WeMo - Wireless Dimmer Switch - White

I bought 2 of these dimmers and 2 light switches. Both installation and setup through the app was straightforward. However, Apple HomeKit support is not there for the dimmers. The light switches do work with Apple HomeKit. Dimmers cannot get a HomeKit Setup Code, app just reads "NOT AVAILABLE YET" (see picture). I've been on the phone with Belkin several times, they could not figure it out. My case has been escalated to development and after days, I've heard nothing. If you want Apple HomeKit support, you will be disappointed. I am planning on returning the dimmers because I'm concerned they'll come out with new hardware for the dimmers to really support Apple HomeKit and then I'll be stuck as these are too pricey to replace for just this feature. I'm recommending this device but only as long as you don't care for Apple HomeKit support.

I have multiple WeMo Light Switches, WeMo Dimmer Switches and WeMo Smart Plugs at the time of this writing and I think I have a pretty good perspective on these WeMo products. I'm glad that WeMo updated their mobile application to require their users to have an account to manage their products. Before, you just needed their products to connect to a Wi-Fi network. It is also convenient to have WeMo linked to Google Assistant. Before, updating the firmware to the WeMo switches and smart plugs was a hassle because it was not very intuitive. You attempt to update the firmware for the products, but there is no progress bar or any notification to identify how long the firmware update will take. And the firmware update would either fail midway or the app freezes. But, it seems the WeMo app has improved. Since a WeMo switch comes with only a one gang decorator/wallplate, I had to buy some 2 gang decorator/wallplate from Home Depot for two (2) WeMo switches that are together. You can name your WeMo products, create rules and schedules, and select which WeMo product(s) you would like to use and set a time when to them turn on and off. Specifically, my WeMo smart plugs tend to be occasionally unresponsive when using Google Assistant. It is inconsistent when it responds correctly, but I think it is because my WeMo Smart plugs are placed pretty far from the router. Be mindful on the distance to your router when it comes to the WeMo products. You may need to place them close to your router or add a Wi-Fi extender to your home. Sometimes, Google Assistant may turn on the incorrect WeMo light switch. To troubleshoot, I will either use the WeMo app instead or relink my WeMo account to Google Home. That way, it’ll refresh my WeMo products in Google Home. For WeMo Smart Plugs, I disconnect them from the outlet and reconnect them and wait a few moments until connection has been established. If there is a power outage or if I lose Internet connection, WeMo is pretty good at reconnecting in a few minutes. But if it does not reconnect, you will just have to hold a small button underneath the light switch with a small tool or maybe a pen to restart the WeMo light switch. If it does not reconnect, you would need to reassign or reactivate the light switch through the WeMo app. I did have one WeMo light switch that lost power randomly after 10 months of use. I thought it was bad wiring, but when I replaced it, I have not seen any issues. I will continue to monitor it, but so far so good. I would recommend buying WeMo and I will most likely buy another one in the near future.

