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

My entire reef tank runs on this . You can use a Kasa camera as well for live monitor . The energy usage feature is so important as I can monitor the usage as well if a device is functional or not.

Why is it great for tinkerers/homelabs you may ask? Its a power strip thats regularly on sale for $45. You may think thats a lot for a power strip, but once you realize that it has not only INDIVIDUAL CONTROL on each outlet, but also power monitoring on each outlet? Thats an INSANE feature to have. Currently, I have one on a 3D printer. It controls the printer itself, the light, and the monitor (which doesnt always have to be on) - the ability to see a rough estimate (I havent verified the accuracy of the power usage) of the power usage, and integrate with OctoPrint to automatically turn the printer and light on/off is amazing. I ordered a second one to use for the server rack and be able to monitor the power usage of the core network (Modem, Router, Switch) as well as a quick remote reboot for them all. Its plastic, so its not the most sturdy power strip ever. WiFi signal is actually pretty good, never had communication issues with it even when other devices struggle. The firmware is old enough that it can be directly accessed/toggled, though this isnt guaranteed to be the case for long - the smart plug minis have been updated (so I hear) to disable it due to security concerns, who knows if that affects or will be applied to this. Sure, you can get more open ones, or even ones that work better with your setup. But for the price, and the feature set, Id 100% recommend this hidden gem just because it has much more than you expect at first glance. But only on sale, I dont believe its worth the full price of $80.

I dont use it for any smart home controls, just for electricity usage monitoring. Great for very low wattage monitoring, like standby mode.

I recently received an Echo Show as a gift, and was excited to begin my foray into the world of smart products. I started with lights and plugs, thinking this would help me reduce my energy consumption. I also have ADHD, so it would help me during those times when I forget to turn things off. After having a poor experience with a highly-rated but not so great no-name brand, this Kasa smart power strip was the first time I strayed from Govee products, and I’m glad I gave it a shot. The pairing experience was easy. Their app works and is intuitive to use. It allows you to name each outlet individually, and rearrange them on the fly if you need to (useful if you unplug a few things and re-plug them back in to different outlets). Each plug has an indicator light to let you know if it’s powered on or off. Inside the app, lies my favorite feature. It actually tracks power consumption and gives you breakdowns of power use for each plug daily, weekly, and monthly. You can also view real-time power consumption for each outlet (I added a few pictures so you can see what this looks like). This helps me see where exactly my power bill money is coming from, and allow me to make adjustments if/where I can. This power strip also feels well-made - it’s certainly not your typical $5 offering at a big box store. My only gripe is that the two USB outlets do not have Smart Control features on them, and also that there are no USB-C outlets. This is probably the *only* thing that keeps me from buying more of these. I would hope that this will be updated soon, as electronics are moving towards the USB-C standard globally. Overall, I’m happy with this purchase. It’s one of the few offerings in this category on the market, and one of the only ones I felt comfortable giving a shot. I’d say it’s definitely worth a try if you’re considering, just be aware of its teeny tiny shortcomings in the USB-outlet department. I’ve had this for about 3 months and have no issues so far, but will update over time to see what the longevity of this product is like.

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.

I love these strips and have around 10 of them now. They are really really nice, and the Kasa app software is incredible. The only downside of these strips is that they frequently disconnect, and require you to flip the power off and on, for instance with your toe. Until you do this, the device will have a red light saying it lost its connection, and Alexa complains. It happens about once a week per device, and all six plugs stop responding to Alexa until you power cycle. Make sure you dont have a computer plugged into it. This is mostly an issue with further-away wifi connections. I just wish the device reconnect logic were a bit more robust. Other than that, amazing product. I just wish they would let you name the entire strip in the software, since managing 10 of these is a chore.

