Aaron C Reskew
2025-08-30 12:34:00
Update, Oct 2024:The motion sensor is still very sensitive but it turned out the problem with the timer was my error. I'd set up a rule to turn the light off after 10 minutes but elsewhere in the app I'd set it to turn off if it didn't detect motion for 1 minute. So after 1 minute of me being out of sight of the motion detector it turned itself off, as I'd instructed it to. So a good slap of my own forehead here, a very loud "D'oh!" in my best Homer Simpson voice, and I'm restoring the fifth star to the product.Update, Aug 2024:The motion sensor is very sensitive. I've got mine set to the lowest setting and it activates when I'm 10 feet away in an adjacent room. It would be nice to be able to set it to be much less sensitive, so it activates if I walk past it but not if I walk somewhere in the general vicinity. It's as if the angle of view is fairly narrow, so that if I'm walking along the wall where it's located it doesn't respond until I walk right in front of it, but if I'm in the next room it will activate with me a clear 10 feet or more away. That's tedious, because it means if I stand at my bench to mend something the pantry light keeps turning on.There's also an issue that might be with the switch and might be with the Kasa app (I suspect the app, but the two go together). Because I'm prone to forget to turn off the pantry light (and sometimes it's hard to turn it off if I've got both hands full) I set up a rule in the software that activates when the light is turned on, and turns it off 10 minutes later. 10 minutes is plenty of time to find what I need in the pantry and leave, except that it actually turns off after more like 2-3 minutes.These aren't major issues but are irritating enough to knock off a star. There's not much point having time-based options if what happens bears so little resemblance to what I programmed, and it's been known for years that motion sensors that activate whenever anything happens remotely near them are of limited use.I still plan to install the other one in the attic, I'll just leave it to a standard rule to turn it off.Original review:I fitted a motion sensor switch to the room in my basement where I keep the chest freezer. When I take stuff down to the chest freezer I need to figure how to turn the light on, which can be tricky when I've got both hands full with stuff to go in the chest freezer. I can flick a switch with an elbow but it's a bit of a drag. And sometimes when I leave the room I forget to turn the light off, and find it still turned on a couple of days later when I'm next down there.A switch like this solves all these problems at once. The motion sensor means all I have to do is walk past it and the lights come on. And being a smart switch it means I can set up a rule that turns the light off again after 15 minutes. As a fallback I have a "scene" set up in the Kasa app that turns all the automated lights off at midnight regardless, so if the rule doesn't work as expected it will still shut off at midnight.Be aware these switches are quite deep. I had to replace the back box to fit it, because the previous switch I had was the smallest switch available. The metal back box that was in place was deep enough to hold the Kasa switch but didn't have enough free space to handle the cables in and out and the wire nuts behind the switch. But now I have a deeper back box and a switch that works very nicely.Installing the switch is about as easy as it gets. It has four wire tails - a white one to connect to neutral, a green one to connect to earth, and two black ones to connect to line/load. All you have to do is figure which wire is which, use the supplied wire nuts to join the wires together, and configure the switch. If you can't figure out electrics as simple as this, pay an electrician to do it for you.The default level of sensitivity had the light triggering if I went anywhere near it, so I turned it to the lowest sensitivity (this is done in the Kasa app) and now I have to walk right up to it before it activates. That's perfect for my needs, I don't want it turning on unless I actually go into the room where it is installed.As a smart switch it can be configured to activate only when ambient light is low, it has different levels of sensitivity for the motion sensor, and it can be controlled remotely and programmed to turn on and off at particular times. That sort of thing has obvious uses if you're going to be away for a few days, you can set up timers so it's not so obvious you're not home. You can also do all sorts of weird and wonderful things if you're so inclined, so if it takes your fancy you can set it up so that if you walk into the room where the switch is installed it will some totally unrelated device on or off. Why you'd want to turn the attic power strip off when you walk into a room in the basement is another matter, but you can if you want to.I have two of these, and I'm thinking a motion switch to turn the attic light on might be a handy thing to have, for similar reasons.
Ol' Hesty
2025-08-16 18:35:21
The media could not be loaded.
