Smart Plugs

[Kevin Eades]

Does anyone else use smart plugs to control their aquarium? Got fed up with cheap timers keep breaking plus they are noisy. Was looking at digital timers but bought a 4 pack of smart plugs instead. Have them set to come on and off on timers. Control co2 light filter and heater. Have routines setup to turn off equipment on water change and feeding and can control via alexa. It's now turned into an obsession and the house is slowly turning smart. 3 of the tanks and various lights. The other half has said I need to setup some smart switches as the phone isn't practical lol

 

[dcurzon]

4 way smart extension lead with each socket controllable, plus usb, for one of mine.
Have put a smart socket (that monitors power usage) on 2 tanks to get an idea of consumption, as my "smart meter" hasn't been very smart at all

 

[Zeus.]

The history of smart plugs hasn't always been favourable, some members @ian_m had had issues with them in the past and he went down the PLC route, how the latest smart plugs are for reliability he may have some input....

 

[Kevin Eades]

The history of smart plugs hasn't always been favourable, some members @ian_m had had issues with them in the past and he went down the PLC route, how the latest smart plugs are for reliability he may have some input....

They seem to be working well so far been running a couple of months so far. Survived a power outage and time with no WiFi. I've had more issue with timers been through 3 this year alone

 

[philljoynes]

I use the TP-link Kasa ones and they seem to be working well. They are fairly cheap and very easy to configure through the app. I haven't set up and Google routines for them but ai am sure that would work fine if I chose to go down this route.
For me, I always found the digital timers a pain to set up and ended up googling a manual every time. With smart plugs it is intuitive.

 

[Wookii]

I’m using TP-Link Tapo plugs to control almost everything on 3 tanks. They work faultlessly for me, and are very convenient.

 

[bazz]

I've been using 2 x 4 way (individually programable) smart extension leads for 6 months with no problems so far.
As said above, the old single mechanical and digital timers proved pretty unreliable for me.

 

[Zeus.]

They have probably improved lots over the years

 

[John q]

Also use Tp link tapo to control co2 solenoid, works a treat and yet to have it hacked by international cyber terrorists. 😀

 

[Ed Wiser]

Kasa are great. You can even check out the state of outlets. Even away from home. An can turn off things if wife calls and says the water is going everywhere.

 

[Kevin Eades]

I also like if you manually turn on via button or phone it still turns off on schedule no more lights on 24hrs