Westek MLC12BC-4 Indoor Plug-in Corded Motion Activated Light Control, Single, White

This unit works good I use it to turn on my cats water bowl/water fountain when it detects any movement, I said it to run for 5 minutes after it detects movement it is fully adjustable you can set it for just a few seconds all the way to 20 minutes of runtime very versatile, very sensitive activates with any movement in the room!

I got this device to use with my wife's low-wattage space heater she has under her desk in our home office. She's frequently forgetting to turn it off when she leaves the room and I happen to come back into the room hours (sometimes the next day) later to find it running all that time. She even uses it in the summer sometimes so not only is that wasting power but also fighting the AC. Her heater is infrared and only uses 500W max on its highest setting (250W on how); that is far below the 1400W rating of this plug. Setup was quick and easy. I just placed the sensor off to the side of her desk in the included, weighted base holder, set the off delay time (I used 5 minutes), and plugged it on. It has been working perfectly thus far. The great thing about this one vs. others I was considering is that it will keep the power on continuously as long as there is motion in the area, then turns off after the delay time if there's no motion. I've seen a number of people say that these go bad after a while and start staying on for no reason, but thus far ours is working perfectly. I will update if that changes. So far we are 100% happy with this. It was affordable and solves a problem; now I don't have to worry about the heater being left on and likely this thing will pay for itself rather quickly in savings on our power bill.

Works as advertised. I'm using it to trigger a powered valve on a reverse osmosis water line to automatically provide fresh water to our cats. I took a plastic water bowl, installed a sink drain in the bottom of it, adapted that assembly to a garden hose, then ran that through the floor so as to drain into a utility sink in our basement. Now when the cats walk up to the bowl, the sensor applies power to the 12 VDC wall-wart supply that powers the relay, the relay fires, the water kicks on, and they have 100% fresh water, no stagnation or bacterial buildup or water changes to worry about. This is VERY important for RO water, as the post-filter in most RO systems removes the majority of the chlorine, and so bacteria can build up much more easily in the water bowl if it is simply filled and emptied normally. With this arrangement, the bowl drains instantly and they can only drink fresh water from the water that exits the RO water tube. Because the sensor is designed for human size objects, I had to mount it down just a foot or so away from the bowl, or it wouldn't trigger with the presence of a cat. This is probably a good thing, as for general use, you'll be trying to trigger on people, not pets, but I thought I'd mention it. There's no sensitivity adjustment, either -- just a time adjustment, the minimum setting of which is one minute on. I could have used both -- a shorter time setting, and a sensitivity adjustment, but as I said, I made it work by carefully positioning it for my needs. Highly recommended. Very handy configuration, and so far, it's been very reliable.

When set to 4-seconds, any reasonable motion will cause this switch to turn on the power (yea!) and then turn it right back off a second later (boo!). You can do jumping jacks in front of it; the switch will flash on and off for as long as you jump. If you were hoping to build a motion-detector activated disco dance studio, this is the setting/switch for you. Long time settings are more problematic. When first plugged into the wall the unit will rapidly flash on and off 4 or 5 times, and then settle into watching for motion in a powered-off mode. Strange, but OK. Now make a motion that it can see and yes, the power comes on! Leave the room, wait for the set time to pass, and you can observe from a distance that the power will go off. Sweet! But if you bring your wife into the room to demonstrate your brilliance (power on!), exit the room, and then have her observe the switch from a distance, she will observe that it never shuts off. As will you, all alone, at the end of the hall, after your divorce. As was suggested in another review, I switched everything off, unplugged my load (a multi-outlet extension cord connected to a 5-watt light and a 50-watt stereo amp), unplugged the motion switch from the room's wall plug, and then reinstalled everything precisely according to the instructions that were included on a tiny square of paper that came with the switch, being sure to follow each step in the order given. In my case the switch wouldn't shut off, not even a single time. Perversely, I tried following the instructions in reverse order (except for step 1, setting the time setting, which physically has to precede step 2, plugging the until into the wall) and I got the switch to work as advertised for a couple of days, until it reverted to always on. Dead-on-arrival would have been preferable.

I bought 3 of these to use in closets. I ran LED strip lights around the interior door molding so that you can't see the lights but they light up the whole closet nice and evenly. The motion sensor works well. There is a slight delay before it turns on, maybe a second. The initial 4 second mode isn't very useful as it doesn't turn off after 4 seconds of not seeing motion, it turns off 4 seconds after seeing motion. That means that it turns on and then 4 seconds later turns off again, then quickly back on. Not very useful. The 1 minute timer is great. Enough time to grab something out of a closet and it doesn't stay on for too long afterwards. The product could be improved by making the internal timer reset every time motion is detected so that the light stays on when people are moving. Probably wouldn't work well in a room or area that is going to be occupied for a while as the light shutting off would be annoying. But for closets it works well and I couldn't find anything better out there.

Starting with what I didn't like - the controls for the timer are on the back of the plug component. This means that when you plug it in and decide you want the power to stay on for 10 minutes rather than 20 (for example) you have to unplug it to make that change. Not a huge deal, but depending on WHERE you are installing this it can be a pain to have to unplug to adjust. Why not put it on the front of the plug? At least then you can make the adjustment easily. Nice length in the cord between the sensor and the plug location. Not a flimsy cord, so it feels solid and like it will last a long time. The sensor works like a champ and has no delay that is measurable in my opinion. In our use case it actually was to good because it picked up movement in another room that required me to block a part of the sensor so it wouldn't go off unless movement is only in the area desired. I wish they had a distance control also, but can't complain for the price. I think this is a great value and it work wonderfully for us.

I use this in my garage to connect to a light whenever I enter the room it'll stay on for the amount I put it as. And the motion sensor is wayyyy better than other products i have used. Very easy to use and its been months and working like intended

I used this to light up the stairs where a wall outlet exists. You can select the "on" time with a rotary switch on the back of the plug in part (the instructions say "off" time). The sensor head is aimed to where you want to pick up motion, which is an IR sensor (picks up heat motion). To indicate power, there is a red LED on the plug in housing. There is a relay that makes a quiet snap sound when it turns on, so you might consider than if in a bedroom. In areas of the country where the power quality is bad with line surges, the relay should last way longer than an electronic switch (Thyristor based typically in these kind of switches). Note that this unit is ETL safety certified which is just like UL. I was very happy to find that in the product reviews - why isn't this in the spec on Amazon? Big selling point. UL/ETL is very important for fire and shock safety and is often not found in products from Asia. I am very happy with this.