WYZE – WiFi Smart Plug – App Setup, App Features & Practical Uses

Hey Guys,

Today we are going to checkout another product from Wyze. This is the WiFi Compact Smart Plug. We’ll set it up on my mobile phone, check for any lag when turning on or off a device, check out the basic settings in the app including the timer, vacation mode and, schedule and lastly, we’ll investigate the WiFi range indoors and out.

What's in the box?

A tiny user manual with the very basics. Almost too basic. I’d like to see the warning indicating that this will not work on a 5GHz WiFi network, only 2.4.
And here we have 2 WiFi plugs. Decent quality as you would expect from Wyze. A button on the side for turning the device on and off manually or for setting up the outlet to add to your Wyze app.

Command your home with your voice: when your hands are full or you just don’t want to move, use your voice to turn things on and off by asking your smart Assistant. We made Wyze plug work with Alexa and the Google Assistant so it’s easier said and do...

Wyze Plug, 2.4GHz WiFi Smart Plug, Works with Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT, No Hub Required, Two-Pack, White #1

Wyze Plug, 2.4GHz WiFi Smart Plug, Works with Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT, No Hub Required, Two-Pack, White #2

Wyze Plug, 2.4GHz WiFi Smart Plug, Works with Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT, No Hub Required, Two-Pack, White

Command your home with your voice: when your hands are full or you just don’t want to move, use your voice to turn things on and off by asking your smart Assistant. We made Wyze plug work with Alexa and the Google Assistant so it’s easier said and do... read more

(as of May 13, 2024 22:40 GMT -06:00 - )

I picked up this 2-pack on Amazon for about $20 US. Since I am familiar with the Wyze products (from other reviews I have done in the past) and I really like the app’s user interface, I decided to grab a couple of these for indoor use around my home.

Here are a handful of practical uses:

Turning on the electric kettle at a predefined time in the morning
Programming a radio to operate while I am away for my pets
Remotely controlling a fan in my basement to circulate the air
Starting a space heater to run in my garage on very cold winter days or even in a greenhouse for a cool fall night
Speaking of winter, I could use it to start and stop my vehicle’s block engine heater on those cold Canadian nights, as long as the plug is inside, in the warm
Scheduling grow lamps to come on and turn off at a particular time
Christmas tree lights
Under counter lights that I want to stay lit all night
Scheduling an indoor bug zapper to turn on after dark and off in the morning
Or even schedule a network device to be power cycled off for 1 minute every night or on certain days of the week.

When powering appliances which have higher demands, make sure not to exceed 15amps or 1800watts through this WiFi outlet. This is the North American version and has 3 prongs to ground your outlet and the device you wish to control.

When I first plug it in, the blue light starts to flash rapidly. This means it’s already in paring mode. If the blue light is solid and you need to reset it, press and hold the power button on the side until it starts flashing fast. A solid blue light also means the outlet is active.

App setup and adding device:

I have already downloaded and installed the Wyze app to my phone. No subscriptions fees or extra hardware, like a hub is required to use this WiFi plug. I simply created an account using my email address then verified the account with a security code.
You can see I already have devices added because this one app from Wyze allows you to control all of their product. Let’s click the plus sign in the upper left
The select “Add Device”
Choose the “Wyze Plug”
As the instructions say, “Press and hold the pairing button” but it’s already in pairing mode
Enter your WiFi password, so it can be passed to the outlet so the outlet can access your network
Now I need to connect my phone to the Wyze smart plug. The outlet has basically become an access point. When I join it, the network connectivity information and my account details will be passed to the device, so it will work independently on my network
We are connecting to my network, the blue light flashes slowly
I will give the device a new name
I’ll share it later
Looks like there is a new version of the plug’s firmware available. I’ll install that now. Ok, it’s done.