TL;DR version: If you are looking to integrate this dimmer switch into your Apple Home app, it doesn't work (as of June 11, 2020). Wemo tech support has acknowledged that their latest firmware broke the Homekit support and that their engineers are working on a solution. In the meantime, controlling it from the Wemo app works well with only a few flaws. Detailed review: I was looking for a smart dimmer to be able to remotely control LED recessed lights from my iPhone/HomePod/Apple watch. Since I already had two Wemo smart plugs that have been working flawlessly with Siri, I decided to stick with the Wemo branded dimmer. The physical switch was installed by my electrician since he was already installing the recessed lights. But he commented how easy it was to install provided proper wiring is available in the switch box. On my end, I was able to set it up in the Wemo app in just a couple mins but it never connected with the Apple Home app. Somehow the "connect" button was greyed out on the connections screen (see attached screenshot). Restarting the app and resetting the dimmer didn't help either so I called tech support. The rep had me try a few things but nothing worked. As a last resort, she asked me for the firmware number and then went on to state that the latest firmware had broken the Apple Homekit support in the dimmer. She said that their developers are aware of this issue and are working on a fix but didn't make any promises as to when that will be. This was disappointing because Homekit support was the main reason I purchased it. Anyway, I am planning to keep the switch for now and hoping that they release a firmware update soon. The physical switch works exactly like any other dimmer and lets you turn on/off and brighten or dim the lights. In my case, it is hooked up to LED recessed lights but I am sure you could control fluorescent and incandescent lights too (the app gives you the option to choose bulb type during initial setup). The Wemo app is where the switch comes alive! Beyond the basic on/off and dimming functions, there are options to precisely control the dimming level down to 1%, night mode to automatically dim the lights between certain hours (also a con; read below), timer function so the lights will slowly fade out (works beautifully) and the option to customize a long press so as to control more Wemo gadgets (works well). Not sure if all of these enhanced functions will work with the Apple Home app whenever that is released. Here are a few cons that I have observed so far: - I have the night mode set up to reduce brightness to 35% between 9pm - 6am. But it hasn't worked for me so far. 9pm comes around and the lights stay at whatever level they were before. - Another thing with the night mode is that if I turn on lights from the app between 9pm and 6am, instead of automatically coming on at 35%, they come on at whatever level they were before. - If I change the brightness level in the app, it immediately changes on the physical switch too which is great. But when I change the brightness level on the switch, it doesn't sync back with the app. As an example, if I reduce from 100% to 50% from the switch, the app will continue to show 100% even hours later. Moving the slider in the app immediately changes the level to whatever you choose. Overall the switch is good and does its basic jobs well. But with the lack of HomeKit support and the few glitches mentioned above, I can't give it more than 3 stars at this point.

If you've ever installed a light switch, this isn't any different. My installation was in a three switch box, so after switching off the breaker the hardest part was pulling out the other two switches to gain access to the neutral wire bundle I needed to connect to. Once that was complete, the other wires were connected and all switches put back in place, then off to switch on the breaker. One thing I noticed when reinstalling the switch plate/cover is this switch does stick out further from the cover compared to our other switches. Just an aesthetics thing. With power applied it took a couple of minutes for the switch to appear in the WeMo app and then I was able to access the Connect to Nest option in Settings to link the WeMo app to my Nest thermostat which I'm now able to control through the WeMo app as well, although apparently you can't access WeMo devices through the Nest app. The Nest app only shows when WeMo was last used (mine doesn't show anything so not sure it works) and allows you to remove the Nest/WeMo connection. Over the course of the next few days we used the app to control the light at various times of the day. One of the things I noticed was there can be a several second delay between the time you turn the light on/off or change the brightness and it actually happening. I've also had several times where the app/switch appeared to be locked up/frozen, but after a short delay allowed me to control the light. There were also a couple times the first day where the device (dimmer) wasn't available and the app asked me if I wanted to hide it, but that appears to have cleared up. Overall it was an easy install and setup if you've ever installed a light switch. The lag between command and action may annoy some and the switch itself sticks out further from the face of the switch plate compared to our other switches.

Alright folks we are officially living in the future. Although I never thought that a light switch would be the thing that made me feel that way. But this isn't just any light switch. It's the Belkin WeMo Dimmer Wi-Fi Light Switch, and it has surpassed all of my expectations. There is not much to the package. Just a small box with a very fancy looking light switch, some caps to twist your wiring together, and the instructions you need to get started. To be clear I had no experience with changing out a light switch before this. In the end the included instructions, and a helpful Youtube video were enough to get me going. The process was really quite easy. My only piece of advice here would be to make sure you turn off the correct fuse in your home's breaker box to avoid injury. If you are not comfortable with this just ask a friend who is familiar with it or call an electrician. Once the device was physically installed the rest of the setup was even easier. After downloading the WeMo app on my phone it walked me through the rest of the steps. Through the app you can obviously turn the lights on and off, and adjust the level of dimming. You can also create profiles to automatically turn the lights on or off at a certain time, to set a specific level of brightness for movie time, or any other scenario you can come up with. And you can control all of this wherever you have internet access. If you forgot to turn off the lights before you left the house? No problem. If you want to make it look like someone is home while you are actually on vacation? It's got you covered. Combine the Belkin WeMo Dimmer Wi-Fi Light Switch with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, and you can live out your dreams of being on the Starship Enterprise. And just like that we are in the future. It looks great, and works better than expected. I had only planned on getting this one switch, but after trying it out I am ready to outfit the entire house. Give it a try, and I am confident you will too. Highly Recommended. Thanks Belkin!

