Kasa Smart Plug Power Strip HS300, Surge Protector with 6 Individually Controlled Smart Outlets and 3 USB Ports, Works with Alexa & Google Home, No Hub Required , White

I can say that this is one item that was as easy to get working as anything else I have installed. The instructions were better than 98% of devices I use plug it in and it works - period. While it can be used then, Alexa will use the outlet number for reference. However, I prefer to assign a name to the device the outlet is controlling and that is a simple function also. I intend to buy several more of these for use in my house where there are a number of plugins and having them Alexa controlled would be a help.

So I just got this and set it up and Im pretty pleased with it overall. The app is good but not great. I did have a little trouble with the initial connection, but that probably mostly my lack of attention. I didnt read/interpret the on screen directions correctly. :) Once I connected to the power strip wifi it connected with no issue. I bought this to limit the consumption of idle devices using vampire energy. My TV and sound system was using > 10 watts just idle and realistically I only use them 3 - 4 hours a day. My Laptops when powered off were consuming > 10 watts too. My concern was how much energy was this power strip going to use. I couldnt get accurate measurements from TP - Link and reviewers answering the question were simply guessing, so I took a chance and bought a couple of these. I did some testing and the following are my results: > When the power strip is switched on and all 6 plugs turned off my Kill A Watt meter showed that it was using between 0.9 and 1.0 Watts. > Each plug you turn on increases watts it was using, by roughly 0.45 watts. With all 6 plugs powered on (nothing plugged in) my Kill A Watt meter measured 3.6-3.7 watts. *I also tested this with LED status light on and off. It is a little hard to find but this can be turned on/off in the app. What I found was that there was no measurable difference on my Kill A Watt meter when the LED status light was on or off. I measure them individually as well as with all plugs turn on. Im sure there is some consumption but the Kill A Watt is limited to 0.1. So I left the status light on for now so I can visually see if the plug is on or off. The app: Overall Im happy with the app functionality, but it seems to me that it is missing a couple of things that I would find useful. Good: > The ability to create groups and turn on and off that group from the app with one action. > scenes (way to turn on/off a group of plugs) is extremely nice. Similar to a group it gives you the ability take an action on an individual plug or a group (i.g. turn on or turn off the defined plugs). > Scheduling. I have setup a couple of schedules but havent yet monitored things to see if they work as intended. Again the schedule allows you to take some action at a particular time of day. You can create it based on day of the week and time. Pretty basic but it covers my needs. Bad/needs improvement: > Power consumption: I found a bit annoying and think that TP-Link/Kasa could greatly improve upon here is the ability to view/measure the consumption of each device. To do so you have to go into each plug and open up the energy section. What would be nice is if you could see or add the consumption to the screen next to or below the defined plug. It would also be nice to see the total consumption for the entire power strip or group for example. Other things good and bad: Good: > built in surge protection > USB outlets Negative: > Not Homekit compatible, but for me I dont really care and the Kasa app is ok for me. > USB A outlets ONLY and may limited in charging ability for fast charge or higher power needs. However, at 12 watts output it does seem to charge my tablet with no complaints. So no real complaint here other than I need an adapter for all the new USB C plugs. > cant control the USB outlets. It would be nice to be able to control these too so if you left your tablet plugged in you could limit power consumption by turn it off after a set time. > For some the Summary: If you have a single device or multiple devices that you don’t need/want to control separately it would be cheaper and easier to get a single smart plug versus a strip. I bought the Kasa slim homekit single outlet and they only consume ~4.5 watts when the plug is off and 1.0 watts when the plug is on. However, if you have 2 or more devices you want to control them all separately then this is more efficient than individual smart plugs. At least from the standpoint of energy consumption. However, the power strip does have the advantage of a built in surge protection which isnt something the single outlets usually provide. Over all I think this strip provides decent value and should pay for itself in a couple years by saving power on several idle devices that are always sucking power. By scheduling and making it easy to turn on groups of devices (like my TV and sound system) I calculated that I should be able to reduce my power bill by at least $70/year. Maybe more if I find other vampire energy devices that are idle most of the time.

Very easy to set up. Genius

Bought this to put behind my tv/accessories/lamps. Allows me to power down individual items to limit power draw. Took a minute to figure out the order the plugs were in, but very easy to set up.

I was skeptical but this is a well designed and easy to use product. I have a bearded dragon and her enclosure has a complex series of lights and heaters -each plug can be programmed separately and with complex settings to allow for the mimic of natural light. I highly recommend.

really like this power strip - this is the third one ive gotten for the apartment. I use it with google home to control lots of things by voice/app. bought the first one for the living room to use with the lights. appreciate the usb ports to have phone chargers threaded through to the couch. liked it enough that we bought a second one for the dining room. appreciate it both for the convenience and for power saving. especially helpful bc our house is older and doesnt have a ton of outlets.

