, which is very small, probably because it needs to connect via Wi-Fi to your home network and power other parts of the device.
• I WANT to love this device, but the usage collection statistics are useless; and, it’s not much better than a programmable timer with less hassle. For instance, with a programmable timer, I do not need to use an app and other family members do not need to either. Someday, when the IOT is ubiquitous and not tied to one manufacturer and its app, it will be a worthwhile thing. This is definitely an early-adopter device. Yes, it is easy to setup and easy-ish to use, but it has drawbacks that make it more of a hassle than a great assistant, which is what it is supposed to be.

Pros: I had most of my lights in my house set up as RGB-LEDs that are controlled remotely from my phone, but a lamp/wax warmer obviously couldn't. In comes this little wonder. It was easy to set up and connect to my my WiFi network. Once connected I was able to turn on and off the wax-warmer. What amazed me was how fast the wax-warmer switched on.

I tested it further, to see how it works on via purely my Cell service. I did notice that it missed at first, but once I closed the app on my phone and re-opened it it clicked my wax-warmer on and off. Next I tried it from my office, I logged into my houses camera and turned on my wax-warmer and saw it switch on almost instantly.

This is a handy tool, I look forward to buying some more.

Cons: When I first started using it I was alarmed by a loud audible click when switching this on or off. I've been using it for a while and it's reliability has washed awaw any concern I had. One minor issue I have is that this MUST be set up with an Android or iOS App. Both OS's are extra-ordinarily popular, but offering a PC accessible web installer or even Windows 10 App store App (so as to cover phones/tablets/PCs running Win10), would make this even more accessible for the few out their who don't have an iOS or Android powered device.

Other Thoughts: This works as advertised and works well. I like that it keeps track of power-usage, and it's cools seeing how much juice my gaming PC uses, but I find that using this for a lamp or in my case a wax-warmer to make my living-room smell nice while I'm driving home, is the best use I found for this delightful device.

It's also great for pranking your friends making them think your house is haunted, when you have to step out of the room.

Pros: This energy monitoring Wi-Fi smart plug from TP-Link is a really nice, and simple, device for anyone wanting to remotely monitor and control items around their home. Something you can do both at home and away.

So what can it do?

First off, setup is very simple.

* Download the TP-Link Kasa app to your Android or Apple phone or tablet.
* Plug in the device and whatever appliance or item you wish to monitor and/or control.
* Press the button on the smart plug then launch the Kasa app and connect to the plug.

At this point the app will give you the option to create an account for remote, non-local, monitoring and control for when you're away from home. You can either do this, or skip it, and setup for local use only. You do not have to create an account to use the plug locally.

Once you do this, it will locate the plug, enter your Wi-Fi password if you have one, and then setup the plug. It's quick and easy! The app also has the ability to handle multiple plugs and range extenders at one time.

Once you're all setup, you can see all sorts of useful information. Such as usage in kWh, total run-time, current power draw in watts, total consumption in kWh, with averages over the past 7 and 30 days for all the tracked data. You can setup a schedule for the device your controlling, as well as a timer or "away" mode. Or, just turn it on and off manually as needed.

The point is, this TP-Link Smart Plug is not only easy to use, but it works great. It was tested using several different appliances over the past few weeks. Such as a coffee pot, lights, TV, etc. We connected it to just about everything.

If you're in the market for something that can not only monitor your energy usage, but give you more intelligent control over it, then this plug is for you.

Cons: Not really a con, but something to mention.

The plug is somewhat large, so keep that in mind when it comes to palcement.

Other than that, I ran into no issues with the plug at all.

Other Thoughts: I really like this smart plug from TP-Link and highly recommend it to anyone in the market for such a device. It works wonderfully, has all the expected and needed features, and it's very simple to use. A credit to TP-Link's line of products.

Pros: easy, simple setup. allows you to monitor power consumption, schedule timer, and set schedule when you're on vacation.

best home security prevention without using a single camera. just turn on a light from half the world away.

Cons: does not work with Echo.

needs 2.4ghz band to work, most people run dual band wifi at home so it's not a big problem

Other Thoughts: all in all, a good first smart plug to fiddle with and enter the new age of 'nest' homes. try it, and see what works work you, if you need more features wait for the next updated device or next generation of smarter plugs.

