Westek OMLC3BC-4 OMLC163BC Motion-Sensing Light Control, White

This would often work as intended - great! Just as often, it would turn the light on when motion is detected, then simply not turn off - totally defeats the purpose. This 'not turning off' problem seemed worse when using a CFL, despite the fact that the item description says it is compatible with CFLs. After just under a year, it ceased functioning altogether. It has a 5-year warranty, so I guess I'll ship it back to them. Maybe the replacement will work properly. I'll update. UPDATE 12/06/12: manufacturer shipped a new one. This one works perfectly. Hopefully the first one was a fluke. Based on this, I upgraded my rating from one star to three. UPDATE 02/10/14: Based on the great performance of the warranty replacement that was sent to me, I bought another for a hall closet. Works perfectly. Maybe the first one was a fluke. Nevertheless, based on the two that I have now, I upgraded my rating from three stars to five. Highly recommended. UPDATE 01/14/14: The one I purchased for the hall closet ceased functioning altogether after less than a year. Based on my experiences, I would say that this item is very unreliable. It's a good thing that it has a 5-year warranty. I shipped it back to the manufacturer - again on my dime. After an extended period of time, the manufacturer shipped a new one. Again, this one works perfectly. Based on this second failure, I am downgrading my rating from five stars to one. If you are looking for a motion sensor that works perfectly - until it soon doesn't - then this is for you. If you are looking to not have to go through the trouble of installing a new one every year or two, move on to something else. I just wish I knew what the alternatives are, so I can purchase those after the warranty period runs out on these.

Work well

Like many motion sensor sockets, this model relies on a spring-loaded pin at the center of the socket-base -- the part that screws into the lightbulb socket. This pin allows the unit to be unscrewed a little, to reposition the sensor housing. The housing itself extends from a limited-movement ball socket so you can rotate and tilt it a little in any direction. The result -- unscrewing the unit from the wall or ceiling socket where it's mounted, and swiveling or tilting the sensor a little -- is that you have a decent chance of "aiming" the sensor in the required direction. (Some reviewers apparently didn't notice the spring-loaded pin feature.) I was able to get it all positioned so it triggers when I enter the store-room where it's mounted. But with a big LED multi-panel light dangling from it, I'm not really happy that I can't screw the unit fully into the ceiling socket. Using the "unscrew a little" solution for positioning the sensor leaves the unit less than fully fixed to the ceiling socket. One would think that by now, with hundreds of schemes for making motion-sensor sockets, there would be a more complete and robust scheme for positioning the sensor. I installed this unit to replace a concentric sensor socket that seemed to have a 360 degree field of view, but was unable to detect motion 90% of the time. This Westek unit is very sensitive, and works 100% of the time. Unfortunately, it has no adjustments for sensitivity, ambient light, or on-time. It ignores ambient light (which is not a problem in my windowless storeroom), is very sensitive to all motion (which is what I needed), and stays on for 10 minutes with no adjustment to change duration (which is OK, but I would rather have it time out after 1-2 minutes, since it re-triggers at the slightest movement).

Very convenient to put in place. In my application, its use is to activate when we get night time animals on our deck. Raccoons especially.They don’t hang around long subsequent to the light activation. We live in a wooded area and get visits of deer,raccoon's, and coyotes.