Wall installation was easy and straightforward if you have basic electrical knowledge. It is important to know this dimmer can only be used on a single pole light switch (one switch controls one set of lights). Installation is as follows: 1. Turn off breaker to light switch. 2. Take off face plate and unscrew old switch. 3. Test for any other live wires within box using voltage detector to prevent electrocution. 4. Remove wires from old switch. 5. Attach green wire to bare copper wire (ground). 6. Attach white wire to white wire (neutral). 7. Attach the black wire with the lighting bolt icon to black wire for power source. 8. Attach the other black wire with light bulb to black wire to light source (load). 9. Carefully push all wires back in place, replace screws and turn breaker back on. Note: Wires in your home may be different colors or even wired incorrectly. If in doubt, hire a professional. After testing to make sure the light turns on manually, download the WEMO app. I had a glitch occur during initial setup and was very frustrated with the setup process. In order to prevent others from being equally frustrated, I would perform the following before connecting your phone to the dimmer, via a temporary Wi-Fi signal, and opening the app on your phone. 1. Forget all your WiFi networks on your phone. (Note: Dimmer uses 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi) 2. Turn off smart connect (feature which phone auto connects to cellular data when no internet is detected). 3. Unplug/turn off any router extenders. (setup app does not show “_ext” and I think I selected the router extender which may have caused the glitch) 4. Disable cellular connection. 5. Disable Bluetooth. The glitch during setup caused no devices to show up within the app. I followed the directions within the WEMO app to “Reset Your Dimmer’s Wi-Fi” and “Factory Restore Your Dimmer,” and neither reset fixed the problem. After speaking with a service representative, it occurred to me that you must also clear the WEMO app’s “Cache” and “Data” in the apps setting. Even though I should have known this, I think the company should include that in the reset directions. After a successful app install, I found the app easy to use and very responsive to commands on Wi-Fi. I did notice a couple second delay when I used the cellular connection, but that was to be expected. The app has many features to customize the lights, such as an adjustable timer to fade out to sleep, a night mode, a programmable “Rule” control, and a manual dimmer and off button. You can even do more customizations by connecting to IFTTT and Nest. I would not recommend this product since the WEMO uses Wi-Fi instead of Bluetooth for setup and so many steps need to be completed to be successful. Another option WEMO could have used was the WPS on the router to establish the connection. I did select to save the Wi-Fi settings, so maybe I would not have to go through this again for additional devices.

This is the first smart switch that I have installed in my home. First, what I liked: Switch itself is pretty modern and slick looking. Manual controls are intuitive, you can slide your finger to dim/brighten the lights or just hold your finger at your desired brightness level for a second to go there instantly. Dimmer Feature is great! It allows you to set up a time range when you can use a reduced brightness - typically evening and morning work for me. App is pretty easy to set up and connect to your switch and has a pretty intuitive interface. Turning the light on and off from the app is instant - I was expecting a bit of lag, but there really is almost none at all, same with using the dimming feature on the app. My main gripe is that I was hoping that voice control would be easier to set up. It seems that you need Alexa or Google home to set up voice control on this. I was hoping that just an android phone would be enough since it already has a mic and responds to voice commands (starting with "ok google"). In any case, maybe this will improve as time goes on. Although this is not an issue with the switch, it took a bit of time for me to find a brand of LED bulbs that were not buzzing when connected to a dimmer. This is a common problem with LED bulbs and dimmers though, so like I said, it is more of a bulb issue and not an issue with the switch.

The switch is well built, well labeled, look very nice too. During initial setup, It prompts you to calibrate itself to meet bulb type is a nice touch. Very easy to setup, first you connect to its wifi server then it will connect itself to your wifi router and you can set rules for your switch. The switch will not work if you don't have neutral line, it needs white (neutral), black (line), red (load) and green (ground) wires. The depth is 1.5 inch. See picture. There are some areas need improvement, the instruction did not say you need to remove the face plate and removing the face place after you install into the wall is very difficult. The android app is also a bit slow.