I’m tinkering with our ventilation over-pressure function in combination with an inline fan I run when 3D printing or soldering, to get the fumes and particulates out while simultaneously not creating a massive vacuum inside. The plan is to control it with MQTT from HA to a PLC that controls the ventilation via RS-485.
Therefore I’m looking for a simple but clean looking smart plug that I can integrate with HA to let me know when the fan is on (pulling power, actual wattage is irrelevant) to automatically enable this function.
I know Sonoff makes some, but I always prefer personal advice over random search results.
Preferably Zigbee or WiFi (offline) as I don’t have any Matter/Z-wave hub/dongle. Compact design and black would be nice, but not a must. Stability and ease of setup matters more than added functionality.
Does anyone have any personal experience to share?
I’m grateful if you do.
Thanks!
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As others have said, be careful with fans if they are large, many of the plugs don’t have a very high wattage rating and are all definitely rated for 15a at max usually, you might consider a smart relay instead (like a Shelly or something).
That said I have switches and plug-in and in-wall relays from Aqara (zigbee) and TP-Link (WiFi) and zooz (zwave) and all are fine and do the job. Not all support power monitoring if that is something that matters to you, it’s not a universal feature.
I bought those IKEA plugs. They work over Zigbee and should work fine with Zigbee2Mqtt. They’re white, though. Setup couldn’t be easier (enable discovery in whatever Zigbee system you use, factory reset the plug, wait five seconds).
Watch out with fans, though. The IKEA plugs, for instance, do about 3600W of normal load (@230V, for things like lamps and computers), but only 300W of motor load (fans, vacuum cleaners, etc., unless they have modern inverter circuitry). Even if you consider alternatives, make sure they can actually drive your fan. The startup current for an electric motor like that can be massive!
Cheers! Good advice on inrush current as I don’t think it has a soft start built in
I have 3 athom.tech US plugs, they are ESPHome and HA picks them right up after they get connected to a network. Only drawback seems to be they cannot join a hidden SSID like my IOT vlan network has.
Sadly I can’t find these locally, but I appreciate the advice!
I would not recommend ThirdReality zigbee smart plugs. Their firmware updates have been buggy far too often. Honestly, the only smart plugs I’ve been happy with are z-wave ones. Zooz ZEN04-LR and ZEN15-LR (for high current draw applications) plugs have been awesome for me. My hub is PoE, so I can easily stick it centrally in my home.
Appreciate advice on what to stay away from too, so thanks for that!
@Bronzie I’m partial to the #Meross smart outlets outlets, model mss315 in particular. Zigbee set up is super easy, highly reliable, and you get good energy use data from each one that works out of the box. #HomeAutomation #HomeAssistant
I found this locally, but only in white sadly.
It’s on the short list nonetheless. Thank you!
I have a couple of Matter-over-WiFi (no dongle required) from Meross.
They’ve been fine since the latest firmware when they added power monitoring over Matter (previously it required their app for that as the protocol itself was lacking those sensors).
Cheers mate. On the short list!
I have a Meross power strip that works great for lights, USB charge/power, etc. No complaints and simple interface.
I have 2 strips that are tied to their systems and they keep giving me trouble. The Matter stuff though, has been rock solid and there’s no need to use their app at all.
I have liked the Sonoffs with Tasmota for many years. But recently, they use different chips that make this impossible.
So I ordered my last ones from athom.com, because they sell them preinstalled with Tasmota (or other firmware).
I need to read more up on athom. Seems like a cool store! Cheers
I have a bunch of smart plugs from Athom too, and they’re good. Unfortunately I chose those with WiFi back then. Tasmota is fine, and reliable too, but nowadays I prefer ZigBee for most of my home automation.
I have a few of the discontinued old version TRÅDFRI plugs from IKEA too, since it’s ZigBee, and one of them makes weird clicking noises sometimes, almost as if the relay is extremely quickly switching on and off for no reason. Perhaps the new IKEA plugs are better quality.
+1 Tasmota wifi or shelly
Shelly seems popular and is available in black. Happy wife, happy life, ey…
If you pick a ZigBee device and don’t try to power a refrigerator or a washing machine with it, it probably doesn’t matter much. Just get some reliable brand, Sonoff, IKEA, something, for wall powered stuff. Battery sensors are fine OEM from AliExpress. I’d advice against anything WiFi that requires a cloud connection, as most of them do, but that is my personal preference.
Yeah Shelly and Meross seem to fit the bill quite well, and can run local only. Leaning towards those two.
Cheers!
While Shelly wifi devices can use their cloud, it’s optional. By default cloud is disabled, you can even make them report to your own MQTT server.
I would recommend Shelly plugs, they have been rock solid
They keep coming up. Must be decent, I reckon. Go for gen.3 or wait for 4?
Cheers!
Sonoff s31 flashed with tasmota if you want WiFi or s31 lite for zigbee. Both have been utterly reliable for me. No cloud nonsense either.
Thank you for the advice! I’ll read up on them!
I have a tp link p110m that works, but it’s matter (through home assistant’s matter integration). It works well enough for my “laundry done” routine
Cheers mate! I’ll read up on it. Matter over WiFi is fine, I just don’t have a Thread router yet
Dragon makes a good smart plug that allows you to set the vibration intensity using your Apple Watch!
Not the advice I was looking for, but good to know nonetheless !
I use 2 kinds in my house.
Aqara Smart Plugs. Zigbee based, runs from the ZHA integration, has control and monitoring built in. Only does up to 10A. Well known brand. Nous A1Z Smart Plugs. Same as the Aqara, but smaller, handles up to 16A but the brand is not as known as Aqara.
None of them exists in black as far as I know. I go for the Nous ones going forward, as they are smaller and can handle more power hungry devices.
Cheers mate. Aquara I can find, so I’ll have a look at it!
I’m using BlitzWolf ones and they’re pretty reliable so far. Been using them for almost a year, so no long term results yet. Measure Power and turn on/off.
I’ve had bad experience (malfunctions after a year or two) with old Ikea Tradfri ones and some Sonoff plug.
Cheers! A bit pricier here, but looks to fit the bill
