I received Stitch by Monoprice smart home starter kit from monoprice for review and started to put it through its paces. The 5-piece kit comes with a nice range of options.
The 5-piece starter kit comes with:
smart plug,
smart led light bulb,
door sensor,
motion sensor
and a water sensor.

The devices are easy to set up with the Stitch by Monoprice app (tested on iPhone Xs) and integrated well with both Alexa and Google home products at my house. It may also work with others systems, but I was only able to test on those two platforms.

I part of the kit I tested was the water sensor because that was one of the more unique smart home features that I haven’t really seen from other starter kits. I once had a need for a water sensor to track my water heater at home but never really found a good option. I can see this sensor being very useful if you want to get automated water valve controls. The installation process for this piece is pretty painless once you get going, the installation process consisted of:
Open the box and remove device
Scan instructions QR code with phone to get app
Install app
Create login
Open device and remove plastic thing so battery has contact. (For the water leak detector, you need to first open it up and remove the tab for the battery)
Go to app, Add new device through app, and configure wifi
Good to go!

If you want the device to show up on Alexa, you need to associate your stitch account in Alexa with the Stitch by Monoprice skill and everything should show up fine after you rescan.

I actually created a quick demo video of the device working which can be seen here:

https://youtu.be/RBmSFqMXRSc

I haven’t had any real leaks yet, but I am happy that the app shows the battery status of the device and that is seems to be using a long life battery, so hopefully the monitoring will last at least a year and will warn me when I need to change it out.

The second piece I tested out was the door sensor. This door sensor reminds me of the sensors that came with my original home security system. The case was a little hard to open to put in the triple A batteries but once I got that opened it was good to go with a simple add in the app. Notification times on the door sensor are pretty fast with my home wifi system.

Here is a picture of the Stitch door sensor next to the Wink door sensor.

The Stitch door sensor is a little bigger than the wink sensor but the good thing is that it uses triple A batteries as opposed to the watch batteries that the Wink home sensors use. I haven’t had enough time to see how long the batteries last and how often battery replacements will be needed. The other minor issue I had with the door sensor was that the sticky tape it came with came loose on the small side of the sensor, which I fixed by replacing with stronger tape.

The Stitch smart plug is a nice option for those who do not want a hub based smart system or want to rewire their home with other kits. It compares well to there kits I have tested like the Philips. The plug fits reasonably well on the wall, and did not find any issues with the setup.

The led light bulb was also comparable to most other smart home systems. It allows for dimming which is also nice, and can fit in any standard light socket.

The motion sensor was also pretty standard. It comes with both screw mounts or 3m sticker options to mount them in your house. Judging by the build of the products, I do not believe it would work long term outdoors as it seems like it was specifically designed for indoor use only. One thing that I want to try later is linking the4 motion sensor with other smart devices and trigger multiple actions.

The Stitch by Monoprice app itself is easy to use and needed almost no instructions. The only parts where I needed to read the instructions where when I needed to open the devices up to put in the batteries. (Wanted to make sure I didn’t mess anything up.). Linking the system up to Alexa and Google home was a breeze.

Overall the Stitch home starter kit is pretty solid and works well. The only area of concern so far is how long the batteries will last in the devices. I have had them running for a week so far, and everything seems to be ok. Other than that, I would say that this kit is an easy way to get into a smart home system with little effort.

all item were easily installed and connected. Up and running on the first try.