Eufy Smart Plug Review

Design

The Eufy Smart Plug has a compact, square design. It’s meant to occupy the top outlet to prevent blocking the bottom outlet on a standard home electrical outlet. It is somewhat wide so if you’re using it on a power strip, it will likely block the outlet next to it. I found it to be significantly smaller than the Samsung SmartThing’s smart outlet.

There is a single button on the Eufy Smart Plug. One press of the button will turn the connected device on or off, allowing you to manually control the device (for times when your home internet service is down, for example). Holding down the button for 5 seconds will reset the smart plug, which then requires using the EufyHome app to configure it again.

A single LED also show the status of the device. A solid blue LED indicates it is connected to WiFi and working. If the blue LED flashes, the smart plug is attempting to connect to WiFi (or your internet connection may be down). If the LED flashes between blue and amber, the smart plug is in setup mode and you’ll need to use the EufyHome app to configure it.

Setup

Configuring the Eufy Smart Plug is straightforward.

1. Download the EufyHome app for your iPhone or Android device. Open the app and create or login to your EufyHome account.
2. Plug in the smart plug where you would like it and connect your lamp (or other device) to it.
3. Open the EufyHome app and tap the ”+” icon in the top corner. The app will then guide you through the process and connect the smart plug to your home WiFi.

The plug is limited to 2.4Ghz networks. Your router may broadcast two different networks, so you’ll want to be sure to pick the regular 2.4Ghz (and not the 5Ghz network) during setup process.

If you want to use the Eufy Smart Plug with Alexa, there is some additional steps involved.

1. Open the Alexa app on your phone (you likely already have this app installed from when you initially configured your Alexa device).
2. Tap the menu icon (the icon with three lines) in the top corner and select “Skills”.
3. Search for a skill named “EufyHome”. Tap “enable” when you find it.
4. You’ll be prompted to enter your EufyHome name and password (the same login you use for the EufyHome app).
5. You’ll then need to have Alexa discover the device by saying, “Alexa, find my devices” or by using the “Add Device” feature under the “Smart Home” menu item in the Alexa app.
6. When speaking to Alexa, you’ll use the name you gave the device in the EufyHome app (for example, “Alexa, turn on the Living Room light.”). If you want to change the name of the smart plug, use the EufyHome app to rename it. If you rename it, you’ll likely need to ask, “Alexa, find my devices” again so Alexa can learn the new name of the smart plug.

If you want to use the Eufy Smart Plug with Google Assistant:

1. Open the “Google Assistant” app and go to “Settings”.
2. Look for “Home Control” and tap it.
3. Scroll to “EufyHome” and tap it.
4. You’ll be prompted to enter your EufyHome name and password (the same login you use for the EufyHome app).
5. You can then say something like, “OK, Google, turn on the Living Room light.”

Features

The Eufy Smart Plug works with both Amazon Alexa and Google Home. It does not work with Samsung SmartThings or Apple HomeKit at this time.

The EufyHome app allows you to do some additional functions with the Eufy Smart Plug

• View power usage: You can see how much power a device is using. There is also a built-in calculator to estimate the cost of using the device.
• Set up a schedule: You can set up a lamp to come on every day at 6:00pm, for example.
• Count down: You can have the device turn off after so many minutes/hours.
• Away mode: The Eufy Smart Plug will randomly turn on and off when “Away mode” is enabled to simulate someone being home.

The Eufy Smart Plug’s label shows that the output is rated at 120V at 15 amps (1800 watts), so it should be able to control larger appliances. Please note that there is no UL-certification label on this plug. This does not necessarily mean that the smart plug is not safe, but it has not been through the UL-certification process yet.