Lifespan of the smart plugs?

lafbch

Hey! I am a big fan of the LocalBytes Tasmota Smart Plugs and have about 15 of them running in my house, with a bunch more on the way.

However, in one room of my house it seems like they die pretty regularly. There are four smart plugs in that room, all controlling lamps with LED bulbs. The plugs in this room seem to have a much lower lifespan then the others and I semi-regularly find the lamps turned off, and the plugs unresponsive to button presses and disconnected from my WiFi.

These lights operate on a very simple pattern with two toggles per day, initiated by Home Assistant - on at sunset, off at sunrise.

They get warm, but they don't respond in any way and so end up in the bin.

Does anyone have insight into what could be causing this? It's a little frustrating to have to keep re-buying them - and to miss out on the automations while I wait for the replacements.

Thanks!

PS - I have three recently-dead ones at home right now - happy to send these back for inspection if you would like to figure out what killed them! They are well past the 30 day return period though.

edit: just spotted that all three of the dead ones are 2021-11 revisions that came with Tasmota 10.0.0 - maybe newer ones are longer-lived?

AAllport

lafbch just spotted that all three of the dead ones are 2021-11 [...] maybe newer ones are longer-lived?

You'd be absolutely correct, we discovered a hardware fault that caused a much shorter lifespan than we'd have hoped for.
As such, I updated some of our internal policies/workflows to offer an extended support period for those specific batch numbers.

That said, we all of our support process is underlined with the idea that we act with discretion and do our best go arrive at the right outcome for everyone involved!

RebeccaH

Hey @lafbch

Thanks for your message and for asking the forum!

I'm sorry to hear some of your smart plugs have gone wayward. I can confirm that batch did have a couple of faulty plugs, though most were totally fine! Our smart plugs come with a one year warranty, though we know they normally last much longer than that!

Would you mind sending me your order number via email to: help@mylocalbytes.com

That way, I can check order details and discuss specifics with you.

finalbilylbong

I can agree with this. They do die on the regular. I have probably had three or four just up and stop working over the last couple of years. I do keep buying replacements as I like to support local projects like this but it can be frustrating to find another dead plug. I had a new one arrive today actually to replace a dead one from a 2022 batch.

Mrjay84

I’ve had a few failures too. They get extremely warm and become unresponsive. One was being used on a disk server with no more than a constant 250watts going through it.

AAllport

I want to say we keep an eye on this and are trying to make them last a lot longer. (Or at least to get some form of improvement from our supplier)

Ultimately we don’t own the designs for the plug, they’re white-labelled from a factory that usually does Tuya products, but, we give them preconfigured binaries for Tasmota/ESPHome, etc.
As such, we’re in a frustrating situation where we can only push them to improve and do our best to keep doing the right thing as a business.

What I will say is, please drop us an email when things go wrong this way.
Even if they’re outside of the 1y typical window, there are situations where we’ll go beyond and issue a replacement.
But at the very least, it gives us much helpful information when talking to our suppliers.

I’ll note that I’ve still got a fair few from the original batch (without batch numbers) in operation, and they’ve been going well. I’m yet to have issues personally.
That’s not to say that it doesn’t happen; I just want to reassure people that they are generally reliable.
Dead devices are the exception, not the rule…

And to those who choose to repurchase devices when order devices fail, I can’t thank you enough for choosing to support us!

NotBernard65

I’ve read this thread with some interest. I currently have a c.15 quantity of smart plugs from a well known supplier and am considering changing to this brand.

I’ve experienced some failures (relay sticking on), with my current brand. Even though the loads have been low (and not inductive).

What is the current situation with this product, reliability wise? Also do the plugs have in-built snubbers?

One other comment, I’ve noticed from this thread is that when these relays stick on and are thus providing power the power reading reported is actually zero.

Is it not possible for the reading to be true regardless of the relay state? If this was the case them I assume a clever bit of configuration/logic in HA (relay off & power <>0) would at least enable an alarm/alert to be raised re. an issue.

SaaX

Regarding lifespan: I bought 25 LB Smart Plugs (ESPHome) 9 months ago. All rock solid, switching daily, all low load switching (lamps), one permanent well pump power monitoring. Temporarily used some for heavier loads power monitoring (washing machine, dryer).

One was dodgy straight out of the box and got refunded, no problem.

chrisgeorge0911

I was about to write a post very similar to this! Love these smart plugs and have reflashed several of the my older tasmota ones to ESP.

One of these older ones (2023-10-TAS) has started playing up in the last month, with the relay clicking, but not switching off. Power cycling the plug seems to kick it into life again, so feels like the relay is sticking. It operates twice a day on average, on in the morning, off in the evening and powers my desk so between 200-500w.

All other plug are fine. Happy to raise separately or contact support if necessary.

RebeccaH

Hi @chrisgeorge0911

Thanks for stopping by and for the kind words!

Yes, please reach out to me via email: help@mylocalbytes.com.

Thanks!

NotBernard65

Anyone have any thoughts re. this specific point please?

Is it not possible for the reading to be true regardless of the relay state? If this was the case them I assume a clever bit of configuration/logic in HA (relay off & power <>0) would at least enable an alarm/alert to be raised re. an issue.