Decent price for the TP-Link Kasa KP115 Smart Plug. Slim form factor with Energy Monitoring.
Works great with Home Assistant and can also work locally without internet (once initial setup is complete).
CamelCamelCamel.
That's alarming!
What load was attached at the time?
The dryer, so up to 2kW.
So is there a positivity the dryer was drawing more than 2kw? I was thinking of maxing one of these out with our car charger. Now I'm nervous.
@GenerallyClumsy: I regularly push 2100w through mine on the dishwasher and it's never missed a beat. That being said though, now that I've done my research on power consumption there, I'm going to be removing it just in case… gas lines and all sorts under the kitchen bench.
@GenerallyClumsy: Sure, it could have drawn more, but you'd think the circuit would trip before the device blew.
I was considering putting my Tesla through one too, but I think the app has more than enough energy usage information.
I've got plenty of these as well. Highest load I run through one of them is a Ryobi 1800W Pressure Washer.
"I had one of these catch fire"
Say no more….
Woah. I've got… 6 of these at home and hadn't even thought of one catching fire. Were you pulling more than 10 amps through it at the time or was it just spontaneous?
I wasn't home at the time, but shouldn't be more than 10a.
It's possible Bunnings have a procedure for investigating issues like this in tandem with the manufacturer, to determine liability / chance of a recall etc. Doesn't mean the manufacturer was fobbing you off.
I told them I don't have the receipt anymore, and I was happy to take to their head office for further investigation (no refund, just to make sure there is no safety issue). They said no, just take it back to Bunnings with the receipt (which I kept saying I don't have). I asked if I was ok to continue using my other ones and they confirmed it was ok to keep using them. I am on the fence about it, it could have caused a fire if no one was home and it was in a bad location.
Again, that doesn't mean they were fobbing you off. When you return the destroyed product to Bunnings they will contact the manufacturer for comment/investigation.
Unless it's a widespread/known issue they're not going to tell you to stop using them; that would be tantamount to admitting it's a widespread issue needing a recall.
And of course at this stage they (and possibly you too) don't know for sure if it's a fault with the product or something external to the product that caused the issue.
@andresampras: I understand, but if a customer was offering to bring you a defective unit for investigation, no strings attached, unusual to reject the offer. I might still give to Bunnings, but then I will likely never see or hear about it ever again.
@S bastian: I see where you're coming from, but companies do things a certain way depending on how they're staffed etc. Maybe their head office isn't equipped to deal with customer returns. Or maybe Bunnings insists on having first look at faults like this, because they want to be involved/informed from start to finish? I'm just guessing but you get my point.
Anyway a device catching fire in your home must be scary…..hopefully you've just had one die on you due to some unusual event, and you won't have any issues with the rest.
Looks more like a problem between the outlet and the device to be honest. Very unlikely an internal fault would cause that sort of damage. A component or two on the internal PCB would overheat and pop, possibly releasing smoke. I can't think what sort of fault would cause localised burning on the pin like that. Burning inside would definitely distort the case.
Yes, sorry, I should have mentioned I am purely speculating. Waiting on an electrician to come and repair it, and I'll try and get more info.
As I said, I still have more of these in use, I'm not saying they are faulty.
Can you get us more details? What was the dryer model? Was the wall plug old? Any chance it wasn't fully pushed in? Did it melt or completely catch fire? How did yiu find out, anything else for on fire? Wanted to pick some but not sure now!
FYI apparently Kasa is being phased out in favour of Tapo. At least according to rumours and conversations on Reddit.
is that just a branding thing, or different tech?
Cheaper product AFAIK
Do the rumours say what happens when they are phased out?
Will they integrate support of Kasa devices into Tapo?
Or will the Kasa devices just stop working?
Interestingly the Kasa app just got a major overhaul with improved GUI.
Have read those threads as well, so dunno what gives
And not too happy about it here. Firstly they forced it, you can't use the app any more unless you update.
Then when I did, my local only switches wouldn't show up in the list but it prompted me that I could add them. What they actually meant was add to my cloud account, and no way to switch them back either so my local only switches are no longer local only.
I heard that years ago, never seemed to eventuate
apparently Kasa is being phased out in favour of Tapo
Been hearing that for years and it hasn't happened.
For those who are wondering, there isn't much difference between the Tapo and Kasa lines apart from price and a different app. Supposedly there will be a unified app in future, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for one.
https://mightygadget.co.uk/tp-link-tapo-p110-energy-monitori…
I've got a household of over a dozen Kasa devices and have been very happy with how they work, particularly with Home Assistant. Extremely reliable devices.
