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!

  • @thehatfoxEnglish
    6•10 months ago

    You will be hard pressed to find any consumer electronics that are not wholly or partly manufactured in China these days. Not all goods made in China are the same however, quality is going to depend in the associated brand not the location of manufacture. Plenty of decent electronics are made in China because their brands hold them to a higher manufacturing standard.

    Unfortunately options for UK smart power strips are limited. There’s TP-Link Kasa and Meross, and a few Chinese OEM strips sold under lots of different names (the Hey! strip being one example).

    I’ve ended up using dumb power strips with smart plugs connected to each outlet instead. Particularly as I wanted power monitoring, a feature I haven’t seen available in any UK strips. It’s a bit bulkier and more costly, but it seemed the best option for flexibility, quality, and features.

    If anyone knows of any other UK options I’d love to hear about them.