iHome Control Reviews

by Steve-PHX

I had to throw my hands in the air out of frustration and give up entirely on the iHome line. Two smart plugs worked for a while through Alexa and SmartThings, then everything stopped. Alexa didn’t recognize the plugs. SmartThings would show them as unavailable but the iHome app would. I signed out of Alexa app, SmartThings app, iHome app, rebooted my phone, and that still didn’t work until I deleted and re-downloaded the iHome app. That worked for a day then something happened to the iHome cloud. Repeated steps from before after cloud was ‘fixed’ and had same issues with one but not the other. Then the other became non-responsive as well. Bought a different brand of smartplug now all is right in my smart home once again. The iHome plugs are officially benched in my house. Wasted too much time trying to resolve the issues when the had better things to do.

by I Need A Long Vacation

I bought an ihome leak sensor. I followed the instructions to set it up. The major problem is that whenever there is a popup window prompt, such as the one asking for the network password, the popup appears over and over endlessly, making setup impossible. As such, I can use the sensor to make a local beep whenever water touches it, but impossible to set up to send remote notifications due to this software being broken.

It’s mind-boggling that iHomeControl could be released when it is fundamentally broken. It will give you the same prompt or error endlessly until you force-close iHomeControl .

What garbage! I remember seeing first-time programmers make this kind of mistake in Fundamentals of Computer Science I. Maybe they are getting high-school hobby programmers to do the work as interns or something.

I tried resetting the phone, deleting and reinstalling the iHome app from iHomeControl Store, resetting the sensor, etc. I called iHome customer support who was unable to help. They finally suggested that I simply wait a few hours and try again. Why? It didn’t work. iHomeControl is broken.

I’m using an iPhone X on iOS 11.2.5, which at the time that I’m writing this review is the latest version available.

by Maddyt703

iHomeControl is extremely unreliable. I’ve been using for about three months now and the same issues still exist. Have talked with tech support several times with no resolution. iHomeControl does not update the readings from the monitor unless I open the home app first or I have to restart my phone if I’m not on my homes wifi. Also the rules hardly ever work. They’ll work briefly when first set up and then slowly stop working all together. The devices do not shut on or off according to the rules that I’ve set. I’ve tried adjusting the times so the on and off isn’t overlapping but nothing seems to help. Is this something that is ever going to be fixed or updated? I am basically to the point where I’m just going to move on to another product because this is completely unreliable.

by Doctor Flamingo

I expect that if you can get the device connected to iHomeControl , it works pretty well.

But I can’t get by square one in setting up iHomeControl . The Quick Start instructions are very much best-case instructions. They don’t tell you that you have to download the “Home” app from iHomeControl Store, or else you’ll just be confronted with a lot of blank screens. They don’t tell you that you have to enable “Home” in iCloud, or else you’ll just see “Cloud Data Sync in Progress (77)” forever, with no indication of what that means. Even after I managed to troubleshoot these two major hurdles, I still get a blank screen when I try to connect the Smartplug device.

Perhaps if there were better documentation, this could be workable. But by trying to make the process look simple and easy, the half-page of quick-start instructions (and nothing further) basically makes the item useless.

And clicking on “Get Help” at the bottom of some of the screens basically leads to a more verbose version of the the quick start. No real troubleshooting, no real help.

Not wasting my time on this any more, sending it back.

by Flybone89

I tried to get my iSP8 paired once again this holiday season because I had used it as a smart plug for our tree but like so many before me I could never add this device to either the iHome app or HomeKit.

After reseting constantly I could get it to join the network and I would see it on my router but the iHome app kept saying to could not connect. This was on the same day I ordered their new outdoor plug to give it a try. But after so many struggles with these plugs and app before, I decided to give up, canceled the order and I am done with iHome.

(Please NO developer response needed. You have permanently lost a customer and that’s all you need to know as I don’t have time to troubleshoot and do your QA work for you. It just needs to work...)

by Rodzirra

I bought the iSS50 sensor in order to automatically turn on a fan when the temperature rose above a certain point. The fan is plugged into another brand of HomeKit-enabled plug (Koogeek). The iHome app does not see it, so it can control it. Isn’t providing a universal and cross-compatible platform for home automation the whole point of HomeKit?!?

Turns out, the Koogeek app works flawlessly in setting up the automation I wanted. It found the iHome sensor and let me use it to set up an automation routine. So they proved it’s possible to see a and use a HomeKit device made by another company.

iHome is just pretending not to see my other device in order to make me want to buy one of their smart plugs. No sale, iHome. And just for that lousy behavior, I’m not planning to buy any more of your stuff.

by ZorbaTheBee

I have 3 of these iHome devices setup and working with Rules. Had to change my router password and all 3 failed to reconnect after the change. iHome doesn’t even prompt for a password to reconnect. Instead, I had to setup each device from scratch and iHomeControl created duplicates of each one. In addition, I lost all my existing rules so now I have to recreate all those rules. In comparison, my Lutron didn’t bat an eyelid - it simply continued to work after the password change like nothing had happened.

Another pain point is that you don’t allow the use of special characters when naming devices or rules - not even underscore characters! That’s really inconsiderate of your users.

If you’re not creative enough to come up good user scenarios and design for them, then at least copy the good ones out there.

I guess based on your history and all the other reviews I see, I shouldn’t expect an update fixing all these issues.

