Gabe Turner: Hey, folks, this is Gabe at Security Baron and sometimes you want to take your
smart home outside.
Today, we're going to review the iHome Outdoor Smart Plug.
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Gabe: In today's review of the iHome iSP100 Outdoor Smart Plug, we're going to dive into
its design, feature set, setup process before delving into its mobile application, iHome
control to make sure we provide you with all the information you need to make the right
decision.
If you want to see a list of our favorite smart plugs, google "Security Baron best smart
plugs."
If you have a question about today's review, leave us a comment and I'll get back to you.
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Gabe: Let's kickoff today's review of the iHome Outdoor Smart Plug talking about its
design.
The first thing you'll note is it comes in a pretty slick black aesthetic.
It's a hard plastic and you got a six-inch cord.
One thing I want to mention beyond the cord is that it has this mounting tab to help you
keep everything organized when you're putting this outside because it is water resistant
and that's basically the main draw for this outdoor plug.
It does have your home code so you can set this up with your mobile device.
Here, you'll note, there is a button.
This is what you'll hit to initially set it up and to reset your system.
There are two icons -- the plug and the WiFi icon -- which will light up to let you know
that they're working respectively.
There's a bit of a cover so your actual input to this plug is recessed probably due to keeping
it nice and water tight.
Overall, that's your design for the iHome Outdoor Smart Plug.
Now we've gone over the design of the iHome Outdoor Smart Plug, let's talk about its feature
set.
The main thing with an outdoor smart plug is that you can control things that are outdoors
remotely.
It is water resistant and that really allows you to turn things on and off no matter where
they are.
You can set up schedules.
If you know a time in which you want your outdoor lights to go on, for example, you
can have that on a timer, on the day, and know exactly what's happening.
You can even go a step beyond that and set up scenes where you have multiple iHome Smart
Plugs be they outdoor or indoor working in conjunction to create a scene.
On top of all of that, you actually can integrate this particular smart plug with various smart
platforms.
If you want to be using Amazon Alexa or Apple HomeKit, or a host of other smart platforms,
you'll be able to do so just using your voice to control this particular smart plug.
Overall, it's a pretty significant feature set coming from the iHome Outdoor Smart Plug.
Hold on a second.
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All right, let's get back to the video.
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Gabe: Let's talk about the set up process with your iHome Outdoor Smart Plug.
Generally, it's straightforward but you may run into a few wrinkles.
I just want to discuss the process.
You want to have the mobile application, iHome control.
Download it and open on your phone.
Then you'll plug in the iHome Outdoor Smart Plug.
Once that's in, you should have this WiFi signal blink green.
If it's not, that OK because you probably need to go ahead and reset with the button
here.
Hold it for about 12 seconds then you should get that blinking green.
Once that's going, you're going to take out that mobile app, go to "Add Device," and scan
or type in the numbers found here.
These numbers are also found in your instructional booklet.
From there, you will just make sure you stay on that screen until it will actually syncs.
That's one of the wrinkles that I ran to, is that it would oftentimes fail to sync because
I let the screen go to sleep or I went to a different application.
I needed to make sure that that process completed.
Once that happened, it was very easy to go ahead and set up the WiFi and again, using
the outdoor smart plug.
That's just something to keep in mind when setting up your outdoor smart plug.
I actually had it fail a couple of times before I finally got it to sync but overall, probably
took me only about 10 minutes.
That was my installation experience with the iHome Outdoor Smart Plug.
Now that we've got this thing installed, let's talk about the mobile application experience
iHome control with your iHome Outdoor Smart Plug.
This is where we're going to be doing a lot of the interfacing and initial setup of your
outdoor plug.
What is it like?
There's a 2.3 out of 5-star rating in the Google Play Store and just a 2.7 out of 5-star
rating in the Apple App Store.
Most people complained about connectivity issues which honestly is something we experienced
in our initial setup.
Let's go ahead and check it out on my iPhone X.
Here I am checking out the iHome control mobile application from my iHome Outdoor Smart Plug.
I've called the room that this is in Afuera which means outside and it's an outdoor power
strip.
Because I'm not too creative when it comes up to coming with names for the strip itself.
Let's go ahead and check out its primary functionality.
Being able to control this thing remotely.
If I tap on the icon, I get light.
That's pretty bright so let's go ahead and turn that down.
I can turn it off simply by tapping.
That's not where your power ends, pun intended.
You can add rules.
If you look to the third to the right, you can hit rules and I already have a few included
here for schedules.
I have Christmas lights which turns on lights outdoors every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
from 7:00 to 9:00.
I can turn those off to make sure they're always off so as to not keep my neighbors
awake.
Let's go ahead and create a new outdoor rule.
If I wanted to, I could have them come on even Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Let's say Tuesday and Thursday, Christmas lights come on a little bit later.
Schedule, control plug, schedule, device, hit "Outdoor Power Strip," and this would
just work now to turn this on every Tuesday at 8:00 and ends next day at...Let's say never
ends.
There we go.
Create the rule, there we go.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, and Friday from 8:00 PM these lights will be on.
I can, of course, turn any of these on and off whenever I like by simply tapping on this.
If I tap here, now that's not on.
If I want to tap here, now that's not on.
I even have more utility I can get out of this application by creating a scene.
I have a scenes called "Homebody" and music plays.
This is how you work in conjunction with other iHome smart plugs.
I want to add a scene and let's just call it "Fiesta."
I hit "Add Device."
Again, iHome Light, outdoor power strip.
Now, I've added a couple of scenes.
You can, of course, decide what your scenes do.
Turn in on light, turn it off lights.
OK.
That's me checking out some of the elements of what you can do in iHome control mobile
application.
Let's talk about smart platform integration with your iHome Outdoor Smart Plug.
Right off the bat, I do want to note that it does have an integration with a host of
platforms, but for us, Google Assistant was not one of them.
We kept getting a 404 page and we run into that in a way that we've never run before
with any other device.
We didn't get Google Assist to work in our experience.
We did get Amazon Alexa and Apple HomeKit to work really well.
Let's go ahead and see it in action.
Alexa, turn on outdoor power strip.
Viola.
Let there be light.
If I wanted to turn it off, I can go directly into Siri and ask for so I can say, "Turn
off outdoor power strip."
Siri: OK.
The outdoor power strip is off.
Gabe: I even get a little voice confirmation of that going down.
Overall, it's fun to go ahead and integrate your iHome Outdoor Smart Plug with the various
smart platforms out there.
[music]
Gabe: We've spoken at length on the iHome Outdoor Smart Plug but you want to know if
it is the right for you and your family.
I'll say this if you're someone who want broad functionality and a smart plug that you can
put outdoors, then this may be right for you.
You can put up scenes, control an appliance remotely that's outdoors, setup a schedule,
even integrate it with Amazon Alexa and Apple HomeKit.
We do wish that the App was a little bit more intuitive.
Just a little more aesthetically pleasing and generally didn't have the connectivity
issues that we suffered to some extent but other people seem to have even more so out
there in the Internet.
Yes, it's adequate, it will serve as an outdoor smart plug but considering it's $39.99, we
hope that there are other smart plugs really pushing up against in terms of competition
and you might want to check those out as well.
[background music]
Gabe: That concludes our review of the iHome Outdoor Smart Plug.
If you appreciate today's video, give us a like and hit that subscribe button.
As always, this is Gabe at Security Baron.
Be secure.
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