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Wallflower Smart Plug Review

Yaro

October 3, 2017

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Nowadays, almost everyone has adopted electric stoves in their kitchen for so many reasons: it is more practical, it eliminates the hassle of gas-based stoves, and most importantly, it is safer than gas stoves.

However, although electric stoves are generally safer compared to your traditional gas stoves, that’s not saying they are without any risk. For instance, it is harder to differentiate when the electric stove is on because there’s no visible fire and heat. The newer models usually light up when the stove is turned on, yet that’s not the case with the older models. Even then, it’s still easy to forget when the electric stove is on.

So, the Wallflower Smart Stove Plug attempts to tackle that issue. The concept behind the Wallflower Smart Plug is really simple: you plug your electric stove to the Wallflower, which in turn will be pugged to your electric outlet. If your electric stove is still turned on after a certain time or when you have left the house, the Wallflower will send a notification to the app on your phone.

So, besides being useful for us forgetful people that often leave the stove on, the Wallflower can also be useful if you want to control the electric stove usage when you are away from home, for example, when you have an au pair or children staying at home.

So, let us begin this Wallflower Plug Review by discussing its key features.

Key Features

Easy Installation

The Wallflower Smart Stove Plug is very easy to install and can work with most, if not all electric stoves. There are two versions of the Wallflower Smart Plug, 3-wire and 4-wire depending on your electric stoves (check before buying). After that, installing the Wallflower is simply plugging it into your power outlet and setting up the Wallflower app (iOS and Android).

Monitor Your Stove From Anywhere

The core feature of the Wallflower Smart Stove Plug is the ability to monitor the activity of your stove from your phone. With the geofencing feature, the Wallflower can detect when you are away from home, and send you a notification if the electric stove was left on. You can fine-tune your preference for notifications and how often you will want to be alerted.

Intelligent Notification

Although the core feature of the Wallflower Smart Stove Plug is very simple, it is actually very good at doing its job. Not only it is very accurate in detecting your electric stove and giving you smart notifications, over time it can learn how long you usually leave the stove on and can give you suggestions. You can also set cooking schedules and receive notifications when the timer is up.

Our Wallflower Smart Plug Review

The physical unit of the Wallflower Smart Stove Plug is very similar to other smart home plugs available, which is essentially a little device acting as the go-between an electrical plug and the wall outlet. Before the era of smart home devices, we often use one to gauge electricity use and shut off power remotely. So, we can expect a similar concept with the Wallflower Smart Plug.

As mentioned, installing the Wallflower Smart Stove Plug is an extremely easy process. Simply plug the Wallflower unit to the wall outlet, and then plug your electric stove to the Wallflower Smart Home Plug.

Now, as usual, we will need to connect the physical unit of the Wallflower Smart Plug to our Wi-Fi network, which is achieved through the app (available for iOS and Android). The app itself is quite intuitive, and you shouldn’t have any issues in connecting the Wallflower Smart Plug to your Wi-Fi network, simply follow the step-by-step instructions provided by the app.

After you’ve connected the Wallflower Smart Plug to your network, you can set several preferences on the app. For instance, you can set cooking timers for your usual cooking time, and the app can notify you when the stove has been left on past that timer. You can also fine-tune the geofencing feature, where the app will detect whether you have left home or not. You can set the size of the radius before geofencing kicks in, and this is useful because sometimes we leave the stove on as we are doing chores outside the house.

If you leave the geofencing radius while the stove is still turned on, you will be notified immediately, so you can go back and shut it off. Here’s the catch: the Wallflower Smart Plug cannot turn off the stove by itself, and so you will either need to call somebody at home to turn off the stove, or you will need to go back and shut it off yourself. More expensive smart plugs can turn off the electric stove by itself, but they are indeed significantly more expensive.

Over time, the Wallflower Smart Plug can learn your usual cooking time and can give you notifications and suggestions based on that data. This can be useful for some, although most of the time cooking time is going to vary depending on the dish.

So, as you can see the Wallflower Stove Plug is a very simple device dedicated for just one purpose. However, aside from the fact that it can’t shut off the electric stove by itself, it is actually pretty decent at doing its job.

Pros and Cons

Bottom Line

Let us end the Wallflower review with a verdict. The Wallflower Smart Plug is a pretty straightforward smart home device with one purpose: notifying you when you left the stove on as you leave the house. It is pretty decent at doing that job, and is very useful for forgetful people, or when you have a child or somebody else staying in your house.

It is relatively cheaper compared to other similar products available, such as the iGuardStove Intelligent. However, it can’t shut off an electric stove by itself, unlike its more expensive competitors. Still, the Wallflower Smart Stove Plug is a very decent device for those looking for an added security for their electric stoves.