Pros: This is a nice little gadget to have if you really like to try to conserve energy, personally I had not ever concerned myself with that.
Just use my electric as needed and pay the bill when I receive it. I must say though that as fun as this device is I may purchase some more to use on a few of our household items that we tend to leave running way to much.
I really like the idea of being able to setup the away mode having a certain lamp or lamps come on at certain times to give the appearance your home when you are on vacation or at work, giving you a little determent to would be burglars.
To setup the device you need to download the free Kasa app for your android or apple device, from the app you can control the device for power on/off.
To setup a timer to turn off an electronic device or appliance, that was only needed for a short time and you forget to turn it off yourself.
You can purchase the echo app separately giving you voice control.
Energy usage monitoring something most (including myself) really never think about is a very nice feature, being able to get an idea of just what is costing you the most on your electric bill. Say that gaming laptop, or desktop, maybe your TV, gaming console, you name it. It is fun just to test different items in your home just to see how much electricity they use.
Of course you can also be devious by using this device to mess with your friends when they come over and turn off something they are using just for fun.

Cons: I really have no cons for this item at present time.

Other Thoughts: Overall it is a nice product, it does give you the opportunity to become more aware of your energy cost items and usage.
Something I had not concerned myself with, but after experimenting with this one I may pick up some more of these.
Read the instructions when setting up so you can have an easy time using your new smart plug device.
Pick some of these up, save some money in the long run helping keep your power usage down.

Pros: I have several timers scattered around my house to automatically turn things on and off. All of them have issues of some kind or another. The rotating disc ones always start to wear out and cease to function after a while plus the actual programmed times are, at best, guesses on the dial. The digital ones work better, but they don't adjust for daylight savings time changes and they limit the number of on-off schedules.

This smart plug has none of the shortcomings of "dumb" timers and adds quite a few features. Since this is a network connected device, you can access it from anywhere in the world if you have internet access. You can program multiple schedules for all days of the week, and even set it to away mode if you are out for an extended period. If you wish, you can power on or power off the outlet on demand using the Kasa app. The app also reports the following:

- Current power consumption and daily averages over the last 7 and 30 days
- Total power consumption and total power consumption over the last 7 and 30 days
- Current runtime and daily averages over the last 7 and 30 days
- Total runtime and total runtime over the last 7 and 30 days

It works exactly as advertised and has always been accessible remotely using my Android phone.

Cons: Like all new electronics, I took it out of the box and tried to get it working without reading any directions. My first instinct was that the button on the device works for WPS pairing with my router. It's not. There is no WPS connecting feature. You must, without exception, set up this device using the "Kasa" app on a smart phone. This is available on iOS and Android only, no Windows phones. After I had it successfully set up and connected to my router I even tried to connect via IP using a PC on the same network to access the settings on the smart plug. This does not work.

In short, you MUST have an iOS or Android device to set this smart plug up.

Other Thoughts: Since this outlet can measure current power usage, one can use this in a similar fashion as a P3 Kill-A-Watt meter say, for example, if you were curious how much power your PC is drawing at full load. This outlet will tell you.

This smart outlet also purports to be able to be used with the "Echo" (another smart device sold by that online store named after a very large rain forest in South America). I don't have an Echo so I cannot confirm this. However, it may be a nice solution for a disabled or elderly person. This device plus the Echo would essentially allow one to turn lights, or anything else connected to the outlet, on and off by voice command.

Pros: +Great device for remotely controlling electronics in your home. You can even be away from your home and still control it.

+Great for easily seeing how much power any electronic is using.

+It’s very easy to set up using the Android app, which works great and is simple and easy to use with useful information.

+Can view the stats remotely on your phone/tablet instead of having to be up close to the device itself.

*It’s not a con, but just know that it requires a phone or tablet, using their free app, to use the features. There is also a manual on/off button on the device itself.

Cons: None that I have come across yet.

Other Thoughts: I really like this Smart Plug a lot. I have been trying it on so many things in our house to determine how many watts each device is consuming because I have always wondered that. I have learned a lot about what is consuming most of the electricity and what isn't. My high end desktop computer for example draws 357w playing games, which was higher than I expected. While my Xbox One was drawing roughly 100w playing games, 55w just on, and 1.7w turned off.

I learned that my Time Warner Cable box draws 14w turned on, yet still draws 13w when its turned off, which surprised me. That isn’t much saving when turned off. It must be more of a sleep mode.

My TP-Link AC3200 router draws 11.7w using 3 wifi channels, and 9.87w with using 2 wifi channels.

