Kasa Smart Dimmer Switch HS220P3, Single Pole, Needs Neutral Wire, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi Light Switch Works with Alexa and Google Home, UL Certified,, No Hub Required, 3-Pack

Great Wifi Smart Switches for residential lighting control!
As an architect, I’ve specified lighting control systems that are tens of thousands of dollars for my client that do what these wifi based smart switches do for a small fraction of the cost. I’ve replaced about 20 dumb switches through out my home and have automated them and grouped them together such that you can zone your home. Really a fantastic product with great step by step instructions.Compatible with Google assistant and works flawlessly and reliably.Recommend a mesh wifi system so the devices will have a strong wifi connection. Smart features of these devices will not work without a wifi network but continue to operate like any 110v dump switch until wifi is returned.The are also super high quality and again at the fraction of the cost of a lighting control system and about a third less that Lutron Casa wifi switches. Kasa app is also really good and can operation all devices from your phone.

Well thought out switch, but with a few quirks
I recently installed a few WeMo switches so I could test them out, but found they weren’t well designed and I wasn’t particularly happy with them. So I started searching around for a new smart switch (Dimmer), and ran across the Kasa switches. I went ahead and purchased one to test it out.Installation: 5 stars, super easy and much better in my opinion than the WeMo switches. Main wires screw onto to the switch plate, and a couple of wires run off to attach with nuts. WeMo had all wires run off to attach with wire nuts which resulted in large amounts of wire and clutter behind the switches making them much harder to work with.Application: 5 stars, switch was immediately recognized and I had no problems with the application. Unlike the WeMo switches where I had several that had significant problems connecting, and they constantly disconnect. The Kasa switch has had a couple of times where the physical switch didn’t work for a short period of time, but the app has always worked even when the switch didn’t, and then the following day the physical switch would again work. Not sure if that is the result of a bad switch or if something else is going on, but ultimately it is a relatively minor issue as I can always use the application to turn the lights on or off if needed.Wireless: again the setup and connection were easy, and I haven’t had any problems with the switch staying connected to my network and always being accessible via the application. I have loads of problems with this on the WeMo switches.Design: The design is much more well thought out from the wiring to even the physical function of the Switch than the WeMo version. WeMo uses a capacitive touch plate that runs the entire length of the switch. This results in the dimmer level constantly being change, turned off, etc… whenever you turn the light switch on or off because almost the entire switch is capacitive touch. Kasa on the other hand has their dimmer buttons at the very top of the switch so they are never in the way but are very easy to access.Quality: Quality seems to be on par with the WeMo, but the design decisions were clearly well thought out. If feels like someone actually tested the Kasa Switch, while it feels like no one actually ever tested the WeMo switch design of they would have easily seen and addressed several of the blatant issues it has.Note: there is one oddity with the Kasa switch, you may consider it a good or bad thing, but when turning the switch on/off there is a slightly delay (maybe 1-2 seconds). It caught me off guard at first and made me think the switch wasn’t working properly. I’m still on the fence on whether this is a good thing or not, I think I prefer the instant switching action, but I can see why some people might prefer the delay and once you realize it is there it is honestly not a major issue.The Kasa Dimmer switch isn’t perfect, there are a few oddities to it, but it generally functions well, it seems to be far more well thought out than the WeMo switches and is significantly more reliable as a “Smart” switch. If you are trying to decide between Kasa and WeMo, don’t wait, go with the Kasa switches, they are significantly better in almost every way than my WeMo Switches have been. At some point I will be replacing the rest of my switches with the Kasa Switches and removing WeMo entirely from my house as they just have way too many problems with them.

I have had a smart home with 50+ devices for about a decade, since Apple first brought out its HomeKit smart home system. I have a lot of experience with the benefits and also the many hassles of smart home devices.Firstly let me comment on the physical product itself, and the company behind it. Great design. Great quality. Committed brand, with a good track record I think you can trust. Easy to physically install if you are comfortable with connecting wires, and can turn off a circuit breaker. You MUST have white “neutral” wires, which typically any electrical system done since the 1980’s will have. Instructions are straight forward. You might discover some of your existing switches are not wired in typical ways. If this is the case and you don’t fully understand it, get an electrician. I think most people will be okay.BUT … from an all around software setup perspective, this is by far the most aggravating installation experience I ever had – until it wasn’t. This is the FIRST Matter protocol device I have installed in my Apple Home. I DO have the required Matter/Thread routers that are needed. In this case of an Apple Home, several Apple TVs and HomePods. If you use Google Home, or Alexa, or other you MUST also have in your home a “Matter Hub” capable product from Google or Alexa respectively.I spent almost a full time week, googling, trying various things, getting frustrated, and I would rate myself a 9/10 on expertise in this area. Until I learned the best trick. You HAVE to FULLY commit if you want to move to the Matter, protocol and I think you SHOULD. Even if you do at first get it working without this drastic step, I think you are just pushing hidden problems into the future. Start FRESH.All those smart home rules, profiles, pairings, etc you have built over the years – you should DELETE THEM ALL, and FACTORY RESET ALL your smart home devices. Delete your ENTIRE home profile. Start over completely. Drastic yes. But just like it is much easier to build a quality new home from scratch, rather than patchy renovations to an existing home, the same applies to a smart home when moving to a very different technology, in this case “Matter”.If you want to get into the Matter ecosystem, and I think any serious smart home enthusiast SHOULD, you have to understand that you are much more on your own right now than by sticking with a current proprietary ecosystem. The attempt to make Matter work with many different platforms, means the ability for product manufacturers, and Ecosystems – like Apple, Google, or Alexa support, to assist you is very limited, even when they want to.One MORE step. Do the same with your router. FACTORY RESET. It also plays a core essential role in the reliability of your smart home. If you have a cheap router you should really consider something higher end.When I took the deep dive, and started from scratch, I was able to set up all my Matter devices with ease. Another suggestion – just because matter claims to be able to support multiple home ecosystems out of the box, DON’T do that. You are asking for trouble, Pick 1 like HomeKit as I did, or Google Home, or Alexa, or SmartThings, or other platforms, and do EVERYTHING on that ONE platform. Also install the manufacturer specific apps for direct control of your devices, outside of any ecosystem. Reduce complexity, don’t embrace it.

Yes, Matter is still quite frustrating, but most of the issues should be solvable through updated ecosystem software and product firmware. I still believe it will become THE standard, likely the ONLY standard in the future. So unless you need features not yet supported by Matter, I think Matter devices are worth the initial pain, to future proof your investment.Hope that helps !

Switch was easy to install – except you have to watch out for the size. Because this is a smart-switch, it needs more space in the box than a normal switch. So make sure the box you are installing in has space to fit this. You may need to push in or squeeze the wiring to make some space.Otherwise, connecting the wires and getting it working was easy. I already had the Kasa app and ran into issues while adding this device – it just wouldn’t connect even after a number of resets and tries. Had to use a different phone to get around this issue. But once added, it works perfectly fine. You can turn lights on or off, dim them, set a timer, schedule, etc. Very good for the price.