Been using tp-link smart plugs for a moment. Not really had any problems with them but i want to move to something such as z-wave or a ZigBee. Something that is totally local and does not require a different app on my phone.
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@brb finally something useful 😂
Supported hardware: Nintendo Switch Joycons lmao
I have a few Hue ones. Two of them have been switching inductive loads for 4 years now without failing. Got some IKEAs for switching small things as well as strenghtening the Zigbee network. I got some Levitons for strenghtening the Z-Wave network and a couple of Zooz for power metering applications.
Keep in mind that most of these can’t be used with heavy inductive loads without failing prematurely. Inductive loads produce sparks in the switch relay and the relay contacts will degrade as a result. You can use cheap plugs for small non-inductive loads. As long as they’re certified for safety in your country, they shouldn’t catch fire when they fail. For inductive loads or heavier things, like your 1400W espresso machine, you also want it to be proven high quality.
But yeah, the vast majority of my home automation stuff is Zigbee and Z-Wave, fully local / offline.
I use severeal of these Zigbee plugs that are announced to manage up to 3600 watts but your comment made me rethink my choices as I use them on washers and my espresso machine… https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005005734493134.html
Yeah. I buy plenty from Ali but I generally avoid power grid electric devices. Flaws in those are much more likely to result in home fires than some low-power electronic device that doesn’t plug into the wall. If you need cheap smart plugs, I’d get something sold locally, certified in your country / EU. IKEA’s plugs should be cheap. Either way, every legitimate power plug I’ve seen either has a disclaimer written somewhere that prohibits inductive load use or it’s got a secondary, lower wattage rating for those. Or it says it handles inductive loads at the standard current.
With all that said, if you’re educated enough in electricity, you could crack one open and inspect it yourself for safety. It’s entirely possible they’re using the expensive relays. 😄
E: I tried checking my own homework just now and I can’t find Hue or IKEA saying anything about inductive loads on their websites anymore. I feel like I’m going crazy. I swear I’ve seen it written on IKEA plug and on their website. Maybe the all updated their stuff to use better relays? I don’t know. Either way your espresso machine is a resistive load so it doesn’t fall in the sparky category.
Out of curiosity, what does failure of one of these things look like? I’ve got one that’s running my window air conditioning unit. It draws about 600 watts while it’s running, but when it very first starts up, it pulls about 1700 watts instantaneously and then immediately drops.
That is still within the 15 amps the plug is rated for with a margin of about 100 watts.
As far as I know the switch stops connecting or disconnecting. But besidss that I don’t know what the failure mode of a worn relay looks like. E.g. whether it could overheat and melt due to a poor connection because of worn contacts. You should read more on that.
Okay, that’s good to know. If it’s just that the switch doesn’t disconnect or connect, that’s fine, because even if it fails in a connected state, the air conditioner itself only pulls about 5 amps while running, and the plug itself is rated for 15 amps.
It only pulls anywhere close to that when it’s very first starting up and only for a brief moment.
thank you very much for your reply! They worked fine for 2 years now, I hope they wont fatally fail. In the future I will switch to known brands :)
I have several of these and they have worked super well. (Zigbee)
Still using Insteon. Nothing else is as reliable. Works even if the Wi-Fi router is down. Their hub talks to Home Assistant and that integration has been rock solid. Under the new owners, the hardware is better than ever. But I have 18 year-old light switches and plug-in modules still working flawlessly even after moving them to three different houses.
So glad to hear this. Had Insteon in my old house and moved when they shut down, so I’m mostly using eave now in the new house. I loved Insteon, and kept my hub & plug in modules when we moved. I’ll definitely consider using them again going forward.
I really liked their stuff, but things have been out of stock lately. Their lightbulbs only lasted a year and they stopped selling them. I’m concerned they are having supply chain issues.
I have purchased five bulbs from them and all have failed or had severe flickering issues.
Came here to say this. I have a few of these. They are rock solid and easily flashed with Tasmota
I have a few Aqara smart socket with power monitoring, and they ask great, but also expensive.
I had a bunch of the old style of IKEA smart sockets without power monitoring. They work just fine, but they are quite clunky…
I recently bought a couple of the new IKEA smart sockets with power monitoring, and they are almost on par with the Aqara ones, but less than half the price.
I happened across a shit ton of kasa smart plugs, and don’t need the range/mesh that ZigBee provides, so ive just been using them. Been working well, they can be configured locally and can be blocked from internet access by my router
I got some kasA devices on sale, they work fine. I dislike that I have to use their app for initial setup and when I rotate WiFi passwords. Will use them until they fail, then will switch to something else.
Check out python-kasa. Pretty sure I’ve only used the proprietary app to set up the first one because I learned about this. The rest I could do on my computer from the command line.
Cooool, thanks!
I am using Third Reality. It’s been great and since they are part of the Works with Home Assistant program, they actually give updates to their device and are committed to not needing an external account on some sort of stupid app.
I’m rewiring my house so have started installing Sonoff ZBMINIR2 on one in certain locations. My outlets are being put in boxes large enough for a pair of double outlets (total of four individual plugs) so making one switched is kinda easy. Just wired it up without any switch at all and stuffed it in the box. Just have to break the tab on the positive side and wire the unswitched outlet as usual. I then get three always on outlets and one zigbee switched outlet, I’m going to create a label for the face plate front to show the switched one and the back side had the breaker and branch location info so it will be easy to figure out later on if needed.
I tested a couple of the ZBMINIR2’s switched side and if you bring power and ground through the ZBMINIR2 the switched contacts are only about 6v dc. The only disadvantage I have seen so far is that when a switch is wired up and rapidly turned on and off it goes into pairing mode so kids flipping switches are a bad thing but it’s easy enough to pair back up if you have your phone handy when it happens.
Flashed some plugs with Tasmota.
Bunch of different zigbee ones. Zigbee-only means they’re guaranteed to be local and I’ve had no issues with my Deconz-based zigbee network for many years.
Most smart plugs also act as repeaters so in theory it should improve your Zigbee mesh as well.
I have some Shelly plugs, some Athom plugs, some Nous A1T (and a Nous A6T for the terrace). The Zigbee plugs I had all were pretty substandard in terms of reporting after running Tasmota for a while. Main issue with the Tasmota ones is that about all of them are based on an ESP32 where the LED can’t be programmatically turned off. On the plus side, they double duty as nigh lights.
Yeah. While most of my stuff is switched by KNX I came here to second the Nous (see here: https://mikrotik.com/product/ltap_lr8g_lte6_kit#fndtn-specifications )
Tbf, for the LED I simply snipped it off for the one plug that is in a sensitive position often.
Other than that I love them. They are solidly build (I opened one and intentionally stress tested it after a bad experience before), directly work with HA and KNX,etc.
(But seriously, consider KNX people,it’s far easier than people think.)
^This is a really cool Z-Wave one that I use for lighting, as it supports dimming. Works awesome in HA. I have some lights hooked up to it outside for hanging at night, as well as inside, as no-one put ceiling lights in the living room of the house I’m renting. Just make sure your LEDs are dimmable of course. I still haven’t found a different dimmable zigbee/zwave smart plug, though I haven’t looked after I found that one.
I use those ^ for everything else. Zigbee of course, wifi plugs suck to set up and don’t do the mesh thing. Power monitoring opens you up for some super clever automations. I have my Xbox plugged into one, and when the plug notices the Xbox turns on, my IR blaster turns on the TV. I also have my TV plugged into one, so HA knows when the TV is on.
I have them (Zigbee smart plugs) all over the house. Mostly for power measurements, but I’m using few to control devices. I also have a few thingies I’ve put behind regular outlets.
