HomeKit Best smart plug option for things OTHER than lights?

[jedimasterkyle]

So just as the title of the thread says, what is the best smart plug that would work for home appliances OTHER than just lights? Here's what I'm talking about...

I have one of my Eufy 2C cameras mounted fairly high in my kitchen and right now, it's always plugged into the wall so that I dont have to fight with it to recharge it when the battery dies. I know this is killing the battery life on the camera itself but I couldn't think of a better option. That is until I saw on the Eufy forums that someone came up with an ingenious idea of using smart plugs to keep his cameras charged at his discretion. Unfortunately, they didn't say WHICH smart plug they were using but it got my wheels turning.

My smart home is littered with Phillips Hue bulbs so I'm already familiar with that eco system. But browsing around on the Phillips site, their smart plugs seem to indicate that they are only meant for light bulbs or lamps. Since charging a small camera would hardly make a dent in wattage/amperage/voltage etc... you'd think that using a Phillips Smart Plug would be fine right?

Anyways, I'm curious to know if anyone else has used smart plugs in this way before and which ones I should go for and which ones I should stay away from.

 

[waw74]

make sure it's a only on/off, and not a dimmer, I'm not sure what the hue ones are.
Even when set to 100%, a dimmer can still affect the sine wave of the power going through, which can mess with some electronics. Less of a problem for "just a power supply" but still best to be avoided.

I've got a couple from eve that work well for me (although I'm just running lamps on them), they're thread, so you'll need a newer HomePod or appleTV to use them.

small edit, the eve plugs also allow you to set timers directly on the plug, so you don't have to clutter up homekit with automations. They still function normally in homekit when you do that.

 

[erihp]

No need to spend the extra money on a Philips smart plug. Any on/off HomeKit smart plug will work fine and most will be less than a third of the cost of the Philips.

 

[AZhappyjack]

So just as the title of the thread says, what is the best smart plug that would work for home appliances OTHER than just lights? Here's what I'm talking about...

I have one of my Eufy 2C cameras mounted fairly high in my kitchen and right now, it's always plugged into the wall so that I dont have to fight with it to recharge it when the battery dies. I know this is killing the battery life on the camera itself but I couldn't think of a better option. That is until I saw on the Eufy forums that someone came up with an ingenious idea of using smart plugs to keep his cameras charged at his discretion. Unfortunately, they didn't say WHICH smart plug they were using but it got my wheels turning.

My smart home is littered with Phillips Hue bulbs so I'm already familiar with that eco system. But browsing around on the Phillips site, their smart plugs seem to indicate that they are only meant for light bulbs or lamps. Since charging a small camera would hardly make a dent in wattage/amperage/voltage etc... you'd think that using a Phillips Smart Plug would be fine right?

Anyways, I'm curious to know if anyone else has used smart plugs in this way before and which ones I should go for and which ones I should stay away from.

I use the VOCOlinc plugs for many things, not just lamps. I have a DAKboard (Raspberry Pi CPU) that I only use several times throughout the week... and can turn it on and off with the VOCOlinc plug via HomeKit.

No need to spend the extra money on a Philips smart plug. Any on/off HomeKit smart plug will work fine and most will be less than a third of the cost of the Philips.

As @erihp says, it needn't be a specific brand, but should be s simple ON/OFF switch.

 

[vtstarck]

Best thing I ever did was to put my Christmas tree on a smart plug.