Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2017
These wall Switches work great. When they were released early this year, I bought one from the iDevicies website. It worked so well, that I went back to buy 2 more for a 3 way application. For reference, I’m using my IOS devices with the latest operating system installed. I have not tried using Android to install, configure, and use, so I don’t know how well that works. Before you buy this switch, there are a few things you should know up front. First, this light switches need a neutral wire in order to work. If you don’t have a neutral wire, this switch is not for you. Instead, I would recommend the Lutron product instead. The Lutron switches do not require a neutral wire. Second, the picture on Amazon product page is misleading. The picture shows that this switch supports energy monitoring, when in reality, it does not. You cannot track the energy usage with this switch. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to, with a firmware upgrade, but right now, there is no energy monitoring in this switch. Third, a faceplate is not included with this switch. 4th, this is just a light switch and not a dimmer switch. Lastly, the instruction manual includes a warning that says metal switch boxes will hamper the signal coming from the switch. Thus, if you switch boxes are not plastic, you might have Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connectivity issues. Your mileage may vary in this case. My switch boxes are all plastic, so I didn’t run into any issues here.
Installation of a single pole switch is pretty straightforward. The included documentation explains how to install the switch for a single pole installation very well. it's really a one to one replacement with the existing wires, however, if working with electricity is not your thing, I would suggest hiring an electrician, especially for a 3 and 4 way application as those can be very tricky. The single switch is connected to my fireplace and this makes it really convenient to turn on the fireplace either from the app or using Alexa. I’ve been using this switch for more than 3 months and it’s been working great ever since it was installed. Once installed, you can immediately use the switch as a normal switch, meaning turning it on and off works without having to enable Wi-Fi, or anything else. Once you enable Wi-Fi, you can control the switch from anywhere inside, or outside your home.
My 3 way configuration controls a light going downstairs to my basement. There is a light switch at the top of the stairs and one at the bottom of the stairs that were changed out for these new light switches. In a 3 way, or 4 way, application, one switch is the master, and all other switches are slaves. The master is connected to the switch box where the load is coming into. Basically, the Master is directly connect to the wires that control the light. In a 3 or 4 way, or N way, you will probably need a voltage meter to test the wires to figure out which of your current switches boxes is directly connect to the light to find out which is the master. Once the Master is determined, any other light switch, connect to that light, is a slave. And as with the single installation, the switch on the master can immediately control the light by turning it on and off from the switch itself. For a 3-4 - N way, all switches in the 3- 4 - N way need to be replaced with one of these iDevices switches. Your old switches cannot be used in any way.
Slaves do not use traveler wires to communicate with the master. They use Bluetooth. The included instructions describe how to connect a slave switch to the master, via Bluetooth, and disable the traveler wires. The use of Bluetooth is noteworthy because if there is significant obstruction between the master and the slaves, then the Bluetooth signal might not reach the master from the slave(s). In my case, the switches are not on opposite sides of the door, therefore, there is no obstruction to deal with. In addition, I installed the Elgato Motion Detector, above the door, to automatically turn the light on and off, and that works great as well. Since the switch uses Wi-Fi to communicate with Homekit, as long as you have good Wi-Fi coverage in your house, the switch will be accessible to any other Homekit application in your home. The switches seem well built and well thought out. I have even installed these switches in a 4 way configuration, in my neighbor’s house, without issue. The directions for a 3 way and 4 way are pretty clear. However, the color coding of the wiring in your home might be different from those in the diagrams that are supplied. So, it’s important to read the description in order to match up the colors represented in the iDevices diagrams to the colors of the wires in your house. A volt meter to find which switch box the load is coming into will definitely helpful in a 4 way configuration. If the switch needs to be rebooted, there is a button, on the exterior of the switch, that can be pushed to reboot it. Installing these switches can be a tight fit. So, pushing them into the switch boxes, so that they could be flush with the wall can be a challenge. Also, unlike Lutron switches, which have break away tabs to help make the face plate fit flush, the iDevices switches do not have these breakaway tabs. So, this make getting all the wires in the switch box positioned nicely all the more important.
Each switch also has a night light, that can be controlled separately, like all the other iDevices products. Amazon Alexa also works great. If you have any of the other iDevices products, setting up Alexa to work with this switch follows the same paradigm. The one big negative is that the switch costs $100. However, for the price, the user gets a switch that can be placed in a 3 way, 4, way, or N way configuration with relative ease. Also, you get to control the switch from outside your home, without the need of an Apple TV. But again, with that said, the $100 price tag is not insignificant. If you do the math, and buy 3 or 4 of these switches, then the difference between the iDevices solution and going with a cheaper manufacturer, and using a hub, becomes close to equal. So some financial due diligence to check the breakeven point among all these solutions, with and without a hub, will have to be done based on how many of these switches that need to be installed.
While I’d give the hardware 5 stars, I find the app still hard to use and would give it 3 stars. The UI can be inconsistent in some places and I find it really confusing in others. The app has a feature where you can temporary disable a schedule, but when you do that, the schedule just disappears and can’t be easily found to enable again. There are a few other things like that which makes the app difficult to figure out. But the hardware is solid and I have not experienced any disconnects from Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth, since I have been using them. I would recommend buying this Homekit wall switch.