Rogelio Sanchez
2025-07-25 09:57:50
i love this switch, great for areas where you may drop in and out and dont want to fuddle with controls, installed 1 in a bathroom, turns on while im in, turn off when I leave, plus the added sanitary issue of not touching controls, especially in a bathroom, also has manual control , and app control , have 2nd one in hallway, so it automatically turns on/off as I pass by
DRL
2025-03-09 16:44:08
Installed in the garage. Auto or manual use. The app is also simple and feature full. Schedule if required and/or remote control. In for two weeks and like it so far. No issues and works as expected.
Nancy
2025-03-07 15:23:08
Have this setup in the garage and it does a pretty good job at detecting motion. You can change the settings to make it more or less sensitive which is also nice. Setup was pretty simple, don’t forget to make sure your breaker is tuned off :)It would get a 5 if it could detect the door as motion but I think it’s based off heat and only detects me once I’ve gone down one of the stairs (180 degrees in relation to the switch)Also, app is pretty good too, simple enough to use and the connectivity was easy. I like that Kasa has widgets available on iOS so you can toggle the light from your home screen (See screenshot). You can also set a timer for how long the light stays on after it stops detecting motion.
Merykabelandberube
2025-01-18 16:13:55
I installed this a couple month ago and I never had any problems with itIt’s easy to install and the setup in the app is easy to understandMy favourite thing about this is the price! It’s cheap and it works like a charm!
CE Tech
2025-01-08 10:03:45
I recently added the KS200M motion-sensor light switch to my mixed suite of home automation devices, replacing a similar Incipio switch that failed. The TP-Link switch was a little more expensive than some alternatives, but in general my TP-Link Kasa devices have been a little more trouble-free than other brands. And it works fine, so 4 stars for sure.But it's a bit annoying that TP-Link still has some easily-fixed annoying flaws after years of customer feedback.Most annoying issue with motion-sensor smart light switches (not just TP-Link), why isn't there a easy way to temporarily override the automatic timeout when you want the light to stay on? Like when you are working in the room just out of view of the motion sensor, or sitting still in the room?As for the Kasa UI, why isn't there a custom timeout setting instead of a limited choice of timeout values like "10 minutes" or "20 minutes", but no way to set "15 minutes"? Don't they realize that apps have access to a keyboard where you could actually type a number (gasp!) ?And it would certainly be more flexible for home automation if they exposed the motion sensor as a separate device. Yes, you can trigger actions based on the light turning on, but that's not always what you want.
Toasted
2024-12-01 10:59:22
Had to replace a Lutron occupancy sensor switch after a few years as it started misbehaving. Bought a 15A replacement at a local store but my LED lighting load is only 240W so I looked around online. To my surprise, the Kasa product costs much less and is Smart.However, the description on Amazon does not explicitly state what LED load it can handle; it only states 600W incandescent and 1/6HP motor. So I gambled it would be OK and it seems to be, but not confirmed by anything on the box or in the enclosed Quick Start Guide. If you get filtered onto the Canadian website for TP-Link/Kasa, the product is not even listed. The Lutron MS-OPS5M is likewise rated at 600W incandescent and 360W LED so I think the Kasa shoudl be similarly rated for LED.Once installed and set up with the Kasa Smart app (including an update to the firmware), I learned that my switch is Hardware Version 1.0. There is a later version 1.8 reported on the US website. I do not know if there are any operational or performance differences.Installation was a challenge that would have been eased by a deeper box. I recall that it was hard getting the Lutron to fit because there are three cables entering the box: line, lights and outlets. The Lutron doesn't need the neutral and has a bare, small gauge ground wire but the Kasa looks fractionally deeper, needs the neutral connection and has a heavier gauge, insulated ground wire. Taking together one or two larger wire nuts and the Kasa being fractionally deeper (maybe only a millimetre or so), I had to really jam it all in. One side is still lifted off the wall but it's in a workshop/storage area so appearance is not so important.Motion sensitivity even at 30ft is good (set to high sensitivity). Took me a bit to find my way into the device settings on the app and was relieved to find that the turnoff delay after motion has not been detected could be set to something longer than the default 1 minute. That's also not something that is described on the Amazon page.