Time for a quick app tour highlighting the basic activities:

Right from the start, the user interface is so pleasing to look at and no clutter. Right now, the plug is on. Tap the power slider to turn it off, or back on again. There is a tiny bit of lag, but nothing concerning. This is really slick. Let’s leave my home network and jump onto the cellular network, as if I were away at work or on vacation. Again, about a quarter second delay. I can live with that. Pretty cool.
If we go back a page, to our device listings screen, we can also control the plug here.
Let’s check out the Timer. When I click it, I can set the device to turn on and so many hours or minutes, up to 23 hours and 59 minutes. See how it defaults to ON. If the plug in already on, the default would be OFF. Let’s set it for 1 minute, hit Start and and fast forward. Cool feature.
Next, Vacation Mode. This will turn on and off the plug at random times daily between 6-9am and 6-11pm. The length of each interval is 5-60 minutes.
Next, we have Run Time. This show on a graph when the device was active and inactive in the past 24 hours and past 7 days. It’s not an energy consumption report. Speaking of which, let’s check to see how much power this device uses while idle. Ok, we are pulling 1.2-1.3 watts when the outlet is not active.
Let’s go into device settings by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right.
Device name allows us to change the label we assigned to this outlet, like we saw earlier.
Plug Status Light will turn the status light off.
Schedules & Automations lets you set up a schedule, trigger Wyze devices from each other and run shortcuts from the home screen. Today, we’ll be setting up a schedule.
Tap Create Rule.
Select Schedule.
Select the WiFi Smart Plug.
Let’s say this schedule is for my kitchen counter lights. So, we’ll give the schedule a name.
Now we need a start time, so touch Turns On and Next.
At 10pm and hit Save.
Now, we’ll add an End Time.
Select 6:30am and Save.
This looks good, so we’ll click Save at the bottom.
Again, pretty slick and very simple to use.
Back on the Device Settings page, we have Share, which is used to share control with another user.
Then we have Device Info which shows the WiFi signal strength to the plug and its internal IP address on your network. At the bottom you can check for firmware updates.

Wyze Plug, 2.4GHz WiFi Smart Plug, Works with Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT, No Hub Required, Two-Pack, White

(as of May 13, 2024 22:40 GMT -06:00 - )

Since the timer and schedule information is stored on the WiFi plug itself (and not on my phone or the cloud), if the connection to the network or Internet is lost, the plug will continue function as normal. If there is a power failure, once electricity is returned, the plug will continue with any timers, rules and reconnect to your network’s WiFi.

Ok, let’s look at some WiFi ranges. My 2.4GHz access point is right here and we are in the basement. There are 2 levels up to the top floor and my garage. My signal strength always showed 2 bars and the lag was minimal throughout the house. I couldn’t be happier knowing I can use this anywhere in my house without connectivity and lag issues.

If I move my access point back to its normal location on the main floor, let’s test the range outside. This is an indoor device, but let’s see what the range is outdoors. With line of sight to my access point, let’s start off at 50 feet or 15m. Prefect no lag. I moved the WiFi outlet in multiple increments of 50ft until I reached 300ft (91m) and I was still able to control the outlet. That’s quite impressive. I did note that the WiFi signal strength remained at 2 bars for all my range tests. I found that a little odd given my variations in distance, but I was able to control the WiFi outlet during all of my range tests, and that’s the end results I care about most.

Wyze did an awesome job here in creating this app’s user interface. It’s so simple and free of clutter. Adding my WiFi device to the app only took a couple minutes and was straight forward. The basic functionality of timers, vacation mode and schedules is easy to configure and will definitely come in handy once I find a permanent location for this guy. The device’s responsiveness was perfect and retained a great WiFi signal within my home and outside during my range test. Given the price point of $20 and quality behind the app and the hardware, I definitely recommend adding a couple Wyze WiFi plugs to your home automation. The link to where I got mine is in the description below.

I hope you found this information helpful, if so, please let me know with a thumbs up and for more Home Tech DIY projects you can do yourself, please subscribe to my channel on YouTube for more. Thanks for watching.