Any smart plug fans out there? Smart plug dead ends?

[PeninsulaPerson]

Based on a comment I saw here a few months ago and after the changing of the clocks earlier this month, I took a chance and switched out a timer that was a recalibration pain for a Feit smart plug I got at the local hardware store. Cost about $15.

There was a bit of a learning curve - it wasn't the "just plug & play" I expected. But when I got the hang of it, I liked the smart plug so much that I just used a hardware store coupon to buy a 2nd one.

(I also learned that the Amazon smart plug basically requires Alexa, which I don't have.)

Sure, I could turn the lights off and on myself but it's kind of fun to be able to do it with my phone. And I always liked the automatic on & off of the timers.

If you use smart plugs, are there any uses besides the obvious that you have discovered? I don't use mine now for my coffeemaker but that could be good on these dark, cold mornings! .

[anon_investor]

Based on a comment I saw here a few months ago and after the changing of the clocks earlier this month, I took a chance and switched out a timer that was a recalibration pain for a Feit smart plug I got at the local hardware store. Cost about $15.

There was a bit of a learning curve - it wasn't the "just plug & play" I expected. But when I got the hang of it, I liked the smart plug so much that I just used a hardware store coupon to buy a 2nd one.

(I also learned that the Amazon smart plug basically requires Alexa, which I don't have.)

Sure, I could turn the lights off and on myself but it's kind of fun to be able to do it with my phone. And I always liked the automatic on & off of the timers.

If you use smart plugs, are there any uses besides the obvious that you have discovered? I don't use mine now for my coffeemaker but that could be good on these dark, cold mornings! .

We have used some for Christmas lights and some fans.

[music_man]

I grow vegetables from seed indoors in the winter and use indoor growlights. I use smart plugs to keep the lights on for a specific number of hours per day. It's very handy.

[PeninsulaPerson]

It's very handy.

Exactly!

And sort of fun!

[runner3081]

Have heard of some people using them to auto power cycle router and/or modem every set number of days.

[snackdog]

Use them all around the house both for automatic lighting certain hours and for voice control via Alexa. Christmas lights. Fans linked to digital thermostat or humidistat,etc.

[prd1982]

I use for a pedestal fan & a Christmas tree. I set a routine to turn off after our bedtime in case we forget to manually stop them

[Doom&Gloom]

Power on not a coffee maker, but an electric kettle for making coffee so essentially the same.
Power on/off a bathroom appliance.
Randomly power on/off a small lamp and schedule power on/off a small lamp in a different room to make it appear someone is home.
Power on/off Christmas tree lights and outdoor Christmas lights.

Using voice control is much more convenient than using only a phone to control smart plugs and smart lights.

[OnTrack]

Some smart plugs have a vacation mode that will turn a light on and off randomly between certain hours while you are away.

Also, I have a pump that circulates hot water in the hot water supply pipe in the house so the water is hot right away. I have a smart plug turn it off over night when we are unlikely to be using hot water. Less wear and tear on the pump, less electricity used by the pump and less heat lost from hot water circulating in the pipes.

[jms]

I like the TP-Link Tapo P125M smart plugs. They work even when the internet is out.
Amazon currently has them on sale - 3 for $18.99, reg. $49.99. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXMNJDW3

[LifeIsGood]

I have one smart plug connected to a lamp and it's set to come on at sunset every day. It even changes with daylight savings time.

[PeninsulaPerson]

I am finding that the smart plugs are great with some lamps but seem not to work with other lamps and also not with my electric blanket.

The electric blanket makes sense as it has various safety features and it seems like its own switch is the "preferred" way to turn it on.

The variability in the lamps surprised me as they all seem generally the same. Not sure why that would be.

Gonna' try my coffee maker next.

The smart plugs are kind of fun!

[v330]

We have an Apple HomeKit setup with some smart plugs and light bulbs throughout the house. A few more ideas...

The living room lights are set to come on 15 minutes before sunset, only if nobody is home, so that the dog won't be sitting alone in the dark.

Bedroom fan turns off in the early morning hours, to provide lower temps/white noise to fall asleep, but it's not cold in the morning.

Lights near the entrance doors turn on automatically when the door is opened. I have mixed feelings about having them turn off automatically on a timer.

Not technically "smart", but another large QOL improvement was to place a bunch of motion-activated plug-in night lights throughout the house. I can walk around to just about anywhere without turning on a big light.

[Bammerman]

I use a smart switch to control a simple space heater in the bathroom off our bedroom: I set up an automation to turn this on each morning at 6:30 and to turn it off 15 minutes later. This way, the bathroom, which gets rather chilly in the winter, has warmed up nicely by the time I go in for my shower.

I also use WiFi-controlled light bulbs. I control these by voice command with Google; I have named each of these lamps (e.g., Oscar, John, Mary) to simplify the process of having Google turn specific lamps on or off as desired. By using these light bulbs in regular lamps, I or my wife (who really dislikes addressing lamps by name!) can also easily turn the lamps on or off with their regular switch.

[safari]

I got the Christmas tree lights connected to a smart plug, which I named "Christmas Tree" in the Alexa app. The kids enjoy using their voice to turn the lights on and off.

[eddot98]

We have 4 higher amperage Kasa smart plugs on our window air conditioners (no central air conditioning), which we control with the Kasa app. All of our air conditioners will come back on to the same setting if there is a power outage. So, in the warmer weather, if we go away for a few days or more, we turn on the air conditioners before we leave and immediately then turn them off with the Kasa app. A few hours before we are going to arrive back at home, we turn on the air conditioners so that we arrive home to a cool house.
This is the same thing that we do with our smart thermostat for heat.

[physics911]

I use Kasa and I have a lot of them, plugs, outlets, switches, etc., setup with Google Home. In fact, I picked up four more just a day or two ago. You can run most of the routines you want using Google, but if you want to tinker more you can get an IFTTT account.

[Nver2Late]

We use smartplugs on all our plant growlights.

We also use them on the engine block heaters to turn on about 2 hours before the hard start on mornings less than 20F.

I have one on my undercabinet light on my desk - the light switch broke, so I was plugging/unplugging to turn on. Now it is scheduled to turn on 7 to 5, every work day. Of course I can use the app to manually turn off/on as needed.

[JDofAZ]

For new devices I suggest looking for Matter support. Matter is recent open standard that lets you use the device with whatever smart system you want.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_(standard)

[PeninsulaPerson]

I am learning new things about the Feit smart plugs including that having WiFi and Bluetooth on seems to be required for the initial set-up but not after that.

Also a scheduled turn on/turn off can be deleted with a left swipe.

Feit's in-the-box info is pretty useless and they don't seem to want phone calls for customer service. But Google has been very helpful.