Over at Amazon, this TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug 2-pack is on sale for $18.
I bought this same product back in March for $25, and they’ve held up well since then. Setup was a breeze, and the Kasa smartphone app has been functional and easy to use.
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I like that they’re UL-rated, and they’re small enough that you can fit two on the same receptacle, or one per receptacle and still have an unblocked socket for use with a standard plug or device.
This one is the HS103 model, which is their mini design that can handle a 12A load. If you need one that can handle a 15A load, go with the HS105.
I use both of my smart outlets with power strips, to control light on-off schedules for the seedlings I’ve been growing.
I’ve been toying with the idea of using these for fans and other workshop equipment.
These smart outlets also work with Amazon’s Echo and Alexa devices, and also Google Assistant and Microsoft Cortana voice controls.
I’ve been tempted to buy a second pack for use with plug-in lamps, and at this price I just might.
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The only “gotcha” is that they require a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network connection. It’s not a big deal, my router puts out 2.4 and 5 GHz signals. Setup required me to connect my smartphone over to the 2.4 GHz temporarily.
Last thing – the outlets also have a manual on/off button, which I found useful.
Sale Price: $18 for (2), $10 for (1)
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I was also looking at the Amazon Smart Plug, but it’s $25 for one. I’ve used TP-Link equipment before with good results, and so I eventually went with the Kasa and haven’t been disappointed yet.
If you’re not quite sure you want to spend $18 for two Kasa smart outlets, Amazon is also selling them individually for $10 each.
One final note – these are also said to work with IFTTT, but I haven’t tested that yet.
David
I like these and use them in a number of places in my house. They work consistently, none have failed (unlike my Z-Wave GE outlets that I ran via SmartThings prior to the hub dying outside of warranty), and setup is easy.
These are a great way to get some basic home automation going at a low cost, and hands free voice light activation is great!
Brandon
If you want a rabbit hole to go down, check out Home Assistant. I just started an install of it on a Raspberry Pi 4 and really like it so far, but it does have a steep learning cliff. Most 2.4GHz smart home devices use similar internal chips, and there is open source firmware you can flash on them (tasmota). If you ever get sick of using the required app or cloud service for them, its something to consider in the future.
Side note, check out Shelly relays and Sonoff products. Sonoff devices do their job well and are extremely cheap – they are easy candidates for tasmota firmware, too. The Shelly devices are well built and very tiny – about the size of a double stuffed oreo. The Shelly 1 offers a dry contact closure, as well, which is very nice for some odd projects. I’m using one for remote garage door controls, as an example. The Shelly 1PM adds in energy monitoring.
Good luck with the plants! I went with the old school timers for them, myself. I’ll probably roll them, applicable pumps, and a few sensors into my home assistant down the road a bit.
Brian Kloc
Oh boy. I started down the Home Assistant rabbit hole about a month ago. Its a deep rabbit hole, and very easy to annoy the people you live with.
Aaron
I’m a couple weeks into this journey as well. It looks like it could be almost as expensive as buying too many tools…
BlueCraft Workshop
Oh man…
Jumping down this hole backwards and blindfolded…
GML
I’ve had two of these for about 2 years now. One is used every day/night for a light in our bedroom (Alexa for everyday use and scheduled when we are out of town). The other one is used during Xmas time. Never had a problem with either of them, well worth the money at that price. We also have numerous Kasa bulbs and light switches. All work great and it is nice not to have to use a hub. They connect well to Alexa, the phone app is simple to use and has all the features we need.
Jim Felt
I’ve been a Leviton loyalist since they brought out their first rocker switches. Plus I want to support a US firm with such a broad array of residential and commercial gear.
Their App has never failed and they provide updates seamlessly. Plus twice years ago excellent telephone support for their first Smart devices.
AKA I don’t much care about the price. I do care about continuity.
Jason McDaniels
Wyze has been my go-to (2-pack for $19.99) everyday. Vacation mode is nice for random lamp turn ons (take that Harry and Marc).
Can’t beat the price on their cameras either. Just wish they already had the doorbell camera and some others on their roadmap. Depot carries some now at a higher price point than direct or amazon)
Aaron
wyze is showing lots of new products right now to try to raise money. They will ramp quickly because its not really a product or electronics company so much as a supply chain logistics and integrations company — they mostly take existing hardware, replace the firmware to work with their system and ruthlessly fine tune the supply chain for savings. It seems reasonable to expect big things from them in 2020.
Frank D
I am very hesitant to go with no name brands … because apps become incompatible or are not maintained, companies no longer support their old products / EOL something, the whole industry moves forward and you lose compatibility * … or the company goes bankrupt and that’s it.
I have a few $k hanging on a thread because a billion $ compnay still requires Internet Explorer! And has not bothered to sort out a solution for any modern day browser. So you need a computer from 5-10 years ago with a browser from that era! Unreal!!!
Stuart
That’s the thing, TP-Link isn’t a no-name brand.
It’s never certain if or when a brand will deprecate or brick their products, whether intentionally or as a consequence, but the tech is more mature these days and so I’d think it’s less likely.
Aaron
its not even just noname brands — Lowes and Best buy both recently discontinued smart home product lines. Google is well known for canceling products and leaving users stranded. The key in home automation is products that don’t require proprietary clouds in order to function. That’s where Zigbee and Zwave come in, and why there is so much support behind open firmware for wifi products.
The proprietary cloud funded by one time hardware purchases is an obviously short term business model. Google, Amazon, and Apple fund their “free” cloud services with advertising, but the smaller players don’t have that ecosystem support. If I buy a $10 light bulb that costs $5 to make and costs the vendor $1 per year to support with cloud services it is obvious that I can’t expect 10 years of vendor cloud support.
The only way all this tech has propagated with such obviously flawed business models is the combination of low interest rates and venture capital and that is becoming more dodgy. Expect more “free” services to fail in the next few years and if you want long term support it will only happen from a company that actually makes sense.
Brandon
If you have a few grand of devices hanging around, I’d actually recommend you looking into Home Assistant and Tasmota. It’s not for the feint of heart tech wise, but once you learn the (intimidating amount of) background knowledge you most likely won’t have to worry about those concerns. At that point, they are all either wifi chips with relays or zigbee chips with relays.
BlueCraft Workshop
I use these around the house for lights, fans and “dumb” ACs (the ones with knobs). Excellent and much more reliable than wemo IME. The wemo android app widgets cause a crash every time I try to launch them and I get frequent drops from my network. Not a single issue since I switched to these kasa plugs.
Shane O'Connor
I’ve noticed some show/track daily/weekly energy usage of device plugged into it, does this one?
Stuart
Not that I know of.