The Eve Energy Outlet is a perfect smart outlet that is a great choice if you are looking to add smart features to any outlet. The setup is extremely easy as with any Eve product, and I love that the outlet is easily controlled from my Apple Home app. Since this outlet is Matter compatible, it can seamlessly work with other smart home environments too, such as Alexa and Google Home. For set up, all you have to do is scan the QR code on the packaging and the device automatically add itself to your home app of choice. I was very impressed by the responsiveness of this outlet. The outlet contains the new Thread protocol, meaning it can quickly communicate with your smart home and other smart home devices without depending on your home Wi-Fi signal. This is great as I have used other smart plugs in the past that were slow to respond, making the experience frustrating. With Thread, you forget that your switch is a smart switch as controlling it is so quick. Another great feature about this switch is that you can pair it with other smart home accessories. I have an Eve Light Switch and Eve Motion Sensor. With the light switch, I can easily control the outlet like a conventional switched outlet, allowing myself and guests to easily control the lamp plugged into the outlet. But with the smart switch functionality, I also have the light programmed turn on and off when I am away from the house to make it look like I am home. Additionally, with the Eve Motion Sensor, I have setup an automation that turns on the outlet that the lamp is connected to, when motion is detected in the room. This has made my house feel so nice as I am always greeted to a bright room, and do not have to worry about turning on and off the lights. Overall, I highly recommend this smart outlet if you are in the market for one. Eve has been consistently reliable and has created many high quality smart products that I will continue to recommend. Read more
I put this in our kitchen to control our hot water kettle. I am using Home Assistant. Edit: Eve is becoming my go-to brand for Matter over Thread and I have 5 of these outlets. All connected easily and they do their job. The comments below still stand, but I want to emphasize how bright the LEDs are. As a quick hack I added 4 layers of blue painters tape over the LEDs, but a single LED still lights up our bedroom more than we like at night. Physical installation: Like most smart switches and outlets this is quite bulky, compared to traditional electrical devices. Because multiple 12-gauge wires are connected in this particular outlet box, it was a tight fit. In fact I'm not sure I could have gotten it flush with the wall, but this area has had tile added, making the space deeper. Other than the bulk issue, it was easy enough. The pigtail wires are probably coated copper, not aluminum as one reviewer stated. Connectivity: The little manual has the QR code on the back and there is another copy on the front of the outlet behind the cover plate. This was my first Matter-over-Thread device, so it took a while to get the border router right, but that is not a complaint about this product. Once that was right, the outlet took only seconds to commission and it immediately appeared in my Home Assistant app. I have already ordered more. Just one remaining complaint. The status LEDs cannot be disabled without using additional proprietary (Apple) products. They are quite bright, so that would be a problem for any bedroom outlets which need to be left on at night. Power control and automation are working perfectly. Read more
I love these units for the most part. They connect easily and "just work". They do, however, have a few quirks that have left me buying a few more only because the new ones matched the old ones. I had largely decided to move on to a different product since alternatives are starting to show up, but I've been told by Eve that they are changing up the packaging in a manner that largely addresses my concerns, so what you receive may be different from what I've gotten this far. The base function of the unit should match mine just fine - my understanding is that only the packaging and labeling is being altered. This would easily be a 5-star review without the packaging issue (which is fully outline in the Cons section). With that said, let's get to the details: These units use Thread for the transmission of data (Thread is a pretty new physical transmission standard supported by Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon and a plethora of other other tech companies including many of the historical leaders in smart products. They use Matter as the communication protocol (Whereas Thread is analogous to a phone line, Matter is analogous to the language being spoken over that phone connection). Assuming you have some form of Thread Border Router (An AppleTV or HomePod in their ecosystem, any of several Alexa devices if you use that, a newer SmartThings hub, a newer Google Home device, etc - check your specific model to be sure), these connect fairly easily by scanning the Matter tag found in the package or on a sticker on the base for the screwless faceplate (more on this later). Do a web search on it if it's confusion - there are many videos covering the topic. Pros: Fairly effortless connection to any Thread border router that also supports Matter (There are Matter devices that don't support Thread, but I haven't seen a Thread border router that doesn't also support Matter) Buttons right on the device to allow individual physical on/off of each receptacle. Allows for power metering if your smart home app supports it, and through the Eve app if it doesn't. Each outlet can be addressed and logically labeled individually. In Apple Home, for example, you can have each receptacle show up as a separate tile and have it's on label associated with what's plugged into that receptacle. They have "Status LEDs" that correspond to each individual receptacle. By default, these are on when the receptacle has power and off when the receptacle is powered off, and that makes it easy to see the status of the receptacle if you are want to know for something like troubleshooting why something plugged into it isn't powered on. The best part is that these are configurable such that you can completely deactivate them if you don't like the light from them or have them switched on all the time if you want to use them as something of a nightlight. Cons: While they provide two stickers that have both the Matter QR code and the security code, one is very large and is found loose inside the box. The size of it makes it most suitable for sticking to a page you might keep in a notebook with your smart home information (which is far more organized that most smart home folks I know). For most people, at leas some of these are going to get lost before they find their way to a secure, well labeled, easily located storage location. The other is on the base plate for the screwless faceplate. For most installations, you're going to want a faceplate that matches the others in your home. Those may or may not be screwless and may or may not be compatible with Eve's system. There is no matter code on the actual outlet in its most base form (i.e., with the screwless baseplate removed so you can use a standard mounting). Following up on that last point, unless you proactively do something to mark the outlet with at least the security code, you need to make sure to keep a file that knows all the codes and what device the belong to. This makes sure you can reconnect if you need to later. The only thing that is on the actual outlet by default is the serial number, and not even Eve can look up the security code. I mark this as a con because these Eve outlets are the one and only device among all my Matter devices (several types from several manufacturers) that do not have a QR code *and* security code somewhere on the actual device. I was told by Eve that they don't put it on the actual device "for security reasons" and also cite that as the reason they can't look it up by serial number. That's silly since you would have to have access to the actual device (i.e., be in the house with the cover plate) to access an on-device code, so security has kind of gone out the proverbial window by then - and that's before you consider that it is functionally on the device if you choose to leave their screwless baseplate intact. My workaround to this has been to carefully remove the sticker on that baseplate and reaffix it to the metal flange on the outlet used to mount it into the electrical box. The screwless cover plate they include has the EVE logo clearly emblazoned on it. I have no idea who allowed the marketing department to insert that spec in there. I have even less of an idea of why they would think people want Eve marketing showing up all over their house as part of the decor..... 🤷♂️ NOTE: I have been told by Eve that they have stopped pre-installing a screwless faceplate since most customers weren't actually using them (Maybe it's that Eve logo thing! 🤣). I haven't gotten a newer unit to see what the final result was, but it is very possible that, in the process, they wound up addressing the bulk of the cons above . Nitpicks (Cons that have an element of preference or aren't significant IMHO): Wire connections are via stranded wire rather screw posts or backstab ports. This can mean more wires in the box and thus a more crowded box. It's particularly noticeable if you like to use the outlet as the connection point in a daisy chained wire configuration (which is the way most non-dedicated circuits for outlets are run). Read more
