It appears one of my smart plugs is having issues supplying a steady amount of power. It turns on and off every 10 minutes, so it's on for 10 minutes, then it's off for 10 minutes, then back on etc etc.
Swapping the plug for another it provides steady power. Looking for a replacement plug I can't find them on eBay or Amazon, so has GE stopped making them?
I found the GivEnergy ones hugely unreliable so bought a far cheaper one from Amazon which has been faultless. It doesn't work in the GE app but uses SmartLife app which I have various radiators and towel rails etc on
I personally use the Shelly ones which I have been very happy with. If I wanted to trigger them based on solar or battery state then I would do so using Home Assistant.
I use the mylocalbytes ones in home assistant, but Shelly are good and there is an app for them
The MLB ones are rated to 16A, the Givenergy are definitely not - see earlier thread on a melted one!
geoffreycoan I remember seeing that thread, he had his tumble dryer on one and it melted. On investigation it was rated at 8 amps or something?
Actually 10A. A lot of them have this restriction. 10A continuous and 13A (or even 16A) intermittently. You even also find this restriction on the wall outlets where the cheaper ones tend to be rated at 10A continuous even though they are marked as 13A. This is very dodgy practice so if your purchasing outlets or smart switches for high current loads make sure the continuous rating is at least 13A.
My Granny charger will only drawer 10A as do most washing machines and tumble driers (rated at 2.2kW not 3kW) which I'm sure is a response to the poor control of the specification for socket outlets. These loads are continuous. Kettles are sometimes 3kW rated but these are considered to be intermittent loads (2 minutes at a time). If you boil lots of water with a 3kW kettle in quick succession have a feel of the cable and plug afterwards. They are worryingly warm. When I fitted my socket outlets for the charger I made sure they were 13A rated even though only 10A was needed.
The smart plug is suppose to detect if it is overloaded and disconnect the load but in the case of the Tumble Drier fire this obviously didn't work.
If you've got a Drayton/Wiser controlled heating system with a Wiser Hub, the Wiser Plugs are pretty good and controllable through the Wiser App (and Home Assistant if you have the asantaga Wiser Integration). They are rated to 13A/3000W with an IPX20 ingress protection rating.
The second generation HubR also permits the connection and control of a host of other device types such as smoke alarms, motion sensors, Temp/Humidity sensors, TRVs, underfloor heating, door/window sensors etc.
I use one to switch on a 1 kW under counter fan heater when it gets really cold.
Connected instantly (2.4 Ghz) , updated firmware and has been running for the last 6 months without problem.
It's what you want tech to do - just work.