Consequences are that I’ll never buy another iHome device again and will steer others away from your products.

by Mjdindc

It’s hard to separate iHomeControl from the instructions and the device itself.

I have set up 4 other brands with little effort.

I tried to set up the device following the prompts from iHomeControl . It never asked for the passcode and setup stalled.

I followed the alternate instructions of manually adding the device (which it did with no problem) and then adding from within iHomeControl and still no luck. I have done a hard reset after every attempt.

Finally I manually added device to network and used HomeKit to connect to device which it did with no problem. I went back to iHomeControl and got an error message but restarted app and device was there and could be controlled from both HomeKit and iHomeControl .
Unfortunately, less than 5 hours after install, I needed to unplug the device and plug back in because HomeKit could no longer connect to the device. There was no problem with any other smart home device.

I then tried to add to Alexa. There is absolutely nothing in the instructions or app about how to do this. Alexa could not find the devices.

Not sure if I will bother with not adding to Alexa (which I am trying to move away from for privacy concerns).

Overall I am not happy with device. It really should not be this hard to add a device. Ihomewas good enough to respond to my review, but only addressed adding to Alexa and telling me to call support. I am upping it to a 2 star based on ihome at least doing a follow up.

by Ckline7046

My smart plug disappeared from my home app. I reinstalled the device in Home and it shows it needs an update. IHome app was crashing so I deleted it and re downloaded it from iHomeControl Store. I still cannot open it. It is open on device but won’t open to use. When you touch on it it flashes open then back to device home screen. Update it please!! Running it on iPhone 11pro with latest update.
UPDATE: I was contacted by a developer and they acknowledged the issue and advised that they are working on it. They offered a work around, turn off notifications. It seems to be working. I am away so I’ll test it when I get back. Good customer service so far.

by Jcjones1978

This software keeps asking me to update my firmware or my devices will stop working. When I go check for firmware updates there are no updates. I am running the iSP5 plugs, and if there is a newer firmware than 0.9.10 I would love to know how to pull it down and get it installed.

Besides that, the software works decently. It’s not the best nor the worst. Have had a few issues here and there where the software lost track of the devices and I had to set them back up. A bit of an annoyance really. But once it is working it all works like a charm.

by Beffalo Springer

First time purchase of any remotely controlled/monitored devices; a pair of ISPX6 smart plugs and an iSS50 Smart monitor. While this is an app review and not a product review they are interrelated, i.e. the performance of one influences the other.

In this case iHomeControl and the products worked as expected. Followed the directions and I was flicking lights on and off from my iPhone like a champ in ten minutes.

A few caveats. Apple’s Home Kit integration works fine as long as you are connected to your home network. For remote access USING HOME KIT you need a hub. But there is remote access using the iHome Control app and their cloud connection. But as earlier pointed out iHome Control only works with iHome products.

Second-setting up rules is easy, but event triggers for the monitor to push notifications require a separate rule for each event. My first attempt was to create one rule to trigger a notification if temp went below 50°, or light or motion was detected. On test no notification. After a close reading I saw that all three conditions had to be met. Once I figured that out and set up one rule for temp, one for light and one for motion everything worked just fine.

by Mick0027

I’m using iHome version 2.2.4 on my iPad Air 2 running IOS 11.2.6. I just set this up for the first time for their water filter sensor iSB02WC. I didn’t have any issues with the setup and the setup even had voice instructions at one point. Account setup was easy. Simple and so far it works. The only thing I would recommend for improvements is the push notifications and additional notification options of a tripped sensor (like an email notification). The push notifications don’t always show and sometimes you have to open iHomeControl and go into the submenus of iHomeControl to see a new notification.

by E-T-C

I rarely write reviews but noticed iHomeControl is getting beat on for some reason, I’ve never had any issues. This product line and app are great! Love the products and love iHomeControl ! Setup is a breeze too! Homekit integration works perfect and I can use Siri to turn on and off outlets. I have 10 iSP8’s in my house and 3 iSS50 environment monitors which are great for temperature and humidity rules. The rules work perfect and I truly never have any issues at all. Gets too hot or humid in the crawl space, no problem, the environment monitor triggers a rule and switches on an outlet that has a fan plugged into it - and notifies me via iHomeControl . Beautiful! Been using WiFi via UniFi access points or TimeCapsule with no issues, if you have issues make sure your signal is good and you have a good router. My only suggestion: Keep up the great work and roll out some cool new products I can buy! :)

by Greguar_p

I bought a temperature monitor iss50 a long time ago. Recently I had an urgent need to use it again since my home furnace does not turn once in a while and it is really critical to know if that happened when I am away. My attempts to set up remote access were unsuccessful and I called customer support. It took multiple attempts for them to figure it out, but, finally, I am able to see what is the temperature is In my room while I am at remote location. I am very impressed by persistence of the customer service rep, it took some serious effort to fix the problem.

by Foul Child

What a great product the iHome control plug is people realize you could use it for so much more things than just the lamp or a light you could put it on water coolers refrigerators anything you want to control I even did all my electric heat by using an eight pole contactor with 120 V coil controlled by the iHome control plug to pull in the contact and put all my heat on so when I’m driving home in the winter from a long day I just turn it on from my phone a half an hour before i get home and I walk into a nice warm house