Those ones don’t have energy monitoring.
Tapo is a different range from TP-Link
I think you mean Tapo is a different range to Kasa. Both are TP-Link but they use different apps. I just use a third party smart home app as my one stop shop so not really problem.
Tapo is a different range (also) from TP-Link.
I can see how it came across differently
The P110 is the one with energy monitoring
These are good. Can still use the app without signing up if you are happy with no remote control outside of your LAN. I use home assistant to remote control them anyway.
Also fit two side by side which is rare for smart plugs.
Any idea if these are Tuya based?
They are not, they use their own app (Kasa) and cloud service.
get BigW EKO one for $15, Tuya supported
https://www.bigw.com.au/product/eko-wifi-power-plug-with-ene…
Went with Kasa plugs because I read somewhere they store and function "locally" e.g. if the internet or WiFi goes down they continue to work.
But my experience with these TP-Link Kasa plugs has not been that great. Set one up to just trigger a IKEA LED light chain to turn on every evening as a night light and about once every 2 weeks or a month it fails to turn on as scheduled.
I first thought it was WiFi issues so I would reset the plug by unplugging it everytime it happened, but I tested it recently by just leaving it plugged in and using the button on the top of the plug to turn it on manually everytime it bugged out. And it continues to work as normal the next day, so it's not the WiFi it's just the damn thing fails to turn itself on as scheduled once in awhile.
After manually pressing the button to turn it on, it successfully turns itself off as scheduled the next morning. So I don't know what gives it's just the scheduled ON function that sometimes fails.
Anyway I bought 2 of them at a similar price to this deal, and I haven't even opened the 2nd one yet because the first one still has issues. Thought about possibly returning the 2nd one but it's probably too late for change of mind returns although I could claim they are faulty and don't work as scheduled.
Didn't read about this issue when researching before buying.
If I knew about this problem before hand I would not have bought any of them and just stuck with regular mechanical timers from bunnings. I have just stuck through with it because I hoped a App or firmware update would fix it within a few months…
Might be worth trying the second one. I have 4 of these in my home and bought 6 for my parents to turn on night lights and lamps around the house… so very similar use case to you. Have had zero issues and no problems when the internet goes down.
Of all the WiFi devices connected the only two that had issues were the TP-Link Kasa smart plug and Google home mini which makes me think the issue is with the 2 devices and not the WiFi at all. This problem happens with the internet constantly connected.
Someone suggested a WiFi fix before, which was to manually choose a fixed channel for the WiFi. Something about "the Home mini drops off the WiFi when the WiFi channel number is over 10" or something. Anyway did that and there was no improvement with both troubled devices.
Then I was able to eliminate the WiFi being the issue by not restarting the TP-Link smart plug everytime it failed to turn on as scheduled. As I said it's just once every 2~4 weeks it just fails to turn ON as scheduled. It stays connected to WiFi without me having to restart it no problem there. And after just once not turning on, I can just leave it be and it continues to work as normal. Maybe it is actually a faulty unit I don't know.
Yup sounds like a faulty unit. Coincidentally I also had the same issue with one of my Google homes (I have four others that have worked flawlessly). Some of the Google home units were also faulty - long lists of replies in Google forums from other users who had the same issue. I gave up on the one that was not working and chucked it out.
@pierrejb: I guess my google home mini is a faulty unit too then.. Can't do much about that one though since I got it for free.
If you're programming the schedule via TP-Link's app, it could be that the cloud is doing the smarts here and then at the scheduled time telling the plug to turn on immediately, rather than immediately telling the plug to turn on at the scheduled time.
The former requires connectivity at the scheduled time for the cloud to turn the plug on, the latter requires connectivity when you do the programming for the cloud to program the plug.
Or I could be completely off: I don't use the Kasa app myself - I have everything connected via Home Assistant.
Ok. I understand in the app there is the one page where you input the "task" which is to "switch on plug name etc". And then there is a 2nd page which is where you can choose "when to run the task" e.g. monday to sunday, 6pm to 5am. Honestly I found this weird from the beginning why these two pages weren't combined and on the same page but anyway.
On my LIFX bulb App it's just one page called "scheduling", and inside the options there is a option to choose to "switch on" like it should be.
I will go through the app and double check I am doing things properly, but my point is it works as intended for weeks then trips up on just one day by failing to turn on. I can leave it be and it continues to work, then a month later it trips up again and fails to turn on. Very weird.