Using the app, it can also be used to remotely turn any electronic on/off whenever you want, or set a schedule of automated times/days you want it turned on and off. You can also set a onetime timer for how long you want before the device turns on, or set the timer how long before it turns off, which has good uses, such as limiting how long you want a battery to charge in order to not overcharge it if it’s using a dumb charger.

Its Energy Usage screen displays the current real-time power draw, in watts along with the total kWh power consumption. It also displays the past 7 day average and past 30 day average use. The app itself is very well done and I have no complaints about its size at all.

If you buy more than one Smart Plug, and using the app, you can also easily add multiple devices that you can control and give a name to each. It does list 20amps as the maximum current that can be connected to this Smart Plug. If you plug it into the top outlet then you can still access the bottom outlet if you need it.

I was a little worried at first about its range, if I could reach the opposite end of our house from the router, and it still works great there with no problems.

I have been very happy with all the TP-Link products I have owned lately, plus they usually come with nice packaging.

Pros: Fairly small footprint

Cheap

It does what it advertises.

This is sort of a cheap guy’s solution for scheduling your lights and portable heaters. This is extremely useful for us Alaskans coming home from work and already have our place heated.

The timer is VERY useful for USB chargers. If you are a hobbyist drone operator. Plug your USB charger into this device and set it to be on for only 1 hour cycles. Due to a lot of VERY BAD designed hobbyist drones out there, they will continue sucking electricity even when fully charged. This helps save you some electricity :)

Cons: Forced to create an account to control your device remotely. In this day and age, it makes no sense in any way to have a business-controlled server for your devices.

Non-standard protocol.

Instruction card is incorrect. It is missing a step … You need to connect to the device’s wifi in order to set it up. That is not listed in the instructions, but it does cause all sorts of headaches until you figure that out.

Other Thoughts: The smart plug is a simple device. Comes in a small box, and a huge (read think), printed out GNU license notice. If they kept that digital, it would have save them some money :)

It came with a technical support card and a quick start guide card.

Test control devices:

iphone 6
ipad 2
samsung 18” tab
samsung galaxy 5

Test victim :)

Generic 20” box fan

Download the app, connect to wi-fi, launch app, follow instructions. Dead simple. App on both oses work work the same.

The stats are nice to see, but would be more useful if you can query the device programmatically, and pull the stats on demand.

All and all, this isn’t bad at all.

Oh! One other thing. Use plugin extenders. I recommend “Etekcity 10 Pack Power Extension Cord Cable Strip“ or something similar. This will block 2 - 3 other plugin slots and an extender will prevent blockage.

4 eggs!

Pros: Terrific...easy to setup and monitor. Programmable weekly schedule, timer, away and vacation function. The away vacation function allows you to turn any device on or off at random times to present a stay at home appearance, a plus. Works as advertised and provides you with power monitoring that is useful...wattage and kw/h. Has a solid build, very sturdy, and provides a grounding plug. Small footprint and wireless access allows monitoring of refrigerators, TVs, computers, and even items that maybe plugged in behind the bed. I will be purchasing some for areas throughout the house.

Cons: Not really a con, but the app to run the away or vacation function uses about 25MB on Android phones, did not test on Apple or Windows. Seems a bit much for what the device functions, but first generations are always a bit high.

Other Thoughts: I recommend buying this product if you are curious as to which items in your house is a power hog. Overtime with multiple units you can cut your electric bill. It even shows usage when the attached item (TV, computer) is turned off. This is an excellent item to purchase for home or office use .

Pros: Easy setup
Physical power button
Power usage stats
Runtime stats
Scheduling
Away mode
Timer

Cons: Bulky
Covers both outlets

Other Thoughts: This is an impressive device that doesn't require a smart hub to function. It has all of the features that I could want like on/off scheduling, timer, power monitoring, etc.

I've been converting a lot of my home's switches to smart switches and putting some appliances on z-wave appliance modules. For more modest control, this fits the bill nicely. Without requiring a hub, you get a lot of great features.

I did run into a snag at first in figuring out which app to install for this as I lost the little paper insert for a day, but did end up finding the Kasa app eventually without it. The only real hangup I can see most people having with this is in remembering their wireless password.

I ended up connecting this to my Blu-ray disc player that has a tendency to freeze up while streaming video. This saves me the hassle of getting up and unplugging the thing and plugging it back in.

I didn't test out the scheduling or timer functions too much as I don't really need them currently, but they seemed to function alright.

I found that the app will even let you assign a picture to the device so that you know quickly what it is powering.