This outdoor dual-plug controller has been an excellent purchase. At first, it was used outdoors for various lights and holiday items. It survived rain, heat, everything but snow (we don't really get snow here). When it's not in use outdoors, its use was for two studio monitors to be controlled by HomeAssistant. HomeAssistant paired with ZWaveJS and a Zooz 700-series controller has been rock solid. There are very few times where the controller won't recognize a back-to-back request to turn both outlets on/off. It does, however, recover and hasn't caused many issues in the two years I've had it. There are very few companies I trust with my ZWave network. At first, I was a little skeptical about Minoston because it was slightly cheaper compared to other brands. I was proven otherwise. I also have an energy monitoring smart plug, a standard smart plug, and another outdoor plug. Consider purchasing this outdoor smart plug. Note: I cannot speak for the dimmable ones as I did not purchase a dimmer plug. Read more
Easily added this to my Hubitat automation system. Seems to work perfectly fine. Used outdoors to control lights. All good Read more
I had a couple of minoston door sensors early on that weren't very good, but they took care of my issues. However I have since gotten a few of their plug in dimmers and most work fine. This outdoor dimmer was doing great for for almost a year then suddenly stopped. I reached out to see if they would help and they did, within DAYS I had a new device. But it only worked for a week? What the heck! So I took apart the original and the replacement to find out insects, notably earwigs, had gotten inside and shorted out between the line voltage side and the electronics. Presumably they entered through the ground plug hole as I was using a two prong device. Since I already had an email from them going for the replacement, I sent them pics in hopes they'd improve their device, but with no expectations since it clearly wasn't their fault. The NEXT DAY they advised me that not only had they already advised engineering of the issue, and apologized for the inconvenience, but had already sent ANOTHER replacement. Absolutely amazing. For now I added a piece of gaff tape to keep the bugs out. Read more
I bought two of these. The first one I used for some outdoor string lights but after two days, the unit would just randomly click. While there was a light rain, the product advertises protection from water at "any angle". I guess my house has unknown angles of rain. I opened the unit up and was disappointed to see no sort of gasket or anything for an outdoor-rated plug. Read more
The plug itself works well and as advertised. We used it for Christmas lights and have other uses during the year. Here is my pro/con list: Pros: - The initial setup was easy into our security system which is ZWave. - It easily integrated to our home security (yet another that has a backbone on alarm.com which is a standard, many use it) - This could be specific to our security system, but removing and pairing again was a snap by simply removing it per the device instructions. Indifferent: - It would be nice to have an option with a longer cable, but not a huge issue either way. Cons: - Doesn't seem very weatherproof and doesn't protect the cable input well. If It may be rained on, buy a cord cover box, you'll need it. This is why it is 4 stars instead of 5. - It feels cumbersome to configure, like "press this 10 times and do a magic dance". The good news is (beck to a pro) you don't need much of the configuring past pairing unless you want to configure the light on the device and all. The defaults are fine for me. Overall a very solid device and would recommend. Read more
I like the "easy" way of running these types of things, and that involves as much complicated automation equipment as possible every time. My wife rolls her eyes when I explain how cool this will be whenever I get some gadget like this to make something go on/off without our manual efforts. She just pats me on the shoulder and says "that's nice, dear". LOL. This unit works great with my Z-Wave automation hub, which also connects to Apple's "Home" app on our mobile devices. Connecting the new unit to the existing Z-Wave network was simple, they provided the printed directions in the box. I then set my automation hub to make the Minoston unit to follow an automated schedule of "ON" at sunset, "OFF" at sunrise and all my Christmas lighting follow suit. Easy Peasy, right! Works perfect so far, I would recommend this unit for anyone looking for a low cost unit for outdoor installs. I have another wi-fi based outdoor switch that hasn't been so reliable, I'll probably replace it with one of these if the Minoston proves to be a more solid performer. Read more
I'm using this with an Aeotec hub and Home Assistant and it works well. I did have to bring it inside to pair it, but then once moved outside it works fine. I like that the plug end is flat so it hangs on the outlet rather than the wire coming out of the plug making a sharp bend. Read more
Worked perfectly with my Brinks/Alarm.com System. It made my Halloween and Christmas season so much easier. The Halloween decorations and outside Christmas lights set up through my Z wave was amazing. Read more
