Lightwave L42 Smart Socket, 3000W, Stainless Steel – Works with Alexa, Google Assistant, HomeKit. iOS & Android Compatible

I am slowly changing all lights and sockets in my house as this system works really well. App is easy to set up and use, and all works with Alexa.

These sockets are a major improvement on the gen 1 version. The energy consumption is really useful as is the 2 way integration.
Where they are let down big time is the support of other items. The gen 1 had loads of wireless switch options where as the only real option for these are your phone and the app, which really sucks when you go all in on lightwave as you have to navigate to rooms in the app then just get a load of square tiles which takes time to find the right one…
The million dollar question is, will these suffer the same sticky relay problem which plagued get 1? 20 of my 30 gen1 switches blew up with the classic sticky relay issue within 3 years so hopefully they have learned their lesson.

Nice contempory sockets.
We use them with our phones and Alexa.
Work great!

Easy to install and have had no issues – I used the app to turn down the brightness on the LEDS so it doesn’t bother me at night.

It’s surprising how few devices like this there are available on the market.

Packaging is relatively simple, and to be fair, installation is as straightforward as a normal socket plate. It does need a reasonably deep back box, this is usually the case with socket plates that have extra function like USB chargers (this doesn’t have that obviously!). A black plastic spacer is provided to allow for mounting on shallower back boxes, and I found this was needed anyway as the plate by itself is quite flush to the wall, and the extra depth matched a standard socket depth on the wall so it didn’t look out of place.

The metal plate levers off to allow you to hide the screws that attach the plate to the back box, and I had no issues connecting the existing wiring to the new socket.

Once powered up, the sockets default to off (red light) and even if they’re not paired to the Link Plus, you can still use the sockets manually by simply pressing the buttons, on is represented by a blue light.

The socket paired easily with my link plus, but the app on the smartphone needs a bit of work still, and implies you need to pair twice for a dual socket when you don’t… so I called the socket ‘Kitchen Socket 1’ thinking I’d have to do it again and create ‘Kitchen Socket 2’ only to find it automatically added both, but they were now called ‘Kitchen Socket 1 1’ and ‘Kitchen Socket 1 2’ !! Oh well… The app is also not great for renaming, it took a lot of attempts before I ended up with the names I wanted. When added to Apple Homekit, that picked up the original names, so it obviously keeps those somewhere. The name change in Homekit however was much easier 🙂

So, it works fine with Homekit, I can remotely turn them on and off, and also via Siri.

There is also an Alexa skill available, and this integrates with no issues allowing Alexa control.

So, a good start, but more refinement is needed on the software, and probably more options on finish would be useful to others longer term. The Link Plus app is currently very basic, but then there’s not much you can do with a switch I guess… what would be useful is easier renaming if you get it wrong, and the ability to over-ride the device type that say Alexa sees… If you have a lamp plugged in, Alexa sees the device as a switch and won’t turn it on when you say “Alexa turn lights on”.

The built in energy monitoring is not yet working, but Im told by Lightwave support that will be coming in a couple of weeks with an app update. So it’s now mid November 2017, I’ll update if/when it arrives.

If the software was a bit slicker, and the energy monitoring was there out of the box then it would be a five star product. As it stands, it works well with Apple Homekit and Alexa, and the LED’s aren’t too bright, although maybe another potential software refinement would be an option for no LED at all when the switch is off.