SONOFF S31 WiFi Smart Plug with Energy Monitoring, 15A Smart Outlet Socket ETL Certified, Work with Alexa & Google Home Assistant, IFTTT Supporting, 2.4 Ghz WiFi Only (2-Pack)

I bought a few Sonoff switches years back and needed more smart plugs. So as to limit my app-footprint, I ordered more Sonoff. Price is higher than other smart plugs but to keep my system with as few Chi-com manufacturers as reasonable i had to go this route. If you dont know there are 2 types. One offers live electrical useage stats and the other is basically a switch only, no data. They setup easy and work well. I never have them go off-line or die. I wish their price was about half what they are. Shipped fast.

Adding new devices can be daunting at first, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes a breeze. The ability to monitor appliance energy consumption is a definite plus, and being able to schedule the ON/OFF times is only second to being able to remotely power on, or turn off anything plugged into the unit.

I installed this product on an in-the-water boat to monitor and control a 1500W heater, using the Smart Life app. The initial configuration was a bit difficult, but it worked through the manual pairing procedure. A seemingly unlimited number of on/off cycles can be programmed by the day of week and hour, or control manually via the app. It relays wattage in use and current voltage at the plug (whether on or off). It will report total kW-hrs used over a month and cost if you input cost/kW-hr. I have several wifid temperature modules mounted in the approximate same location on the boat as well and have some connectivity difficulties with them. There has been no connectivity issues with this plug/adapter and it has been very reliable.

After thunderstorm power outage, the products turns off on its own and doesn’t turn back on. Scheduling on the app doesn’t quite work all the time.hopefully Alexa can take over this. Wouldn’t recommend to put on always need to tbe on device.

Like many other reviewers, I have purchased this particular switch to install Tasmota on. I use them for energy monitoring, and in some cases their original intent - outlet switching, in my home. I buy whatever pack is cheapest per unit at the time, be it 1, 2 or 4 pack versions. Theyre all the same in my experience. To get them installed with Tasmota, I first tried to solder leads to them. Then I tried to solder pin headers and that was a little bit easier. Im slightly beyond entry level skill with soldering, but I destroyed at least three units in this learning process. I finally graduated to micro-grabber electrical test clips and have ripped through over two dozen conversions now without incident. Lets be frank. Id rather Sonoff just offered Tasmota OS from the get-go, or made these over-the-air flashable. I will settle for nothing less than local control and Im definitely not itching for a new and different cloud solution or app. Id prefer not to hack these devices in the first place and if Sonoff works towards preventing this from a hardware or software standpoint, I will buy no more of them. At the time of this writing (March 2022), this is probably one of the cheapest way to get local energy monitoring and basic 15 amp capable on/off outlet switching. I use Home Assistant for my home automation platform. These are fully compatible with their new energy monitoring dashboard. This provides me with significant insight into my homes energy use, especially now that theyre widely distributed to the overwhelming majority of my outlets. I usually capture between 13-18 kilowatt hours per day, the bulk of my usage. To be clear, I use higher grade energy monitoring switches in mission critical applications (furnace, fridge, etc.), but these are great even for non-mission critical high amp usage scenarios up to 15 amps. Ive pushed some of mine well up to the limits and havent had any major problems or sparks fly. Out of a couple dozen, Ive had one actual device failure. Oddly enough, even with different firmware, different units operate differently on my WiFi. Some stay connected to Wifi 100% of the time, others intermittently connect throughout the day. I dont lose any granular Home Assistant data because of this, nor are they ever inaccessible and fail to turn on/off. I dont have a good answer as to why different units behave differently with the same software. Odd behavior, but it doesnt result in problems. I really cant complain anyway, Im using them well outside of the manufacturers intended use. Build quality is good enough but I wish there was a bit more consistency. Since the majority of buyers are intending to hack these, I really wish they wouldnt cinch down some of the poor-quality screws like they are Shee-Ra or the Hulk. Ive destroyed way more screws than Ive wanted, and thats with the perfect screw removal tool which Ive determined to be a 2.0mm flathead screwdriver. Again, I just wish I could buy a decent quality, super cheap, 15 amp capable smart switch product with the OS of my choice out of the gate. Ive used these to solve VERY REAL problems in my home. From triggering outlets based on other inputs to making serious dents in energy conservation, I believe the $200ish dollars Ive put into these Sonoff S31 units will eventually pay for themselves. Its fairly easy for me when Im paying almost $0.25 per kilowatt hour, others might not have as good of an ROI. If anything, Ive achieved some level of energy usage consciousness. Ive killed and/or automated quite a few parasitic energy draws I wasnt even aware of, and have easily increased my automation abilities at the same time. Its important to know that these utilize about 2 watts each, just to function. This might not seem like much, but with two+ dozen of them running 24 hours a day - were talking about a ~50 watt constant load just to monitor outlet energy. For me, Ive killed and automated much more than that, so Im in the black as it were. Its important, at least for me, to keep tabs on the cost and value of energy monitoring. Im hoping I can continue to use these to save at least $500 in energy in the next 5 years, and so far, that seems to be a reasonable goal based on how I use them. Lastly, I dont want to get too much into minutia, but you need a fairly robust WiFi network to support the internet of things over WiFi. Personally, I utilize multiple networks, including Lutron, Z-Wave, Zigbee and WiFi to get there. Put simply, I dont use these cheap and ubiquitous hacked WiFi devices to service mission critical applications in any way. If a failure would cost me a fair bit of money, I spend more than $10 to capture energy usage and (sometimes) provide switching capabilities. +4 stars for being a hackable and very useful device overall. You can debate about that last star, even I waver between 4 and 5 stars. They provide much value for not much dollar and a reasonable +/-2 year path to return on investment for many people that are trying to optimize energy consumption or provide local, automated switching controls.

I love all the sonoff modules - they just work and they work really well. One of the best iot brands on the market.

The power adaptor is WiFi based, and I still havent connected to hassio yet. I tried to reset the device into local API mode, but still no luck yet. The android app is clunky and requires a cloud login. I run hassio cloudless. After much frustration with DIY mode, I tried flashing it with tasmota. Soldering the wires was a bit delicate - I suggest using headers instead. Then I learned that some FTDI and other serial tools have 5v power with 3.3v logic. After I finally got a fully 3.3v setup, the board appears dead. It just emits zeros. Even if it works, it then needs calibration. Sonoff ZigBee devices, in comparison are flawless and just work. I think Im done with Sonoff Wifi devices for now. I already have one power meter that I made from a raspi and an inductive current sensor. Power measurement isnt that hard. That cost a little more, but I wasnt fighting a black box, I was building with fully specd components. This might work flawlessly for some people. Maybe I just have a broken unit. Still, nowhere near as simple as their zigbee devices.