I started looking at way to understand and control my energy usage after regular $300+ dollar electric bills. I started with the Sense Energy monitor (which I highly recommend). The Sense featured an integration with this Kasa HS300 power strip and the ability to see what each individual outlet is consuming in real time. Once you setup and integrate the Sense and Kasa HS300 you can monitor and understand how much power a device is using and the associated cost (based on your cost of electricity that you configure in the Sense app) over time - This was a key capability for me. The Kasa HS300 itself is very well built and I would highly recommend it as a standalone (without Sense). The HS300 itself does give you access to usage information directly in the Kasa app as well as the ability to turn off individual outlets when the devices connected are not serving a purpose. Lastly, you get six outlets that are individually controlled and offer a view into each discrete outlet from a power usage perspective - this is a significantly more cost effective approach from my use case.

I bought this power strip to help me monitor electricity usage in an off-grid situation. I would not recommend it for this purpose. For one thing, the monitoring capability is minimal. You can monitor each outlet individually, but you can only see three numbers for each: how much is currently being used, how much has been used for the day, and how much has been used on average (but for what time period is unclear). There is no historical data available, so you cant evaluate usage patterns or identify spikes without constantly monitoring the app on your phone. The other downside probably should have been obvious, but I didnt think of it before I purchased it. Which is that the power strip itself draws power, even when nothing is plugged in. I didnt measure how much it was drawing specifically, but it was enough that the power strip was getting quite warm to the touch from just sitting idle, plugged in. It wasnt quite uncomfortable to hold, but lets just say it would work nicely as a hand warmer. It makes sense, when you think about it, because theres a WiFi radio in there thats running all the time. If youre in a normal on-grid situation, this is probably not much of an issue, but when youre counting your kwh, you dont want your monitoring equipment adding to the overhead. It also, really does need an internet-connected wifi router to connect to. Its absolutely mandatory to set the thing up. It was strange, because when I plugged the power strip in for the first time, it shows up as an available wifi on my phone, and you can successfully connect to it. But this connection is not sufficient for the app to work. It cant find the power strip even though its connected directly to the power strip. I then tried to turn on the hotspot for my phone, and let the power strip connect to that, but that also doesnt work. You and the power strip must both be connected to a third wifi network, then the app works as expected. However, all that was mostly due to the fact that I was using the item for a purpose other than what it was designed for, so I cant fault the manufacturer for that. All in all, its a very solid piece of equipment, very high quality, good thick cord and good solid manufacturing. The app is well designed and easy to use It is a large power strip, probably 25% bigger than your normal, average, non-smart power strip, which means its got lots of room between the plugs for big adapter- or brick-style plugs. The one thing thats poorly designed is the mounting holes on the back. It has two holes that are the typical keyhole style, and they are made in such a way that you can mount the power strip either horizontally or vertically, which is a nice touch. However there was an error made in the design process, because a screw will not slot into the narrow part, no matter which way you try to slide it. Theres a small piece in the corner that blocks a screw from entering the slot either way. Thats an unfortunate error in an otherwise excellently engineered piece of equipment.

Seems like it might be a nice device, but just setting it up made me massively question its viability... 1) You have to let the app know your exact gps location before you can connect to any devices. They offer to allow you to plug in latitude and longitude, and time zone, but nothing will connect until you authorize it to use the phones GPS... At first I thought I had a bad power strip until I opened the 2nd one and had the same issue.. The second I let the app use gps to locate me, it worked for both power strips. 2) There is no ability to create an automated schedule quickly. You have to manually enter in each time you want to turn on and off. You cant copy schedules either, so if your schedule is complicated you have to create it multiple times. You have to manually say at XX:XX time turn off.. At XX:XX time turn on.... 3) They limit you to 31 transactions per outlet. In my case I run a pump, 30 mins on, and 30 mins off... That would be 48(I think)... Shut me off at 31... 30 minutes into setting this up and I realize this is not going to work for me.. To insecure and too basic for my needs. Back to analog timers and when I want to see how much draw the outlets have, I have an adapter for that.

A person can get back what s/he pays for this smart power strip in savings from electric utilities in about 1 to 3 months. This is how I use the power strip to hunt down which of my home appliance and electronic device uses the most power. It turns out to be my large screen TV, which consumes 100W. I used to have my TV on most of the day even when I am just playing music from Spotify or YouTube. In San Diego, electricity costs $0.42 to $0.52 per kWh. Over 30 days at 24 hours per day, the TV was sucking in (30x24x100)/1000 = 72kWh or $29 to $36 a month. Over a period of 2 months, I simply made sure to turn off the TV when I was not watching it or when I was just listening to music. I was able to reduce $20 per month in electricity bill - $40+ over 2 months, which pays for the power strip. And the saving continues. And the saving continues...