Yeah that sounds to me like TP-Link are doing the scheduling in The Cloud™ and at the programmed time telling your plug to switch on/off. If your plug can't communicate with TP-Link's Cloud™, then they won't switch on/off at the programmed time as the plug itself knows nothing about the schedule, it's just being told to turn on/off.
Are your plugs far away from your wireless AP? I know the HS100 I've got is reasonably far and tends to drop on and off the network at times, and sometimes even needs to be unplugged/replugged to get reconnected.
@Chandler: "Yeah that sounds to me like TP-Link are doing the scheduling in The Cloud™ and at the programmed time telling your plug to switch on/off."
That's a shame because I specifically got the Kasa plugs instead of the Tapo ones because I read a comment that said Kapo stores the information locally on the plug.
"Are your plugs far away from your wireless AP?"
Not at all. Maybe 3 to 4 metres away.
So all I can think is either the device itself is faulty or TP-Link's cloud servers aren't being reliable. I have also read comments here and elsewhere that say TP-Link might be cancelling one of the product lines, either Kasa or Tapo and merging them into a single App. Maybe that has something to do with it since I did get the plug and set it up recently like this year. Maybe all that feedback with flawless experiences are from people who set it up years ago or set it up with home assistant.
Don't get me wrong it's not a huge inconvenience. Just once a month I reach down and turn it on with the physical button when it's failed to turn on automatically. Then it continues to work for another month before I have to press the button again. It just bugs me that it's meant to be "smart" and with modern technology it manages to be less reliable than a mechanical timer from bunnings, which I could have got for less.
@harshbdmmaster718: Once it is set up through the app, the scheduling is stored on the plug itself and is not done in the cloud. When I changed over my wifi routers I forgot to reconnect one of the plugs to the new wifi and it worked flawlessly without Internet for many months before it eventually spat the dummy and I had to reconnect it. There must be a fail safe/security feature where it tries to ‘phone home’ and when it can no longer connect to a router it will stop working - but as I said, this happened many months after I changed my wifi, so it was disconnected and living in its own happy world for a long time without any access to the TP-Link cloud. I have both Kasa and Tapo plugs and both have worked well for me. Sounds like you have a faulty unit.
@pierrejb: Thank you for helping confirm the information I read was correct that the schedule is stored on the plug.
Yeah that does not make much sense then how it seems to miss a scheduled ON command once every few weeks. I guess it's faulty.
Anyone know if the Kasa or Tapo going to support Thread?
Is anyone with Wi-Fi devices rushing to support Matter/Thread?
They are two different things. Most device manufacturers are supporting the matter standard and rolling out firmware updates. Thread on the other hand is an alternative to wifi and not necessary for wifi connected devices.
They are supporting matter - they can easily add support for the standard through firmware updates. I don’t think current smart home devices have the tech for thread but that should not matter because they connect through wifi.
Have an ozb alert for these, though thinking of getting an individually switched powerboard version
Any recommendations?
Prefer google home compatible if poss
I have the KP303 https://amzn.asia/d/aVDsiQ9 that I bought last Prime Day and it works great, just saw they're on special at the moment so might even grab another.
Ahh great thanks! 👍
Yup, these work great. I have mine on the patio (in a weather proof box). Zero problems with this powerboard.
I too have one of these, plus other kasa single plugs and the powerboards. Also have a mix of other brands (anko/mistral tuya, yeelight, Xiaomi/aqara) and I find that for me tp link products have been most solid across and easiest with Google home and home assistant integration. I'm lazy and havent been great with tight integration and stuff but I can get an aqara lightswitch interact with all my tplink bits.
Actually I have had an issue with this kp115 where it's tripping my stereo amp. Switched to use the tuya one and all good. Reminded me to look into this. I'd probably still buy this plug.
Spunds a bit like me, thanks!
Oh I have 2x k105's on one board, so looking to poss get a switched powerboard, then reuse the current 2x in the house 👍
For anyone who would prefere a Tapo, the P110 can be got from JB for $24.30 with code: AFTERHOURS10 (https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/729657)
I have two and they work great! Would’ve liked HomeKit support as the only thing.
I have two mainly for lamps.. not sure what time else to use them for!
We use one for the iron, so to turn it on before getting in the room and make sure it gets turned off
Also handy for Xmas tree lights
I had one of these catch fire. TP-Link support told me to take it back to Bunnings for a refund, even though I was only trying them to investigate in case there were safety issues. I'm not saying don't get them, I still have another 5x running at home, just sharing a lived experience.