I’m looking for a smart power strip, which allows me to remote control and schedule on/off.
Last year I bought Hey!'s smart power strip. Hey! is a UK brand, but turn out its products are just branded Chinese products. I used it anyway but it just bricked itself last month.
For quality, safety, and security reasons, I strongly prefer a non-made-in-China smart power strip.
Compatibility with Home Assistant is prefered, but not 100% required. I’m interested in switching to Home Assistant but I haven’t yet.
Thanks for any suggestions!
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The problem you’ll encounter is that most consumer electronics are made in China because it keeps the price competitive. So you really just need a reliable brand. The main reason to avoid quite a few Chinese products would be the plug sockets.
So.while I haven’t used it and can’t guarantee it’s not made in China (also assuming you are in the UK), then TP-Link’s Kasa smart power strip looks like a good option as all that range work with HA. I’ve used other TP-Link products and been happy with them so it would definitely be an option I’d look at
I’ve had zero issues with my Kasa plugs, lights, and switches, and I have a lot of them in multiple locations. They were easy to set up and none have failed.
It’s kind of annoying that you can’t add other people to your Kasa “home”, but since they work with Google Home, Alexa, Home Assistant, and SmartThings, it hasn’t been an issue sharing access.
I have several of these power strips and they are awesome, they even do power monitoring per socket. Home Assistant integration is flawless as well, each socket shows up as a switch.
Hard to imagine TP-Link not making their products in China, it is a Chinese company XD
But I do agree: usually they make top quality hardware, been my favorite for… a decade at least? I like their Tapo smart plugs and cameras, my router is TP-Link, I have a second router with a mobile connection and that’s Mercusys (another sub brand) and so on.
I’m sticking with Ubiquiti for wireless networking however.
If you’re up for switching to Home Assistant then you could change to Zigbee or Z-wave devices. Most are made in China but since they don’t connect to the internet you don’t have the same backdoor issues that devices like Tuya do. I’ve been shifting all my WiFi devices to local protocols and it’s great.
You will be hard pressed to find any consumer electronics that are not wholly or partly manufactured in China these days. Not all goods made in China are the same however, quality is going to depend in the associated brand not the location of manufacture. Plenty of decent electronics are made in China because their brands hold them to a higher manufacturing standard.
Unfortunately options for UK smart power strips are limited. There’s TP-Link Kasa and Meross, and a few Chinese OEM strips sold under lots of different names (the Hey! strip being one example).
I’ve ended up using dumb power strips with smart plugs connected to each outlet instead. Particularly as I wanted power monitoring, a feature I haven’t seen available in any UK strips. It’s a bit bulkier and more costly, but it seemed the best option for flexibility, quality, and features.
If anyone knows of any other UK options I’d love to hear about them.
Is it that the hardware is manufactured in China, or that the product is simply a rebranded Tuya product?
If it’s the latter, I’ve integrated many Tuya products into my HA using the LocalTuya add-on. Only need cloud once (per item) to get it integrated, then you can block cloud access for that device forevermore.
You can solder them yourself or get something from china
I don’t know the actual country of manufacture, but Energenie are good.
I have their individual RF controlled sockets, but I see they have a power strip too.
There’s a “smart” (I hate that marketing term) 4-way power strip and with some intervention I’m sure it could be integrated into HA with an RF bridge.
They do make a Raspberry Pi module, and I own one, but I had it before I had setup HA and just have never tried putting the two together.
Anyway, the sockets seem ok and they appear to have all the relevant certifications.
(And I’m not affiliated with them)
