Review on 📶 Effortless Monitoring & Control with PumpSpy PSO1000 Wi-Fi Sump Pump Smart Outlet by Jerry Leon

I was wondering if I should give this review 4 or 5 stars. I chose a 5 star rating solely because of the speed of the support team's response. If this was based on my first attempt at installation it would have been a 1 star rating. The product would have received a 4 star rating if it worked, but the great support raised it back to a 5. Let me get that straight. This product is reliable and works well when it works. I had trouble installing it, but once I got it working it works great. Let me get that straight below: 1. Installation: I ran into trouble here, which was even more frustrating because I'm an IT pro and this should have been a piece of cake. The included installation guide is well designed, but my experience hasn't matched it. Basically, in the step where you plug the outlet into an outlet, you need to connect to a Wi-Fi network called PumpSpyOutlet, which turns off the device, then connect to that Wi-Fi network, and then boot the app , and then tell the app the WiFi network you want to connect the outlet to. For me it showed Wiced's WiFi network. I connected to it and the app does nothing. I got a popup on my android phone that allows me to "login" as if it were a public wifi network or hotel etc. Basically this takes me to the internal web server side of the device. Luckily there is a Wi-Fi button on this page and you can tell the device which Wi-Fi network to use, but in this case the app doesn't show the data. The ring turned green, meaning my outlet was connected to Wi-Fi, but something on the back wasn't right, or I had a defective device. My issues aside, the installation is pretty easy, and the hardest part, not difficult at all, is going down to your sump pump and bolting a metal bracket to your exhaust pipe to mount the high water sensor about an inch higher. Your actual drain pump float which turns it on and then insert the plug into the bottom of the outlet. Your Wi-Fi needs to reach the sump pump area (obviously). A NOTICE. Ideally you should use the supplied screw to secure the socket in the box rather than just clipping it over the existing panel to avoid accidental slipping out etc. This works if your existing outlet is a two-outlet box. I had a box with an exit so the screw hole didn't fit, but that's okay, it's pretty tight in there so I don't think it will ever fall out on its own. Just be aware that screwing on the PumpSpy outlet may not work if you have a single-port AC outlet.2. Support Resolution: Email is the only available support option, which I did around 6pm ET on Friday. To be honest I wasn't expecting to hear an answer and decided I needed to do an exchange on Revain. They emailed me the next Saturday morning and basically said they have multiple devices showing the Wiced network and not the PumpSpyOutlet network. As far as I can tell, the Wiced network is Broadcom's embedded web server and they needed my serial number and my PumpSpy account email address and they would link my PumpSpy device (serial number) to my PumpSpy account . They emailed me about 4 hours later before I even had a chance to reply by logging in and asking for a serial number. I replied with the necessary information and after a few hours they fixed everything. After running the application, I was able to see the data my PumpSpy.2 output was collecting. Product/App Usage: Now that they fixed the backend I can see my data. I see lots of information including Wi-Fi Status, Main Outlet Status, Drain Pump Status, Water Level Status, Last Cycle Time, Cycle Duration, and Number of Cycles Today. Everything is very neat. The Alert tab shows what alerts have occurred (flooding, drain pump problem, etc.) and the History tab shows how many cycles and estimated liters of water have been drained per day. The magic happens, you can enter as many phone numbers or email addresses as you want, so I enter my personal cell phone, work, work and wife cell phone number for notification. I tested this by raising the water sensor (to simulate water rising onto the float) and after a few seconds I received messages to let me know. It will also notify you when it's back to normal. A notification within a few seconds is ideal. It will probably also let you know if it doesn't hear your SmartOutlet for a few minutes, I guess if the WiFi goes down or you have a power outage in the house. PROS: The service is free, the only charge is the equipment. The hardware is a bit on the high end, but the value is great if you've ever had any type of flooding anywhere. I am sure that part of the cost of the equipment goes towards the servers hosting the data storage and notification systems. The support was fast and competent. Data is great, peace of mind is great. CONS: There is no Wi-Fi section in my settings area of the app so I'm not sure how I would ever change the Wi-Fi network it was connected to if needed, I think I could do a factory reset and then use the Wiced network to connect it to the new network, but this seems a little too technical for most people. I should be able to use the app to point them to the new WiFi network. If the servers ever go down this product becomes totally useless, it totally depends on the servers in the cloud and your device reports to them, this device will NOT contact you directly if there is any problem (a notification will be sent from its servers sent to the cloud) , which is good because it's a lot easier than running your own SMTP server or similar, but it has the downside of being useless if that company ever goes bankrupt. GENERAL: It's clear that this is a very small company, but they do a great job of looking professional. The website is top notch, the product packaging is as good as any product at Walmart, the brochure is professional, etc. While the Android version and emails were helpful, the signature was missing, the person's name and they probably just became of a guy checks this email address on his phone but that's ok as the support was quick and helpful. I would recommend you buy one, especially if you only have one drain pump. Peace of mind is worth it.