Ok Let Me Review It: eShine Smart Socket

So I was on the fence when I saw these plugs come across my "will you review" email. But I figured I would give it a shot and see if they actually worked.

It has been my experience when dealing with these "no name brand" smart plugs that you always want to connect them using the SmartLife app, which works wonderfully well with Alexa. And so I didnt even bother downloading the app they recommended. I think but dont quote me, that most of these plugs are tested with the SmartLife app and are manufactured to work with it because it works so well with Alexa. But there have been a few times when I have had to use an app called Kasa. But 9 times out of 10 I use SmartLife.

I uploaded a video of how quickly it was added into the Smartlife app and how it instantly connected to my Amazon Dot click here to watch it.

I must say that I am really happy with the ease of use, getting it all connected to my Smart Home Network. I now have them connected to two of my fans, so I can keep my room nice and cool without having to constantly get up and turn them on and off.

I took it a step further by creating an account with If This Then That or www.ifttt.com which is one of the best sites in the world for helping you stay connected to just about everything. I created several applets to turn on all of my fans that I have connected to smart plugs, and then created an Alexa Trigger so now when I say "Alexa trigger the tempest" all 3 of my fans spring to life and when I say "Alexa trigger the tempest to end" they all shut off.

Now using the Alexa app alone I could have just created a group called Tempest and had it do the same thing. But for ease of use, I made a group called Fans and just say "Alexa turn on/off the fans" but I was just being uber nerdy and wanted to play around with the new plugs.

I would totally recommend these to anyone who is looking to either get some new smart sockets, or to add some to their existing collection. I currently have 9 different plugs from different makers. I love all of them.