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!
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.