I bought two of these to install over dog-door & dog yard areas to come on when the dogs go outside after dark. The first dog door goes from the laundry room to an enclosed attached rear storage room, which has two lights on one switch (one at either end of the room), so I had to purchase another device for that room's 2nd light socket. The dogs can't access that end of the room so it doesn't come on with their frequent traffic, only when I enter the seldom used storage room through a human door. The first device to die was the one that got the most use by the dogs, and it died 2 months after the 1-year warranty expired. The second dog-area light should be next to go, as I installed it over the back yard patio 2-3 months after I'd installed the first one over the storage room's dog door. I have high hopes that the 3rd device over the human door in the rear storage room might last 2 years or more if amount of use is related to life of device. But based on other reviews that may be wishful thinking. I REALLY like these since they are easy to install, and can be turned to detect motion from just about angle and any height depending on whether you want low animal detection or higher human detection. I have mixed feelings about the lights staying on for 10 minutes after the last detected motion: The back yard patio light can be seen by two of my neighbors, and we all treasure our mountain community isolation and lack of intrusion on our peaceful homes by neighbors. But it's nice that the dogs have 10 minutes of light to find their way back to the patio/outer dog door area. Yet those 10 minute periods of lighting an area with no activity add up and burn out the halogen outdoor spotlights faster, so I think 5 minutes would be better. The ideal solution is to install a time adjustment dial for how long it stays on after last detection, even if it only gives 2-3 choices in 5-minute increments. UPDATE: June 2019 the fixture over the frequently used dog door died, so I replaced it with the one from the other end of the storage room that gets very little use. Lifespan apparently *is* related to amount of use (on and off cycles). This frequent-use fixture lasted about 14 months, the other one (that is now in the frequent-use socket) might make it to 2 years since the first 14 months were at the low-use end of the room. I still haven't found an option that's better than this one for ease of installment and cost/lifespan. Not great (3 stars) but not awful. And I still wish the time the light stays on after no motion is detected could be adjusted in 2-5 minute increments or set at 5 min instead of 10 min if it's just too costly to add a timer control.

I bought this for use in our food pantry. We have used the First Alert PIR725 Motion Sensing Light Socket in our garage which has lasted about 10 years and is still going strong. We couldn't use the First Alert sensor in our pantry because of the angle of the sensor was too high to detect motion when the pantry door was opened. The nice thing about the Westek is you can manually adjust the sensor to detect entry into a room or closet. The Westek worked fine for 2 weeks and then quit working. It did make a clicking noise every time the light came on, which may or may not reflect normal operation. I think what may have caused the Westek to fail was that the light bulb burned out while the light was in the on mode, and the unit never reset itself, most likely a design flaw. I opened the unit to see if there was something like a reset button, but I found no moveable parts. As it turns out, the unit is secured with security screws (see attached photo), so a normal flat head screwdriver won't work. I had to buy a 1" long 1/4" #4 security spanner bit (looks like a 2-pronged fork) to remove the screws. I didn't purchase this from Amazon directly because Amazon wasn't selling it at the time (they are now). The vendor did send me a replacement which I haven't tried yet. The unit does come with a 5 year warranty if you want to go through the hassle of returning it to the manufacturer. As you can see from reading the other reviews, you may or may not wind up with a long-lasting unit.

This little device doesn’t look impressive at first. It saves the impressing for after it is installed! I was skeptical this plastic device would solve my lighting issue, especially when I had to partially detach the sensor to have clearance to screw it into the socket. But after the sensor was reattached and properly aimed - it works PERFECTLY!!! I’m pretty sure it’s picking me up at close to 30 feet! Last summer I tried a similar add on adapter, but it was just a plain dusk to dawn type. It never would shut the bulb off because it’s under a covered roof. So I was super shocked this morning when this device didn’t turn on the bulb when I walked by this morning, even though it was overcast. Evidently this has a high quality sensor in it! Now back to Amazon to buy another one just like it for the front door!

Excellent way to have a 'modular' retrofit unit! Eliminates the need of having to replace a whole assembly like with past integrated designs.

I purchased this light motion sensor for inside of my garage. It does what it advertises... turns on a light when motion is detected. Here are some of the "finer" details I learned after purchasing it that was not made in the description... * The motion sensor can be tilted up or down (up to 20 degrees in either direction), and rotated left or right (up to 90 degrees in either direction) * Light will stay on for 10 minutes * Sensor will not turn the light on if it senses enough natural light already (probably an issue if you're thinking of using 2 of these units in the same area) In my situation, I wanted to use it on the celing of my garage. In order to move the sensor beyond the 20 degree range (so I could properly point it at a door I use to enter the garage), I had to use a hack saw to cut a part of the trim the sensor uses to connect to the main part of the unit. This is the only reason why I'm not giving this device a 5/5 rating.

More designed for horizontal figure but otherwise works as expected

works great. just 15 minutes being ON after each motion detected is too much

It works fine but 10min is too much sometimes. It should allow you set up the time...

Does not work if weather is minus 10 or below.