I wanted something that works with smart life. Not that I have anything particular against Kasa, and the only reason I even got THIS one was because I still have a few smart plugs that use the Kasa app. I just got rid of all the proprietary devices that needed their own app since it was such a pain to have half a dozen different programs. Im at the point now where if something isnt controllable via the Smart Life app, I wont buy it. Of course, then came the need for a new 6 plug controllable strip behind a stand where my 120 floor rising projector screen sits, to control my new screen, the new UST projector, a couple subwoofers, etc... This one arrived quick enough, and worked out of the box. Im not a fan of having to connect to the programs wireless to get it seen by the app, but at least it works consistently. I prefer apps that find their devices without going through that step. Each switch came up as its own addressable device, and the integration with Alexa was fine as I already had it set up for the existing Kasa plugs I still use that I havent replaced yet. No issues with the voice control now. Well constructed, solid, no noise of anything rattling around inside like some of the cheaper ones have. I just wish it wasnt quite so pricey, but you get what you pay for and I wanted something that I could trust would work for more than a week or two. My Kasa devices have proven to be very reliable so far so I expect no less from this.

***another update 3/1/22 Red circle of doom twice a week. This started after the last firmware update for me. The thing was running about as well as stated in previous comments. The strip is now losing connection to network, but no matter how many soft resets you try it doesnt respond. Also if you try resetting and re-adding to network, you cant connect to the strips wifi. It seems to me like the wifi module in this strip is dying or the firmware is causing it to hard lock. I fully regret buying these.*** Well, it is pretty beefy in person. It lights up nicely but its basically just dots, like the old days when you had switches that glowed when you flipped them... It could be better if you could tell which outlet was lit easier, like make the dots numbers instead... 1-6 that would be useful. Yeah yeah, I know im supposed to be staring at my phone all day... But nah. I want to set it up, bark at alexa and be able to quickly verify the voice in a box didnt screw up after saying okay. The power monitoring (whole reason I bought this overpriced power strip) is lacking. Really I expected to be able to monitor the whole strip, groups of outlets, and be able to override the auto shutdown of an outlet below certain currents. Basically all you can do is check each individual usage, one at a time, and making groups just lets you switch multiple outlets as a single name. Which frankly, I can already do in Alexa app. So that was a dud. This gets a 3 because I paid through the nose for a powerstrip that does basic power monitoring. I could have just bought one monitoring outlet and plugged my old strip into it. So this really needed to do more for the huge price premium. It does not. If you want to plug in stuff and give individual outlets names to be controlled remotely, this is probably for you. If you wanted to check on power usage of your entertainment center (for example) both total power and individual consumption, then this is not the strip you are looking for... ***Update to drop to 1star *** Wow, it is total junk. Ive only had it a few days. It basically hard locks. Refuses to respond to the app. Forcing a factory reset... Not even the soft reset works. Wow! It wipes out your settings and data from power monitoring. What is the point of this then? To make it worse, it randomly shuts off and restarts itself. I have voice control disabled so its not like Alexa misinterpreted a sneeze as shut off strip Im supposed to trust it even clamps at the supposed joule rating? This thing is going back, I havent been this P/Od at a purchase in ages. Edit* after getting replacement: I was convinced something was wrong with the strip I had. No way could my experience be the expected performance of the thing. So I tried swapping it out. The experience has been better, still almost everything I said in the original post applies. The resetting and locking up, losing data etc is much better. Sure once in a while I have to reboot a router because the whole KASA line of products in my house suddenly drop, Smartthings and Blink and others were still fine. Aside from that it performs about on par with a not so overpriced power strip. Bottom line, back to 3*s. It isnt all that usefull. I am holding out hoping TPlink updates the software to offer better monitoring. Maybe then a higher rating is justified.

I love and own many tplink devices (cameras, door bells, lightbulbs, smart plugs and smart strip). Had only one issue that their self-help support couldn’t resolve. Turns out a factory reset fixed it. Can’t imagine i am the only one that would benefit from that simple suggestion. So, if anything isn’t working right, reset it. My issue was scheduled on or off never worked. Using the on off button on demand- no problem. Using the timer - no problem. Only schedules failed. All plugs all ports on any outlet. Weird huh? I even did the “have you turned it on and off again (unplugging from wall) no help. No clue why all features via the software/app worked except for schedules. You could set up a schedule, It would show it would be the next thing to run but would never actually control any outlet. Its great as a support for growing my tomatoes and other herbs and veg from seed, controlling the heat mats and lights independently.

This works great with Google home and Samsung smart things, no issues, no complaints.